Ed Stetzer points us to his latest article for Outreach Magazine entitled “Learning from Each Other.” In his article, Stetzer articulates the well-known dichotomy we’ve set up between the “theologically preoccupied” and the “evangelistically fixated” (his terms, naming groups who do one to the exclusion of the other). I’m about to ruin the ending for you, but go check it out for the rest as well:
“It is unfortunately easy to see that some of us are better at knowing doctrine than sowing doctrine. Let me be blunt, amassing a knowledge of God and shelving it instead of sharing it is sin. We are made to distributors of his glory.
On the other side, the same passage of scripture challenges the evangelistically fixated. Eagerness to tell others about God is undermined if our theology is weak. Let me say it this way, you cannot proclaim God’s excellencies if you do not know what they are.
I have been saying it for years, and I don’t mind saying it again; we need to be both biblically faithful in doctrine and practice, and missiologically sound in our approach to people and cultures.
-Ed Stetzer”
3 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
Thanks for the link to a great article, Bryan. I think James also addressed the first group way back when he wrote, “faith without works is dead”.
ElShaddai-
You are absolutely correct. Apparently that James fellow knew a little bit of what he was talking about
Also, we tend to put a dichotomy between Paul’s “theological” content and his “application,” as if the word “therefore” really didn’t mean anything. For Paul, his application rises from his theology, and his theology forces him to act.
Continuing the Discussion