2 Timothy 3:16-17 states, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the
servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (NIV 1983).”
Suppose Christians and ministers hold to the standard that God’s Word has
authority in their lives. In that case, this passage alone should be the
accelerant for each Christian to be informed and studied in Scripture,
philosophy, and history.
I had a professor in college make a profound statement that forever shaped
my view on the importance of being informed and studied in the realm of
Christian ministry. My professor stated that every Christian that is in the
ministry is like an ax, and the objective (shepherding, teaching etc.) is to
chop down the trees that stand before you. Those who decide not to pursue
an intimate and profound study of Scripture and theology will be chopping
down the trees using a dull ax. Those who continue the pursuit of lifelong
deep theological study will continue to sharpen their ax and therefore be
able to chop more trees down, aka: more smoothly and effectively fulfill the
ministry calling of Christianity. Therefore, it is not that those who do not
pursue to be deeply informed and studied are disqualified but will face a
tremendous feat of chopping down the forest with a dull ax or, worse, look
to lead their congregation on leadership principles rather than the living Word
of God. It is my stance that every person, especially going into a full-time
ministry role, should strive to be a lifelong learner of Scripture, philosophy,
history, etc. As Kevin Vanhoozer states in his book The Pastor as Public
Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, churches are no longer placing
expectations on the theological character of the pastor but are leaning
toward a pastor that can execute management skills and strategic plans
(Vanhoozer 2021, 1). Christians must strive to be rooted and grounded in
the Word of God because the intention of Christian ethics is advocacy on
what God has called us to do which is rooted in Scripture (Smith 2021).
Christians are to be informed in Scripture, philosophy, and history because
we have an ethical obligation in our community and the world to live out
the Christian life (Lecture). In order to be a Christian who is informed
theologically, we must understand that our Christian ethics leads us to the
understanding that Scripture is seen a relevant to all of life and our
decisions and the final authority (Smith 2021).
In living in a postmodern world, pastors must grow in wisdom in knowledge
on how they can effectively communicate and exemplify God’s Word to this
culture. The world’s perspective on the authority of Scripture is sharply
fading day by day; pastors must be able to address the questions and
allegations that there are contradictions found in the Gospels or the
allegation that there are “discrepancies between the lists of named witnesses
of the resurrection in different Gospels... and how (we as pastors) cannot
dodge the miraculous claims and the trustworthiness of Scripture
(McLaughlin 2019, 106).” h Therefore, it is vitally important that we not
separate the role of pastor and theologian. Often pastors will negate the
riches of theology by stating that they want to “shepherd” the people. That
is true that they are the first shepherd of the people of God, but all pastors
should be considered pastor theologians because they are called to engage
the word of God in society and to the church (Wilson & Hiestand 2016, 10).
References:
McLaughlin, Rebecca. Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the
World's Largest Religion. Wheaton: Crossway, 2019.
The NIV. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Bible Pub., 1983.
Smith, Fred. “Dimensions of Christian Ethics.” PACO 650. Lecture, n.d.
Vanhoozer, Kevin J., and Owen Strachan. The Pastor as Public Theologian:
Reclaiming a Lost Vision. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, a division of
Baker Publishing Group, 2020.
Wilson, Todd A., and Gerald Hiestand. Becoming a Pastor Theologian: New
Possibilities for Church Leadership. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
2016
