Theology in Ministry
Thursday, January 12, 2023
9:58 AM
Defining Theology
The term theology did not originate with Christians.  It was originally used by Plato and Aristotle, Greek Philosophers, who used the term to speak about the ultimate reality, the divine.  Today, theology can refer to what a person, a community of believers or congregation, a denomination, a denominational family, or a religion as a whole believes.  Consider going to different congregational websites and see if they provide a description of what they believe.  Every religion has its own theological commitments.  Its own theology.  However, the focus in this course is Christian Theology.  
A study of theology begins, with the very definition of theology consider the following definitions:  
“Theology is essentially the church’s response to the autobiographical impulse, and it grows out of the need to proclaim with authority and commitment the identity and mission of the church in the world.  That is, in theology, the church both asks and answers the questions, ‘Who are we, and where are we going?’”  (Evans, James H.  We Have Been Believers:  An African-American Systematic Theology, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1992, p. 1).
"Theology is the discipline of learning from the Word of God and learning to use words faithfully when we speak about God."  (Jones, Beth Felker.  Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014, p. 14).  
"Instead of referring to all that Christians think, say, and do about God on the basis of their experience of Jesus, the term [Theology] is quite reasonably used to refer to either the process or the product of a certain kind of critical reflection--namely, the kind that is required to validate the claims to validity that Christians either make or imply in their experience. Recognizing this, I take the stricter sense of 'theology' to be its proper sense, and it is in this sense alone that I will henceforth use the word. For what is called theology in the broader sense of all that Christians think, say and do about God, I prefer and will use the term 'witness.' Thus, in my terms, what it is to do theology proper is adequately understood, not simply as bearing witness, but only as critically reflecting on witness with a view to validating to validity" (Ogden, Schubert M. Doing Theology Today, Eugene Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006. p. 8).
It might actually be a fruitful exercise to continue accumulating definitions of theology and comparing them.  What should be clear from our three rudimentary definitions of theology is that people have a different sense of what they are doing when they are doing theology and what the outcome will be.  For Evans, the outcome of theology is an articulation of Christian and Ecclesial (i.e., Church-related) self-definition and awareness.  For Jones, the outcome is faithful biblical interpretation and biblically responsible communication about God.  For Ogden, the outcome of theology is an academically defensible analysis of Christian thought and experience.  
The history of Christian theology is as old as Christian faith itself.  When the Centurion at the cross looked up at Jesus and said, "Surely this man was the God's Son" (Mark 15:39), he was making a theological statement.  He was doing theology.  Even before the letters of Paul were written or the Gospel were narrated in written form, the Church had language it confessed, it had creed-like statements that circulated, stories about Jesus and teachings from Jesus.  And the earliest Christians had the Jewish scriptures--what Christians today call the Old Testament.  Eventually, the writings of the New Testament were canonized--that is defined as a collection and elevated to the status of scripture.  
Confessional or Objective
For me, these definitions surface the question--do we seek to approach theology from the standpoint of understanding the confession of faith Christians are making when they name themselves as Christians or are we seeking to analyze the truth claims of Christians and scrutinize them using academic tools?  To put it crassly, are we doing theology in the Sunday School classroom or the University classroom?  NOTE:  I regard both of those locations to be Holy Ground.  And certainly there are some who would say that the location of Christian theology ought to be neither the Sunday School nor University Classroom, theology ought to be done on the streets, in the factory, in the patrol car--both as officer and arrestee.  Where a person starts the journey radically shapes the journey's intended destination.  
That said, the focus of this course leans more heavily toward the Sunday School classroom.  Again, I do not regard Sunday School classrooms to be sentimental, uncritical, or banal.  I am, after all, a Disciple of Christ.  Yet, Sunday School classrooms are the places where Christians consider what is the witness of the Church and how might that witness shape their living?  Sunday School is the place where the worship-life, prayer-life, community-life, and service-life are shaped, informed, and reflected upon. Sunday School leads to baptism and is the locus of communal about baptism for those who have been baptized. 
