ethical engagement with pathological socio-economic, political and ecclesial conditions is proposed. The conclusion integrates the key constructs of the article. INSTITUTIONAL METHODOLOGIES ENGAGING CONTEXTUAL CHALLENGESPractical theology as a crisis science highlights the dwindling authority of Scripture, church and leadership in revealing a growing discontinuity between church and society (Heitink 1993:15). Theology should respond to the 21st century challenge of a changing culture (cf. Bosch 2005; Guder 1998; Keifert 2006; Roxburgh 2005). Few traditional churches have transformed and instead became functional poststructuralists (henceforth missional).4 The majority of churches remain stuck in their structuralist5 (henceforth maintenance) paradigms (cf. Keifert 2006) and have capitulated into pathological systems and praxes. These ecclesiologies cannot adequately address the plural and multifaceted challenges of the 21st century, particularly the conditions of poverty-stricken families and communities. The predicament of maintenance ecclesiologies is apparent in its inability to relate the church's ministry to a changing culture, particularly pathological socio-economic conditions. The problem with maintenance ecclesiologies lies in its inability to support and energise its core ministries, such as pastoral ministry. Pluralism, multiculturalism, increasing levels of poverty, crime, xenophobia, alcohol and drug abuse and the HIV and Aids pandemic exacerbates the church's challenges.The inability of maintenance churches leads to various pathological psychosocial, systemic and socio-economic dysfunctionalities. Compassion fatigue, for example, among ordained and lay ministers is a direct result of the aforementioned (Bohmer & Spangenberg 2001; Swart, Fourie & Scheepers 2001). Compassion fatigue leads to a disempowering fatigue syndrome among church members and ministerial systems, which ultimately impacts on the needy and vulnerable. The article 'The Aids fulcrum: The church in Africa seesawing between alienation, estrangement, prejudice and love' substantiates this argument and contextualises it within the Africa context (Brown & Hendricks 2004). The aforementioned holds that the church has 'missed its mark' and has instead created the perception of being 'cold, judgemental, uncaring and unloving'. Buffel (2006:1) contends that 'the church has failed to position itself in line with the true nature of the church as the body of Christ', with its inappropriate response to HIV and Aids.The problem of the church's response to contemporary issues lies in its maintenance paradigm. Christendom (Keifert 2006:30-31), the inculturation of Christianity into Western culture, with its modern scientific method, has influenced and structured the church in such a way that the church has lost its missional identity and ethical pedagogical character. Diatesda Oiknonia (2004) (a community service for wellness through a caring community; henceforth Diatesda) in the Western Cape, which was founded in 1994 as a witnessing instrument of God's praxis, had to sever its links with a church that defaulted to a maintenance paradigm. Ministry on the margins6 become a meaningful encounter: 'What pastors lost in hierarchical authority, they gained in access to everyday experiences and problems of ordinary people' (Osmer 2008:19). Boff (1986:12, 33) refers to the prefiguring of a new social structuring of the church from a juxta modum (emerging) basic church communities perspective. A quaestiones disputatae (critical reflective) approachurges contextualisation, theologically sound churches and the reinvention of hope-giving ministries (Boff 1986:46-47). Life in Latin American was (and may still be)