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In my last blog, I made the proposal that a fully informed theology is vital for robust Christian living. I want to take the opportunity to expand on that notion. C.J. Mahaney in a recent interview on the topic raising up godly men notes that if we don't have an informed theology then we will be conformed by sin. The primary issue is not that people don't have a theology it is that most don't have a good one. David Wells wrote rightly "Let us not think that we really have a choice between having a theology and not having one. We all have our theologies, for we all have a way fo putting things together in our mown minds that has a shape that arises from our knowledge of God and his Word...the question at issue, then is not whether we will have a theology but whether it will be a good or bad one...whether we will learn to bring all of our thoughts into obedience to Christ or not."

See, many of us have this notion that theology is for the "learned." It is a discipline left to the people working in universities and seminaries. Sadly, this idea demonstrates how far we have been driven from the heart of Christ revealed in Scripture over the past two hunderd years. Theology is for the Church...the people of God! The heart of the church today seems to want to reduce Scripture down to a manual for successful living. Unfortunately, use of Scripture divorced from its unifying themes of redemption and grace is of no use at all! David Wells again notes that "theology is a knowledge that belongs first and foremost to the people of God and the proper and primary audience for theology is therefore the Church." Any desire to dismiss this notion only serves to show the depths of sin in our hearts.

So what does this have to do with the average family out there? The short answer is everything! Theology is intensely practical. It is not left to the "learned guild." There is no shortage of people in our church who wouldn't readily affirm the authority of Scripture. That seems to be where we draw the line. Our belief in the authority of the Bible must lead to a desire to properly understand it. This is theology! Moms and dads have the dutiful privilege to teach their kids theology.

Let me say briefly that theology impacts true spiritualty and does battle against legalism. As we understand properly the Scriptures, we will properly systematize its precepts which will lead to a robust pastoral theology. In other words, pastoral theology is the outworkings of our theology in everyday life. When we become who Christ wishes us to be, we will flea the trap of legalism.

Recently, I have been reading True Spirituality by Francis Schaeffer. This book has been challenging me to think through the reality of my Christian witness while engaging culture. We would all agree that there are numerous challenges to living for the glory of God in our modern day. Every where we turn, we find ourselves thrust into a new arena which requires us to discern how to think "Christianly." Albert Mohler said it well when he told my Systematic Theology class at Southern Seminary that the greatest charge for Christian ministers in our day is to help our congregations think theologically. At first glance, this may sound high and lofty. The word "theology" alone sounds stuffy and out of touch with the daily lives of Christians, but Mohler is absolutely right in his assessment. Sadly, we have more a than few ministers who lead local congregations who are more than willing to marginalize the necessity of helping their people think theologically. The result is that we have a generation of so called Christians who are merely living out a caricature of the Christian life and who know little of true spirituality.

Sadly, the caricatures are too numerous to list, but lets look at one. You have those who live out what I call the "picture perfect" caricature. This type of Christianity exists with in a vacuum. It seperates itself from the world and begins to create a "Christian" version of the culture which is "safer" for themselves and their families. I wonder if you can follow my train of thought here. In their minds, God exists to make our lives better so long as we live seperated from the world. So we create "Christian" music, shirts, trips, movies, politics and the like all for the sake of trying keep people in the church as if we have created an alternative to the world or mainstream culture. Don't misunderstand me here, there is nothing wrong with any of these things, but the danger is that we lose sight of what it means to be Christian. We have equated obedience to God with our ability to create an "acceptable" Christian world. Instead, we need discerning Christians engaging a broken culture setting a new paradigm for life that can be found in Christ. See the difference?

If we are not careful, all we do once becoming a Christian is trade one list for another. Prior to coming to Christ, we live out a list which we believe ultimately give us the life we want. Sadly, we do the same thing after accepting Christ hoping for the same results. So we go to all the church events and push for more. Depending on what denomination you find yourself in, you will adapt not only the convictions to led to the distinction between them and other Christian denomination, but their cultural trappings as well. This ulimately blurs the lines between what is biblical and what is simply cultural.

Francis Schaeffer found himself struggling with this phenomenon in 40's, 50's and 60's. Disturbed with the effects of theological liberalism on his beloved denomination, he found himself in a fight to preserve it. Sadly, he found himself discontent with some his conservative colleages as he sensed a lack of true spirituality grounded in the Gospel. He was fearful that too many Christians moved beyond the Gospel to some caricature of Christian living. Seeing the power plays of some Christian leaders with in culture and politics discouraged him so much that he founded the L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland. Through L'Abri, Schaeffer remained faithful to the Gospel witness by helping people, believer or unbeliever, think biblically (theologically) about the world we live in.

Certainly, Schaeffer continued to fight the cultural battles that affected the Christian witness with in mainstream culture, but he was also concerned with the lack of love and mercy that was being demonstrated in the process. We must remember that all of culture is corrupted by the effects of sin and that no portion of it remains unaffected including media, education, and politics. We must shed the "easy believism" of our day and begin to think critically about the mission God has for the church in culture. We are to be vessels of redemption and grace redeeming culture not merely creating our own "Christian" culture. This is the essence of battle between true Christian spirituality and and legalism.

