#155 The Theologically Informed Christian
Christians in ministry and in general are lacking theological and philosophical knowledge
It is vital to be theologically informed as a Christian. While serving in ministry there are many types of people and beliefs that you will encounter. Some of those topics may be more obscure than others. At the bare minimum all Christians ought to know their Bible. While all people in any sort of leadership must know the doctrine and theology of their denomination. While all pastors ought to also know the history of the church and the biblical languages in order to properly handle the Word of God.
What is the role of theology and the other disciplines in the church?
Theology and the other disciplines like doctrine and language studies are vitally important for the church. Doctrine informs us what we consider truth, and that is something that many churches are inconsistent on. While theology informs our specific beliefs and how we practice our religion. As pastors we cannot teach Christians how to live their lives apart from some form of theology. When we take this into account then we find pastors must be well informed doctrinally, theologically, and understand the languages of the Bible in order to avoid heresy and to teach well.
How important is it that at least the leaders in the church are well trained?
Ideally everyone in the church would be well trained. But the tasks of work and life limit the time that people have to dedicate to studying seemingly obscure topics like theology. Since it is vitally important for Christian leaders to teach what is right they must know the theology that informs their teaching. The greater the emphasis that a pastor places on theology the better the result will likely be among the congregation. The issue that arises when pastors are not well trained is that “biblical scholarship has not arisen from the church and is not readily usable by the church.” Instead of theology coming out of the practical needs and experience of the church it comes from a small group of people.
Pay attention to the presentation on Christian Ethics and how this may inform your post as to the ethics behind being a Christian who is informed theologically.
Ethics get to the heart of the issue with what pastors know and believe. It is hard to be a good pastor unless you can answer all matters of ethical dilemmas in a logical way that aligns with Scripture. For example theology teaches us how to interpret passages like Matthew 5:29-30 in a reasonable manner. Ethics has many parts and the Christian perspective affects change in all areas such as “The Bible defines love by the nature of God. We tend to define love by the nature of humanity.”
1. Peter J. Leithart, “The Pastor Theologian as Biblical Theologian: From the Church for the Church,” in Becoming a Pastor Theologian: New Possibilities for Church Leadership (Westmont, IL: IVP Academic, 2016), 7.
2. Robertson McQuilkin and Paul Copan, An Introduction to Biblical Ethics: Walking in the Way of Wisdom, Third edition (IVP, 2014), 39.
