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Decades after the fall of apartheid, South Africa continues to face problems such as racism, heterosexism, sexism, ableism, xenophobia, and gender-based violence leading to feminicide, which undermines all efforts being made to achieve social justice. Every Christian mission begins or flows out from missio Dei and has a common endeavour to achieve its goal. This article examines missio hominum as the new fundamental paradigm from the perspective of Nico Smith. It believes that when Smith saw the need for missio hominum , social justice was thought of as a prerequisite for the accomplishment of missio Dei ’s goal. It examines how he developed the missio hominum paradigm with the aim of advocating for social justice in South Africa. It perceives a potential and a fundamental element for social justice in this new paradigm. Significantly, missio hominum represents a fundamental theological paradigm by which human action is integrated or linked with divine action in order to achieve the goal of the missio Dei . It provides an overview of the literature relating to the featured works on Christian mission and social justice. To the best of the author’s knowledge, little or no work has been published on missio hominum as a missiological paradigm on the way to social justice. Contribution: Missio hominum from the perspective of Nico Smith is described here as a new fundamental missiological paradigm aimed at bringing social justice to South Africa. This paradigm integrates the active participation of all people in the broader discourse of the missio Dei and its fulfilment. Adoption of this paradigm will enrich the field of theology in general and missiology in particular as it expands human participation in missio Dei .

This study intends to find missional leadership in the pneumatological perspective by focusing on bibllical, historical, missiological and theological appraoches. God send us to His mission fields and He is also doing mission with us. Missional church is about the nature and purpose of the church. The church is sending public spheres as well as individual people as an alternative community. For this reason, the missional leaders also needs to fulfill the public calling in their public and social roles for mission and evangelism in the Holy Spirit. In this study, I concentrate on a biblical, historical, missiological and theological understanding of the missional leadership through the Holy Spirit. I attempt to deal with the concept of ‘missional church in the missiological perspective. The mission of Trintarian God is crucial for practicing missional church leadership because the Son and the Spirit through the Father are doing mission as missionary God. In the Bible, Jesus’ Great commission is fulfilled in the Holy Spirit. Harry R. Boer recognizes the Great Commission and missions on Pentecost. Roland Allen is an great model of practicing missionary task in the doctrine of the Spirit as a missionary. Craig Van Gelder also develops a biblical and historical approach for a missional ecclesiology in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit encourages the missional church leaders to fulfill God’s redemptive reign in the world. Theologically, Jurgen Moltmann’s pneumatology is important for understanding missional church leadership through the Holy Spirit. He deals with the Church in the Power of the Holy Spirit: 1) the church of Jesus Christ, 2) the missionary church, 3) ecumenical church, and 4) the political church. The missionary church emphasizes “Missio Dei in the Trinitarian history.”

Missional ecclesiology in the Afrikaans reformed churches since 1990This article argues that “missional ecclesiology” in the last decades became a new mission paradigm for churches in South Africa, especially after the demise of apartheid. After an overview of the development of a “missio Dei” theology, the article examines texts from various South African churches in which this terminology is used. The article concludes with a section which underlines the importance of missional ecclesiology in the context of the local congregation. Congregations are seen as “missional”, challenged to be present in local communities as a living witness to God’s love. Missional ecclesiology has its theological foundation in the “missio Dei”. In missional ecclesiology, mission is understood as part of the nature of God as well as the nature of the church. Without mission there is no church. Mission is not a project, it is existential. However, there are diverse interpretations of “missio Dei”, “missional ecclesiology” and “mission” itself. As a result, many congregations find it difficult to identify with missional ecclesiology and enter a process of transformation. The historical analysis presented here contributes to a better understanding of the terminology as well as the challenges facing churches in the 21st century.

