Conversions in context: Insights from an autobiographical narrative of a Congolese-born missionary at Stinkwater[1].

Abstract

Abstract

Indigenous African missionaries are increasingly becoming involved in various mission interests in their contexts. Assumptions made by many mission institutions are that when they call indigenous Africans, they would be easily accepted and integrated into the community and get on with mission duties. However, these assumptions do not hold for indigenous Africans who are not native to the land where they serve. In relation to the latter this article, based on an autobiographical narrative of a Congolese-born missionary at Stinkwater, highlights four ‘conversion episodes’ that the missionary went through before he begun to ‘weave together’ the story of the good news of Jesus with stories of people in this particular context. All these episodes have had profound implications towards reshaping and reviving his theology of mission and praxis at Stinkwater. Insights from this autobiographical narrative could be useful in the preparation of indigenous workers who intend to work in context where they are not native to the land.

[1]The abbreviated version of this article was first presented as a paper at the International Association of Mission Studies (IAMS) conference which took place at Seoul, South Korea (11 – 15 August 2016) under the track “theologies of mission” convened by Steve Bevans and Kirsteen Kim.