The social context of church members spawns different ecclesial imaginations of the nature of the church. Those different ecclesial imaginations often function within one particular church. It interacts with each other – in isolation, competition or hostility – to ultimately shape the life of that church. This article discusses the result of a historical study in which the authors dissected the primary ecclesial imaginations of members of churches in South Africa. The authors, therefore, discuss three of the ecclesial imaginations that emanated from the research, which can be observed within the sampled congregations. The authors argue that because the congregants of the churches have such ‘ecclesiological imaginations’, the prophetic voice of the church in South Africa has become silent. Therefore, the authors suggest that the members of the churches in South Africa should re-imagine the nature of the church in terms of the missio Dei if it wants to recover the prophetic voice of the church. The authors conclude that the missional church discourse provides specific conceptual tools to assist congregations to recover the prophetic voice of the church in South Africa.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article demonstrates the relationship between societal context and its influence and impact on the emergence of ecclesial imaginations. There is an interaction between the discipline of social science, humanities, theology and missiological discourses in terms of the challenge that the authors address in this article.

Since the inception of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) in 1994, the issue of theological education has occupied a key place in the meetings of General Synod. This article analyses the development and implementation of URCSA’s ministerial formation programme over the past 25 years through the lens of the Belhar Confession. It examines the extent to which not only the curriculum but also the practices of ministerial formation have become driven, guided and shaped by the commitments inherent in the Confession of Belhar. Due to space constraints, this paper uses only Article One of Belhar as an interpretive and evaluative lens and focuses only on the Northern Theological Seminary in Pretoria, hoping thereby to stimulate further reflection in a similar vein.

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