This article demonstrates how missional churches have emphasized accompaniment as missiological foundation in the COVID-19 pandemic season Employing ethnographical method, interviews, and virtual church visits as the primary approach, the paper explores how NextGen Church as the embodiment of Christ’s love has moved communities to solidarity and unity in the middle of global suffering It concludes that God is on the mission of love and that the pandemic has provided an opportunity for the church to enhance its participation in missio Dei by epitomizing Christ’s love © 2020 World Council of Churches

There are much confusion and controversy in our churches today about the phenomenon known as speaking in tongues. Some claim that the gift of speaking in tongues continues in our time as the Holy Spirit miraculously moves persons to speak in a language they had never learned. Other believers are convinced that the Scriptures leave no room for the continuation of that special gift beyond the founding era of the Apostolic church. To worsen it all pagans abound in such ecstatic utterances and are convinced they are from God. The objective of this paper is to investigate both the use and abuse of speaking in tongues. Historical and exegetical methods were used. Data were gathered through primary and secondary sources. The paper found out that speaking in tongues was miraculously used by God at Pentecost and in the earliest churches in the apostolic era. But there were distinguishing features that marked it out from the psychological phenomenon found among pagans. In our contemporary church in Nigeria, the only way to test the source is by comparison with what God explains in his word about the purpose and occasion for the legitimate manifestation.

Missiological texts typically focus on the church or individuals as the agents of mission (within the missio Dei) and it is rare to find any reference to families or the home. Such an omission, however, overlooks the extent to which families can witness to the transforming grace of God in the midst of the world. In this article, I explore the importance of families for mission, and argue that the New Testament shows that the family is subordinated to the church but also transformed by the kingdom. In the light of the New Testament witness, I explore three scriptural themes of a family spirituality for mission; holiness, hospitality, and service. Given the significance of life within the home, the disciplines of missiology and Christian spirituality need to engage more deeply with the family as a context for Christian formation and outreach.

Missional hermeneutics is a relatively recent development in the field of biblical hermeneutics, emerging from several decades of scholarly engagement with the concept and frame of missio Dei. In a key recent publication in the field, Reading the Bible Missionally, edited by Michael Goheen, the voices of the Global South and of women – and certainly of women from Oceania – do not feature. In this article the authors, both Oceanic women, interrupt the discourse to read biblical text from their twice-under perspective. The Beatitudes provide the frame and the lens for a spiralling discussion of the missio Dei as, to borrow from Letty M. Russell, “calculated inefficiency.” Stories of faithful Oceanic women interweave with those of God and of biblical women, offering their complexities to challenge assumptions and simplicities.

The phrase missio Dei represents a significant advance in contemporary missiology: recognizing that God’s agency and impulse precedes and lies behind human engagement in mission. While missiological research can help Christians discover how God is at work in the world, in order to become involved in the missio Dei, missiology generally borrows its methodology from the social sciences, which focus on human processes: potentially desacralizing faith and discounting the agency of God. This article explores how critical realism offers an ontological framework within which to explore the missio Dei. It further shows that grounded theory provides a rigorous methodology for areas of study that have previously not sought to discern God’s agency. Finally, the article provides an example of research attentive to the missio Dei: exploring why previously secular (unchurched) Australians are becoming Christians today.

While theologies of missio Dei and their divergent missiological developments have been refined and contested in the academy over the past seven decades, the theoretical discussions and even the term itself are still far from commonplace in the life and discourse of many local congregations. Nonetheless, among such congregations there are examples of changing practice and new modes of local mission engagement that seem to be in alignment with aspects of a missio Dei orientation. In this article the experience of one congregation will be considered, asking whether a missio Dei perspective might be discerned in recent initiatives and developments in its engagement with its local community.

Existing literature on the work of sports chaplains focuses primarily on practitioner accounts of chaplaincy within elite sports settings. While these narratives provide useful descriptions of personal experience and practical application, they are largely devoid of theological grounding. This paper seeks to address this imbalance by putting forward a theology of sports chaplaincy that emphasises the missional nature of this ministry. We begin by contextualising mission within the doctrine of the Trinity. We then move to an exploration of the incarnational nature of chaplaincy. In line with the work of established missiological scholars, the concept of missio Dei is located as one possible way of understanding the mission and role of the chaplain in post-Christendom in western industrial society. The paper concludes by identifying sports chaplains as key missiological agents within the context of both amateur and elite sport.

