How Much Theology is Enough?

Robert posed this question on the “Ask” page of my blog.  Check out my response and throw in your feedback!

·         How should theology be fitted into the life of the average church member? How much theology should they know, and to what extent? Which doctrines do you think they should know as required or essential?

Chuck Colson in his recent book has some great thoughts on this, and just wondering what yours are.  Thanks!

Robert:

Good question.  I am a huge fan of education, especially in the church.  For instance, I am a youth pastor and we have begun running our Sunday Morning Bible Studies in a way that would meet the requirements for an undergrad degree in Bible college.  We did an indepth overview of the O.T. and we are currently working through the Synoptics.  I think God has given us the gift to learn about Him and know Him and we should take full advantage of that.  I think most church members do not know because we do not teach.  A church member should know what they believe and why they believe it so that they can love God in the way we are instructed, but also so that they can defend their faith properly when called upon to do so.  The Holy Spirit is our teacher and when we feed the church members sound doctrine, it is amazing what God can do through that.

As far as what doctrines are essential, that will obviously vary by denomination.  Since I am a pastor at a reformed Southern Baptist church, I teach very heavily on God’s soverignty and the doctrines of grace.  However, there are essentials and there are negotiables and we should defintely stress the essentials (that being the deity and humanity of Christ, inerrancy of Scritpure, virgin birth, etc).  The others, I would say, have room for disagreement in the body and different churches will dwell on different things.  We also spend a great deal of effort and teaching on the two greatest commandments; loving God and loving people. 

I hope this answers your question, looking forward to some feedback.