Knowledge of Theology

Of course a major part of getting a masters degree in theology will be to study and
learn about theology. As many people would assume, I came out of my time at seminary with a much deeper understanding of the Bible and Theology.

Knowledge of History

What you might not realize is that seminary also requires a number of church history classes. Understanding the history of the church is a very important part of being a pastor. As Anthony Bradley recently noted over in World Magazine, the protestant church is in large part detached from its history, and that is causing alot of problems. We have to relearn that the Christian faith is an old faith, and there are countless events which have shaped our faith at the beginning of this century. Faith that is detached from its history is going to suffer.

Examples of Older Pastors

A prerequisite to become a professor at my seminary (RPTS) was that you had to have previously served as a pastor in a local church. This meant that for three years I was surrounded by some really good examples of older and wiser pastors. Of course there were things that I disagreed with, and of course not every professor was equally gifted at being a pastor, but it was a great time of learning by example.

A Safe Place to Ask Hard Questions

One of the things I appreciated more than anything else was that in seminary I never felt liked there were topics that we couldn’t talk about, or questions that we couldn’t ask. I came out of seminary with a much deeper and nuanced understanding of my faith. This has allowed me to help other people with questions they have about their faith. I’ve realized you can’t help people who are wrestling with their faith if you have never wrestled with your own.

Tools to Learn

There is no way that I could learn everything necessary to be a pastor in my three short years of seminary. But I did learn how to learn. In those three years I became equipped at using the tools necessary to be a pastor. I know how to study and apply God’s word in a variety of situations and I’ve learned where to go when new questions arise.

At RPTS I was told that the purpose of the New Testament Church, was to worship. Even in seminary, I saw some flaws in this understanding. Over the last year I have become more convince that worship is not the purpose of the church. Here is why I do not see the worship as the purpose of the church, it presupposes that the culmination of Chris’t kingdom has already happened. While, I do think it is appropriate to say that we were created with the purpose of worshipping God, making this the purpose of the church does not take into account the impact of sin, and the plan of redemption. Please don’t think that I trying to remove the importance of worship in the life of the church.

Some theologians have spoken about the importance of recognizing the already and the not yet. Christ’s kingdom has already come, though it is not yet fulfilled. We have already been redeemed by Christ’s work, but we have not yet been made perfect. To suppose that the current purpose of the church is worship, wrongly assumes that the not yet has already come, when it has not.

I think it would be more appropriate to see that the primary purpose of the church is mission, while remembering that a major component of mission is coming together to worship God and celebrate how he has been at work.

As it is a somewhat nebulous term, some might wonder how I would define mission. I would define mission as the commanded response to bring the redemption that Christ accomplished to a broken world.
It is important to see the connection between Christ’s work of Redemption, and the mission on which he as sent his Church. While Christ has completed plan of redemption, the application of that redemptions has not yet fully been realized. God has decide that he will use the church to help bring about that application, and this is what sets the church on mission.
Some verses that have shaped my thinking:
2 Corinthians 4:15, 1 Peter 2:11, Matthew 28:18-20, Ephesians 2:19-22

1. I recently heard a lecture by Darren Patrick about the History of the Emergent Church, and I’m hoping to write a response.
I’d especially like to focus on the nature of missions– Is it from the church or from God.

2. I’m heading down to Louisville this week to take Michael up on his offer to visit the 930 Art Center, and Sojourn Community Church. Sojourn is an Acts 29 Church, so I’m pretty excited. It will be great to see what these guys are doing and maybe it will give me some ideas for Pittsburgh, if we stay. I’m hoping to at the least take some good photo from the trip, maybe Ill bring my video camera. So next Monday night or Tuesday I’ll post about our trip down to the 930.