Theological Issues in the 21st Century…

December 13, 2006 | 11:00 PM

Those interviewed identified three major theological issues they are facing in their ministry contexts. All of them fall under the broad category of the authority of the Scriptures, but for the purposes of this paper, only two will be directly linked to that category. Page Brooks, a graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and member of First Baptist Church of Taylors, South Carolina, describes the first theological issue as the authority of Scriptures over all aspects of life. “Because the Bible is not regarded as the ultimate source of authority in some churches, doctrine suffers.” The second issue Brooks describes is a lack of “Biblical distinctives of what a church is.”

Richard Kennedy, the author’s father and member of Christ Anglican Church in Mobile, Alabama, suggests that the second major theological issue under the authority of Scriptures is the acceptance of false doctrine by church leaders. Kennedy explains,

The “creeping in” of liberal issues into the Christian theological setting has changed to an acceptance of these issues by many of the clergy and lay leaders and it is putting a significant amount of pressure on the “Church” in a time when unity is needed more than at any time in history.

No doubt those concerns rise out of the Episcopal Church’s ordination of homosexuals and women. It is the role of women that is the second major theological issue. While this falls under the umbrella of authority of the Scriptures, it stands independently because it is a matter of interpretation. Jason Davis, pastor and lead planter of Grace Park Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee, explains that the role of women as leaders in the church must be addressed in the coming years.

We are walking that fine line of keeping ourselves biblical but seeing that some within our denomination would misinterpret what we do as heretical. We don’t ordain women or anything but we also don’t ordain our deacons. The Ecclesiological Guidelines set forth a few years ago by Dr. Stan Norman point to how a church plant can have women deacons as long as they don’t ordain them. Our small group leaders fulfill the role of deacon in our church (servant leaders) and we call their wives leaders as well. So, X community group has the leaders John and Jane Doe. Some people would have a problem with that from what we are seeing. We changed the names of community group leaders from shepherds to leaders for primarily that reason.

Certainly, the role of women is one of the major theological issues that must be addressed on both the denominational and local church level.

The third major theological issue deals with ecclesiology. Jason Dukes, a pastor at Westpoint Fellowship Church in Orlando, Florida, explains that “true ecclesiology is not about a ‘what,’ but a ‘who.’ We are constantly having to refocus people from church as a ‘what’.” The Scriptures are clear that the Church is not a building, but a gathering of believers. Dukes is fighting to change the false perception that proclaims the opposite.
Likewise, Todd McGehee, pastor and lead planter of The Grove United Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama, explains that the ecclesiological issue he is encountering is the selfish church.

Our bad theology has led to an anemic church with big buildings, huge budgets, tons of programs, and lots of “opportunities” and yet there are people dying of malnutrition and the homeless in our cities are ignored by the church. We pat ourselves on the back when we send hundreds or even thousands of “shoeboxes” at Christmas but we fail to help dig wells for clean water in Africa. What if we truly believed and lived out the radical discipleship lifestyle selling our possessions and giving to whoever had need?

Wes Kenney, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Valliant, Oklahoma, validates McGehee’s claim. He is trying to lead his church to focus on the worship of God, not of the people in the church, explaining that they were, “beginning our worship services by recognizing birthdays and anniversaries: ‘We’ll worship God in a minute, but first, let’s worship these folks’.” Kenney’s point is that church members have “too frequent use of the phrase ‘so-and-so is going to come and sing for us’,” but not enough focus on God.

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