MattGlover.com

This is the continuation of a paper that was written for my Supervised Theological Field Education paper in 2006, called “My Operational Theology and Model for Theological Reflection”.

I’m happy to answer any questions if you’re happy to ask them…

The form of theological reflection that has led me to this point is described by Kinast as Application. He says, “Application is rethinking one’s theology from its customary context of abstract thought to the novel context of a particular situation.” I find myself doing this repeatedly as each year passes. For example, until recently I had described my operational theology as:

JESUS (Christology) -> MISSION (Missiology) -> CHURCH (Ecclesiology)

However, I had found that this left little room for discussions about things like Trinitarian theology and thoughts on the Spirit. These were cropping up constantly in mission effort in the community and so required an adjustment of model (God in the place of Jesus), but also into thinking. I find this exciting and reaffirms how the things of God stay relevant to people of all generations.

Practically this has meant a lot of mess. Structure and definition is much cleaner, but when God thrusts us into a world with messy and broken people (at the same time as revealing our own messiness and brokenness), many that were once excluded become part of God’s family. Jesus ate and drank with the ‘sinner’ thus God’s people do the same. Recently somebody described the group of people I minister too as a “bunch of misfits.” This has been one of the highest compliments anyone has ever offered and, to me at least, an indication that we’re heading down the right track.

Conclusion

Sometimes I feel a bit like Forest Gump during the ‘running’ stage of his life. There’s a lot of people following, but I have no idea why. Writing this though, I realize that they’re not following me like they were following Gump. They’re following the God that I follow and we’re learning together. We’re still going to argue about things, but I’m ok with that now, because most of the time we will be arguing about the stuff that really matters, rather than things that don’t. They will be the sort of arguments that my next door neighbour might have, or my workmates at Dulux, or my friends at Uni. Arguments about how we can best contribute to the health of the local school community. Arguments about how we can ensure our community conserves water. Arguments about how marriages can be kept strong and intact. Like I said, arguments about things that matter, because they are borne out of a connection with the God who motivates us for mission. And, of course, church will happen in there somewhere.

I think my shadow will be really pleased if we can get to that point someday.

Of course, there is much more that could be written. One day I might do that, but this was all the word limit would allow for this time around. Needless to say, the journey continues …