Continuing my series on Total Church, today we turn to the subject of Theology. The authors do a great job of showing the importance of theology and how that emerges in a Word and Community centered body. They also tie its importance to Mission. The most helpful part of this chapter, though, was when they made a distinction between what they called “The Theology of the Academy and the Theology of the Church.” There is a huge distinction between what is fleshed out in the rigors of academia and what the church actually deals with. This section…
…is a critique of professional theology removed from the furnace of life and not hammered into shape on the anvil of the local church. (p.162)
This is so well-said. I remember well my seminary days when my professors who shaped me in such profound ways were waxing eloquent on problems. What I’ve found being in one local church, though, for nearly 8 1/2 years is that some of their critiques would have been better served by being forged in the anvil of a committed body. This is so helpful for me to remember. We are “doing theology” every time we gather together. This is a huge responsibility for our leadership, but also a huge responsibility for those who make up the church. You can divorce one from the other. Church and theology go together.