Having pastor, preached and taught for 30 years, I still hear about the bad press of ministers and Christians labeled on theology. It is saddens me more when preachers bad mouth theology. Theology is the study of God, if the study of God is bad they why are we preaching and teaching about Him. Is theology bad?
Many of us struggle with theological engagements. Sometime it is hard to grasp and understand. Our disenchantment with something we cannot understand does not make that something bad. We cannot bad mouth something just because we cannot understand that something. It only suggests to us that we have much more to understand and we need to put in more effort to ruminate and reflect on such things.
Theology by nature is good, it is bad theology that is bad. Bad theology has hurt the Church of God many times over. Bad theology leads to bad practice. It has divided the Church. It had lead well meaning Christians astray.
Good theology builds the Church. It takes the Church to a deeper engagement with God. It promotes a responsible expression of faith and life. It rightly proclaims God as He is. Paul urges the Christian to preserve sound doctrine and sound doctrine edifies the Church.
Theology's principal desire it the pursuance of God and the engagement with truth. In the process it engages with the different fields of studies. Sometime it gets intense and murky. But is need not be necessary so. The primary task of theology is diligence and right dividing of the Word of God. I can tell you it requires hard work and a sincere heart.
1 comments:
I agree with you. What the Church needs today is good theology, because good theology leads to good practice. Every minister worth his salt needs to have this foundation/bedrock of good theology to build, NOT his/herown ministry, but the kingdom of God in his/her locality/nation.
Ministers of the Word practising bad theology bring reproach to the Church at large and to the Name of the Lord.
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