Change Agents are at the heart of our approach: people who are committed to transform themselves and their community. They form Change Agent Communities – small groups of people who, through their service and way of life, inspire and equip an ever growing number of people to work towards personal and community transformation.
We believe that life- and community change happens one person at a time, through authentic relationships on a local level. This leads us to believe that a typical NGO, mission organisation or national development organisation with fixed programmes will not be best suited for our context. A movement of Change Agents that is able to respond to local needs and that grows (or shrinks) organically regardless of the formal legal entity it takes is required. A movement of Change Agents who choose to live prophetic lives in clearly defined communities – with lives that illustrate a different, innovative and counter-cultural way of doing, working and relating to God and others – that will inspire and equip diverse people to join the hidden movement of Jesus’ disciples that has been at work for centuries to transform individuals, communities and our country as a whole.
Each Change Agent Community is called to work and live for the transformation of a clearly defined community. Once a community (geographical or other) has been identified as one in which Oasis SA wants to work, a core group of people, the Leadership Team, commit to become part of the community on the long term.
The Leadership Team then initiate projects that serve their community. The initiatives can take any shape or form depending on the community, the skills and calling of the Leadership Team but it will always be focused on what we believe to be the core of the challenges facing South Africa by:
- Enabling healthy identity formation and true reconciliation
- Working towards creating equal opportunities (especially focusing on youth development, health and job creation) and
- Leading to an engaged and lively civil society in a specific context.
In addition, care will be taken to
- Build on the community’s assets as well as meet real felt needs
- Implemented in a way that contributes to the community becoming a transforming community – most importantly contributing to the community being increasingly able to resolve its own issues rather than create a dependency relationship
- Designed in a manner that contributes to the restoring of the dignity of all involved and facilitate the building of relationships
- Progress towards excellence in project delivery – building on the expertise we have developed in South Africa as well as globally and,
- Provide opportunities for community members to become part of the Change Agent Community for a fixed period of time during which they serve as Change Agents together with the Leadership Team.
In this way, all members of the Change Agent Community will work together for their community’s transformation while they also live life together, working out the implications of the Gospel, expressed through the ethos of Oasis, in their context. The contextual application of our Rhythm of Life is central to this process and our projects have a real impact in the community, but we strongly believe that individual transformation takes place when meaningful relationships are built over a period of time. These relationships are therefore the real core of what Oasis is about – not the projects or tools that enables the building of relationships.
Change Agents working in Oasis projects will typically be employed and earn a stipend in communities where unemployment is a major challenge. In their time with us, our aim is for them to develop to a point where they are able to access other employment, continue to develop and grow on their own as well as have a strong commitment to ongoing spiritual formation and serving their communities in groups of like-minded people.
This will lead to a movement of transforming people slowly turning unhealthy communities into transforming communities. The impact of our projects and initiatives of the Change Agents reaches the community from the centre outwards. This will continue until, at some point, a tipping point is reached where the Leadership Team is no longer required to ignite the process. A decision can then be taken on whether the non-governmental organisation of Oasis in the community is still required or can be replaced by a movement of people living the Oasis ethos and forming a suitable form of voluntary association.