Seminarians Conference

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Seminarians Conference

• July 2005

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Nicholas WolterstorffYale Divinity School

• Two roles of theology in the Christian community
• Non-engagedan ideological component of life of
  the religious community that asserts and
  elaborates convictions about God
• Engaged rolean activity for the well-functioning
  of the life of the religious community

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What the world needs is engaged theology that
uses the language the world speaks.

• Theology in service of communities of faith
• Understands its context socially and historically
• Mines its own rich traditions
• Is both faithful and critical to the needs and
  convictions of its faith community.

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• Can the church tolerate the separation of the
  theoretical task from the concrete situation of
  its own existence? Will theologians be permitted
  to do their work in cool absentia while pastors
  sweat out their own existence in the steamy space
  of the Church in the world? When theological
  thinking is practiced in abstraction from the
  Church in ministry, it inevitably becomes as much
  unapplied and irrelevant as pure.

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When the theological mind of the minister is
educated primarily through experience, an adhoc
theology emerges which owes as much (or more) to
methodological and pragmatic concerns as to
dogma. The task to work out a theology for
ministry begins properly with the task of
identifying the nature of and place of ministry
itself. Ray Anderson (Theological Foundations
for Ministry)
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The Achilles Heel of Pentecostals

• Pragmatism
• Leviticus 101 Strange fire
• Aarons sons Nadab Abihu took their censers,
  put fire in them and added incense and they
  offered unauthorized fire before the Lord,
  contrary to His command.
• A divine task attempted with reliance on human
  design alone.

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• Zechariah 46 Not by might, nor by power, but
  by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.
• Might human resources
• Power human resoluteness
• Spirit divine initiative and power for Gods
  eternal purposes
• The temptation to offer our resources to the
  service of God believing that they are an
  adequate substitute for Gods eternal resource.

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• Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will
  enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only he who does
  the will of the Father who is in heaven. Many
  will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord did we not
  prophesy in your name and in your name drive out
  demons and perform many miracles? Then I will
  tell them Plainly, I never knew you. Away from
  me you evildoers!
• Matthew 721-23

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• Success is rejected by the Lord as having no
  kingdom legitimacy.
• Human efforts dont even get a pat on the back.
• We can actually think our usage of strange
  fire/might-power/sign ministry carries with it
  Gods seal of approval. Success is viewed as
  self-authenticating.

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So What?

• How do we counteract bifurcation?
• How do we resist pragmatism?
• How do we challenge our cultures immunity to the
  Gospel?

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Discernment as an act of Church Leadership is the
minimal expectation for our 21st century church
leader (Acts 211-21)

• Discernment spiritual maturity to know the
  difference between works of human effort and the
  continuing ministry of Jesus empowered by the
  Spirit.
• Discernment assumes the present tense of Jesus
  redemptive ministry.
• Discernment assumes that Christs Kingdom rule
  extends over all human structures and efforts.
• Discernment strives to see the presence of
  Jesus in all ministry actions structures. (Not
  as an act of piety, but as a biblical necessity.)

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• Discerning true ministry requires
• A connectedness to the life of Jesus (John 15)
• An affirmation that holiness and ethics are never
  mutually exclusive (II Cor. 520)
• A willingness to exegete ministry contexts with
  the same rigor we exegete biblical texts (Mt.
  721-23)
• A commitment to evaluating ministry methodology
  by whether or not it facilitates Jesus continuing
  redemptive ministry.

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Discernment of Ministry

• Key Considerations
• Ministry action as an action that produces a
  result.
• The end product of the action completes the act
  regardless of what the future of the product may
  be i.e. a ministry action can be viewed as
  effective simply because it added more people or
  people were supportive (fiscally) or people were
  blessed, or it most effectively facilitated a
  programs success.

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• A ministry action that includes the ultimate
  purpose of that action as part of the action.
• No ministry action, program or ministry structure
  is incidental.
• It either reveals the redemptive purpose of Jesus
  or it has no contribution to make to God eternal
  concerns. (Mt. 721-23)

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• Life as a Pentecostal
• A journey of confidence
  tempered by humility.

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• There was a time when Pentecostals warned
  themselves and anyone else who would listen not
  to become entangled with and dependent on the
  things of the world. Pentecostals were
  suspicious of the passing fads of stylish
  clothing, the latest hair-do, and glitzy new
  consumer products. They were also, as it turns
  out rightly, suspicious that the powerful new
  mass media could be a seductive lure, tricking
  people into the empty value of the consumer
  market culture. Perhaps it is time for a rebirth
  of that ethic of simplicity, that suspicion of
  the things of the world for which the early
  Pentecostals were so famous.
• Harvey Cox

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Pentecostalism is not an aberration.

• What began as a despised and ridiculed sect is
  quickly becoming both the preferred religion of
  the urban poor and the powerful bearer of a
  radically alternative vision of what the human
  world might one day become.
• Harvey Cox

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An attempt at finding the core of Pentecostalism

• Every human being struggles to find a sense of
  destiny and significance.
• Pentecostalism represents a spiritual restoration
  of significance and purpose to masses of people.

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Restoration of basic (primal) speech

• In a world that can make people think as if their
  voice does not matter or where contrived
  rhetoric has emptied language of any meaning.
• Pentecostals participate in a language of the
  heart that is understood in heaven, and no
  particular tragedy can restrain. (Rom.121-2)

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Restoration of basic (primal) piety

• Our relationship with God cannot be contained in
  left-brained activity alone, but is to be
  encountered face to face.
• We believe and expect God to act in imminent and
  concrete ways. (Mark 1615-18)

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Restoration of a basic (primal) hope

• An affirmation that the world we see is not all
  there is and can be.
• An orientation toward the future that persists
  despite the failure of certain events to occur.
• A sense of destiny that affirms in concrete
  action that we are connected in history to the
  God who is the Alpha Omega. (Mt. 2414 II
  Thes. 413-18)

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To make a long story short

• Our words deepest attempts at communication
  are heard by Someone who understands.
• Our address is known by God.
• Our destiny is linked to the Creator-Redeemer God