Theology is Born in Baptismal Waters
The original term for "Sunday School" is catechumenate. Catechumenate refers to the formal program that the church uses to prepare people for baptism or confirmation of their baptism. As the earliest Christians were formulating the scriptures and doing theology together, they began to develop some heuristic ways of speaking of the Christian faith. As Pastors prepared new converts for Baptism they would teach a dialogue that would be used in the Baptismal waters. The dialogue was built from Jesus's instructions concerning Baptism in Matthew where he said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 28:19). One example of this pattern comes from Hippolytus of Rome. 
Hippolytus of Rome was a Christian Bishop and Leader who was born in Rome around 170 CE and died 235 CE.  In his work, Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus provided a detailed description of the ordination of Bishops, Elders, Deacons, as well as the Baptism of new Christians. 
¹¹Then, after these things, let him give him over to the presbyter who baptizes, and let the candidates stand in the water, naked, a deacon going with them likewise. ¹²And when he who is being baptized goes down into the water, he who baptizes him, putting his hand on him, shall say thus:
Dost thou believe in God, the Father Almighty?
¹³And he who is being baptized shall say:
I believe.
¹⁴Then holding his hand placed on his head, he shall baptize him once. 
¹⁵And then he shall say:
Dost thou believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was dead and buried, and rose again the third day, alive from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat at the right 47hand of the Father, and will come to judge the quick and the dead? ¹⁶And when he says:
I believe,
he is baptized again. 
¹⁷And again he shall say:
Dost thou believe in [the] Holy Ghost, and the holy church, and the resurrection of the flesh?
¹⁸He who is being baptized shall say accordingly:
I believe,
and so he is baptized a third time.
¹⁹And afterward, when he has come up [out of the water], he is anointed by the presbyter with the oil of thanksgiving, the presbyter saying: I anoint thee with holy oil in the name of Jesus Christ. ²⁰And so each one, after drying himself, is immediately clothed, and then is brought into the church. 21Then the bishop, laying his hand upon them, shall pray, saying:  O Lord God, who hast made them worthy to obtain remission of sins through the laver of regeneration of [the] Holy Spirit, send into them thy grace, that they may serve thee according to thy will; for thine is the glory, to the Father and the Son, with [the] Holy Spirit in the holy church, both now and world without end. Amen."  From <[link]> 
We see the shape of the creed in this early description of Christian Baptism.  We also see the overlap of the community and the individual.  The individual is making a personal confession of faith, "I believe," but it is a confession of faith defined by the Presbyter and supported by the Deacon.  A couple of centuries later, Augustine's pattern of Baptism would be "hand over" the creed to those who were preparing for Baptism.  We have copies of Augustine's sermons but we do not have copies of the creed he used.  He would recite it to them and they would go with a mentor who had already been baptized, learn to recite the creed, and then return and "hand it back" to Augustine, their Bishop. The creed's origin is in baptismal waters and for many theologians the creed provides the outline of the concerns of Christian theology.  
Confessing the One Faith
I say this by way of introduction to the book selected for this course. The book selected for this course is Confessing the One Faith: An Ecumenical Explication of the Apostolic Faith as it is confessed in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). As a Disciple and former Baptist, I am accustomed to being with people who see "creed" as a dirty, four-letter word.  In my experience, "creedal" has been used more as an insult than as a simple adjective.  However, my study of Christian faith has brought me to see that the same streams of Christian history that canonized the New Testament (the collection of books I love above all others) also gave us the Creed. If you have a hymnal or hymnals available to you, you might take a moment and look at the tables of content in those hymnals. The two hymnals I have used for the vast majority of my worship experiences, Baptist Hymnal (1976) and the Chalice Hymnal (1995), are organized roughly around the Creed's structure beginning with hymns related to God the Father, then hymns addresses God the Son, followed by hymns singing of God the Holy Spirit followed by hymns that speak of our lives as worshiping and serving people.  
