Theology, Pastors and The Emerging Church
Published by Matt Glover April 28th, 2006 in Emerging Missional ChurchAn interesting entry on Frank Rees’ blog today.
Basically, he is talking about how pastors should continually engage with theology - something that I have found has not only stimulated my thinking in the midst of ministry, but also made more ministry more effective. Given that many in the emerging church movement find the concept of thinking theologically off-putting (studying it is even worse) and even irrelevant, I found this quote insightful:
I am further convinced that if pastors were more creatively engaged with theology, or with their ministry in a theological way, much of what is said against ‘the institutional church’ by the ‘emerging church’ movement would be dealth with, and (equally) much of what is said by the emerging church movement would be challenged to become more adequate, as an understanding of church.
For me, I think it’s basically impossible to be engaged in mission (and church) without thinking theologically, precisely because of the reasons that Frank outlines in his post. Theology is the conversation that happens in community about the things of God and the things of our world.
I’ll outline more of my thinking along these lines in the impending series of papers for my community on “Who is Jesus? What is Misison? How do we be Church?” in the next few months. I’ll post those thoughts when I can, but in the between time, check out Frank’s blog.
He likes a good argument, so see if you can start one!
In the NIV student bible, in the introduction to Romans, it said that, many christians, if given the choice of one book of the bible to have if they were shipwrecked on a desert island, would choose Romans. However, it went on to make the point the theology is not just for quiet holidays, but for everyday and every person.
God stuff isn’t just for bible college students and pastors, though they have the “excuse” to spend more time thinking theologically, the rest of us just need to make an effort.
So what does it mean for YOU to be thinking theologically in the midst of your hectic schedule? What does ‘making the effort’ it look like?
to be honest, I haven’t quite worked that out yet. I think it is involving God in your life- a quick “what do you think God” or a “argh! God, please help me with this stupid …. ” and also choosing to think on theological stuff. You know lightbulb moments? it’s like that, where you need to have the electricity flowing for the switch to work. I guess it is a state of mind, where you are completly ok with world shattering realizations popping into your head.
and while the word theological is impressive, and has reasons (greek?) for being that word (like biology, other ologies) I think it’s scary to our subconsious. Perhaps a new word or a phrase is in order.
man this is hard to work out! I like talking about various political philosophies, and debating, and thinking about them. Having a group of people to mull theology over is good. Being willing to argue, to accept that you still can be friends even if you disagree. I’m rambling, so I’ll stop now.
I guess it comes down to being willing to argue with yourself, and being open for God to prod you along.
asking questions is good. Like your comment Matt. perhaps I or you, or both of us could have weekly/fortnightly/monthly/ theological questions to ponder. I guess that happens in the sermon discussions, but we need more people to click in. Maybe you need to have a link to your sermon section in the newsletter each week.
grr. rambling. talk to you on Sunday.
Ah yes. I like questions…my job is never to give you answers, only more questions!
To your comment. I reckon theology isn’t something that you can do quickly. While there are ‘light bulb’ moments, they usually come after a long period of thinking, exploring and questioning. Often we have to be confronted with the possiblity that what we have always thought and believed about God/faith might actually be wrong - it shakes and disturbs us. But then that moment comes and a new level of understanding is achieved.
This means that the theological dialogue doesn’t happen in the ‘in between’ moments, but in every moment.
For you, Alison, theology is the discussion between the things of God and the things of your university campus. What possible siginificance could the concept of (for instance) ‘carrying your cross’ mean in that setting? What does ‘carrying your cross’ mean in any setting? Is it relevant at all in our time given that we don’t use crosses to kill people?
You’ll need to answer that before Sunday…;)
And does anyone know how I get this to trackback to Frank’s blog? I can’t seem to get it to work…
oh- worked out how to do trackbacking! see on his site how he’s got the track back section? take that URL (trackback/etc/) and use that in your link (< a href=”blah” > Pastor’s are theologians </a>
sorry if my formatting doesn’t work. But you get my drift, yeah?
yes! it worked!!!