The Church social missions have undergone different paradigm shifts whilst trying
to respond to challenges faced by the poor in the society. It seems that at the
beginning the Development paradigm was the one used by churches in designing
their social mission strategies. According to this paradigm, help for the poor in the
society was to come from the Western countries’ development initiatives; in the
process of implementing such strategies the local people’s cultural aspirations were
often neglected. On the other hand, the poor were not given a chance to take destiny
into their own hands in order to define the solutions to their problems. However,
this paradigm was later declared a failure and a need to move to the Post
Development Paradigm was advocated.
This study argues that most churches in Mankweng still base their social missions
strategies on the Development paradigm and therefore they fail to adequately
respond to the challenges faced by the poor in that community. The study therefore
looks at a possibility of developing a new social mission strategyin Mankweng that
is based on the Post Development Paradigm. Though the title is about Mankweng,
the focus of the study is on the Western part of the Township called Ntshitshane.
Observations and interviews were conducted amongst the community members in
that area. After a thorough analysis of the findings it was established that the poor
in that context relies among other things on their cultural ethic of bothoas a means of
addressing their social challenges. This study concludes that the same cultural ethic
of botho used by the poor there can be a viable point of departure in defining a social mission strategy within that context. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/10536 |
| Date | 01 1900 |
| Creators | Shingange, Themba |
| Contributors | Nel, R. W. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (xiv, 92 leaves) |
| Rights | University of South Africa |
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