Being prophetic involves reading the signs of the times and offering a social critique and response that is inspired and guided by scripture and the principles of the Kingdom of God. In the OT, the prophet acted as a mouthpiece for God. They would receive a message from God and proclaim it no matter the discomfort it brought. The prophet had the role of forth telling and foretelling.
In the New Testament, prophetic ministry becomes one of the functions of the early Christian Church. The word “church” is a translation of the Greek word ekklesia, which is defined as “an assembly” or “called-out ones.” The church is KURIAKON which means belonging to God, it is not a human creation. The Church is therefore a God created assembly of people called out for a particular purpose and that purpose we learn in scripture is to spread the gospel and make disciples so that all may be saved. The church is called out of the world and back into the world.
Church As Herald
According to Avery Dulles, the Church as herald is best described as “the one who receives an official message with the commission to pass it on.” The central image is that of a royal herald who comes to the public square to proclaim a royal decree. The church is called to proclaim the good news that Christ has come so that we may have life and have it abundantly. This abundance is not a distant utopian promise reserved for the afterlife—it is for the here and now, for the entire created order. It crosses socio-political, socioeconomic, and ecological lines in its pursuit of wholeness.
It is in the DNA of the Church to respond to the cries of creation—because the parent of the Church is God who hears and responds. A Church that does not respond to contextual suffering is irrelevant; it becomes nothing more than a glorified institution.
The Church in Acts responded to the needs of its community and became a refuge. In following Christ—who is the criterion for the Church—we learn the importance of both vertical (God- human) and horizontal (human-human and creation) relationships. These move us from pious religion to a liberating one. Being prophetic involves listening to and attending to the cries of the oppressed.
Being prophetic involves words and actions of inclusivity, acceptance, going the extra mile. It is the opening of doors to those from different economic and social groups, age groups, sexual orientations, races and cultural groups. I concur with Desmond Tutu when he says, “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” That time is now. With urgency we need to be a visible Church, present at the Centre of people’s suffering, pain and struggles.
Bruggeman argues that a prophetic ministry is not limited to addressing a particular public issue or crises but in and out of season it calls on the prophet to respond to the dominant and resilient crises of the co-option and domestication of Christianity so that it is no longer an alternative vocation nor is counter cultural but sounds, looks, acts and smells like those aspects of society, culture, tradition, politics and economics that we first sought out to convert.
The church is at risk of becoming domesticated. We need a reminder to us and about us that we come from a lineage that once boldly addressed societal issues such as poverty, oppression, political injustice, and slavery—concrete expressions of the Church’s kerygma.
All these were concrete expressions the prophetic nature of the Church and so we cannot be comfortable with the state of our nation because we have a prophetic calling and role.
As we consider our prophetic role, I leave you with the following thoughts:
- First one is from William Temple: “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.”
- The second one is Simangaliso Kumalo: “The church has no alternative but to be involved in the processes of transformation taking place within society. To do otherwise would be detrimental to its mission in the world, and in effect the church would become an irrelevant institution.”
Prophetic Role of the Church
- It has been the tradition of the Church to stand for truth and align herself with the poor and marginalized.
- It has been the tradition of the church to de-legitimize oppressive, corrupt and unfair political systems that are resultant to injustice, inequality and marginalization.
- Traditionally, the South African Church rallied together in the fight against apartheid, a political system of oppression that was unjust. The Church stood for truth and spoke against such oppression thus playing an important role in bringing about a democratic South Africa.
- According to De Gruchy, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa in particular took her political stance and stood for truth in as early as 1948 (De Gruchy 1986) “The Methodist Conference that same month (1948) stated that no persons of any race should be deprived of constitutional rights or privileges merely on the grounds of race.”(Page 54), a decade later, the MCSA declared its conviction that the Methodist people should be one and undivided.
Though nationally and ecumenically, the Church remained divided during the apartheid era between the mainly Afrikaner church propagating apartheid through its theology and the English Church either silent or fighting for the liberation of the oppressed, and the black Church suffering it out in the Bantustans and forming its own black liberation theologies.
- It is evident that in this era and throughout history, the faith community has had to have a relationship with justice and injustice in either providing theological rationale for injustice or maintaining its conscience and moral voice in the South African context, and that to me is truth.
- With reference to the South African context over the past decades, the church provided chaplaincy to political prisoners, it is the church that was called upon as peacemaker in the turbulent years of apartheid, in the 1st democratic elections of South Africa-where ministers of the Church were called upon to be part of the electoral commission as observers and vote counters,
- When the painful realities caused by the apartheid regime came to the fore through the truth and reconciliation commission-it was again the church that through the Archbishop Emeritus Demsond Tutu, that played a crucial role in the process, as the nation continues to face the plight of GBV, it is the church that has taken upon itself to through its project and mission groups to provide places of safety for women and children
In the face of COVID-19, it is the Church that continues to play a role in opening its doors as vaccination centers and furthermore demystify the myths around the vaccines
