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ON BECOMING A THEOLOGIAN AND PASTOR: AN OPEN LETTER

Dear Seminarian, 

Thank you for your letter seeking advice about how a pastor functions as a theologian in the local church. Yes, pastors are theologians, whether they like it or not. The responsibility to act as theological interpreters within their communities is an essential part of their task, not an optional role. As A. Robinson has put it, “If a theologian is one who interprets the Christian faith and helps herself and others appropriate it in their lives, then the parish minister is the most important of theologians.” I suspect that what is troubling you, however, is your transition from observing the theologians who are your teachers to your own practice as a theological pastor-teacher within the congregation.
of readings.

I have attached a reading list offering guidelines on how to become a practicing theologian in the congregational setting, but your letter suggests that you want more than another bibliography. After all, fulfilling the call to be a pastor-theologian involves many more challenges than simply mastering another set of readings.

Let me share a personal experience of my own transition from theology as mastery to theology as lifelong learning and conversation within the fellowship of the Spirit.  When I first discovered theology in seminary I was attracted to it because here was a word of power, of order and meaning. All my zeal to reform and renew the church and to set things right in the world could be immensely strengthened with this powerful new tool I had discovered—theology. What I did not realize at the time was that a false element had entered my thinking: I thought I knew how to correct the church; I had not yet seen the depths of my own need, nor the dangers and true promise of theology. In the first flush of theological excitement I had entered my “theological puberty” (Thielicke), unaware that I needed to go on toward a responsible theological adulthood. For me the transition from seminary theology to pastoral theology was the discovery of what A.C. Outler called “the crucial nuance in a pastor’s theological understanding: the difference between dialogue and doxology,” the movement from talk about God to prayer.

Part of the danger of becoming a theologian is the temptation to capture God in our language, to exploit God for our purposes, to speak about God as if we were neutral observers rather than those whom God has already sought after and addressed. Let me suggest briefly some disciplines for practicing what Outler called “theology coram Deo (talking about God as in God’s living presence).”

Theological Disciplines for the Pastor
1. Prayer and Study. In the late fourth century Evagrius Ponticus wrote, “If you are a theologian, you will truly pray; and if you truly pray, you are a theologian.” In the eighteenth century John Wesley put more bluntly the necessity for theological study to flow to and from prayer. To one of his preachers he wrote, “You can never be a deep preacher without it [i.e., reading, meditation, and daily prayer] any more than a thorough Christian. Fix some part of every day for private exercises. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a superficial preacher.”

2. Study Habits. Given the incredible demands upon a pastor’s time, and the complexity of specialization in all the theological disciplines, the pastor must develop habits that will provide for the best stewardship of time and gifts. My first District Superintendent advised me “to keep one big book going all the time.” By this he meant a major theological work that would stretch my learning and challenge me to move beyond the common practice of pastors to raid books for sermon ideas or to feed themselves on a diet of “how to” books on various aspects of ministry. The “big book” habit can be given even more consistency if you plan your year ahead to read a series of books on a particular doctrine or an important Christian thinker.

Nor should these books always be contemporary works. During my weekly commentary-work for my sermon I have learned to include at least one older exegete. It is instructive to discover that Calvin or Luther or Wesley or Augustine regularly provide you with deeper theological insights into the text than many modern historical-critical commentaries. This habit can help lift your weekly preaching preparation into a larger frame of churchly and theological conversation.

But reading habits are only as good as the means you devise for retrieving and remembering what you have read. Underlining is not enough. I now make it a habit to summarize the argument of a book or article in a few sentences, writing it on a 5x8 card or in the flyleaf of the book. Often, I keep a notebook with the “big book” I am reading, filled with questions, comments, and quotations.

3. Theology-in-Community. While much study must be done alone, theological integrity for the pastor and congregation means conversation together about the things of God. Robinson has identified seven directions in which congregations may pursue theological education in the teachings and practices that shape Christian life together (see “Suggested Reading,” below). My own experience has been that the most fruitful theological growth for pastor and congregation begins with exploration together of the most basic acts of worship: the practice of prayer, baptism, Lord’s Supper, weddings, and funerals. The singing of the Doxology and the Gloria Patri can become rich meditation on the Trinity. The Passing of the Peace can move beyond the cultural assumptions of the American handshake to a communal Christian awareness of reconciliation in Christ.

This brief letter with its notes is not enough, but I add to it my prayers for the Spirit’s guidance on your way forward in the vocation of pastor-theologian.

By Leicester Longden, former John Wesley Fellow, now Chaplain at Drew University and editor (with T. C. Oden) of The Wesleyan Theological Heritage (Zondervan, 1991).

Suggested Reading
R.J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline (Harper & Row, 1978).

J. de Gruchy, Theology and Ministry in Context and Crisis (Wm.B. Eerdmans, 1986).

J. Guitton, A Student’s Guide to Intellectual Work (University of Notre Dame, 1965).

L.G. Jones, “Toward a Recovery of Theological Discourse in United Methodism,” Quarterly Review 9 (2, 1989)16-34.

R.J. Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry (Harper & Row, 1979).

A.C. Outler, “The Pastor as Theologian,” in The Pastor as Theologian, ed. E.E. Shelp and R.H. Sunderland (Pilgrim, 1988).

A. Robinson, “Teaching Theology in the Parish,” The Christian Ministry (July-August 1991).

M.L. Smith, The Word Is Very Near You: A Guide to Praying with Scripture (Cowley, 1989).

H. Thielicke, A Little Exercise for Young Theologians (Wm.B. Eerdmans, 1962).

P.S. Watson, ed., The Message of the Wesleys: A Reader of Instruction and
Devotion (Macmillan, 1964).

W.H. Willimon, “Practical Theology,” The Christian Ministry (March-April 1990).