Keep those people away from me! Can’t you see I am ministering?!

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching reading books, discussing theology with other pastors and writing articles for publication away from people who might distract you. (1 Timothy 4:13 re-mix)

Speaking of taking things to an extreme. I stumbled across a post from The Society for the Advancement of Ecclesial Theology. You didn’t know this society existed? Neither did I. Anyhoo, the post in question was written by Gerald Hiestand and concerns how a regular old pastor can become a pastor-theologian in six easy steps: Six Steps Toward Being an Ecclesial Theologian . Number three really caught my eye.

3. Make your study time a priority in your weekly schedule. The expectations and demands of your congregation will almost certainly push you away from study and writing. So if you’re going to get after it, you are going to have to make it a priority in your schedule. I’ve found that setting aside my mornings works best for me. This year I’m reading Augustine on Mondays, Thomas on Tuesdays, Barth on Wednesdays, and contemporary theology/scholarship on Thursdays. I turn my phone off, don’t open my e-mail and don’t schedule any appointments (if at all possible) until noon. Of course, sometimes I have to pull up from studying — funerals, emergencies, etc., press in occasionally. But for the most part I’ve found that I can get nearly all of my administrative stuff done if I push it into the afternoons. (Typically, if you give yourself eight hours to do your administrative stuff, it will take eight hours. If you given yourself four, it will take four). Of course, this only works when you are in control of your schedule. Most pastors are, but some of you serve in a church where you are at the mercy of others. Even so, there are probably times in the week that are usually open. Schedule your study time around those times. And one more point here — don’t just study for your next sermon or teaching assignment. Quite apart from striving toward the calling of the ecclesial theologian, too many pastors are merely one step ahead of the theological train. The lifeblood of the pastor — whether your local congregation realizes it or not — is a steady intake of rich theology, prayer and bible reading. Stop feeling guilty about prayerfully reading Calvin’s Institutes, or Anthanasius’ On the Incarnation or Augustine’s De Trinitate. Theological study isn’t something a pastor fits into his schedule when he’s completed his pastoral duties, rather theological study is the pastor’s duty. For the good of your congregation — for the good of your preaching and teaching and counseling and capacity to offer pastoral care — it is vital that you not neglect to feed yourself.

It is hard to believe that the leadership of a local church might question paying a guy to sit in his office and spend four mornings a week reading theological books. What is their problem?! I am sure that Augustine’s De Trinitate is a swell book and that during a counseling session it comes up all the time but is reading that the most pressing thing for the church right now, pressing enough to cut yourself off from the very people you are supposed to be ministering to? The idea that people and their needs are somehow an interruption to pastoral ministry is to get the whole thing completely backwards. You see this over and over. Pastors defending why they need to spend lots of time in their offices (ooops, you are supposed to call it a “study” not an “office”. That is step number 6. Seriously.) or even boasting about how much time they spend in sermon preparation. I guess we are supposed to be impressed that someone spends 20+ hours a week preparing a 45 minute sermon. I kind of wonder what takes them so long. There is a great deal of defensiveness over study time but perhaps those questions about hiding in your office, er study, are justified.

Don’t get me wrong. I love reading and think it is healthy. I especially love reading challenging books about theology and church stuff. I just don’t think that the rest of the church should be made to feel bad for not paying me while I am doing so. The reality on the ground and in the pew is that there are many, many people with very serious needs in the church, needs that go beyond theological nuance and into things like not being able to pay their bills, not having enough food, needing a ride to the doctor, needing someone to talk to, etc.. The idea that we need to not only pay able-bodied men to be pastors but that we should intentionally seek to staff our churches with theological egg-heads so that the staff can discuss “how Thomas Aquinas’ prioritization of the intellect in conversion causes him to arrive at a different ordo solutis than Calvin and the implications this has for the doctrine of total depravity” (this is step number one, FYI) is indefensible from Scripture. Somehow the early church managed to set the world on fire with the Gospel amidst unimaginable persecution and without the benefit of books on theology, paid time to read, spending hours in their “studies” or seminary education.

I get the impulse here. I know what the thinking is. I used to think that being a “full-time pastor” would be great. I would spend a lot of time preparing sermons and a lot of time reading great theology books and keeping abreast of the latest theological controversies. Then I would preach a sermon a couple of times on Sunday and impart all that wisdom to an adoring congregation. That made sense to me because I assumed that in taking that study time and turning it into a couple of good sermons, I would be ministering to the flock. There is an enormous amount of bad theology out there and plenty of out and out heresy. There is also, and I am not trying to be unkind or arrogant here, a ton of theological ignorance among many Christians. Having said that, I don’t think that the number of people in pews who have any idea what this means: “how Thomas Aquinas’ prioritization of the intellect in conversion causes him to arrive at a different ordo solutis than Calvin and the implications this has for the doctrine of total depravity” is very high nor do they realy care. An interesting topic no doubt but hardly the sort of stuff that is going to be helpful to a couple experiencing marital problems or parents who just lost a child or a family with nothing to eat back at their house. Nor is it going to help the average Christian mature in the faith and certainly is not going to do much, if anything, to equip a believer for the work of ministry. There is a place for these high minded theological discussions. It is just not in the local church reserved to the professional ministers and subsidized by the offerings of Christians.

I don’t think pastors who desire to spend tons of time studying and reading and preparing sermons are bad people. I just think that they have bought into the notion that the number one duty of ministers is preaching a sermon on Sunday. That is a common mindset but it is impractical and more importantly without a shred of Biblical support.

What we need in the church is not a resurgence of “Ecclesial Theology”. We need more Christians equipped and released to make disciples. We need all Christians to be engaged in the work of ministry. We need Christians to “go” to the lost, not “come” to church. We need people in the church who have been sermonized all of their Christian lives to get out of the pew and to start getting into the game. We need older and more mature Christians to mentor younger, less mature Christians. We need people to get the core basics of the Gospel so that they can preach that Gospel to the lost. We need all Christians, not just a select few, to become mature in the faith.

Brothers, don’t ask the church to pay you to read books in your study when there are real needs out there that need to be addressed. Reading and studying is not ministering.