Is the Missionary a Competent Theologian?

Guest post by Kevin L. Howard. Kevin writes a blog on theology and pop culture (with some missions stuff tossed in for good measure) from a conservative evangelical perspective -- Need Not Fret:

Our mission strategy is strongest when it rests on a solid biblical foundation.*  Because sharing the gospel and starting churches are theological tasks, all missionaries ought to be competent theologians.  But is the average missionary a good theologian?

This question is like asking, Are pastors competent theologians?  Some are and some aren't.  But certainly both pastor and missionary should be some of the best theologians.

A few years ago a person in the know told me something interesting about the trustees of a missionary sending agency.  His words were telling when he said, "They're not theologians.  They're just pastors and lay people."  I remember thinking, If he's right, then how sad that this organization has so many pastors who aren't considered competent theologians.  I also thought, Why do they have trustees who are not competent theologians?  Just what can they be "trustee-ing" if they can't at least be considered good theologians?

What is a competent theologian anyway?  I don't mean a professor who has published a thick book on a theological topic.  I don't even necessarily mean someone who can speak intelligently on the details of middle knowledge and libertarian freedom or someone who can quote long stretches of Latin or recite the Baptist Confession of 1689, although, it wouldn't be so bad if more Baptists could do this.  Rather, I'm referring to someone who has spent many years thinking seriously through the general themes and nitty-gritty details of Scripture, and someone who, after being changed by these truths into a person of integrity, can synthesize those truths to deal with issues that surface along life's way.  The competent theologian in this sense would be someone who has hidden a great deal of Scripture in his heart; in fact, he bleeds it, but not in a showy kind of way, but with deep devotion, passion, and humility.  This same person has studied great scholarly theologians and can sensitively apply solid biblical exegesis to life's hardest situations.  (Scenario: A woman divorced her husband before she was a Christian because she just fell out of love with him.  Now that she's born again, is she free to marry another Christian man?)

Now, let me return to the issue of the missionary as a qualified theologian.  I suppose this will vary according to organization, but in the circles I run in, missionaries tend to be down to earth, busy people who care deeply about their people groups, who want to start churches, and who seek practical methods to complete the great commission.  Some missionaries are smart and others aren't.  Some are introverts and some are extroverts.  Most seem, nonetheless, to be practical people who want to know how to get something done; they want strategies that work.  There are some, perhaps even many, who are not just practical but also pragmatic.

Since missionaries live in the high-demand trenches of cross cultural stress, they are not often given to lofty thoughts on the hypostatic union or arguments against JEDP, and most couldn't care less about which synoptic Gospel came first.  What does the Q-document have to do with the hungry children who keep pestering them for money?  Missionaries tend to gravitate towards methods that get results, stuff that seems to break down barriers and get people talking about Jesus.  And who can blame them?  They went to the field to see people saved and become disciples.

But we would all do well to step away from our methodologies from time to time and ask, Is this truly biblical?  Where can I go in Scripture and see this methodology clearly taught?  Does the passage say what I have assumed it says?  Is there more than one clear passage to support this way of doing things?  (See Andy Johnson's article, "Pragmatism, Pragmatism Everywhere!")

Admittedly, approaching our methodologies and the Bible with exegetical scrutiny is no easy task.  We all have biases and presuppositions.  But since the task of the missionary is so vital to thousands who'll be influenced by them, it's absolutely necessary that the missionary take time to read some of the older, deeper, classical works of theology that cause the mind to ponder the deep riches of Christ's goodness.  Some Anselm, some Augustine, some Luther, some Calvin, some Aquinas, some Owen and Edwards (and perhaps even a little Wesley).  Of recent decades, among some dead biblical scholars or theologians worth reading are F. Schaeffer, C. S. Lewis, D. M. Lloyd-Jones, B. B. Warfield, C. Hodge, F. F. Bruce, and C. F. H. Henry.  Living authors of substance worth the investment are John Piper, Don Carson, Mark Dever, Bruce Ware, Wayne Grudem, Iain Murray, Sinclair B. Ferguson, just to name a few.  (If you're interested in learning more about a few evangelical African theologians, click here.)  The missionary who's a good theologian must of course plunge deep in the Word on a regular basis and more than just casual devotional reading.  None of this is easy to do with the full schedules that missionaries have, but it is critical.

One of our best strategies will be hiring and sending biblically sound people who ask at every point, "What does Scripture say about this issue or that strategy?"

Many missionaries already do theology well, and yet, there's room for others to follow suit.  For if any group should be great theologians, even good ones, it should be the ones out on the edge, those who daily smell the smoke of hell, those whom I tipped my hat to long before I became one--the missionaries.

*For a work that explains the solid biblical foundation, see John Piper's Let the Nations Be Glad or perhaps George Peters' A Biblical Theology of Missions.  Also, concerning the basis of missions being theological, see the article by David Hesselgrave, "Will We Correct the Edinburgh Error? Future Mission in Historical Perspective." Southwestern Journal of Theology. Vol. 49/2 (Spring 2007): 121-149.

Kevin is a career missionary and has lived in Africa with his wife and two children for two years.  When he was single, he served a two-year term in another part of the world.  Before coming to Africa, he worked on church staff in various places around the U.S. and wrote for The JESUS Film Project in California.