Abilene Christian UniversityGraduate School of Theology

Theology of Ministry

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the

Master of Arts in Christian Ministry

byT. Adrian Morgan

May 2014

Abstract This paper attempts to communicate understanding of my personal theology of ministry. Inherent in this is my personal identity as a disciple of Christ, one who is saved by and carried by the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. God, in his sovereignty, has currently called me into the life of student ministry, where I participate in the active role of helping to lead the body of Christ on earth, the church. The purpose of this ministry is to lead both students and adults into active discipleship of Jesus, where lives are oriented around the practice of loving God and loving others, in order to further the Kingdom of God on earth.

“The key thing I hope you learn is that you get to be a leader in the Church as it finds

ways to change and engage the world…we are all missionaries.”1 It is indeed fitting and on point

that Dr. Mark Hamilton opened my entry into graduate school with this proclamation. As the

former associate dean of the Graduate School of Theology, his opening remarks set the theme for

my future seminary studies. This paper will start with Dr. Hamilton’s ideas on formation, which

have significantly shaped my theology of ministry. This paper will weave through various ideas

including vocation and calling, context and ethnography, and finally theological reflection and

practice. As Dr. Hamilton noted, the calling of ministry that I am attempting to answer is not

something that I am forced into or obligated to answer. Rather, it is something that I “get to be.”

My hope is that I continue to grasp what a blessing and honor it is to be a part of leading the

church. In practice, may I embody Christ’s love for the church and mirror the dedication that we

read about in Ephesians 5:25: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”2 Finally,

may my theology not take this calling lightly, pushing me to grow in knowledge and wisdom of

God and what it means to follow Him, in order to help me more fully embody Christ’s love for

the church.

As I reflect upon my studies it is fascinating to note the correlation that exists between

what Dr. Hamilton spoke about early on that morning in August and what William Willimon

1 Class notes, Foundations of the Theology of Ministry, Graduate School of Theology, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX, August 2011.2 Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible references in this paper are to be the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) (San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins, 1989).

writes about in his book, Calling & Character. In his lecture Dr. Hamilton outlined four main

points for one’s complete formation during their time in the Graduate School of Theology. First,

he noted that you must work on yourself and on growing yourself. By this, he meant to

communicate that we should not settle for base knowledge concerning our own unique

personalities and strengths and weaknesses, but instead one must become an expert on

themselves. The paradox of this pursuit is that humility, as opposed to vanity, must be the

cornerstone of this intense “self-knowledge.” William Willimon expands upon this point when

he writes this: “Whenever someone is in a position of power over another person, such as a

teacher who rules over a student, the person in power must be deeply aware of his or her

inclinations, dispositions, strengths, and weaknesses or else power may be abused. Therefore

self-knowledge was among the greatest Aristotelian requisites for good character.”3 Knowledge

without self-reflection is dangerous at best. I am convinced that all knowledge must pass through

the filter of the heart, exposing my strengths and weakness, and through this process better equip

me to serve the church.

Second, Dr. Hamilton emphasized that we must “work on our capacity for interpreting

the Scriptures, the history of the church.”4 The importance of the Scriptures cannot be

minimalized. Their study, interpretation, and application are a key ingredient in the life of the

church and her leaders. Willimon again mirrors this thought when dealing with the idea of the

calling and vocation of clergy. He writes, “We must be called, recalled to the joy of being

grasped by something greater than ourselves, namely our vocation to speak and to enact the

Word of God among God’s people.”5 As pastors, we must make it a practice to lean upon the

3 William Willimon, Calling and Character: Virtues of the Ordained Life (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000), 37.4 Class notes, Foundations of the Theology of Ministry, Graduate School of Theology, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX, August 2011.5 William Willimon, Calling and Character: Virtues of the Ordained Life (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000), 25.

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Scriptures and preach the Scriptures, which are our only hope for calling our people to something

greater than their present existence. Or, as Willimon writes, we must “be yoked so securely and

joyously to the Word that in the process of proclamation of the Word, we become the Word as it

dwells in us richly.”6 Thus, my ability to lead the church is directly affected by how much

importance I give to my vocation as one who interprets, preaches, and embodies the Scriptures.

