I asked the question in my last post as to whether we can develop an adequate missional theology that integrates both local and international mission. I am convinced that one of the biggest problems we face in this regard is that "theology" is so detached from the life of ordinary Christians and they do not feel equipped to do the necessary theology to develop my proposed theology.
I see one of my functions in life as to make theology fun for people! "Fun Theology" will seem to many like an oxymoron. However, Karl Barth called theology "a most happy science"! If we do love God then talking about God is a fun thing to do. It is myth to believe that theology is a dull, boring, irrelevant discipline done by boffins. Ok so that might be the reality, but it shouldn't be!
Well, so where is the real theology?
A Latin American theologian said that there were three levels of theology: Popular, pastoral and professional. This is great alliteration and he wasn't even a Baptist! By popular, he means grassroots; people in a congregation thinking about how they can act as Christians in a particular context in the light of the Gospel. This is real theology. This is the most important level of theology: not the professional. This is a theology that takes its missionary context seriously.
We need Christians, who inhabit our pews, seats, chairs each Sunday to be equipped to think about their context--narrow and wide--in the light of the Gospel. What they need is not so much volume loads of theological books but a methodology to help them to relate their context--local, regional, national and international--to the Gospel and the Gospel to those contexts. How can we develop such a methodology?
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