Discussion Post 9

Theology is Essential

  Vanhoozer writes, “Too many pastors have exchanged their vocational

birthright for a bowl of lentil stew: management skills, strategic plans,

“leadership” courses, therapeutic techniques, and so forth.”1His criticism

is apt.Pastors today no longer see scripture as sufficient, rather they look

to the world to teach them how to solve the worlds problems.Pastors are

told they must depend on the academic and practical teachings of

counseling and business departments in order to tend and adequately

maintain the flock.The result is that many pastors have no firm

foundation of God’s word to stand upon, they teach their own word, or the

patterns of the world instead of God’s word, and though they draw people

to the church by the reams, they ultimately lead their flock to serve the

gods of the world rather than the one true God.

  One reason for this is perhaps the disappearance of the idea of “sin”

from the cultural mind.Vanhoozer notes Menninger’s discussion of this,

“Many aberrant behaviors previously considered “sins” (e.g. gluttony) are

now considered symptoms of some underlying psychological or social

condition.”2Psychological problems and social conditions do not require

spiritual solutions, and so pastors look elsewhere.After all, it would be

insensitive to refer to somebodies “self-control problem” (i.e. overeating)

as a “sin” problem.“Don’t you know what they’re going through?Have

you no empathy?”

  With weaker teaching, and less equipped pastors, it is no wonder the

theology of the western evangelical church has, at present, ceased to

“agitate” the church into action.This, according to Eagleton (quoted by

Vanhoozer), is the recipe for secularism.3

  Pastors only have authority as far as the word of God extends.They do

not have authority in themselves.God is a God who sends, but an apostle

is not merely one who is sent, but rather a “special representative” of the

message of God.4Historically pastors have understood this, they saw

their role as being a dependable representative of God’s word to the

world.5It was largely in response to the second great awakening that the

spiritual heritage of ministers began to be exchanged for the ways of this

world.Leaders like Finney, at that time, began to adoptPelagian view of

salvation.6Rather than seeing salvation as God’s work, it was “a purely

philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means.”7Finney

held that salvation was a sure thing if the preacher used the right means,

and found that manipulating people with “tremendous psychological and

emotional pressure”8brought the most people to “salvation.”With God’s

work no longer required in salvation, theology was no longer a necessary

part of ministry.Salvation was merely a “philosophical”

endeavor.Americans ate this up, for in this new system they became the

gods and dictates of their own salvation; they saved themselves.This

lead to less and less educated pastors and evangelists, to the likes of Billy

Sunday, who proudly claimed that he, “knew as much about theology as a

jackrabbit knows about Ping-Pong.”9

  If pastors want to see culture turn around, they must once again

become students of theology.Truth is needed to agitate the body into

transformation and to lead them into worship of the one true

God.Scripture is sufficient, and it is through Christ’s gospel that pastors

should view the world.

                                               

  1Kevin J Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan, The Pastor as Public Theologian:

Reclaiming a Lost Vision (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2020),

  2Ibid., 8.

  3Ibid., 1.

  4Wendy Widder,Linguistics and Biblical Exegesis, ed. Douglas Mangum

and Josh Westbury (Lexham Press, 2016), 2.3.3.

  5Strachan,Paster Public Theologian, 81-82.

  6Ibid., 86.

  7Ibid.

  8Ibid., 87.

  9Ibid., 90.

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