It is not my intention t to persuade you to adopt the Nicene creed or become credal people.  The Nicene creed gives us building blocks.  And this explication of the Nicene creed is helpful.  It’s communal.  It was not written by a single person reflecting a single theologian.  It was written by a committee.  It is offered by the World Council of Churches and as such represents the broadest representation of Christian faith that I could find.  It is condensed. Other introductions to theology can be chatty.  Confessing the One Faith is not chatty.  Each paragraph could be expanded into an entire book.  Because it is condensed, it take more time to read it and digest it.   Finally, Confessing the One Faith  reflects consensus.  Academic theologians today will often specialize in one or two particular theologians.  I studied with a professor whose primary research focused on Soren Kierkegaard. I found him as a professor and the course he taught on the Danish theologian to be immensely formative for me.  However, theologians like Kierkegaard, are best understood as variations on a theme.  If we do not understand the original theme, it is difficult to trace the dynamics of the variations.  As a consensus statement of faith, Confessing the One Faith, does its best to express the theme.  
The goal of this class is to introduce the basic theological vocabulary and introduce the ways Christian ministers can think about  theological issues--I.e., in conversation with biblical, historical, contextual, denominational, and contemporary resources.  This class is meant for people who are either actively in or preparing for Christian ministry.  It assumes a congregational setting for ministry.  This is not meant in any way to minimize the importance of chaplaincy, institutional ministry, or non-profit and parachurch organizational ministry. However, we operate from what we know.  And what I know is congregational ministry.  Some of the content of this course may feel remote from the particular ministry a student is in.  However, the goal is to provide an overview and sometimes things we see in that overview do not seem relevant from ground-level at the time, but they become relevant later on.  
Theology in Ministry is not solely about individual clarity or theological insight for oneself.  Christian theology within a program designed to provide a Certificate in Pastoral Ministry aims for you to develop theological skills for the sake of the ministry in which you serve.  
Ministers as Theological Stewards
Christian Ministers are stewards of the life of the church. A steward is someone who faithfully cares for something they do not own. In ministry, we often talk of stewardship around the finances of the church.  However, the concept is much broader.  First Peter speaks of it in these terms, "Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.  Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ."  (1 Peter 4:10-11, NRSV). God has given the collective memory of and capacity for theological thinking to the whole church, but ministers are particular stewards of this gift.  
Scripture is a gathered collection of theological memory.  The term canon is often used to refer to the scripture.  The term canon refers to the works which a particular group has designated as authoritative. Whatever text(s) a group views as its sacred or essential writing(s) is that group’s canon.  The process of defining what those writings are is called canonization. Several different groups of folks have canonized scripture.  The three most common groups to keep in mind in the United States are Jews, Catholics and Protestants.  The process of canonization wasn’t necessarily done on a book-by-book basis.  Rather, over the centuries the Jewish people formed the canon of the Hebrew Bible and Christians formed the canon of the New Testament.   
The creeds are another good example of collected theological memory.  A creed is a statement of faith that serves as the official doctrine of a faith community or religious body.  The Apostles Creed developed as a Baptismal confession and Baptismal preparation.  The Nicene Creed was initiated as emperor Constantine wished for there to be clearer consensus around the specifics of Christian doctrine. It was initiated in 325 CE and completed through the second ecumenical council in Constantinople in 381. The resulting statement of faith is sometimes referred to as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.  Creeds and denominational confessions of faith became a point of contention with some dissenting movements and the dominant churches against which they dissented.   Regardless of how one feels about creeds, confessions of faith, and belief statements, they are examples of collected Christian theological memory.   
A catechism is another good example of Christian ministry as a steward of theological memory. Catechism is a summary of a the content of the Christian faith from a particular perspective in question and answer form.  It is used as an introduction to the Christian faith or as the definitive expression of theological concepts.  When referring to The Catechism people generally mean, the "Catechism of the Catholic Church." ([link]).  However, several other Christian traditions and even individual pastors have composed formal and informal catechisms.  Catechisms are not the only form of the Christian Church's collective theological memory.  
In certain contexts, the minister's role is to pass on the theological understanding.  Think especially of a pastor's class (sometimes even called "Catechism class" or "Confirmation).  These classes are designed to introduce the basics of the Christian faith to people.  Christian ministers are acting as stewards of Christian theological memory in the initiation, curriculum development, teaching, and completion of such classes.  Another place where a minister stewards the theological memory of the congregation is through the selection of hymns, responsive readings, and other liturgical elements of worship. 
