Towards the millennium: a critical theological exploration of the Seventh-Day Adventist church's engagement with the poor in Soweto

Abstract

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is one of the youngest Christian denominations in modern history. It is also one of the smallest, numerically, in South Africa. However, because of the church’s high evangelistic zeal Adventists can be found in almost every part of South Africa. From a motley figure of about 3500 at the time of the church’s legal organisation in 1861, Adventists now number about 18 million globally. There is a notable presence of Adventists in Soweto, west of Johannesburg. In this study, the focus is on how the Adventist church responds to the phenomenon of poverty in Soweto. The intent is to identify current activities of the church relative to poverty alleviation, actual or possible weaknesses in the church’s response to poverty and whether these are consequences of socio-theological or other factors in the structures and institutions of the church. The end of the study will be a propositional discourse that will suggest pointers towards a more relevant and sustainable poverty alleviation programme informed by sound theological, practical pastoral and developmental considerations. This work is a missiological study focusing on Soweto, seeking to critically assess the extent to which Adventists are involved in alleviating poverty in Soweto. It also explores a model by which they can successfully and redemptive encounter the poor at their point of need. Although the main focus will be given to the missiological task of the Adventists of Soweto, the study will also integrate other disciplines to deal with sociological and political considerations. The approach adopted in this study is a pastoral contextual approach of doing theology in Soweto. Within this contextual approach I shall apply the pastoral cycle since this method converges with other relevant methods of analysis and social critique.