I have the privilege of being a child of the great state of Virginia. My brother and I arrogantly refer to it has the colony that begat all others! One of the most notable beacons of my home state is the University of Virginia. Though not the first state funded academic institution (The University of North Carolina holds that honor), it stands as the gold standard in the eyes of many as what a true "public" institution should be. Founded by Thomas Jefferson and inspired by the values of the enlightenment, the vision for UVa was that it would be a truly secular institution driven by the fundamentals of rationalism. Rationalism is the belief that human reason is the ultimate source of knowledge and that the material world is all that matters. In other words, the supernatural or divine are of no avail compared to reason and science. Jefferson took this so seriously that even the original campus was designed to send a message. With the Rotunda housing the library strategically placed at the helm of the original pavilion, (ironically where most chapels would be placed in other institutions) it is lined on each side with both faculty and student housing representing the desire for UVa to be an authentic learning community. The end opposite of the Rotunda was intentionally left open with no buildings as to represent the openness of the human mind as the chief end of man.

We have journeyed many miles as a people since those days. I was recently watching an interview with the daughter of a prominent political dignitary who happens to have strong feminist convictions. There was some discussion regarding Governor Sarah Palin and some of her conservative values. The question was asked as to whether or not Palin potentially being elected as Vice President was a step forward or a step back for women. After attempting to ignore the question for several minutes, she finally admitted that she felt that Palin was not beneficial for women's rights. Sarah Palin being the first woman elected to the second highest office in our land is not a step forward for women? The reason? Could it be because she is a devoted wife and mother of five and she is prolife? These values fly in the face of the majority of modern feminists even though Palin's story rings true for the pioneers of historical feminism and women's suffrage.

So let me get this straight, Palin successfully proving that a woman can devote herself to her family and faith and yet transcend culture and become a successful business woman and elected official sends women back to the inquisition? Wendy Doniger, Professor of History of Religions at the University of Chicago, even went so far as to say that Palin was not a woman because she is not in tune with the real needs of women. Not a woman? Seems to me that she is performing the basic organic and biological functions of a woman yet superseding them.

Now let me ask you, how open is the modern mind? How free is our culture to think openly about truth? Is this even about feminism or something else all together? Ironically, if you were to tour the old campus of UVa today, you find something very astonishing. A walk through the original Academic pavilion would uncover that a building now stands closing off the adjacent end of the common grounds. This building is Cabel Hall which houses a significant portion of the School of Arts and Sciences for the university. I wonder if this represents the "closing of the modern mind?" Is feminism even about women anymore or about destroying what is left of traditional family values. I stand amazed at the depths of our modern culture to ignore its own mantra of freedom and autonomy in thinking and belief while at the same time working so hard to restrict others same freedoms. In the immortal words of Doc Holiday from the classic movie Tombstone, "Tis funny, my hypocrisy knows no bounds."

The past several weeks have been extremely draining for the Agnew household. Eight weeks ago we started a new church called Providence Baptist Fellowship. With all the excitement of starting a new church, we had to travel to Virginia to celebrate the life of a woman who has been a spiritual hero of mine since I was child...my Grandma Geneva. She passed away this past weekend at the ripe old age of 91! Though she lived a very simple life, not wanting much, her life spoke volumes to me! Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to spend as much time with her as I would have liked. As I was driving up the mountain to Floyd county, I looked across the landscape and tons of memories flooded my mind. There were the many Agnew family Christmas', hundreds of furniture hunting expeditions and the William's family reunions that the family had off the Blue Ridge Parkway. But there is one memory that I will never forget...my grandma's faith. There was no mistaking in whom she placed here trust. I remember walking into her house and displayed on walls were the many missionaries she help support over seas. She lived the Gospel as well as anyone I knew. It was one of the sweetest funerals I have every participated in.

Driving back to my mom's house after the funeral, my mind went to wondering. When did life get so complicated? When did busyness become the motto of the day? What memories will I instill in the lives my children as they grow up? Will these memories help build a Gospel saturated life style? Of course I came to the momentary conclusion that I needed to move my family back to Virginia to reclaim that sense of simplicity. Later I realized how foolish that idea was and that my children don't need my childhood to grow up in Christian maturity. They do not need to run up and down Goose Creek or go to Colonial Baptist Church to be Christ centered. They need parents who will apply the Bible to every area of life no matter how hard it is to do so.

I found myself guilty of reflecting on only part of the story. Life was just as complicated back then as it is today, but I guess I didn't realize it like my parents did. During my childhood, I witnessed divorce and moved more times before age 18 than I can count, yet some how, God in His divine providence saw fit to equip me with everything I needed for life and godliness.

Life was not so easy for Grandma Geneva either. She saw three of her five children die before they turned forty and the other two found themselves in marriages that would ultimately fail. I realize now what it was that kept her going? It was her faith...her trust in Christ and him alone that saw her through those trying times. Through all the cracks in the pavement of life, God drew me to Himself and showed me how to live.

I guess I realize now that my grandmother was not living in some fairy tale story land as I like to imagine it sometimes. No, she lived the reality of life everyday. She knew what pain, suffering, joy and peace were all about. She lived her faith within the framework of life...all of it. Her life stands in stark contradiction to many "Christian" homes where parents work feverously to build a nice Christian bubble but only find that it will burst when they send their kids off to college. Ironically, as my family and I were driving back to Tennessee, a sign on a church captured both my and Amanda's eye. It said, "Every home is a classroom...What are you teaching?"

Normally, I have a very critical disposition toward tacky church "one-liners." This time it was different. This statement had truth at its core. What am I teaching my son (and future son or daughter) about life? How do you deal with pain and suffering? How do you live with joy? What is joy anyway? How do I prepare them for life's battles?

I know one thing, I don't ever want to teach them to pretend that life is not hard. If I learned one thing from by Grandma Geneva, I want to teach my children to engage all of life, the good and the bad, with the grit of the Gospel.