The scope of this thesis is the investigation of the nature and purpose of Christian worship with specific reference to its development in the Southern Congo United Methodist Church. The study combines three main sources of information - namely, the study of key theological concepts (chapter 3), the Holy Bible (chapter 4), and the investigation by questionnaires (chapter 6) - in order to address the issue of improving the worship and Christian life style for the contemporary Christian church within the Congolese context. Christian worship has been defined as a twofold event involving God's initiative in and through Jesus Christ, and men and women's response towards God's saving acts through the same Mediator, Jesus Christ. Seeing that the unchangeable Gospel relates to each culture, it is argued in this thesis that Congolese cultural values (local clergy, local languages, art forms, and other cultural elements) could be an integral part of worship. This long and slow process of incarnating the Christian message into the Congolese context could result in finding original and meaningful expressions of the Christian faith in the African context. Insights are drawn from the research to offer theological and pragmatic guidelines. In fact, it is suggested that the integration of Congolese cultural elements should be monitored by a Theological Commission at the congregational level, the district level, and the Annual Conference level. Furthermore, the last section of the last chapter provides helpful suggestions in dealing with practical issues with regard to the overall management of the Southern Congo United Methodist Church.

The thesis demonstrates that the first Methodists missionaries to their arrival in Mulungwishi, unlikely did not penetrate the culture of the Bemba people and merely rejected everything that they could not understand because it was considered as heathen. As result, the missionaries’ contempt of the Bemba’s worldview and their fundamental values led to the proselytism and the syncretism. The study figures out the tension between the Gospel presented by the United Methodist Church and the Bemba Culture. Evidently, God (Supreme Being, Creator) had been known and worshipped before the expansion of the first missionaries in Mulungwishi and in the Democratic Republic of Congo at large. Much has been said and done on the contextualization venture through different models and assumptions. Arguably, this missiological study agrees with the eminent scholars’ stream that defends the pre-eminence of the word of God toward all cultures. This led the study to evaluate the missional tools and strategies used by the United Methodist Church missionaries to touch the culture of the people in depth and empower the Christian mission in Mulungwishi. Least has been done for the community development facing the unstable economic, social, and political context of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Church still have a long way to go on the social mandate. The solution is to be originated in the theology of reconstruction (Kalemba 2008; Mugambi 1999, 2003; Maluleke 2002; Kä Mana 1999, 2002, etc.) which works out that it is possible to rebuild the Congolese society explicitly to its best image by teaching the gospel that touches the roots of the evils and lead the people to the proper change of mentality. Then, the thesis underlines the necessity of contextualisation of gospel and missional theology for good accomplishment of Christian mission everywhere. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / Ph. D. (Theology)