In a larger sense, this act of being a steward of theological memory is what is meant by the term "apostolic."  In my denomination (Christian Church (Disciples of Christa), ordained ministry is understood as being apostolic, representative, universal and collegial.  A part of our definition of apostolic ministry is this, "Ministers in every generation preach, celebrate, witness, and gather disciples in continuity with those early apostles [the first ministers]"  (Theological Foundations and Policies and Criteria for the Ordering of Ministry I.D.2.b, "the Character of Ordained Ministry"). Ministry in continuity with the Apostles is what I regard as faithful steward of the Church's collected theological memory.  
At the same time, we ought not operate from a position that we are uncritically replicating the church's memory. We make choices about the parts of the memory we lift up and the parts of the memory we resist.  The collective theological memory of the Church contains the resources for both liberation and oppression.  It is a catalyst for both hospitality and hostility.  It embraces and it also excludes.  It is male-dominated and patriarchal, heteronormative, and ethnocentric.  Personally, I find the terms of stability and adaptability in the writing of James A. Sanders to be helpful concepts in navigating the application of our collective theological memory to ministry. Ministers as theological stewards must be wise and discerning.  Ministers must do justice for all persons.  Love mercy and kindness in the stewardship.  And most importantly, walk humbly with God.  
Sanders uses the terms stability and adaptability to describe this hermeneutic. Stability refers to the quality that earlier texts are recognizable.  They retain some quality of their original form that makes it recognizable.  Yet, the later biblical writers also clearly adapted the text.  They recognized that the earlier texts had a new meaning in the new context.  Sanders argues that what we have canonized is not merely the texts but also the hermeneutics embedded in the texts.  The way they adapted earlier texts to hear the word of God in a new setting 
Provides a model for contemporary believers.  
The principle virtue for the minister as steward of the Christian faith is unity.  If being "Christian" means anything it must mean something.  It must represent a commitment to Christian faith and should be recognizable to other Christians.  The substance of that recognizable Christian unity differs From Christian community to Christian community.  Some hold to a very complex and substance definitional confession.  Some even go as far as denying the legitimacy and salvation of those who do not agree with them.  My own faith tradition has tended to lean in the direction of simplicity.  We claim as our "Good Confession" that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and proclaim Him Lord and Savior of the World" (see, Preamble to the Design of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Our goal in forming the good confession was two-fold--to require that Christian confess nothing more nor less than that which the New Testament teaches Christians should confess; and to articulate an expression of the Christian faith that encompasses all Christians.  We hoped, probably naively, that we could persuade all believers to unify under a simple definition of the Christian faith, recognize all who make a similar confession as equally Christian, and in doing this end the damaging aggression between Christian denominations. Even within the Disciples attempt to express the broadest possible definition of Christian, there is a core testimony--a core statement from the collective theological memory--which Disciples of Christ have believed unified fellow Christians.    
Pentecost
Ministers as Guides
While an important role of the minister is to "pass on" the collective theological memory of the Church, a minister ought not assume to have a grasp on all theological truth and view the congregants as merely recipients of that truth. The pastor is on a journey toward theological insight with those they serve as congregants or clients or students (depending on how one names the recipients of their ministry). 
One common definition of theology comes from Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109).  His "motto" was "faith seeking understanding."  An article in the online version of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy helpfully suggests that Anselm's motto ought not be understood as a statement pitting understanding against reason.  It is not understanding replacing faith.  Rather it is better understood as, “an active love of God seeking a deeper knowledge of God.” From <[link]>.  So a Christian minister is on this sort of journey of loving God and seeking deeper knowledge of God.  Christian ministers also invite fellow Christians to join that journey with them.  
