1.  Coenie Burger

2.  About the theme: two requests! o Re-imagining the church? o What is going on in the DRC?  First: what can we expect of the church? o Our biggest problem: thinking too small about God and his church? o Lost faith in the church and in the Gospel…? Eg conversation with President… Overseas observers convinced me about role of the church (Berger, Walls, etc) Irony of Carl Jung and modern philosophers (Agamben in France…)

3.  Why we should take our role more seriously o Overestimating the role of politics (Hunter) o Churches the most trusted institutions in SA! o Churches can give common identity, infrastructure, social capital… o Walls: “God is doing something in Africa”  Re-imagining: work on three levels o Ministry – how are we doing ministry (practices)? o Mission – what do we think should we be doing (task)? o Identity – who do we think we are? (christian identity vs race, nationality, etc)

4.  Good news and bad news…  We are still struggling with a number of problems: o Unification process with URC o Shadows of the past still haunting us (lose youth) o Group becoming more diverse… o Fixed church order makes change difficult o Not enough imagination…

5.  Positives… o We are dealing with our apartheid past o Strong Statement in 2002: four commitments To God and the Gospel of Christ To our country South Africa and Africa To work on the problems (also our problems!) To the unity of the church o Putting energy and money into congregational renewal and continuing education/care of pastors o Change our way of doing meetings (emphasis on discernment) o Missional Statement 2012: join Fresh Expressions…

6.  Tackling poverty  Focusing on the Youth  Training laity for discipleship  Evangelism and church planting  Public Witness and conversation  Promoting human dignity  The Unity of the church

7.  Must take the role of the church very seriously  See the Living, Triune God working behind, in, through the church (vs deism, cf MTD): reality of the Spirit!  Focus of the church’s ministry: telling/sharing the story of Jesus, the Christ (witness)! It is about Jesus!  If we share the story we must also live the life! (congregations as the first hermeneutics of the Gospel)  Being church is often not a neat, orderly thing; it is about pressing on amidst failures, humiliations, chaos, disappointments… Read Acts 28:30-13