“The health of the church depends upon its pastors functioning as faithful theologians — teaching, preaching, defending and applying the great doctrines of the faith.” says Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in his booklet The Pastor As Theologian. The booklet aims to encourage pastors to consider their “calling as inherently theological” and to believe that “the pastor who is no theologian is no pastor”.
In the introduction, Mohler laments over the fact that in the last several centuries, theology as an academic discipline has been more associated with the university rather than the church. He shows how this was not the case in history. Whether it is the patristic era or during the Reformation, the great theologians were all pastors. Mohler reasons that this disjunction between the church and serious theology has affected both the church and theological studies. The severing of church and theology, Mohler says lead to “the redefinition of theology as “religious studies” separated from ecclesiastical control or concern.” Whereas for the church, it lead to “separating ministries from theology, preaching from doctrine and Christian care from conviction.” Thus today “the pastor’s ministry has been evacuated of serious doctrinal content and many pastors seem to have little connection to any sense of theological vocation.” Mohler therefore concludes his introduction by suggesting a reversal “if the church is to remain true to God’s Word and the Gospel.” He calls attention specifically to the role of the pastor for “Unless the pastor functions as a theologian, theology is left in the hands of those who, in many cases, have little or no connection or commitment to the local church.”
Mohler then sets his attention on four aspects of the pastor as a theologian – the pastor’s calling “as inherently theological”, the pastor and the theological triage as developing “the ability to isolate what is most important in terms of theological gravity from that which is less important.”, the pastor as teacher, where he infuses the “congregations with deep biblical and theological conviction. The means of this transfer of conviction is the preaching of the Word of God.” and the pastor’s confession or of being “a man who is possessed by deep theological passion, specific theological convictions and an eagerness to see these convictions shared by his congregation.”
May pastors take heed to the words of Dr. Mohler and may the Lord bless His church with theologian pastors for His Name’s sake.
