If you are like me, you are concerned about the future of the church and its ability to define and distinguish itself (most particularly, the Evangelical church). While God is in control of all things, we have a responsibility as Christians to see to it that we are doing everything we can to discharge the Gospel in a faithful way. We are to make disciples, not simply converts.
We are suffering from the dumbing down of truth in favor of entertainment, professionalism, and a general apathy toward truth and intellectual discipleship. Being so concerned with what the outside world thinks the moment they enter the church, we have lost site of who they are years later.
We are scared of big words, concepts, and intellectual challenges because we fear that those who hear them will cry “arrogance” or will simply leave our gathering in favor of one that plays the game at a elementary level. We fear our passions believing that they will facilitate a separatist mentality that will not be accepted among our postmodern youth who value a pluralistic approach to truth rather than the previous generation’s exclusivism.
I am not saying that there is not value in entertainment. I like to laugh and have fun. I am not saying that we should not value the excellence of professionalism. We should do all things to the best of our ability to the glory of God. And I am not saying that we should not be sensitive to the culture and its general suspicion of all truth claims. We all have been burnt in the past. But when we live in fear of those whom we are supposed to lead, the leader becomes the follower and the follower becomes the leader.
more to come…
3 replies to "The Future of Theological Education 1"
SO TRUE! We started a “School of Theology” at our church over the summer and it has been received very well. We are also starting a 7-8 grade Sunday School to focus on Apologetics. Both of which were partially inspired by TTP. We all need a theological kick in the pants with this type of education. It truly is time to move away from consumerist Christianity and get our brains engaged. I think I read on this site that if the churches did their job with theological education we probably wouldn’t need seminaries. That resonated very well with me.
I’m looking forward to more material on this subject!
Your comments are speaking right to me today. I went to a very large Christian women’s conference over the weekend. It had amazing music, hilarious skits and well polished, entertaining speakers. I found it emotionally uplifting and even motivating at times. I left encouraged — I was assured that God loves me, forgives me and offers me his grace to move through life. Only problem was that I was not given any solid basis for those truths. Only about six Bible verses were referenced during the entire conference, and they were read out of the Message. So once the the glow of the speakers’ words is gone, where do I turn as I re-enter the reality of my life? I am blessed with a good church that offers solid teaching. But is that true of all the thousands of women who were there? Since an emotional lift and some good psychological tidbits were about the only thing offered, how are they feeling today?
It’s not that I minded the entertainment, or the fun, or the music. And I recognize that this was not a venue conducive to in depth theological study. But I think it could have been balanced with SOME study of the Bible. And unfortunately, I find that a lot of events aimed at women are so skewed. There does seem to be this conception that if you make a women’s event too “heady” you won’t draw much of a crowd. But it seems to me, that its better to have a small group that is well grounded than a stadium full of people who are excited, but have no foundation.
Pastors that have been trained to go into full time ministry, are now being replaced with marketing and communication technicians.
I applied for a ministry position in San Diego, and they sent me a psycho form to fill out to test my “team” personality traits. If I wanted to go to a place that was ran like that, I go to Microsoft, or Adobe corporations.