Doing Theology: Only for Community.

It is not unusual in our culture to bring to every arena of life a rampant individualism that can characterize everything that we produce.

So much of the theology that we hold to is seeped in western individualism that might be limiting our perspective on Christ and the life he has commanded us to live.

Theology is to be done in community. Exodus 19:6 says that God's people will be a "kingdom of priests." It is easy for us to pour into this verse our heightened individualism by stripping the verse of it's community context. The verse says that God's people will be a "kingdom of priests," there is a collective calling present here. We are not all priests who have no accountability to anyone else, dreaming up our own interpretations of "what it means to me...."but we are a group of people rallied together for study and worship of our Lord and Savior.

Some denominations and Baptist conventions of used this text to establish a distinctive entitled "Priesthood of the believer." The way they paint this distinctive is by emphasizing that everyone can read and interpret the word of God, a statement that is true, but how westerners hear this leads to the opinion that my interpretation is equally as valid as any other interpretation. So what...my Greek professor says that this passage is referring to the flesh in a spiritual way, I think it is referring to the actual, physical flesh.

I saw this vividly my freshman year when a student in my New Testament class argued with the professor over how to pronounce propitiation. Priesthood of the believer is only half the picture, the phrase really should read "Priesthood of the believers."

Heresy is usually cooked up in situations where radical individualism consumes the study of scripture. We should not try to take ourselves out of the fire of historical opinion, contemporary thought, and older wisdom. When my DTS professors tell me something, I don't accept it naively, but I am much faster to listen and believe them than I am to trust myself.

The church should be the epicenter for studying and practicing biblical theology. Too often churches have stepped out of this role in order for the seminaries to train their people...in reality, the majority of a congregation is not going to attend seminary and the bible has already commanded that teachers bring the word of God to the forefront of the church's worship.

The best frame around the study of the scripture is the local church. The local church provides the accountability, the worship, and the practice of the scripture necessary for keeping theology biblical and Christ centered. A strong backbone for bible doctrine should be present in every church fueling, by the power of the Spirit, the mission of the local church to bring Christ crucified to the surrounding community.

Theology should be practiced in community not just so that doctrinal ideas are held accountable, but also so that the practice and worship that sound doctrine should lead to can be fostered. The church provides an outlet to let our theology breathe, and hit our hands and feet, and it also allows us to bring the rigorous study of the word of God into a community of faith that is centered around purposeful mission and passionate worship.

So...join the "priesthood" and let us stare at the majesty of God together.