Intellectual Depth Matters in Ministry

I still laugh when I think about an exchange I had with a border guard. “Why are you entering the United States?” he asked. I told him I was attending a study group to learn more about the Bible. He then asked how long I'd been a pastor. When I said over 30 years, he replied, “What could you possibly have to learn about the Bible?”

Knowing Scripture involves lots of study. It includes learning hermeneutics, languages, textual criticism, biblical theology, knowledge of the Ancient Near East, systematic theology, church history, and more. It would take a lifetime to master any one of these subjects. A degree in seminary provides the beginning of a good education in these subjects, but there’s always more to learn. No matter how much we master, there's always so much more to discover. Becoming a student of Scripture is a lifelong task.

Some of us lived in an era in evangelicalism that emphasized knowing these disciplines, but also taught us to hide them. The thought was that the average person didn't have the appetite for the technical details of seemingly obscure topics. Sermons became more centered on relevance, and we hid our studies to make our sermons intensely practical.

Along the way, we may have not only started to hide these topics in our sermons but also to have de-emphasized the importance of learning these disciplines. Not only did our sermons turn practical, but our pastoral preparation turned practical too. Why learn these disciplines if what really matters is what’s practical? It may be that a kind of weakness crept into our preaching and the ways we do ministry.

The recent appearance of Wesley Huff on Joe Rogan’s podcast signals a change. I never thought I would see the day when subjects like textual criticism would be covered on not only a secular podcast but one of the most popular podcasts in the world. Rogan and Huff geeked out on obscure topics that just a short while ago we tried to hide and perhaps even began to neglect.

All of this points to a deeper reality: we dare not abandon the disciplines required to understand and preach God's Word just because they happen to be out of style at the moment, just as we shouldn't begin to pursue them because they are now in style. We need to know God's word. We need pastors and scholars to devote themselves to these subjects whether they're popular or not. Nobody will be able to master them all, but we should continue to learn as much as we can, and we should value them.

We need to be ready to answer the deep questions that both believers and unbelievers will ask because falsehoods are circulating out there. We need to have a firm grasp of the truth and be ready to speak when required.

I'm grateful for those who devote themselves to serious study. Some of it may lurk in the background for years, but in a key moment, it will help to have a firm grasp of certain topics when they become relevant to a question being asked.

Don't hide these disciplines; devote yourself to them. Resist the urge to dumb down our knowledge of the faith.