Gospel and Our Cultures Network

The Gospel and Our Cultures network in South Africa (GOCnSA) is a group of people from different ecclesial traditions who exchange views, information, contacts and experience as we seek to explore the interaction between culture, gospel and church in South Africa--answering the question as to how the Christian Gospel relates to the contemporary cultural settings of South Africa, and what kind of church we envisage in order to embody the gospel in these settings? It is a mission-focussed group – that is, one whose prime focus is on enabling authentic, contextual and culturally appropriate forms of mission in South Africa. That mission is understood as first and foremost the mission of God the Trinity, embodied in the person, actions and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. In a country where rapid cultural change coincides with the church experiencing a dislocation from its previous places of importance, the missionary way the church is called to live compels us to:

  • Do social and cultural analysis to assess the kind of setting we are in and how we understand its importance in the light of God's mission in the world;
  • Undertake biblical and theological reflection to discern the meaning of the gospel in our setting;
  • Develop an ecclesial and missional vision to discern the kind of church we need to be, to show what it means to believe the gospel, and to live and speak as though it is true.

The GOCnSA organises a conference on national level and seminars on local level and runs an e-conference that can be reached for free subscription at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gocnsa. An interim co-ordinating committee consisting of prof Phil Robinson (philren@absamail.co.za), Canon Mike McCoy (mcbloem@yebo.co.za) and Rev Jan Nieder-Heitmann (jniederh@mweb.co.za) assume responsibility for the development of the network.

Articles related to this network initiative