Is there a disparity between being theologically informed and participating
in Christian ministry? My one word answer is Why do I take this side YES.
of the question? I say yes because I have lived with it all my ministry life.
The most of my personal ministry has been with one foot in the academy
and one foot in the church. I mean that I have been a professor or
administrator in higher education and also had a church-related ministry. I
was ordained as a pastor in 1971 and I have had some church ministry
ever since. I have pastored six churches and four of them were either as a
student or the senior pastor. I have done only six years of full-time
pastoral ministry. Even when I was a missionary in South Korea for ten
