3 Ideas To Generate More Enthusiasm For Theology In Your Church (Mailbag)

In this special Friday episode, Joel responds to a question from a friend of the Institute, who expressed concern that her Christian friends were not more active in pursuing theology, and how the Bible connects to world events and everyday life.

In this special Friday episode, I (Joel) respond to a question from a friend of the Think Institute, who expressed concern that her Christian friends were not more active in pursuing theology and how the Bible connects to world events and everyday life.

She wrote,

I have a question & am not sure where to get an answer. Lately, I have been unnerved by how many people I know just want to stay “on top of the water” & never get in! Meaning that they have no desire to dig deeper into the truths of scripture or what the Bible says about what is happening in the world. They tune out or refuse to engage in true meaningful conversation about the truths of the Bible. I know I need to be more patient, but it seems SO prevalent; even with “devout” Christians. Many have no clue about things going on around them. Am I wrong or being too judgmental? Don’t know how to understand this!! Can you help?? Thnx!

Certainly the problem is not that the biblical truth of the Christian message doesn’t go deep enough. Rather, the issue is that many Christians seem to be content without asking or answering some of the weightier questions of life from a biblical perspective. It could be a matter of not knowing what those questions are, or it could be a matter of not knowing where to find the answers in Scripture, or it could truly be a problem of apathy or indifference.

However, the world really is asking the hard questions, and we as Christians need to know how to answer them from the biblical perspective. And for those of us like our friend who wrote in, God may very well be calling us to motivate others to take the next step in becoming equipped to explain, share and defend the Christian message (a phrase that should sound familiar to you, if you’re a listener of the Think Podcast).

So then, how can we, as believers who are interested in the deeper side of the Christian faith, motivate others to dive into the deep end?

I outlined three ways to get started. I started my reply:

Thanks for reaching out and for your prayers…. As for your question, I know where you're coming from. I have the same concern, which is really what led to Aliza and I starting our ministry, the Think Institute. We want to help believers get equipped to have those conversations, and to be actively engaged in having them.

While not every believer is going to love deep theology (after all, the Gospel is very simple), there are some who have that desire to go (much) deeper. This is a good thing! However, the most important thing is making disciples, which includes both evangelism and mentoring.

I then offered the following three suggestions:

Get more training into your church.
Could you bring up to your pastor or elders the idea of having a class at church to address systematic or practical theology? Beware—if you suggest it, they may ask you to lead (or at least help lead), so be ready! (Note: you can book me to speak in your church at our Contact page).
Share evangelistic stories.
Are there ways you yourself could more effectively live on mission, bringing the Gospel to unbelievers? I've found that doing that, and sharing stories with believers, helps to motivate other believers to take their own faith (and God-given mission) more seriously! Evangelizing inevitably leads to questions, which then shows the importance of being able to answer questions... thus motivating Christians to study the deeper side of theology!
Set a “sometime appointment.”
Have you considered inviting a non-Christian friend to have a conversation with you about faith "sometime?" We call these "sometime appointments." You could invite her like this: "Hey __, sometime I would like to hear about your beliefs and your spiritual journey. Does that sound good?" This would provide you an opportunity to share your faith, which you could then share as a story to your Christian friends. You could also invite a Christian friend to come along with you. Watching you "in action" and giving her a chance to participate in having a spiritual conversation may motivate her to take her own faith more seriously, and to learn more.

These are a few ideas, but of course there are many more we could discuss. I hope it's helpful in some way.

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