Your Flock Needs Theology and Apologetics: An Open Letter to Pastors

By Cameron Diamond, DMin

The Need for Apologetics – Your Flock Needs Theology and Apologetics: An Open Letter to Pastors

Pastor, your people are struggling. The pagan, secular world they face today at work and online is at odds with what they hear you preach on Sunday mornings.

The reaction of most people is to silo their religious life from their everyday life. To be convictional and persuaded of biblical truth is an anathema to the average person.

They do not understand that following Jesus is worth every price because what the Bible recorded is true. Many people in churches today view the Bible as a useful narrative that guides their lives, not concrete truth. The result is that many Christians have a shallow view of the Bible and the power of the Gospel.

“Many people in churches today view the Bible as a useful narrative that guides their lives, not concrete truth.”

Also, it means that they do not share in persecution in the pagan, secular culture. Oh, to claim Christianity and not have to struggle against the opinions of the lost and the demonic. This ought not be.

Instead, there should be an effort in every local congregation to teach three specific disciplines that have been overlooked in American Christianity for a long time because we ceded it to academia.

I do not have a problem with higher education, but nothing should be kept from the common man or woman in our pews. Pastors, we need to be teaching biblical, historical and systematic theology to those who will listen in our congregations.

Some may object to this, saying that it will go over their heads. I say we need to challenge our people and bring their level of understanding up. Our people need to see clearly the scope of the Bible, how it has been understood throughout history and how we land on doctrines from the Scriptures.

Even help them to understand where points of disagreement are and how to argue and disagree well.

Considering arguments, we need to spend time also showing them how Christianity can be known to be true from at least the major apologetic arguments.

The Bible does not push a blind faith, but trust in God who has demonstrated His existence and faithfulness in manifold ways. Therefore, show your people how we can know God exists from cosmology, teleology, morality and beauty.

“The Bible does not push a blind faith, but trust in God who has demonstrated His existence and faithfulness in manifold ways.”

Instruct them from historiography that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the best possible explanation from the historical data; it is not a mere assumption.

Take your time in teaching them ethics from the Scriptures and how to navigate hard conversations in the world about matters like marriage, sex and abortion.

Finally, teach your people proper hermeneutical methods through classroom teaching and practice in addition to expositional preaching that gives them the tools they need to go home and faithfully study on their own.

They need to know about historical and cultural context. They need to know about how to do word studies and the value of different translations of the text as a means of understanding the depth of the words in the original languages.

“Paul used his knowledge of culture, philosophy, and theology to witness to the Jews and Greeks of Acts 17. That serves as a good example for us to follow.”

For many others, I anticipate this article being intimidating for one of two reasons. For one, you may struggle with the fear that your people will not want to engage with it because “that’s the job of the pastor alone to know all that stuff”.

If that’s you, teach it anyway. Your people will see the value in it as you go and the fire will catch. With these disciplines you open the doors to true conversation and disagreement, but that is healthy because it means they are interacting deeply with the Scriptures and interpretation.

The other reason you may be intimidated by this is if you do not know these disciplines very well yourself. Perhaps you never studied formally or spent much time in theology, apologetics or hermeneutics.

That means you need to take the time to study. You can lead your people by example and learn together. Paul used his knowledge of culture, philosophy, and theology to witness to the Jews and Greeks of Acts 17. That serves as a good example for us to follow.

If you have questions about this or other ministry topics, my email is cameron@jonesvillebaptist.com and you welcome to interact with me.

I have made a class to address these topics on Sunday evenings at my church for the last year and a half and the results have been encouraging. Further, here are three books I recommend if you are wanting to dive deep into these subjects.

Christian Apologetics, 2^nd ed. By Douglas Groothuis
Christian Theology by Adam Harwood
Grasping God’s Word, 4^th ed., by J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hayes

Thank you, and my God bless your flocks as your cultivate an atmosphere saturated with apologetics within your congregations and church communities.

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Image Credit: Collect Pond, New York City. Attributed to Archibald Robertson American, Scottish. Former Attribution Formerly attributed to Alexander Robertson American, 1798. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 54.90.168.

Thank you for reading this article about the need for apologetics.