Don’t Glaze Over—It is Important!

This may not be popular, but it is time to say something about theology. Just seeing the word “theology” may well cause you to stop reading, but stay with me here. All of us are theologians. Every person believes and acts in ways that reflect our convictions about God. Every time you sing a song in worship, offer a prayer, make a comment about a friend or neighbor, or offer an observation about life, you are doing theological work. You are making some claim or declaration about your understanding of God and the world God created. 

So theology is not a bad—or even a difficult—thing. Theology is recognizing that you and I are making claims about God and God’s presence in the world on a regular basis. And if theology becomes too difficult and no longer seems to connect to an active God who is at work in the world, then it probably isn’t theology! Or it isn’t healthy theology!

Now, having said all this, here is the one thing that I want to observe. In congregations, there are multiple theological frames at work. What are those frames? First, there is the posture of what we say we believe. We have a declared or espoused theology. So we say, for example, that we believe in prayer. That is good! It is good to believe in prayer. We declare it—but do we practice it? This brings a second frame of theology. Let’s call this posture our “practiced theology.” What we do can be quite telling about what we really believe. We can declare that we believe in prayer; however, if we are not practicing prayer, then our practice suggests a different claim.

Practiced theology—also called “operant theology” (how we operate!)—is quite telling. As a person who spends a lot of time in churches, I can hear key members or leaders talking about community or hospitality or caring for others. I can hear claims of communal leadership or missional engagement or discipleship. But the reality is not always what is espoused—or declared. The reality comes by watching how a congregation or a leadership team operates!

Two kinds of theology are at work, then, through the beliefs that we say and the beliefs that we live. Both are important. Yet the most important thing is for those two forms of theology to largely agree with each other. To seek agreement or coherence between these two forms of theology will take some self-reflection and humility. And it will take something else. For these two forms of theology to resonate with each other will require persons and churches to pay attention to a third form of theology. That third form of theology we will name as normative theology.

Normative theology is a way of naming the teaching of God that is normal or healthy or creates the norms and values reflective of God’s will. Normative theology is rooted in nothing less than God’s revelation in Scripture and in the witness of healthy teaching that has been passed on for two thousand years. By listening to Scripture, by paying attention to healthy teaching that has passed the scrutiny of generations of Christian communities, we find theology that corrects, affirms, challenges, and nurtures our declared and practiced theologies.

So now that I’ve taken you through all of this, I am ready to make a simple yet important declaration. Here it is: Healthy, vibrant churches have a high degree of correlation between their declared theology and their practiced theology. And the way that they foster and maintain that correlation comes through the attention and devotion they give to normative theology. That is the point.

There are certain related principles in play as well. When you find a church that is struggling or anemic, then you would expect to find a greater difference between their declared theology and their practiced theology. If so, then such a church will find revitalization and hopefulness in paying deeper attention to normative theology. That is to say, paying attention to the reforming, ever-new power of the gospel will reshape declared theology and practiced theology. It will bring them into closer coherence. 

This is important because a common shortcoming for churches is to think that they ought to focus on simply bringing their declared theology and their practiced theology into closer alignment. This results in a lot of navel gazing—not transformation. Sadly, a lot of navel gazing is going on in churches today. 

So, the point of all of this is to say: pay attention to the living Word of Jesus Christ as declared in the witness of Scripture. That is the centerpiece of normative theology. If a community does this, their declared theology and practiced theology will move toward alignment. 

Do an honest and sincere look at what you say and how you live within your congregation. It will give you some insight into the need for a deeper commitment to pay attention to God’s living Word. May the congregation you serve be ever moving toward alignment between what it says and how it lives!

Many blessings,
Carson