What Should Be the Minimum Theological Threshold for a Pastor?
Imagine you’re going into surgery tomorrow for a medical procedure.
What would be the absolute minimum threshold of surgical expertise needed for you to show up for your procedure? To ask it another way, at what point would you cancel your surgery from a lack of confidence?
Applied to a church, what is an appropriate theological baseline of expertise needed for pastors and church departmental leaders?
The Insufficiency of an Untested “Majoring in the Majors”
I’ve often heard pastors use the phrase “majoring in the majors” to describe the need for giving the bulk of attention and energy to the most crucial theological truths so as not to get caught up in going down unnecessary theological rabbit holes.
But is this a trustworthy phrase? I believe so, only under certain conditions.
The phrase “majoring in the majors” is only as trustworthy as a pastor’s ability to sort theological concepts into “major” and “minor” buckets in the first place. This assumes a baseline knowledge. The phrase is only as helpful as one’s ability to soundly and clearly articulate theology for pastoral moments that arise on the patio or via email.
Otherwise, it’s a poor excuse for remaining theologically dull. Imagine if a poorly performing surgeon said, “It’s just sanitization, let’s major in the majors.” Wouldn’t we agree that the surgeon is weaponizing the phrase to shield from one’s laziness and incompetence?
“ˆMajoring in the majors” is a virtue only once a pastor is functioning with theological integrity in prudence and practice.
A 3-Fold Needed Baseline for Pastors
I believe a pastor needs three components to reach a minimum theological baseline:
Assessment: This is about the crystallization of theological concepts. It’s to understand the various concepts at a high level and recognize the spiritual and pastoral implications. (i.e., assessment of spiritual gifts and how it matters for God’s people)
Assortment: This is about the categorization of theological concepts. On the one hand, distinguishing orthodoxy versus non-orthodoxy (i.e. Trinity) and on the other hand distinguishing which theological truths are most essential (theological triage).
Articulation: This is about the communication of truths. It’s to be able to share views in a concise and clear way as opposed to mumbling incoherently.
Assessment without assortment can open a door to pastoral malpractice since every theological truth gets placed on equal footing. This leads to a church preaching on eschatology (end times) with equal or greater emphasis than the gospel.
Assortment without assessment opens the door to theological malpractice since emphasized concepts may be unorthodox. This leads to a church accidentally teaching a distorted view of the Trinity (ie, modalism) while intending the best.
Both without articulation open the door to a pastoral vote of no confidence. When people do not believe their pastors don’t know their stuff theologically, they wonder how that may translate to other aspects of their roles.
Concluding Thoughts
If you’re a pastor wanting to reach the minimum theological threshold, here are a few practical steps to start:
Buy a Systematic Theology Book (I recommend Grudem or Erickson)
Craft “Truth Statements” and Memorize Them. Write up and memorize a 3-5 sentence summary for key theological truths to articulate concisely. Example: “The Trinity is the One God eternally existing in Three Persons in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s not that each person is three parts of a pie, which add up to one pie, but each person of the Trinity is mysteriously fully God as we worship and follow the one true Trinue God.”
If you believe this pastoral baseline is too demanding, I would ask that we consider R.C Sproul’s poignant statement regarding theology:
“Everyone’s a theologian. The only question is whether your theology is sound or unsound.”
If this applies to every follower of Jesus, how much more for the one who shepherds the flock? Isn’t theology incredibly relevant to our everyday lives? It is a “love letter to the suffering world” (Kosuke Koyoma), it shapes our worship (J.I. Packer), defines how we see ourselves (John Stott), and leads us to wisdom (Charles Spurgeon).
We all need a theological baseline, and it starts with pastors.
