The Pastor as a Theologian – Tom Ascol
A seminary professor and a pastor were walking through a cemetery, and as they came upon a grave, the professor said, “Look, there are two men buried in this grave.” When the pastor asked, “How do you know that?” The professor replied, “Because the tombstone reads, ‘Here lies a pastor and a theologian.’” Unfortunately, this dichotomizing mentality pervades the modern evangelical church. However, in the lecture below, Pastor Tom Ascol seeks to correct this thinking and argues for the pastor-theologian model.
Tom Ascol on “The Pastor as a Theologian”
Another helpful resource that addresses this topic is Crossway’s recently published The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry by John Piper and D. A. Carson.
B.G.
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Thanks so much for making these lectures available to the body. This along with the last lecture was excellent.
That obviously wasn’t Granville Sharp’s grave!
Marie,
You are truly *sharp* (no pun intended).
For the “uninitiated,” Granville Sharp observed a pattern in Koine Greek involving an article > noun > conjunction > noun and argued that such a pattern denotes one, not two entities. Hence, following the Granville Sharp rule, the reference to “some pastors and teachers” in Ephesians 4:11 would refer to one and the same office, not two distinct offices. If I recall correctly, Daniel Wallace questions the application of this rule to Ephesians 4:11 because the nouns are plural. However, I’m inclined to think the rule does apply in this case since one would expect “some” to be repeated before “teachers” if it was intended as a distinct office or role.
In any case, a very clever observation, Marie!
Dr. G,
In whose eyes must the pastor be viewed at as scholar? Must he have a PhD? Does he need a degree at all to be considered a scholar?
Brandon,
Good questions.
First, I think the pastor must ultimately show himself approved of God. He also has a secondary obligation to show demonstrate his competence to the people of God.
Second, the pastor doesn’t need a PhD to do this. Technically, he doesn’t even need an academic degree. But he should be a man who engages in the kind of careful and diligent study that’s usually required of those who pursue academic degrees.
Third, and bottom line: the pastor must be competent in the Scriptures. He must be well-versed in theology. That doesn’t mean he has to be a specialist in one area (which is often the case with those who earn a PhD). But ideally, he should be solidly grounded in all the branches of theology so that he can accurately handle the word of truth, feed the flock, and refute false teachers.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Dr Bob for posting this lecture. It was very helpful. Filled with profound, pastoral and practical statements. “Be a real Christian and act like it.” “Be a confessional man.” “Use catechisms.” “Read theology.” It seems these lectures within this series were excellent. I should have attended them. Are you planing to post any more?
Mike,
Thanks for viewing the lectures. I’m glad you’ve found them helpful. We’re actually planning to upload all the Pastoral Theology lectures to our seminary website and make them available to the churches and the public as a free gift for training future leaders. We’re almost done with the editing process and hope to have them up on our website within a few weeks.
Thanks. I can hardly wait to view them myself and use them for training/equipping others.