Why theological education?
I often hear this question when sharing about my family’s ministry.
Why not evangelism? Church planting? Isn’t saving souls more important? Why not mercy ministries? Business as mission? Many people live in poverty!
These are great questions! I believe that the church should be engaged in each of these tasks.
Life is all about making decisions. Choosing to do one thing means choosing not to do others. We all have limited resources—time, energy, money—and we must choose how best to invest what God has given us. For me, that means devoting my life to theological education (TE).
Over the next couple of months, I’m going to share 10 reasons why this is the case. I’ll argue that, while TE is always important, the church in the west has a particular opportunity and responsibility to prioritize theological education in missions. More personally, I’ll share why I owe this to the church in Peru.
But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Today my task is simple. Before giving 10 answers to the question “why theological education?” I need to answer another question: what is theological education?
To be honest, I don’t like the term. It’s boring. It sounds too much like school, and it gives the impression that the theological educator imparts information to passive recipients (i.e., the student). But “theological education” is the term that is often used, and I don’t have a better one. So, what is it?
Defining each part gets us started. Education implies training or equipping, and theological indicates the realm of that training. Theological education is training in things related to God. When defined like this, we can say see that TE takes a variety of forms.
- Informal TE includes things like a Saturday morning Bible study, a sermon, a discipleship meeting where you read Scripture, and theological podcasts and YouTube videos. Every Christian is involved in informal TE.
- Formal TE take places at Bible colleges, seminaries and other educational institutions. These generally aim to train pastors and ministry leaders, people who carry the heavy burden of teaching and preaching God’s word.
My primary focus is formal TE. I want to strengthen the church by equipping leaders. As a theological educator, my aim is to help people know God more deeply and fully so that they see the world from God’s perspective and live in the world according to God’s design.
Two fundamental convictions concerning TE flow from this aim.
First, theological education must be integral.
My job as a theological educator is not to fill people’s heads with information. TE addresses the whole person: mind, emotions, actions.
In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul prays
“...that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Phil 1:9–11).
Paul wants the Philippians’ love (emotion) to grow so that they know (mind) God more and more and can make wise decisions (action) about how to live holy lives and bring glory to God. TE must address the whole person!
Second, theological education must be formational.
The aim of TE is not intelligence. We seek transformation! In 2 Corinthians 3:7–18, Paul speaks of the Christian’s reality in Christ. He says that,
“We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
The Christian walk consists of continuous growth into the image of Christ (see also Ephesians 4:7–16). The Lord brings about this transformation. TE helps people gaze on Christ more truly and faithfully through God’s word and drawing on the deep resources of the Christian faith and tradition.
So, in some sense every Christian must seek theological education. At the same time, there is a special need for pastors and ministry leaders to pursue formal TE. Why? Come back next week for reason #1.
Ministry Partner Tracker
Monthly support pledged
≈ 75% of goal
We plan on departing for Lima this summer! We need to reach 100% of our monthly goal in order to do so.
Please Pray
- That God would guide us through the many details of our transition back to Peru.
- That we would have joy and peace as we close out this chapter of our life in the US.
- That God open doors for us as we seek to raise the final 25% of our monthly budget.
Asi es la vida... 