Surfaced here are both the dangers of the concept of mission as an extinguisher of abundant life, and it simultaneously being the begetter of the escapist choices of a truncated life. Conversional mission insists on maintaining the mode of speaking at peoples, and all forms of mission posit an existent entity capable of conscripting acts as their chosen mission, and their inalienable right, aptness, and ability to unilaterally discharge them on any other. Speaking with people through a life-witness of a different inhabitation of the sociopolitical texts could have been the magnet that drew individuals and communities to the church in the first three centuries of Christian existence. If distinctive dwelling of the social texts could be the only way to continue becoming Christian, then there could neither be mission solely for converting others nor for meting out charity, solidarity, and liberation. Problematized here is the continuist contention that the current mission model ensues from Jesus and the Apostles. Turning confessional conception of Trinity into a scientific reality drains its power to beckon and demand nonconformist forms of performativity. Mausoleums arouse undemanding worship that seeks inert beneficence and bounties, and are never capable of eliciting a different act of living in the aspirants of such blessings.

Christianity has contributed to environmental degradation. In terms of their role, the church youth are ipso facto part of such a contribution. However, an eco-theological diagnostic analysis cannot interpret the role of youth, especially black youth, through the same lenses. From a Black theological perspective, black youth’s role should be interpreted and discussed in terms of what Fanon and Biko describe as ‘self-hatred’ and the need for black consciousness. It is such self-hatred that gives rise to environmental degradation that is not articulated within various eco-theologians’ strategies towards care for the environment in a neo-colonial context in South Africa. The article argues that such a deficiency in eco-theological literature needs some attention to address the future black youth’s contribution to a friendlier environment. The author therefore suggests a ‘missional consciousness’ for one of the strategies for black youth in the quest for the black youth’s participation in environmental care. Contribution: This article contributes to the broader discourses on ecotheology. It affirms the contributions on human beings’ role towards the environment, but further highlights the inequality among human beings in neo-colonial context and how ecotheology should approach the ecological crisis with consideration to such a context. Therefore, the contribution brings into dialogue the post-colonial discourse, specifically the discourse of black consciousness, in relation to a missional consciousness in resolving the ecological crisis through the participation of church youth. Ecotheology has not specifically considered the notions of ‘missional consciousness’ and ‘black consciousness’ in its discourse on protection of the environment. The author relates this discussion specifically to church youth.

The contextual dimension of mission remains both critical and relevant in understanding the nature and scope of the church with regards to its place and purpose. This is formed against the backdrop of the continual importance of the missio Dei is framing its engagement. Newbigin’s conception of trinitarian mission is one approach that can give specific focus to this understanding. A trinitarian missional ecclesiology can find common ground with practical theology in service of mission. Practical theology should be understood contextually and can be conceived missiologically. By bringing Newbigins trinitarian mission into conversation with practical theology, an important conversation is generated regarding the contextual nature of both the discipline of practical theology and the missio dei.

Families remain the world’s oldest, most basic form of relationship. However, in the 21st century, families are undergoing multiple crises. The fact cannot be ignored that numerous families experience no fatherly presence. Several missiologists emphasise that a church with an understanding and vision of God’s mission (missio Dei) must train parents to take up the task of nurturing children in faith. The term missional has true meaning. It is not merely a Christian buzz word or a catch phrase that families can use as an act. “Missional” should be viewed as an activity of God because it is rooted in Scripture and modelled by Christ. God has not given up on the vital role of the family. Therefore, family life requires the proactive impartation of biblical principles. The role of the family is accentuated within the biblical narrative and its importance is consistently brought to the attention of God’s followers. Christian parenting entails that parents model and educate their children in conduct that embraces God’s compassion for people who do not enjoy a living relationship with him. Christian fatherhood2 can guard against father absenteeism since Christian fathers lead sacrificial lives for the sake of their families. The hearts of Christian fathers are filled with a God-given mission aiming to instil a love for Christ in the hearts of their children.

