Friday 20 April 2007

Ten proposals for being a pastor-theologian

This is a guest post by my great friend Jake Coolicus.
1. You cannot be a pastor without being a theologian. If you think you can, you're a poor pastor and a rubbish theologian.
2. You can be theologian without being a pastor, but if your theology is of no use to pastors, give up.
3. A pastor who thinks that he can do without theology is like a fish who despises water.
4. The aim of the pastor-theologian is not to study so much that his sermons are very clever but incomprehensible. The aim is to immerse the people of God in the clear depths of the Word.
5. If all a pastor reads is the stuff he needs for sermon prep, he will dry up and blow away.
6. Preaching is not warmed over precious thoughts with some funny illustrations thrown in, it is theology on fire.
7. If you haven't yet read Kevin Vanhoozer's The Drama of Doctrine, then you are a slacker and you should be ashamed of yourself.
8. If you haven't even heard of the above book and you think that reading Louis Berkhof is the way to keep up-to-date, then you are a very sad man.
9. Read books that will stretch your mind and stir your soul, not just to get sermon stories.
10. If you have read down to this point then you need to get a life. Go and read something deep and doxological like The Holy Trinity by Robert Letham.

12 comments:

Danny said...

Is this your very own imaginary friend?

Not only am I dodgy, I am a sad slacker who needs to get a life...Mmm your blog is doing little to address my self-esteem issues!!

Dai Corleone said...

Happy to oblige, stupid.

Family Blogs said...

No. 2 is a superb point.

Don't know where no.7 came from though...I too must be a slacker.

Cheeky monkey!!!

(Meekly) Where can I purchase such a book.... :)

Dai Corleone said...

Andrew,

Never heard of Amazon? That's where I got mine from.

Ever up-to-date Exiled Preacher has a series of review posts on the book. Click on Book Reviews under the Favourite Series & Posts section of his sidebar. Scroll down a bit and you're there.

Looney said...

Where can I hear Reverend Coolicus preach?

Dai Corleone said...

Looney,

He's not planning to do a US tour anytime soon.

Looney said...

Maybe he could post some of his sermon PowerPoint's on line. :)

W. Travis McMaken said...

This is a good set of proposals.

Chris TerryNelson said...

Excellent stuff.

Dai Corleone said...

Thanks WTM & Chris. Keep it up and I might recategorize you.

Michael Westmoreland-White, Ph.D. said...

I like most of these. I agree with the book recommendations, but is this the kind of post to give particular recommendations? Wouldn't that be better reserved for a book review and keep this kind of post at a different level?

BTW, even though I like these, please don't reclassify me. :-)

Dai Corleone said...

MW-W,

It's my blog and I'll do what I like. You got a problem with that?