Third, the importance of clergy’s skills with people cannot be taken for granted. In fact,

adept communication skills must be given careful attention so that one is able to connect and

lead a broad variety of parishioners within their church. Dr. Hamilton, with pointed sarcasm,

noted that “the funny thing about ministry is that it deals with human beings.”7 This fact simply

cannot be ignored. Although ministry consists of such solitary pursuits as reading, writing, and

thinking, it is true that the pastor cannot engage in ministry without a constant interaction with

fellow members of the church. In Willimon’s chapter entitled ‘The Pastor in Community,’ he

highlights the need for truth telling within the walls of the church. As leaders of the church, the

pastor must be specially equipped to confront and speak truth to his congregation. One could

make the argument that there is nothing that requires a greater mastery of people skills than the

ability to lovingly intrude upon a person’s blind spot and speak the powerful truth of Christ. This

skill is of such importance that retaining and mastering it is not an option. Reinhard Hutter, in his

chapter from the book Practicing Theology, draws upon the classic C.S. Lewis work, The Great

Divorce, to expose the importance of “honoring the truth.”8 We are letting down our churches

when we fail to step into difficult situations due to our lack of communication skills. It is these

6 Ibid., 70.7 Class notes, Foundations of the Theology of Ministry, Graduate School of Theology, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX, August 2011.8 Dorothy C. Bass and Miroslav Volf, eds., Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.)

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skills that I must continue to grow in order to possess the ability to speak God’s love into the

most difficult of conversations.

Fourthly and finally, Dr. Hamilton emphasized that we must continue to work on our

knowledge of God. A faith that is bored is a faith that has grown cold. However, when we gaze

at the magnificence of our God, it is foolishness to think that we might ever stop learning about

Him. In Colossians 3:10, Paul writes that we are “being renewed in knowledge according to the

image of its creator.”9 Hence, a crucial facet of our growth in Christ is to expand our intimate

knowledge of the One who is our Creator. One of the most powerful ways that we can grow in

our knowledge of God is through spiritual disciplines. Willimon devotes a considerable amount

of time giving weight to the importance of these spiritual practices, since they provide an

environment for us to engage with and learn about God. Whether it be Sabbath, meditation,

mentoring, or study, all practices participate in centering, quieting, and guiding us into a deeper

knowledge of God. Without discipline one lacks the environment for growth and thus their

knowledge grows old. In an increasingly frenetic culture I must employ discipline as a core

practice of my theology of ministry.

While knowledge of self and of God and application of scripture and people skills are

important to theological formation, I believe that developing a personal hermeneutic is crucial to

one’s ministry. During my graduate studies this hermeneutic has been under constant reflection

and transition. Initially I was challenged by the basic question of how I understand God. From

here I have moved through church history and studied many of the different ways that humans

have interpreted scripture. Starting with Judaism and the early Church, I then moved through the

examples of the Church Fathers, Middle Ages, Reformation, Enlightenment, and finally post-

modernity. All of these had their own unique bent on interpreting scripture that they believed led

9 Col 3:10

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to the most accurate of interpretations. It was humbling to see that as time progressed, so too did

methods for reflecting upon Scripture, each revision believing it had achieved the ideal

hermeneutic. Through this study it appears that the three broad contexts for interpretation of

scripture are the historical, literary, and social/cultural. An accurate hermeneutic must

acknowledge and work through each of these areas as they attempt to interpret the Scriptures.

Finally, I have also been challenged by study of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. This process for

hermeneutics focuses on four main areas: scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. Each of

these four areas needs to be reflected upon by any believer reading the Scriptures. It was

powerful to realize that my church tradition, reason, and experience play a profound role in how

I read and apply the Word of God.

Patricia O’Connell Killen and John de Beer begin their work, “The Art of Theological

Reflection” by focusing on one’s “standpoint” in approaching scripture, and thus theology. They

wisely note that “not every standpoint contributes equally to making genuine theological

reflection possible.”10 Next, they point out that while many either operate out of a “standpoint of

certitude”11 or a “standpoint of self-assurance,”12 the most accurate standpoint for theological

reflection is the “standpoint of exploration.”13 Those who operate out of a “standpoint of

exploration” they label as explorers. They then describe the mindset of an explorer as one who

“allow(s) the thoughts, feelings, images, and insights that arise from the concrete events of our

lives to be in genuine conversation with the wisdom of the entire Christian community

throughout the ages.”14 Does this not sound similar to the Wesleyan Quadrilateral which

prescribes “tradition, reason, and experience” as well as scripture when reflecting upon the

10 John de Beer and Patricia O’Connell Killen, The Art of Theological Reflection (New York: Crossroad, 1994), 4.11 Ibid., 4-9.12 Ibid., 9-13.13 Ibid., 16-18.14 Ibid., 18.