The following question is at stake: What entails forgiveness and reconciliation within processes of healing regarding schisms in a very diverse and polarised society? Despite the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission the burning question that still prevails: What is meant by a praxis of forgiveness and a spirituality of reconciliation within a post-apartheid dispensation? It is argued that forgiving and reconciling are not instant or merely ‘handsome pardoning’. Both are embedded in processes of reaching out to the pain and hurt of the other. As a process, forgiveness starts with self-acknowledgement and should manifest in modes of compassionate being-with and diaconal acts of reaching out, creating spaces of ‘mystical encounters’. In this regard, the notion of anagnorisis, as captured by narrating the encounter between Joseph and his brothers, should be read as an exemplification of reconciliation, directed by the missio Dei, promissio Dei and passio Dei . Within a Christian paradigm, Ernst Bloch’s notion of docta spes , very aptly captures the core of pastoral, reconciliatory care: Hope care to the human soul ( nēphēsh ) – the search for life and meaning. ‘ Dum spiro – spero ’ [While I Breathe, I Hope]. Contribution: It is often the case that reconciliation is viewed as an instant event. The case of Joseph and his brothers illustrates the fact that reconciliation is in fact a mode of life, embedded over many years. In this way, reconciliation could be rendered as part of one’s life story; as a mode of journeying through life, exemplifying the how of authentic human encounters. Reconciliation then becomes an ontic feature of relational integrity and indication of the quality of the human soul: Habitus as feeling from the hurt being of the other.

Why are many churches in Africa inaccessible to persons with disability? This question has informed missiological qualitative research on the accessibility for persons with disability in churches in Ghana. Swinton (2002:29) coins the phrase the “‘forgotten dimension’ of spirituality”, which depicts the way persons with disability have been neglected in the ministry of many churches. Research in Ghana has proven that accessibility for persons with disability in churches is an afterthought reflecting exclusion from youth ministry as well. This article proposes to address the issue of inclusion/exclusion from a missio Dei perspective, challenging youth ministries to take deliberate steps to include persons with disability in their praxis.

Addressing the interest in missional theology and responding to the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, this research developed an apocalyptic missional theology for our time Whilst the Second World War inspired an exploration of the eschatological dimensions of mission, it was argued that apocalyptic theology adds a much needed perspective on mission In addition to replying to the pandemic, apocalyptic missiology proved to be well suited to speak about the challenges for the Church in South Africa, and introduces African modes of thinking to missiology This study comprised a qualitative literature research method that traced the history of eschatology and apocalyptic in missional thinking (summarised apocalyptic theology), demonstrated that apocalyptic theology contributes to current missiology, and finally developed an apocalyptic agenda for the mission The research found that apocalyptic offers new ways of speaking about God that challenges contemporary powers and power structures, and presents prophetic and ethical ways for the church to participate in the Missio Dei Apocalyptic extends a more universal future that includes all peoples and creation, and it provides believers with a new identity and comfort in our time In conclusion, apocalyptic theology was found to enrich missional thinking, contributing hope and joy to the Christian message Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article suggested that apocalyptic theology adds new dimensions to missional theology, enriching the traditional discourse It used the insights of biblical and religious studies, and applied it to missiology, as well as to systematic and practical theology © 2020 The Authors Licensee: AOSIS

