(since I do not yet know how to upload a video I will ask you to click on to the clip)
I watched the West Wing from start to finished, and was disappointed when the TV show was ended. Ready. Yep. How is that for a fundamentalist! I didn't say I agreed with the positions that they took on issues. Of course not. But the issues were ways of knowing how they were viewed by a large group of people in our culture.
In this clip, the president address a TV preacher ( of course she is a woman) who has an invitation to the White House, and the president notices her and finally he will address her with a series of biblical questions. Of course he doesn't have a clue that he is taking the scriptures out of context.
There are ways to respond to his questions, but it certainly is a little jolt and makes you uncomfortable listening to them. So my point at the end was to hopefully leave everyone with a sense of "How would I answer those questions?"
In order to answer his question, one should have a understanding of the Bible. Its a skill. Well its a term: THEOLOGIAN.
There are true professional academic theologians, which we are very glad to have, but then because there are "professionals" it should not cause us to not strive to think theologically, and strive to be a theologian.
So the definition from the dictionary of "theologian" an expert in or student of theology. So we can all be a student of theology. The study of God, and all the ologies of study.
There is the well known Chinese quote (below) and then rewrote it with the twist for the church.
- "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
On the other hand, a Church quote could read like this:
- "Give a man (or woman) a sermon and you feed them for a day. Teach a man (or woman) to study Scripture on their own and you feed them for a lifetime."
- "Less successful teachers see students as tanks ready to be filled. Good teachers see students as model constructors who need help in reconstructing the model that is already at work in their head. Learners undergo deep-seated transformations and affect heart and mind and lead to continued growth. So, good teachers see the classroom as a place for intellectual development instead of just absorbing information from the teacher/ master/ scholar. "
- In other words we as preachers and teachers, there is need to be training and encouraging people to learn the skills to learn the Scriptures .
- My goal has always had the idea of training young Christians, old Christians, to know how to study and learn the Word of God.
- Some one said to me the other day, "Charles you taught us in our Adult Bible Fellowship Class" and she mention the point. That is the point to train Christan's to be theologian, so that they can answer the questions Martin Sheen (the president) raised.