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sacred texts? Killeen and de Beer go on to describe theological reflection in greater detail and

draw on the analogy of a journey. They describe this journey as containing five key markers:

experience, feelings, images, insight, and action. They advise that one should not lean solely

upon rationalism, sola Scriptura, allegory, relativism, or the historical-critical method. Instead

we should take on the heart of an explorer and plunge into the Word, using tradition, reason,

experience, images, insight, and action in close correspondence to the Word, as weapons to more

faithfully reflect upon who God is. It is from this broader, more holistic, vantage point that I

believe I must attempt interpretation of Scripture and likewise, use to equip people in my

ministry as they encounter the sacred texts.

Looking at myself through an intimate lens helps to expose my personal hermeneutic and

views on theological reflection. I believe that the practice of enthnography is crucial to forming

my theology of ministry. Ethnography deals with studying the details of human culture and

practice. At first glance ethnography does not seem to have anything to do with spirituality;

however, this practice was helpful in shedding light on the process of theological reflection

because it teaches that much can be learned from reflecting on circumstances after they have

passed. The oft-used metaphor that you can teach a class for five weeks on problem solving or

you can give a class five minutes to solve a problem readily applies to this scenario. While the

readings and teachings during my studies have been informative and interesting, the actual

practice of reflecting upon an experienced worship service or my youth ministry has provided a

framework for what theological reflection should look and feel like. It was surprising to see just

how much more I noticed when I re-approached the events after some time had passed. The

setting, characters, and emotions took on a whole new feeling. As I let the images and

conversations play in my mind, new words and ideas rose to the forefront. In short, my doubts

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and hesitations about the importance and relevance of theological reflection were placed at ease.

What had once seemed impossible to communicate to the teenagers that I work with now seemed

entirely plausible. Henri Nouwen says this about ministry:

Just look for a moment at our daily routine. In general we are very busy people. We have meetings to attend, many visits to make, many services to lead. Our calendars are filled with engagements, and our years filled with plans and projects. There is seldom a period in which we do not know what to do, and we move through life in such a distracted way that we do not even take the time and rest to wonder if any of the things we think, say, or do are worth thinking, saying, or doing. We simply go along with the many ‘musts’ and ‘oughts’ that have been handed on to us, and we live with them as if they were authentic translations of the Gospel of our Lord.15

Too often I find myself simply going along with the demands of ministry blindly hoping that

they are divine assignments from the Lord. The practice of ethnography forces me to take the

blinders off and take an honest look at my ministry and life. In short, I need the practice of

ethnography to help me to articulate and practice a more thorough understanding of theological

reflection in my ministry.

Is the discipline of theology solely an academic science? Is theology confined to a

practice of the mind that involves thinking about, studying, and pausing to reflect upon who God

is? Is the possibility of “practical theology” a reality or a dream? It is compelling to reflect upon

my study of the history of practical theology, from Aristotle’s acknowledgement of the

practice/theory divide, to Friedrich Schleiermacher’s attempt to overcome this divide with his

writings and the metaphor of a tree, to our current tension today that exists between theology and

the social sciences. Theology, and all that it encompasses, must be fused together with the heart.

Knowledge must directly lead to action. The point is clear: if our theology does not move us into

practice than we possess a defective theology. If our view of God does not affect our daily walk

then we are not seeing the complete picture. Jesus, speaking along these same lines, issued this

15 Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart (New York: Ballantine Books, 1981), 12.

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warning, “if these (the disciples) were silent, the stones would shout out.”16 If the disciples’ view

of Jesus, and therefore God, did not cause them to proclaim the Kingdom, then the earth would

cry out. At its core, practical theology, similar to healthy theological reflection, moves me, and

subsequently my ministry, from passive to active.

While these concepts and ideas make sense at an intellectual level, how do we actually

learn about God, while engaging with Him and walking with Him? Jean Lave and Etienne

Wenger, in their book Situated Learning,17 give an interesting theory into how we, as humans,

come to knowledge. They prescribe that we move “toward a theory of social practice in which

learning is viewed as an aspect of all activity.”18 Later on they expand on this idea by writing that

“learning itself is an improvised practice: a learning curriculum unfolds in opportunities for

engagement in practice.”19 Throughout the book they attack the idea that learning can be de-

contextualized. The environments that we learn in play an active role in the learning process.

Based on this we must pay special attention to our learning environments and use them to form a

more holistic learning experience. If indeed the acquisition of knowledge is in direct relationship

with the surrounding environment then this has huge meaning for understanding and teaching

theology. What if truer equipping occurs not on a Sunday morning in a classroom but rather on a

Saturday afternoon with a mentor? What if a student learns more about what it means to be a

follower of Christ over a series of lunches with a Christ-following adult who cares about them

than they do on a Wednesday youth group night? My theology of ministry has pushed me to

begin to dream about what a youth ministry with disciple-making apprenticeships built into its

curriculum would look like. My theology, therefore, is a practice, not just a study, that I need to

16 Luke 19:4017 Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, Situated Learning: Legitimate peripheral participation (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.)18 Ibid., 37-3819 Ibid., 93

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live out in community with other Christ-followers, with whom I interact and engage daily, while

following Christ.

