Search

South Africa, like many other countries worldwide, strives for sustainable development. Increasing urbanisation and climate change are two of the main drivers of the global pursuit of sustainable development. Nature-based solutions have been receiving increasing attention as a possible way not only to move cities towards environmental resilience but also to aid them in their efforts to achieve sustainability. Nature-based solutions use natural structures and ecosystems to address certain challenges experienced in and around cities and share a clear link with sustainable urban development. Nature-based solutions further aim to address social issues such as human well-being, environmental issues such as loss of biodiversity, and economic issues such as food insecurity, while sustainable urban development requires the integration of social, ecological and economic factors. Secondary cities in South Africa have been found to be located advantageously to aid development in both urbanised and more rural areas. Sustainable urban development in these cities, and possibly nationally, could be promoted using nature-based solutions, but South African law needs to be receptive thereto. This note aims to highlight briefly how and to what extent the country’s environmental law as applicable to local government is attuned to the idea of nature-based solutions for sustainable urban development with a focus on secondary cities.

This article reports on the pragmatic task that formed the conclusion and flagship part of a master’s degree (MTh) research study into the effectiveness of the transformational task of the church in the Sesheke area. The methodological approach in the research has been according to Osmer’s four tasks of practical theological interpretation, namely the descriptive-empirical, interpretive, normative, and pragmatic tasks. Each of these tasks has been used to address a specific stage of the study. A separate preceding article by the same authors focused on the first task, while this article addresses the fourth. The Pastors’ Fellowship, referred to as the Sesheke Church in this article, has accepted their biblical mandate to engage in community transformation activities aimed at alleviating the plight of the poor and less-privileged people in society. The overall outcome of the research has shown that the Sesheke Church has failed at its transformational task for several reasons, as will be briefly discussed in this article. Therefore, the pragmatic task has endeavoured to formulate practical guidelines to enhance the effectiveness of the Sesheke Church’s task. The authors believe that this article will contribute to the discourse of practical theology regarding community transformation from the unique context of the Sesheke Church’s transformational task and the respective guidelines for effective community transformation. Burns and Grove state that understanding the meaning of a phenomenon in its context makes it easier to understand similar phenomena in other contexts.

This article reports on the findings of the descriptive-empirical task of an original research into the effectiveness of the Sesheke Church’s transformational task. Osmer’s (2008) model of the four tasks of practical theological interpretation (descriptive-empirical, interpretive, normative, and pragmatic) has been employed in the original research. Each of the tasks addresses a specific stage of a proposed study, but this article, as already mentioned, reports on the descriptive-empirical task. The task seeks to understand the current praxis of the Sesheke Church regarding the transformation of their local community (Osmer, 2008:31–79). The Sesheke Pastors Fellowship, referred to as Sesheke Church in the article, has accepted an obligation regarding the welfare of their community and formed a sub-committee in July 2007 to engage the church, government, and all other stakeholders in a transformation process. The aim of the Sesheke Church has been to bring about socio-economic transformation for the local community. The researcher was chairperson of the sub-committee for seven years and has, therefore, been motivated to investigate the praxis and impact of the Sesheke Church’s transformational task. According to the opinions of the participants interviewed, the transformational task by the church in Sesheke has not been effective for various reasons. This article discusses the reasons for the church’s failure as perceived by the participants. The researcher believes that this article will contribute to the understanding of practical theology with regards to community transformation from the unique context and situation of the transformational task by the church in the Sesheke area.

Continual academic development of the AFM pastor: challenges in the new millennium This article entails a cursory investigation of the history of theological training of the Apostolic Faith Mission pastor (here- after AFM). Qualitative research done on a section of the broader membership of the AFM selected by the AFM head office has indicated the task and role expected of the pastor. The research pointed out that pastors should be continuously equipped to be able to successfully fulfil all their role expec- tations. A literature search was also undertaken in order to obtain a larger and representative picture of the ongoing train- ing of pastors. The literature research indicated that theological training worldwide is under investigation and that active steps are being taken to introduce appropriate effective training. The findings regarding the pastor’s theological training, the research and the literature control, have made it possible to propose guidelines for continued academic development. The purpose of this article is to show the present position of theological training in the AFM and to provide guidelines for role players that will keep them informed concerning continued academic development. This will enable pastors to stimulate congrega- tional growth and address different training needs.

’n Waarheid is ’n Christelike waarheid as dit vir die mens en die wêreld die toekoms open en vryheid skenk. Hier het ons te doen met die verifikasie skema van die nuwe teologie.