Theological Foundations for a Changing World

Theological Foundations

for a changing world

BY DR JACQUELINE GREY

THERE ARE TWO TASKS THAT I SEE AS VITAL FOR OUR PASTORS AND LEADERS TODAY. FIRSTLY, THE NEED TO STRETCH OUR THINKING ABOUT GOD. FOR US TO SEEK TO KNOW GOD, LIKE THE LOVER LONGS TO KNOW THE BELOVED. SECONDLY, TO WALK STEADFAST IN THE ANCIENT PATHS. THAT IS, TO STAY TRUE TO THE PATHWAY OF SCRIPTURE AS WE ENTER NEW, UNCHARTERED TERRITORY.

An alternative title for this topic might be:“How to Stop your Young Adults from leaving church.” Because this is also what is at stake. Our young people come to us with deep questions and so often we give them superficial answers. Instead, we need to articulate a vision of Jesus that is so captivating and compelling our young people will never want to walk away. The Church today exists in a changing world. To build our theological foundations we must navigate these shifting sands. There are many ways we can describe the changes in our society. One way is that our Western culture has moved away from being honour-based to achievementbased. A.J. Swoboda writes, “Achievement, work, wealth accumulation, popularity, and education—these are how we find honor now.” This results in a sense that we earn our place in the world through hard work, and that we deserve all the success that comes our way. The reverse is that failure leads to a loss of honour. We must also ask, if our culture honours ‘achievements’ and ‘success’ as a marker of value, do we use the same criteria? So, in this context, how do we build a theological foundation?

1. ENLARGE OUR TENT This is based on Isaiah 54:2-3. The prophet was addressing the Jewish exiles in Babylon—talk about living in challenging times! God instructs the people to expand their tents. By stretching their tent a little further, the children and young people can find a home, and reach the nations. That is my appeal to us: To stretch out our theological tents. This is about being dissatisfied with our current, limited knowledge and reaching out to know God more. Paul calls it “renewing our minds” (Rom 12:2). This is not a one-off event. It is the pursuit of our whole persons for the whole of our lives. But the good news is that we have the Spirit of Truth to help us (John 16:13). 2. WALK THE ANCIENT PATHS This idea draws on Jeremiah 6:16. The prophet tells the Judeans to look for the ancient paths and walk in it. It’s not a return to the “good old days,” but the pathway of faithfulness to God. Christ fulfills this ancient path; He is the way, truth and life (Jn 14:6). Jesus, after His glorification, sent the Spirit at Pentecost, to empower and guide us (Acts 1:8). We need the Holy Spirit in our task of theological formation and our task of living out the gospel in this changing world. To use another analogy, NT Wright describes this idea like a FiveAct Shakespearean play. However the script to the last Act has been lost. So, the actors play out the first four Acts according to the script, which is like Scripture. But for the last Act, there is no script. The actors must play out the fifth Act being consistent with all that has gone before in the play (i.e. Scripture) but move the story forward—in the power of the Spirit—to its conclusion. We are living in this last Act. Our challenge is to live faithful to the Bible in our changing world.

Dr Jacqueline Grey serves as the Dean of Theology and Professor of Biblical Studies at Alphacrucis College.

A LIST OF RESOURCES HAS BEEN CURATED BY ALPHACRUCIS COLLEGE TO HELP YOU GROW THEOLOGICALLY. • CRUCIS Research & Commentary from leading Christian academics

• FIND YOUR COURSE • INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT Special price of $300 for ACC pastors to do the new Introduction to the New Testament course (13 weeks)