Statistical analysis has been a common method for determining progress in missional activity. In the case of Bible translation, measurable statistics have been readily available showing progress. However, there have been gaps such as biblical, sociological, theological and missiological factors. The aim of this study is to consider broader factors than just quantifiable measurements that could be used to develop a missiological foundation for missional progress, especially for Bible translation. The setting was to analyse inputs from leaders within the Bible translation movement in terms of their understanding of the factors to be considered for a missiology of progress. Using a qualitative study based upon a questionnaire, the researcher grouped the responses by common categories and then analysed the key findings. The qualitative nature of how Bible translation was conducted reveals important factors such as signs of increased collaboration between Bible translation agencies, improved quality of relationships between Bible translation agencies and the local church, and also theologically significant milestones. The study concludes that progress in the Bible translation movement has to be considered within the broader context of God’s mission. Church history has revealed how progress in one era could be regress in another era. Consequently, reflecting and learning together within the Bible translation movement has been a key to progress, and therefore, all participants in the Bible translation movement have been called to work and learn together.

CITATION: Botha, J. 2020. Lessons from Mr. Noki : empire, structural violence and the Missio Dei, in Nel, M. J., Forster, D. A. & Thesnaar, C. H. (eds.) 2020. Reconciliation, forgiveness and violence in Africa : biblical, pastoral and ethical perspectives. Stellenbosch: SUN PReSS, doi:10.18820/9781928480532/06.

This paper made a case for the use of co-operative mission approach to plant churches. The paper was curved through observations and concerns of Independent Pentecostal Churches in Ghana of their inability to plant daughter churches due to lack of fund for mission and church planting. The paper made a proposal for the use of nnoboa mission concept. A concept developed from cooperative farming which thrives through trust, communality and reciprocity. Nnoboa in Akan communities in Ghana is similar to Ubuntu concept in Southern African communities. The paper argues that the church (body of Christ) is endowed with spiritual, physical, material and social capital that when brought together cooperatively can help Independent Pentecostal Churches to achieve their missional agenda. Even though the paper is a proposal for Independent Pentecostal Churches in Ghana, its implementation can be used by churches in other parts of the world that are struggling with funding for mission and church planting.

This essay explores the understanding of the Holy Spirit in Islam and his role in missio Dei from a Christian missiological perspective, and then argues for pneumatological considerations that Jesus’s followers can employ to promote Christian-Muslim peacebuilding engagement. It asserts that the task of reconciling all things belongs primarily to the domain of missio Dei and, consequently, that the Holy Spirit is the One who initiates and creates occasions and circumstances that birth enduring, holistic, and true peace. Armed with such understanding, peacebuilding enthusiasts who follow Jesus can engage in christo-pneumatological peacebuilding that entails the practice of faithful presence—dwelling with the “other” as the temple of the Holy Spirit, who glorifies the Son and the Father through the human participant in the missio Dei.

The sending of the church to spread the good news of the gospel often crosses cultural and social boundaries. This means that Christians must be sensitive to the needs of others and provide a level of hospitality to others as a means of offering respect and humbly entering their world. Hospitality is grounded in generously giving to others and receiving the blessings they offer in return. This article discusses the connection between spiritual generosity that is experienced through the work of the Holy Spirit and an example of biblical hospitality shown in the story of Lydia found in Acts 16. The context of the exchange between Lydia, a well-to-do business woman and her friends and the Pharisee-turned-follower of Christ, Paul and his missionary companions provides a biblical example of the work of the Holy Spirit in both parties. Spiritual generosity comes from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that indwells all believers, allowing the crossing of cultural boundaries to provide hospitality as a means of sharing the love of God through Christ. Hospitality is connected to spiritual generosity that assists Christians in accomplishing the missio Dei, the mission of God as a means of experiencing the kingdom of God on earth through the church. The Lydia–Paul story provides an example of how the generosity shown to humanity through the sacrifice of Christ and given to us through the Holy Spirit is directly connected to the need to extend hospitality to others as a means of accomplishing the missio Dei.

