So far in my series of post around the topic of doing theology, I have covered the 5 ways not to do theology, explored the source of doing it correctly,and understood the help we receive from the creeds, confession, and catechism. Today I want to think through the important place the church plays in our lives of doing theology.
Before we explore today's topic, a few important points to keep in mind. First, theology is the study God, the Bible, Jesus, sin, salvation, and all the other truths the Bible brings to light. Second, all of us are theologians. Third, theology is at the heart of a Christian, in that, what a person knows and thinks always drives what they do. Fourth, doing theology is the point of both studying theology and living theology.
Doing theology together as a church, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, is the only way we can have our theology and doing theology, checked. The problem is, most Christians today reject the idea of doing theology together corporately as a church and vehemently fight the notion they have to have their theology checked. The culture of our world today teaches us 2 big ideas that fight having our theology checked and doing it in a corporate setting.
First, we are taught from little on up, individualism is critical for life. Beginning in elementary school, saturated through the consumption of media, and brought on by the fracture of the family system, children only hear about what they as an individual want. We stress the individual needs. We only focus on the individual desires. We are taught that the problem in our world takes places when we tell one another their personal individual feelings or passions are wrong. The culture and people of this country teach us the only thing that matters is the individual. We are an American culture of millions of individual wants and not a corporate thought. And sadly, most Christians have fallen prey to this lie of individualism.
Second, we are taught to reject authority. The word "submission" has left the culture of the 21st century. To submit means to lose. To submit to anyone is seen as a negative thing. Authority is shown as bad or as something to run from. Yes, we appear to submit to authority and appear to have authority figures in our lives. But overall, American culture is a culture that fights authority and any thought pf someone else telling us what to think, feel, believe, or do. This cultural influence has also infiltrated the church. Doing theology, being put in check, and living in submission to a local church (and its authority figures) is seen as foreign and downright novel in the church today.
Yet, doing theology corporately under the authority of God's Word, the local church, and the Holy Spirit, is exactly what God's people have done historically and exactly what God's Word teaches us to do.
The Bible was written to God's people as a whole group, not an individual. The commands that God gives, always must be done in a group, as a group, in order to obey them correctly. Discipleship is an activity that can never be done in isolation. All of the stories in the Bible, of God's people, are stories with personal connection, people groups, and relationships involved. When the Holy Spirit wrote God's Word, through God's chosen writers, it was always written for the group of God's people presently and the future groups of God's people, in mind (The Holy Spirit's mind, not necessarily the writers). The Bible was meant to be learned, studied, and done as a corporate group.
God's people, from the final moments of Jesus, have always done theology as a group. In Jerusalem, God's people met as a group to listen and learn from the Apostles. Paul wrote his letters to God's people as churches in specific locations, so they could hear from him as a local group. God's people by the end of the 2nd century A.D. gathered in local buildings as a group to learn and study God's Word together. Church Councils met (as groups) to declare right theology and reject false teachers. And ever since these historical precedents, God's people have gathered under the Holy Spirit's guide to do theology together.
This means, for us to do theology correctly, it must be done in a checks and balance system inside a local church. Yes, we can study, learn and grow on our own. But the only way to know if we are right in doing our theology, is to have it checked. Yes, we can read others writings on God's Word and discover how the church historically has done theology. But it must only be done in a way of submission. Yes, we are commanded to be a person who meditates on God's Word day and night, in our own lives personally. But the only way to guarantee we have understood history correctly, interpreted passages rightly, and are doing our theology for God's glory, is to have it checked.
Checking our theology takes place in our local church. By sitting under the teaching of God's chosen leaders. By talking and living the Word in intimacy with others. By submitting ourselves to a set of doctrinal guidelines and statements. And by making disciples with a like-minded group of God's people. Only in these ways, can we have our theology and the doing of it, checked. Yes, there are practical implications beyond the scope of this post, like unity, doctrinal essentials, and Godly teachers. But we need to hear the point one more time.
To truly do theology correctly it must be in a place of checks and balances of a local church. So when an individual Christian finds a healthy growing church, they must bring their theology to the table, check it with the group, unify with that church, and do theology with that group of God's children. Because only when our theology is checked by a local church, can we truly know we are doing our theology correctly.
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