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Stephen: It is said that when a group of pastors told John Calvin that they wanted to return to France, where they were certain to be persecuted for sharing the gospel, he gave them this piece of advice: "A good missionary is a good theologian. A good theologian is a good missionary."
How many of us would agree with that today? For many, being a missionary might simply mean doing free dental work or spending a few weeks repairing a village church. Do we really need a seminary degree for that? And what if we feel called to help, but we find it hard to love doctrine? Should we really let something like theology stand in the way of serving Christ?
Chad, our question today is a broad one, but it is significant. Does theology matter on the mission field?
Chad: I suppose we first want to ask what theology even is. Kevin DeYoung, in his book Daily Doctrine defined theology simply as the study of God. But then he warns that the goal of theology is never merely to get right ideas into our heads. Rather, we study God so that we can know God more deeply, enjoy Him more fully, and walk with Him more obediently.
Kevin says that the study of theology is done because we want to see and savor the glory of God in the face of Christ. I think he is right. In this sense, I think R. C. Sproul is right when he says that everyone is a theologian. So clearly missionaries must be theologians. They must study theology because they are Christians and they want to be those who walk near to Christ.
But in light of our question, I want to add one more reason that we study theology: so that we might proclaim Christ more clearly and truly.
At Radius, we often speak about clarity in speech. We want our students to learn language and culture well so that they are clear and intelligible speakers of the gospel. When we send out a missionary, we are sending out a gospel minister. A gospel minister is someone who is qualified and sent by the church to make Christ known. But in order to make Christ known, you must be able to clearly spell out the truth. If you are not able to clearly teach the doctrines of our Protestant faith in your own language, then you will not be clear in another.
So firstly, a missionary must know theology in order to clearly proclaim the gospel. We are announcing a message we have received. Listen to how Paul clearly understands this about his own ministry. In 1 Corinthians 15:1–3 he says this: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.”
We are teaching the apostles' doctrine. We must be able to do that well. It is a doctrine that we have received and that we then proclaim.
Secondly, a missionary must know theology in order to protect the church from false gospels. You can see both the clear passing down of doctrine and the protecting of that doctrine as Paul exhorts Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:13-14: "Follow the pattern of the sound words that you've heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Guard the good deposit entrusted to you."
This sounds a lot like what Paul tells Titus when he instructs him to appoint elders who according to Titus 1:9 "He must hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it."
If you know anything about the history of the Christian church, you know that there is a whole story of heresy. False teaching abounds. We see it creep into the New Testament church and it has to be addressed by Paul and Peter and even Jesus. We see it throughout the centuries of the church. We must know our Christian doctrine so we can compare and contrast it with the belief system of those to whom we are preaching. If we do not, then we will see syncretism set in quickly. Syncretism is the mixing of two religions creating a third thing. Syncretism sets into the church at Colasse in Paul's lifetime. Thus, Paul had to address that problem in his letter, especially in Colossians 2.
So, first we must study theology if we hope to proclaim the truth clearly. Second, we must study theology if we hope to protect the truth from error. And third, we must study theology if we hope to help the church grow in maturity. We are not merely preaching the gospel and walking away. We're teaching people to obey all that the Lord Jesus commanded them. Christ gave ministers to the church to teach them and to grow them into maturity in Christ. We want them to be mature, having their powers of discernment trained, able to eat solid food so they aren't tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. We want to leave behind a healthy, self-sustaining and self-propagating church.
Fourthly, and finally, I return to where I started. We want to study theology because we want to know Christ, to draw near to him, to walk closely with him. Our gospel preaching ultimately comes out of a life as we are sheep before we are sent to be shepherds. So we want to know Christ and we want to preach as those whose lives are filled with the savor or the aroma of the loveliness of Christ and His grace to us.
Stephen: Thanks for listening to Ask Missionary. If you are interested in learning more about missionary training and education, you can find resources on our website at missionary.com. You can also find links to Radius International and Greenville Seminary, two organizations that are dedicated to helping missionaries prepare for long-term service on the field. If you have a question you would like to hear answered on ask missionary, get in touch with us on X, Instagram, or you can contact us through missionary.com and your question may be featured on this show. And don't forget to subscribe to the show to get notified when our next episode, "Are Disciple-Making Movements Biblical?", airs next week. Thanks for listening.