Last week, I finished teaching Hermeneutics (Bible study methods). I emphasize that we are not under the Old Testament law but the New Covenant and grace. Many pastors love to take Old Testament passages and haphazardly apply them in their churches. During this class, there were several powerful moments of honesty and humility. There was a realization of the sacredness of the Scriptures and the difficulty and cost of living, teaching, and preaching them correctly. It felt like something holy, and hard, and wonderful, and scary, and beautiful was happening.
A couple of students from Hermeneutics with Paul
Dallas Theology Seminary (my alma mater) is celebrating its 100th anniversary and is having celebrations in Dallas and throughout the world. They celebrated in Nairobi this week, and I attended. I told Jim, a fellow DTS grad, about the haphazard application of Old Testament passages and the decisive moments in my class. Jim rejoiced at what happened in my class. The haphazard application of Old Testament passages has been on Jim’s heart and mind for some time. During our conversation, Jim came up with the phrase “heartfelt heresy.” Many pastors preach heartfeltly and passionately but entirely misinterpret the Scriptures (especially the Old Testament).
(The use of the word heresy in this phrase is an overstatement. While some of these misinterpretations are heretical, most fall in the erroneous and flawed theology category.)
Pray that something holy, and hard, and wonderful, and scary, and beautiful happens with my Hermeneutics students.
I am currently teaching Major Prophets, and Donna is teaching Child Evangelism, followed by Children’s Ministry. Pray for Donna; back-to-back classes with the Africa Theological Seminary format are exhausting. Pray for moments of holy change as we teach.
Pray that pastors throughout the world move from heartfelt heresy to holy change.