Transcript July 2009  Two roles of theology in the Christian community:  Non-engaged—an ideological component of life of the religious community that asserts and elaborates convictions.

July 2009

Two roles of theology in the Christian
community:
 Non-engaged—an ideological
component of life of the religious
community that asserts and elaborates
convictions about God
 Engaged role—an activity for the wellfunctioning of the life of the religious
community

Theology in service of communities of
faith
 Understands its context socially and
historically
 Mines its own rich traditions
 Is both faithful and critical to the needs
and convictions of its faith community.
Can the church tolerate the separation of the
theoretical task from the concrete situation of its own
existence? Will theologians be permitted to do their
work in cool absentia while pastors sweat out their
own existence in the steamy space of the Church in
the world? When theological thinking is practiced in
abstraction from the Church in ministry, it inevitably
becomes as much unapplied and irrelevant as pure.
When the theological mind of the minister is educated
primarily through experience, an adhoc theology
emerges which owes as much (or more) to
methodological and pragmatic concerns as to dogma.
The task to work out a theology for ministry begins
properly with the task of identifying the nature of and
place of ministry itself.
Ray Anderson (Theological Foundations for Ministry)
1. Baptism of the Spirit as an
empowerment for service (Acts 1:8)
2. A keen hope in the soon return of Christ
(1 Thess. 4:16)
3. Christ’s command to evangelize the
world (Mt. 28:19-20)

Urgency about evangelism.

An affirmation of the immediacy of the
miraculous (a radical strategy.)

A suspicion about complex structures

A propensity toward strategies with quick
impact.

An unwillingness to evaluate long-term
implications of strategies and structures.
Pragmatism
 Leviticus 10:1 – “Strange fire”
 “Aaron’s sons Nadab & Abihu took their
censers, put fire in them and added incense;
and they offered unauthorized fire before the
Lord, contrary to His command.”
 A divine task attempted with reliance on
human design alone.

Zechariah 4:6 – “Not by might, nor by power,
but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty.
 Might – human resources
 Power – human resoluteness
 Spirit – divine initiative and power for God’s
eternal purposes

The temptation to offer our resources to the
service of God believing that they are an
adequate substitute for God’s eternal
resource.
“Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will
enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only he who
does the will of the Father who is in heaven. Many
will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord did we not
prophesy in your name and in your name drive out
demons and perform many miracles? Then I will
tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me
you evildoers!”
Matthew 7:21-23

Success is rejected by the Lord as having
no kingdom legitimacy.

Human efforts don’t even get a pat on
the back.

We can actually think our usage of
strange fire/might-power/sign ministry
carries with it God’s seal of approval.
Success is viewed as self-authenticating.

How do we counteract bifurcation?

How do we resist pragmatism?

How do we challenge our culture’s immunity
to the Gospel?

God is at work! (John 5:17)

God continues to empower His redemptive
mission (Acts 1:6-8)

Pentecost is the guarantee that the Jesus of
the Gospels is the Jesus who continues His
ministry empowered by the Holy Spirit. (Acts
2:22-24)

Our ministry is the continuing ministry of Christ
working through us by the presence and power
of the Spirit of Christ. (II Cor.5:20)
Discernment – spiritual maturity to know the
difference between works of human effort and the
continuing ministry of Jesus empowered by the Spirit.
 Discernment assumes the present tense of Jesus
redemptive ministry.
 Discernment assumes that Christ’s Kingdom rule extends
over all human structures and efforts.
 Discernment strives to “see” the presence of Jesus in all
ministry actions & structures (Not as an act of piety, but as
a biblical necessity.)
Discerning true ministry requires:
 A connectedness to the life of Jesus (John 15)
 An affirmation that holiness and ethics are never
mutually exclusive (II Cor. 5:20)
 A willingness to exegete ministry contexts with
the same rigor we exegete biblical texts (Mt. 7:2123)
 A commitment to evaluating ministry
methodology by whether or not it facilitates Jesus
continuing redemptive ministry.
Key Considerations
 Ministry action as “poiesis”.
 An action that produces a result.
 The end product of the action completes the act
regardless of what the future of the product may
be i.e. a ministry action can be viewed as effective
simply because it added more people or people
were supportive (fiscally) or people were
“blessed,” or it most effectively facilitated a program’s
success.

Ministry action as praxis-telos
(discernment of ultimate purpose)

A ministry action that includes the
ultimate purpose of that action as part of
the action.
 No ministry action, program or ministry
structure is incidental.
 It either reveals the redemptive purpose of
Jesus or it has no contribution to make to
God eternal concerns. (Mt. 7:21-23)
“There was a time when Pentecostals warned themselves
and anyone else who would listen not to become
entangled with and dependent on the ‘things of the
world.’ Pentecostals were suspicious of the passing fads
of stylish clothing, the latest hair-do, and glitzy new
consumer products. They were also, as it turns out rightly,
suspicious that the powerful new mass media could be a
seductive lure, tricking people into the empty value of the
consumer market culture. Perhaps it is time for a rebirth
of that ethic of simplicity, that suspicion of ‘the things of
the world’ for which the early Pentecostals were so
famous.”
Harvey Cox
“What began as a despised and ridiculed
sect is quickly becoming both the preferred
religion of the urban poor and the powerful
bearer of a radically alternative vision of
what the human world might one day
become.”
Harvey Cox

Every human being struggles to find a
sense of destiny and significance.

Pentecostalism represents a spiritual
restoration of significance and purpose to
masses of people.

In a world that can make people think as if
their “voice” does not matter or where
contrived rhetoric has emptied language of
any meaning.

Pentecostals participate in a language of the
heart that is understood in heaven, and no
particular tragedy can restrain (Rom.12:1-2).

Our relationship with God cannot be
contained in left-brained activity alone,
but is to be encountered face to face.

We believe and expect God to act in
imminent and concrete ways (Mark 16:1518).

An affirmation that the world we see is not
all there is and can be.

An orientation toward the future that
persists despite the failure of certain
events to occur.

A sense of destiny that affirms in concrete
action that we are connected in history to
the God who is the Alpha & Omega. (Mt.
24:14; II Thes. 4:13-18)

Our words – “deepest attempts at
communication” are heard by Someone
who understands.

Our address is known by God.

Our destiny is linked to the CreatorRedeemer God