Conspectus : The Journal of the South African Theological Seminary

This article addresses the relationship between two Hebrew verbs found in Jeremiah 18:7−10 that may shed light on the subject of God’s ‘repentance’, especially when the Hebrew verbs words are viewed from the context of the covenant. We see that the main point of the passage shifts from the potter’s unilateral control and sovereignty over the clay to the flexibility of the potter to work with his clay. The significance is that in this covenantal context, the author(s) used שׁוּב (shub) and נָחַם (nacham) to demonstrate that God sometimes, but not arbitrarily, relents in response to the decisions of his people, meaning that the response of the nation had an influence on God’s actions.

Testimony, scholarship, and pastoral-devotion form a triad to this journal article on stuttering and its relationship to the beauty of Christ, for the theologian who stutters. The paper begins with some of the personal struggles of stuttering highlighted in a personal testimony. Stuttering can be described as disfluency of speech, characterised by frequent stoppages in the flow of speech, usually with a repetition of sounds, syllables, or even one-syllable words. Along with the vocal impediment, certain emotional characteristics may be evident, such as anxiousness, shyness, timidity, and lack of assertiveness. While this may not always be the case, it is usually the general perception of others. According to research, those who do stutter are often regarded as having undesirable personality characteristics, which may intensify the problem. Aside from the general facts about stuttering, which we explore, the issues of the cause and cure of stuttering are of interest. While little is known about the direct cause of stuttering, recent research does indicate that it may be neurological, and therefore there is yet no cure. However, studies on the cause of stuttering in light of the neurological sciences indicate that a cure may be available in the not-too-distant future. The paper also offers an exegetical study on Moses, focusing on his speech defect, and how YHWH had created Moses and knew intimately the limits of his abilities. Nevertheless, YHWH promised Moses that he would be with him as he spoke. Even Moses’ stutter was not an obstacle for the all-powerful Lord. The exegetical study from the New Testament examines the Apostle Paul and his willingness to put aside his intelligence and shrewdness for the sake of allowing the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and strength to work through him, thus being a vessel for the beauty of Christ evident in the Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s letters. Drawing from the earlier sections of the paper, the final discussion offers a pastoral-devotional approach, exploring stuttering in relation to the beauty of Christ, with a special focus on the stuttering theologian. The paper argues that stuttering may become an inconspicuous crucible for the beauty of Christ, and in so doing, becomes something beautiful, being overshadowed and transformed by the beauty of the divine.

The objective of this study is to find out how the Church of Pentecost in Ghana, a missional African church, can improve the funding of its African missions. Based on a modified version of the Osmer model of practical theology, the study used literary, biblical analysis and qualitative approaches. The missions-funding praxis of the church was analysed against biblical guidelines, to formulate improved praxis relevant to Africa-to-Africa missions-funding. The study does not only suggest improvement to missions-funding praxis for the Church of Pentecost, but could be useful to other missional churches in Africa. It could also provide guidance for missiology and church administration students in African seminaries. The study is timely for missions-funding, given the emerging trend of Africa-to-Africa missions.