A brief aside about practical ministry that is meant as an example.  About 20 years ago, I became interested in labyrinth-walking as spiritual discipline.  A labyrinth is a cyclical, winding, pathway that leads into a center and back out to the space outside the center.  Labyrinths look a bit like mazes, but unlike mazes there are no branches or dead-ends.  Just a single path into the center and a single path out.  In trying to understand the purpose of a labyrinth, I asked an Episcopal Priest whose church had formed a labyrinth on their grounds.  I struggled to understand how a labyrinth--which was "pagan" in origin--could be a form of Christian spirituality.  The priest responded tersely to me, "I have ADHD and I am supposed to pray 20 minutes every day.  I can't sit still that long.  The labyrinth gives my body something to do while being in the labyrinth keeps me focused on what I'm doing--praying."  In reading the literature, I sought to understand what I was supposed to "get out of walking the labyrinth."  The answer that kept coming back was this--if the results of walking the labyrinth could be summarized, there would be no point in walking the labyrinth.  The purpose is to experience and reflect and develop your own meaning.  
This insight has served as something of a template for me.  If the message of a parable can be adequately described in a single sentence, there's no point in returning to the parable.  However, the parable has what Paul Riceour has called, "a surplus of meaning."  Indeed, I believe that's true of all scripture.  Scripture reveals new understandings all the time as it comes in contact with the ever-changing nature of our lives.  
This constantly changing nature of the minister's own understanding is true for the people the minister serves.  While they received some Christian education leading up to Baptism, hopefully their growth in Discipleship does not end in Pastor's Class.  Moreover, it is not merely adding theological concepts to an internal library.  Just as the minister is to be apply critical-thinking skills as she includes the Christian collective memory into aspects of ministry, so too she should enable congregants to do the same.    
From this vantage point, Christian education of Discipleship is understood as tool sharing—helping people read the Bible for themselves, inviting them to ask the theological question, listen to other people's answers, and finding dialogue partners within the biblical, historical, contextual, denominational, and contemporary contexts.  
The principle virtue of minister as guide is freedom.  Perhaps the metaphor of "guide" is problematic as it suggests a sort of accompaniment wherein the guider and the guided must travel the same path. A lot of ministry is about enabling people to journey on their own strength.  In marriage counseling, a minister stands clearly outside of a covenantal relationship and seeks to offer tools and perspectives for the couple to consider.  The minister does not enter into the marriage to accompany the couple in their intimate journey.  One ministry principle I try to remind myself of frequently is this--people need to solve their problems more than they need their problem solved.  This is not always the case.  Particularly, in relation to systems of oppression people can only do so much of their own work.  The prophetic call is one that calls for dismantling the systems of oppression in order to enable another or others to thrive.  The ultimate goal in dismantling oppressive systems is not to create conformity, but to enable people (all people) to experience the freedom necessary for human thriving.  
Minister as Collaborator
Ministers are called to function as collaborators in the construction of shared theological understanding.  A common expression within my circle of ministry is, "We agree to disagree but disagree agreeably."  The principle of mutual respect and freedom-granting is good an necessary, but it cannot be applied in every situation. In a lot of ministry situations, we must agree to agree and agree vigorously.  
A ministry budget that defines how much money will be spent maintaining a building, paying staff, purchasing materials, shared with ministry partners, is a theological document.  I reflects the embedded theological assumptions of the stakeholders who create it.  Similarly, ministry initiatives live and die according to the degree to which they match our theological understandings.  
 Collaborator in the construction of shared theological understanding.  The shared faith of the body of believes—whether as co-workers in a ministry or members of a congregation—is as important as the individual faiths of the persons.  The minister works with the congregants in asking the relevant questions and seeking theological answers that connect their shared work:
Evangelism is as the invitation to belong to a community—centered in Christ and formed in relationship.  
Discipleship is essentially a process of engaged dialogue and an attempt to find consensus and common ground—shared meaning.  The principle virtue of Discipleship is community.  
Worship, Preaching, and Teaching is a context for conversation—a way of summarizing and synthesizing what "we" believe—if only what we believe in this moment. 
Care and Fellowship consists of practices that ultimately bring the resources of living Christian faith into situations where they are needed for comfort, correction, empowerment, and joy.
Service consists of identifying needs within reach of the Church's resources and offering them in Christ-like ways.  
Advocacy is the work of the church to do justice (Micah 6:8) within its own systems and to call for justice within the systems of the world.  