Z. K. Pahrü Pou
BTC, Pfutsero
In the past people talk about ‘learning theology’: who is God, what is God doing, how do we know God, what are we to learn, how are we to learn about God, what kind of theology and so on. But the time of learning theology has gone. Now is the time of ‘doing theology’. People believe us by seeing of what we are doing rather than by what we are saying/preaching. They are clever enough that they judge us by what we do rather than by what we say. Saying something good is not enough to convince others. Good has no value unless we put it into practice. Faith has no effect unless we put it into practice. Therefore ‘doing theology’ is better than ‘learning theology’ even as the ‘Word became flesh’ in Jesus. I have met some of the children of the pioneers of tribal theology. They cannot communicate with each other in their own mother tongue. So their family members communicate with each other in English. I start asking in my mind: why these people are talking so much about tribal theology when their children cannot even speak mother tongue? What is the use of telling about tribal culture when they have neglected tribal culture by themselves?
Is it right to have seminar on tribal theology from Five Stars Restaurant? How can we believe of a dalit theologian who talk so much about the brokenness of dalit people but always travel by flight in first class saying that they don’t have time to travel by Train or Bus? I am not condemning them but I am just saying that ‘doing theology’ is better than ‘learning theology.’ In other word, theology must be exhibited in actions not just in mere words.
We live in a world where there are so many good speakers but less doers. ‘Everybody said but nobody did’ is the kind of world we live in. God does not need so many speakers but only few doers/workers to change the world. We talk so much about sacrificial God but we do not want to sacrifice ourselves: our time, our energy, our sleep, our family, so to say our comfort zone for society. It is this comfort zone that keeps us confined to our own interest and alienates us from society. This is big challenge to theological community today. If we are to be good ministers of God, we must sacrifice our comfort zone. Our theology must be able to exorcise the evil spirit of comfort zone from us.
It is sad indeed that the residential form of theological education (as we have today) had produced many good speakers but failed to produce many doers of the word. Ours is a protected community oriented where students are adjusted to a community disciplines, abiding by campus rules and participating in the routine of corporate worship services, and follows fixed study time. While it helps in developing personal and spiritual discipline of theological students, there are dangers involved too.
The danger in this kind of residential theological education is that it often turns out to be a ghetto community that concerns with its own interests, petty quarrels, and totally unconcerned about the what happens outside. We cut ourselves from the outside world for whom we undertake theological training. We fail to understand the real problems and hopes, anxieties and aspirations of the people. In a protected community, only protected theology can grow. There are no challenges from society to such a theology, and so, such a theology has hardly the capacity to challenge the society. We continue produce many Pharisees and Levites but less Samaritans. Many theological graduates are experts in running the affairs of the Church but completely failed to connect theological knowledge with wider society.
Therefore in order to develop a relevant and challenging theology, we must search for ways and means for theological education to take place outside of theological campus. We must think of our involvement outside of ‘mission compound’ or within the four walls of the church. Living a good life in the mission compound or preaching a good sermon within the church cannot bring transformation in the society. We must dismantle ‘mission compound’ mentality. We must leave behind the ‘holier than thou’ attitude of the church. We must be one with the people sharing their joys and sorrows, their pains and happiness, their anxieties, their aspirations. We need to learn many things from society and not always trying to teach them. This will make ministry fruitful. To that end, Baptist Theological College, Pfutsero, is initiating a Life Skills Training Institute with the hope of injecting new thoughts and providing new perspective to theological education.