Another work that has informed my theology of ministry and that deals with this tension

and how to move from the active to the passive, or from belief to practice, is Practicing

Theology.20 The book deals with the relationship between belief and practice and how they

cannot and should not be isolated, but instead must come together to form a whole. Amy

Plantinga Pauw, in her chapter entitled “Attending to the Gaps between Beliefs and Practices,”

defines practice as “an ongoing shared activity of a community of people.”21 I appreciate her

emphasis on practice as something that is “ongoing” and that occurs within the context of

community. Far too often, we describe religious practices as individualistic and immediate.

However, in reality the journey of discipleship is a communal experience that involves the

Christian community which provides the curriculum for learning as well as a needed bridge

between theory and practice. Another example of this theory is how the book deals with the

stress that exists between the church and seminaries. The author of the chapter, “Beliefs, Desires,

Practices, and the Ends of Theological Education,” L. Gregory Jones, uses the analogy of a

“relay race” to describe how we have viewed the relationship between the church and institutions

of theological training. Echoing back to Killen and de Beer’s “standpoint of exploration” Jones

writes that we should view the ministerial journey more like a “pilgrimage.”22 Rather than

segmenting aspects of our theology and formation we must include it all, “catechesis, critical

reflection, and faithful living in the world.”23 One’s vocational calling cannot be segmented like

a “baton” being routinely exchanged lap after lap. Therefore, as difficult as it has been at times, I

20 Dorothy C. Bass and Miroslav Volf, eds., Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.)21 Ibid., 34.22 Ibid., 188.23 Ibid., 188.

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am thankful that my graduate study path has intimately included my vocation and calling and

allowed for a daily context to practice holistic theological reflection. This has not only informed

my theology of ministry but also prepared me to continue my theological growth as I transition

out of the seminary.

The late Dr. Charles Siburt, once stated that “God’s gift to the church are people leaders.”

He went on to say that the church needs leaders who are not just exegetes, but are practitioners in

ministry. He finished by telling the haunting story of a former student who completed a PhD

from Harvard University, yet possessed few people skills, and was therefore still unemployed. In

listening to Dr. Siburt I was reminded of the chilling words written by the Apostle Paul in 1

Corinthians 13:2: “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,

and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”24 If my

theology of ministry, no matter how detailed or brilliant it may be, does not move me to practice

the love of Christ to those in my community, it is nothing.

The evidence is strong that a theology of ministry must include both the academic and the

practical. It must contain both beliefs and practices. It should consist of both personal reflection

and communal conversation. As a leader and teacher in a contextual youth ministry setting I now

feel more equipped to create a spirit-filled context where students can reflect upon God and then

move their beliefs into practice in order to hear their individual calling.

John 5:39-40 contains some of the strongest, and most sobering, teachings of Christ.

Jesus offers this warning: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have

eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”25

Jesus is addressing the human condition of seeking knowledge for the sole ideal of attaining

24 1 Cor 13:225 John 5:39-40

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knowledge. I think he knows that many will be distracted by the study of the Scriptures, and miss

what they are pointing at. I confess that I have been guilty of this at times over the past five

years. I have often confused academic papers for faith. I have mistaken spiritual readings as

loving God and my neighbor. I have studied about Christ while at the same time failing to

actually engage Christ. It is this fear that shapes my theology of ministry. If there was a

pendulum that had the mind at one end and the heart at the other, I would want my theology of

ministry to sit squarely in the middle. I want to engage knowledge and practice, with each pursuit

valued and informative of the other. I desire to incorporate deliberate theological reflection as

well as disciplined practice, within the context of a community of disciples, in order to come to

know the God that Jesus knows and to lead others on the road to this understanding. I humbly

offer this theology up to God, asking that He might mold, alter, and shape it in whichever way

He sees fit, in order to bring Himself the most Glory.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bass, Dorothy C., and Miroslav Volf, eds. Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.

Beer, John de, and Patricia O’Connell Killen. The Art of Theological Reflection. New York: Crossroad, 1994.

Class notes. Foundations of the Theology of Ministry. Graduate School of Theology, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX, August 2011.

Lave, Jean, and Etienne Wenger. Situated Learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

New Revised Standard Version Bible. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins, 1989.

Nouwen, Henri J.M. The Way of the Heart. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981.

Willimon, William. Calling and Character: Virtues of the Ordained Life. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000.

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