Years ago the singer, aunt of Witney Houston, and former psychic groupie Dionne Warwick sang a song that went like this- "What the world needs now- is love sweet love- it's the only thing that there's just too little of." It's my belief that a statement like this is pretty far from being accurate but I guess Dionne put a pretty melody to it so I'll cut her some slack.
I'd like to steal that pretty melody and put my own lyrics to it. My song would go something like this- "What the church needs now- is theology sweet theology- it's one of many things that there's just too little of." Catchy huh?!
As I write this blog I am currently in the middle of teaching a series on Sundays to our High School students in ACCESS through the book of Colossians. In case it's been a while since you journeyed through this incredibly rich epistle, allow me to refresh your memory as to why it's so amazingly relevant.
Colossians is a letter that was written to the church in the Greek city of Colossae by the Apostle Paul around 62 A.D.. The reason Colossians was written is because a bunch of heretics (men & women who teach lies about things like Jesus, salvation, justification, etc.) were saturating the city of Colossae and threatening to destroy the faith of the Christians by throwing them into utter confusion. So a man named Epaphras who had shared the gospel with Colossae in the first place asked Paul to write a letter to the Christians of that city (who Paul had never met) in order to encourage them and hopefully end the confusion. What results is one of the most Christological books of the New Testament.
What do I learn from this? In a pluralistic society where there is so much confusion about who Jesus is and if He's really even GOD, what the people of GOD need more than anything else is sound theology. I know this will sound contoversial and maybe even heretical to some of my friends but what people in that situation need more than anything else is not "feel good" sermons, or good music, or even social projects to get behind and champion. Instead, the greatest need for Christians living in a pluralistic society like the one we live in today is to be grounded in sound theology. Why? Because quite simply the most important thing about a person is what he or she believes about Jesus Christ.
We live in a Christian culture where theology isn't very inticing or shall we say "sexy". I mean let's be honest, books entitled 40 Days of Luther or Velvet John Wesley, if they existed in the first place, probably wouldn't make the top seller shelf at your local Christian bookstore! We are living during a time when so many followers of Christ who fill our nation's churches, student ministries & young adult ministries today probably wouldn't know how to articulate things like the atonement of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, the importance of baptism or even heaven or hell simply because they don't know what they believe about those thing in the first place. For crying out loud, there are some in the evangelical church today who don't even believe hell is literal! Pardon me for a sec.......YIKES!!!
Here are just a few problems I believe the church has right now as it relates to a lack of theological emphasis in it's discipleship process:
1. Church Light: It's kinda like real church but with about half the calories. The teaching is less about GOD and more about us. The teaching is less about what we are called to do for GOD and more about what He should do for us. Maybe the teachers or leaders would never articulate it this way but it's the reason why the sermons are all entitled things like "How to be a good husband", "How to live a great life", "4 ways to reach your full potential", etc, etc! As if Jesus Christ's message to a lost world deserving the full wrath of a holy & righteous GOD was all about us.
2. Majoring on the minors: I believe it was Jim Cymbala who said the "ABC's" of church ministry is unfortunately "Attendance, Buildings, and Cash". Churches are getting so distracted by the minors that the mandate by Jesus, the one who has all authority on heaven and earth, for us to make "disciples" many times gets completely ignored.
To top it all off we get so distracted by how the room we're meeting in looks or who is leading the music that we spend little to no time developing, praying through, and studying for the delivery of GOD's magnificent Word. The irony to all this of course is that Jesus prays in John 17 that the Father would sanctify us by His "truth" and then says "Your Word is truth". He didn't say "Sanctify them by the worship leader" or "the room they meet in" or even "their mission project". Again, these aren't bad things they're just not what sanctifies (makes us more like Christ) us first and foremost.
3. Social Action minus the truth: It doesn't matter how many social projects we involve ourselves in as the church if we aren't grounded in the word of GOD. Don't misunderstand, we are called to let our light shine and to love the "outcasts" and to seek justice for the oppressed but we are called to do so not because "we" are the answer but we go as ambassadors of Jesus Christ because "HE" is the answer! He alone is true justice for the oppressed.
So....because all these things have been swirling around inside of my noggin I am teaching theology to teenagers on Sunday mornings. I was again reminded of the importance of this a few weeks ago when I first started teaching this series. On that morning I talked about the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ which is basically a fancy way of saying that Jesus Christ suffered and died for us on the cross to forgive us all of our sins, save us from Satan's clutches, satisfy GOD's wrath, keep our pitiful fannys from enduring eternal punishment in hell and give us peace with GOD. At the end of the talk a high school girl came up to me and with wide eyes and a straight face said "I've never heard this before." To make it even more sad she goes to a Christian high school in our town. What the church needs now is.....well......you know the rest.
