Intercultural training and missions: a contextual approach to multiculturalism in South African city churches

Abstract

This study responds to the question of what approach should the church and theology undertake to address multiculturalism within the church, and how taken in the missiological context intercultural training promotes cultural competence in a multicultural church. The study proves that most churches in South African cities consist of a mixture of people from different cultural, ethnic, and racial groups. This mixture of people, as seen in this study, is a result of factors such as globalization, migration, and urbanisation. Multiculturalism in the church challenges the philosophy of ministry in the church including missions, worship, preaching and interpersonal relationship of the members. The study suggests the theological training institutions to consider integrating intercultural training and missions (ITM) into their curriculum to develop cultural competencies. ITM, being a theological approach of inclusiveness, enables church leaders with the ability to work effectively in situations characterized by cultural diversity. Therefore, ethnography was chosen as an appropriate qualitative research methodology for this study. Research methods such as participant observation, literature review and interviews were used to collect the data. Interviews were conducted with pastors of multicultural churches in cities such as Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Cape Town. The validity of the findings in this research was established through cross-cultural training schools and workshops conducted with church leaders from different parts of South Africa and other countries of Africa.