In this study, I position the Door of Hope (DoH), an organisation which attempts to work with abandoned and orphaned children, as a faith-based organisation and attempt to determine its effectiveness in relation to missio Dei [the mission of God]. This evaluation focussed on the four different ‘mission orientations’ that a religious community could have in society. Insights gained through this scrutiny of DoH highlight the notion that faith-based organisations in areas such as the inner city of Johannesburg in South Africa can genuinely embrace God’s mission as co-workers in God’s mission to realise a transformed reality symbolised by shalom or collective well-being of all of creation, in particular, for the most vulnerable citizens of Johannesburg inner city, such as infants and young women at risk.

The study conducted in 2017, in the Cape Metropole to explore the nature of partnership between local congregations and Christian Development Organisations, entitled, ‘Enhanced partnership between local congregations and Faith-based Organisations: towards a holistic congregational praxis’ reveal that, there are enough collaboration efforts between these two entities of the church. These efforts revolve around issues, such as spiritual support, volunteerism and discipleship. The view is that, even though elements of partnership such as volunteerism, prayer and discipleship are essential in the journey of development, there is a need for these efforts to be coupled by resources such as finances and expertise. Central to the argument of this paper is the view that says, enhanced partnership between local congregations and Christian Development Organisations has a potential to facilitate holistic congregational praxis. In most cases, these entities of the church are found in the same locality, and therefore need to define how they can together play a bigger and meaningful role in the transformation of their community. Bound by their faith mandate, working together as partners as opposed to competing with each other, they will find strength in each other, and portray good image of the Christian community in society. Guided by partnership ethos of trust, equality and mutual respect, they can both play a leading role in the nation-building project of South Africa.

At a time when RE is being reviewed and reassessed in England, this article offers a vision as to how the insights of Christian theology can offer a possible future that connects RE to the mission of God. In the UK there is a tension in Church schools between inclusivity and Christian distinctiveness, an area of misunderstanding between faith groups and the wider public. This article suggests that the problem can be navigated by applying the concept of the missio Dei to the work of the Church school, so that Christian mission can be advanced in the public sector. By connecting the educational concepts of religious literacy and community cohesion in the teaching of RE, the article suggests that the missio Dei is achieved. It is argued that these concepts can be bridged by a theological understanding of missio Dei using prophetic dialogue in a way that is wholly compatible with the school’s Christian mission. The article unpacks the four definitions; of “ missio Dei,” of “Church schools (as places of inclusive mission),” of “religious literacy,” and of “prophetic dialogue.”

The 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation is significant in many respects, not least in providing an opportunity to revisit Martin Luther’s emphasis on the role of the laity. Yet his legacy of a positive and theologically robust understanding of vocation as located in the everyday world as well as the religious life has only sporadically informed the church’s understanding of lay ministry, and has frequently been frustrated by clericalism and institutional inertia. By revisiting some modern theologies of the laity from the mid-twentieth century, and in dialogue with a recent Church of England report, this article will suggest some ways in which understandings of lay ministry and discipleship might be renewed. A focus on a learning church, education for discernment and a worldly, missional ecclesiology will help to direct the church to a vision of an empowered, confident and theologically literate laity.

Recent discussion about the future of mission has engaged with concepts such as missio Dei, polycentrism, Christendom and glocalisation. In order to provide a philosophical response to these and to introduce a new conversation partner, this article explores key ideas from the nomadic theory of Rosi Braidotti. Notions such as the embodied subject, the rhizome and various forms of becoming could be of benefit to the evolving multilogue about mission futures, and an initial attempt is made to show their relevance to the task of reforming an approach to cross-cultural mission usually associated with Christendom and the power of the West.

In this brief article, essential content from mission statements by three different church groupings is compared and contrasted. Lausanne’s Cape Town Commitment is brought together with the WCC’s Together Towards Life and the Vatican’s Evangelii Gaudium. This article identifies considerable convergences between the three agendas and sees these as grounds not only for general optimism for the future of mission, but also for meaningful dialogue and appropriate strategies for the work.

