“My eyes were opened on how the Bible is being read, analysed, and understood,” says one of the members of the Youth Ministry who attended a CBS workshop on Sunday 2 July 2023, at Hofmeyr in the Eastern Cape.
If you mention the word, Hofmeyr, most people won’t even know what, or who, you are referring to. Hofmeyr, a small town in the Eastern Cape, offering a few shops and only the necessary services, was recorded by Wikipedia in 2011 to have a population of 3 680 people. However, this community’s Uniting Reformed Church in South Africa (URCSA) has two small congregations, an Afrikaans, and a Xhosa-speaking congregation.
What a proud and historic moment and achievement!
Earlier this month, somewhere deep in this rural part of the Eastern Cape, a small gathering by a group of ordinary people took place that will one day be recorded as a turning point for this group of believers, their congregations, and their community. Without a funfair and social media frenzy, this intergenerational group came together to learn how to look at their community’s challenges, contextually from the Bible. They also learned how to compile an action plan for becoming agents of change by taking ownership of the transformation of their lives, congregations, and the community.
Last year, Witness Ministry’s Task Team for Congregational Witness decided to introduce Contextual Bible Study (CBS) to the leaders of the Women’s and Youth Ministries of the 29 presbyteries of the URCSA Cape Regional Synod. Furthermore, they decided to train some of these leaders as CBS facilitators, so that they can introduce CBS to the rest of the presbyteries, whilst Rev. Babalwa Sifuba continued with the training of CBS facilitators.
CBS facilitator, Nosipho Konki, is busy introducing CBS to the two ‘vacant’ congregations of Hofmeyr.
One of these leaders from the Women’s Ministry, Nosipho Konki, who has been trained as a CBS facilitator, is a member of the URCSA Immanuel-Cradock Congregation. She attended a few follow-up training workshops and introduced CBS to 24 women leaders from the Presbytery of Graaff-Reinet while being assisted by Rev. Stephen Pedro. After this event, her local pastor, Rev. Irion, requested her to introduce CBS to two ‘vacant congregations’ in the neighbouring town of Hofmeyr. Without hesitation, she consulted with the project leader, Rev. Pedro, and they both decided that she should take on the opportunity of this task with both hands.
Nosipho introduced, and facilitated, a CBS workshop on Sunday 2 July 2023 with 23 members of these two URCSA congregations in Hofmeyr. However, Rev. Pedro requested that they should rather focus on one of the URCSA Cape Regional Synod’s challenges than having a complete session of doing the SEE part of CBS. According to this request, they agreed to engage in the leadership challenge by reading together Exodus 18 during the discernment phase of CBS. This also allows them sufficient time to close the CBS workshop by compiling an action plan as to how congregations can apply what they have discerned from reading the Bible together in their community.
Members of the two URCSA Congregations in Hofmeyr while listening attentively to Nosipho.
This whole process is so special and meaningful because CBS brought these Afrikaans and Xhosa-speaking congregations together, “even without a reverend,” as one of the elders pointed out. Furthermore, they were also empowered by a method and a tool to read the Bible.
Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this enabled and entrusted them to take ownership of a communal and pertinent challenge, facing the URCSA Cape Regional Synod in general, and their congregations in particular.
Contact Rev. Stephen Pedro at stephen@kaapkerk.co.za for more information.