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Gone the Way of the Street-corner Preacher
While wandering the hallways of a Midwestern church I came across a large room with a group of five huddled in a corner. When they saw me they inhaled in collective hope that I might be joining them. When I passed by, their faces dropped in disappointment. Alas, I would not be the last to pass their open door. Beside the doorway was a sign—“Great Themes in Theology.”
Next to the theology classroom was another as full as the first was empty. It held an enthusiastic crowd discussing plans for a summer mission trip to Southeast Asia. The juxtaposition of the two got me thinking: What if the group has a great time on their mission trip, but ultimately has nothing to say?
I do understand that what one does with one’s hands and what one says with one’s mouth are both intrinsically gospel. I am just concerned it won’t be long before all we have is hands. The words will be gone, lost in the media-speak of pop theology, “If you died tomorrow . . .”
In The Nature of Confession, Miroslav Volf is quoted expressing his concerns about the challenges facing contemporary theology—“Theologians are on the sidelines like the street-corner preachers of yesterday. They find themselves talking to a crowd too hurried to honor them with anything more than a fleeting glance.”
The church of the Enlightenment went to seed on theology. Christian maturity was sometimes wrongly equated with theological understanding. But as is always the case with those frustrating pendulums, we have swung to the other extreme.
Theology is fading in the church. It is no longer the purview of the learned layperson. It is not even an interest of the minister. It is reserved for the academy, and that is that.
Change will occur only if the leadership of the church gets serious about studying theology again. Until the senior minister and the elders start considering open theism, the sacraments, the nature of truth, and a plethora of other critical subjects, the rest of the church cannot be expected to follow.
I talked to the teacher of the theology class later that afternoon. “Participation in this class is great!” he said. “The last one was cancelled because not a single soul showed up.” I later read a report about mission trip participation at the church. It is up 200 percent. And so it goes.
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