The journey of the Wycliffe Global Alliance (WGA) is an example of how some paradigm shifts are influencing leading in mission. Since Christianity is both an agent and product of globalization, its beliefs have spread from one source to another, crossing religious, linguistic and cultural contexts. As a result, there are polycentric or multiple centres of influence since Christianity has homes within a diversity of contexts. This carries with it various implications including how partnering in mission needs to be deconceptualized through greater emphasis on friendship. In order for this to happen as a missiological principle, third spaces may need to be created. Viewed against the backdrop of church and mission agency leadership, structures may be ‘stuck in the Industrial Era’ (Uhl-Bien et al., 2007: 298). Therefore, the stage is set for exploring how these and other themes influence leadership in God’s mission.

In a time of change for the church and its mission effort, important and useful questions are being asked about the cross-cultural mission movement. This article looks at challenges within and outside of the mission movement, and makes helpful critiques of the Christendom basis of Protestant mission. Areas where the movement could experience realignment are explored, such as globalisation, inter-cultural community, discipleship, and contextualisation. Cross-cultural mission is reaffirmed at the same time as difficult questions are asked.

The author points out that Cuba is going through a special kairos, a time of transition, where (a) civil society is becoming increasingly active in the Cuban economy; (b) Cuban society is still in the process of digesting the meaning of the normalisation of relations with the United States; and finally (c) the churches and religion in general are playing a more dynamic role in Cuban society. The author, on behalf of the hosting institution, the Evangelical Seminary of Theology in Matanzas, Cuba, reflects on the theme of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism consultation, after making reference to the historical development of missiological training in its 70 years of existence. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on behalf of our Evangelical Theological Seminary (ETS) here in Matanzas, we extend to you all a very warm welcome. We are indeed very grateful for your acceptance of our invitation to hold this Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) meeting here, which honours us immensely. If you will allow me a personal note, I was blessed to serve at the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, as a CWME staff member. I had the privilege of organizing meetings and conferences like this one, and now, it is my turn to host one in our seminary, which again is a great privilege for us. You are visiting us at a very special moment in the life of our seminary, since we are celebrating our 70th anniversary on October 1! At the same time, this is a very special kairos for our country: First, we are going through a period of transition, where civil society is becoming increasingly active in the Cuban economy; second, we are still in the process of digesting the meaning of the normalization of relations with the United States, particularly as far as God's mission is concerned; and finally, the churches and religion in general are playing a more dynamic role in Cuban society. (1) Therefore, since the missio Dei is contextual, as churches we are in the process of refocusing the way we participate in this mission of sharing the good news of God's kingdom in the midst of our society. Since the seminary is not an end in itself, but rather an instrument to serve the churches to fulfil God's mission, this Consultation on Missional Formation could not be more timely, since we are in the process of revisiting our curriculum to be better focused in this endeavour. Missional Formation at the Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary The ETS was founded on 1 October 1946 in the City of Bridges, as Matanzas is also known, in the same location as today, where a beautiful view of the contrasting green-blue waters of the bay can be enjoyed. Our Seminary was organized by representatives of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches and their respective Boards of Missions in the US. On 2 May 1951, the official incorporation of the Episcopal Church was publicly celebrated, since it had been linked to the institution in teaching and collaboration since 1948. Hence the ETS has been, from the very beginning--and still is--the ecumenical seminary of the country. The Cuban Council of Churches was founded in 1941; a major outcome was the decision to form ecumenically the pastors and leaders of its churches. Hence the establishment of the ETS as an instrument to strengthen their mission in our country. During the 1950s, the school was consolidated and strengthened through land acquisition, construction of buildings, and development of pastoral work in different fields, as well as in social sendees. This was enabled to a great extent by the support of the US missionary boards of these Protestant churches, which started to exercise a stronger influence in the country after the US Intervention of 1902. Before this Intervention, in the second half of the 19th century the Protestant churches in Cuba were established and developed by Cuban missionaries, which--to great extent--were not acknowledged by the US missionaries. …