{"id":39561,"date":"2015-10-08T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T15:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=39561"},"modified":"2017-10-24T14:51:52","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T21:51:52","slug":"5-theology-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/5-theology-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Theology Mistakes I Made As a Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"
All of us have major problems with our theology. <\/p>\n
And the sooner we recognize that our theology is not perfect, the better off we’ll be. <\/strong><\/p>\n Of course, the trick is knowing where you theology is wrong. <\/p>\n Though I am certain I have problems in my theology right now, I do not know what these problems might be. If I knew, I would change my views. <\/p>\n This is why it is important to always be talking with others, reading the ideas of others, and thinking about theology and how it relates to life. <\/p>\n As a result of my own theological study and research, a lot of my theology has changed over the past fifteen years. Below are five of the main mistakes I made in my theology when I was a pastor. <\/p>\n Since I love to study Scripture and read theology, I believed and taught that every Christian should do the same. <\/p>\n I saw how much spiritual benefit I received from reading and studying Scripture and theology, and I assumed that everyone else would get just as much benefit from these practices as I had. <\/p>\n I also believed that people could not really come to know God unless they diligently studied Scripture and read widely from theology. <\/p>\n Looking back now, I see how wrong I was. <\/p>\n I now see that God has made Himself known to little children and to those who may never crack open a book of theology or read a chapter from the Pentateuch. I have encountered people who know more about God and how He works than I have ever hoped to know of God, and they have never read the Bible all the way through, nor do they even know what the word “theology” means.<\/p>\n I have now come to see that I enjoy reading and studying theology because this is partly why God put me on planet earth<\/a>. I have gifts, talents, and abilities in the realm of Bible study and theology. But not everyone has these same gifts, and therefore, not everyone has these same interests. <\/p>\n Therefore, not everyone needs to read the Bible or study theology. And even when they don’t many of them will have a better knowledge and understanding of God than I ever will.<\/p>\n I used to think that theology was a serious subject, which required sound thinking, sober minds, and no laughter or joy. I have since found that this is a common disease among theologians. <\/p>\n We tend to think that since we are “talking about God,” we must do so with all seriousness. <\/p>\n Now, however, I sometimes think that God gets just as bored with our serious theological discussions as would anyone else (except theologians). Furthermore, God does not really care for how seriously we take the words that come out of our mouth. <\/p>\n I now believe that we all need to lighten up about our theology.<\/p>\n I sometimes imagine there is a “Comedy Hour” in heaven where God and the angels read through all the things we Christian theologians preach and teach and write about. As I wrote a while back, in talking about God, we are like an oyster on the bottom of the sea trying to philosophize about ballerina knees<\/a>.<\/p>\n I am not saying that our theology needs to be full of hilarious jokes and creatively told insights and stories. No. Just because Jesus told stories, this does not mean we should as well<\/a>.<\/p>\n Instead, what it means is that we need to take ourselves less seriously. I need to take myself less seriously. <\/p>\n I know that just as much of what I believed in the past turned out to be seriously wrong, so also, much of what I believe right now might turn out to be wrong as well. <\/p>\n So I do my best. I study hard. But I hold my conclusions lightly<\/a>. <\/p>\n And when I get a chance, I laugh. I laugh at Christianity. I laugh at church. I laugh at myself. Why? Because theology needs more laughter. <\/p>\n While I always tried to be loving in what I said and did, as I read back through some of my old sermons, I find that I often erred in being so focused on truth, that I was not very loving. <\/p>\n I believed that the foundation for love was truth. And so while Paul instructed the Ephesians to find the balance between truth and love (Eph 4:15), I believed that the most important thing was truth. After all, I thought, it is never loving to withhold the truth. <\/p>\n I thought that it was preferable to speak the truth, even if it hurt, than to withhold the truth in the name of love. <\/p>\n I understand my logic, but I think that I often used such logic to say unloving things and treat people in unloving ways. <\/p>\n Today, while I do not condone falsehoods or lying, I try to err more on the side of love. I have discovered that some truth simply aren’t worth saying. <\/p>\n Besides, I have a view of truth which helps me see truth in almost everything<\/a>.<\/p>\n I have noticed as well that Jesus wasn’t much of a stickler for orthodoxy<\/strong>. He was more than willing to contradict traditional theology to extend love. I try to follow His example and let my personal theology go out the window if doing so will help me love someone else.<\/p>\n I still remember how I viewed the people in my church who only attended our Sunday morning service. I was grateful they came, but I knew, deep down in my heart, that if they were really<\/em> devoted to following Jesus, they would also come to Sunday school, the Sunday evening service, the Wednesday evening Bible study, and the Saturday morning prayer meeting. <\/p>\n At least they came to the Sunday morning service though. <\/p>\n Which was more than could be said for the “so-called” Christians in town who didn’t attend any church at all! <\/p>\n There were several families I was aware of who said that they were following Jesus, but didn’t attend any church. I remember thinking how sad it was that they could be so deluded and deceived. After all, nobody could truly follow Jesus if they didn’t attend church! <\/p>\n I now realize how wrong I was. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Some of the greatest followers of Jesus I have met over the past fifteen years have not “attended church” in decades.<\/strong> I have now come to see that while church attendance is helpful and beneficial for a good many Christians, it is unhelpful and damaging for a good many more.<\/p>\n This does not mean that those who do not “attend church” are not part of the church; they are. In fact, it may be that many of those who do not attend church might be more active in the church than those who do attend. <\/p>\n Church, after all, is not the event that takes place in a brick building on Sunday morning, but is the people of God who follow Jesus into the world (See my book, Skeleton Church<\/em><\/a>). <\/p>\n Following Jesus and being the church is not about sitting in a pew on Sunday morning (though for many it might include that), but is about being Jesus in the world. <\/p>\n1. I expected everyone to study the Bible and read theology.<\/h2>\n
2. I took theology and Bible knowledge way too seriously. <\/h2>\n
3. I thought that truth trumped love<\/h2>\n
4. I believed truly dedicated Christians regularly attended church<\/h2>\n
5. I believed the goal of the Christian life was to get rid of sin.<\/h2>\n