Andy Rowell | Church Leadership Conversations: March 2011

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Andy Rowell is a fifth year Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) student at Duke Divinity School. His primary concentration is "Church, Ministry, Evangelism, and Mission" and his secondary concentration is "New Testament."
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Barth on Exegesis, Dogmatics, and Practical Theology

"Exactly halfway between exegesis and practical theology stands dogmatics, or more comprehensively expressed, systematic theology." Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline, p. 12.

Thanks, Barth. I had been wondering how I got here. I guess I had been walking back and forth between the two sides and I must have sat down in the middle at some point. You make systematic theology sound interested in Scripture and the practical--what a concept.

Note: Dogmatics in Outline are lectures Barth gave in Bonn, Germany in 1946. The translation by G. T. Thomson is a little clunky. It was his translation of Church Dogmatics I.1 that was later retranslated.

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After seminary, what to buy

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 5)
See how Bonhoeffer attempted to equip groups of twenty future pastors during six month courses from 1935-1937 in Nazi Germany. In the first chapter on community, Bonhoeffer warns people about the dangers of Christian community. Then in the remaining chapters he describes his attempt at facilitating it. There are some things that will seem odd (no harmony in singing--it is divisive!) but Bonhoeffer is trying to be biblical and pastoral. He is a serious theologian.
Eugene H. Peterson: Take and Read: Spiritual Reading: An Annotated List
I love the recommendations here by Peterson on what to read. I want to see what formed him and hope it also forms me.
Eugene H. Peterson: Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity
Peterson kicks butt in this book--ripping pastors who don't focus on these three angles: Scripture, Prayer, and Spiritual Direction. This is good stuff. Of course Peterson is a profound thinker and writer and therefore this reading though semi-popular is not easy. Still, you will get enough to have it change your life.
Gordon D. Fee, Douglas Stuart: : How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour
Fee knows and loves the Bible and this book was a labor of love. It is a rather detailed guide on how to understand the book of the Bible you are reading. Again, you could do worse than start with Fee.
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings
A marvelous way to get in touch with your senses is to spend some time with the hobbits: eating, walking, sleeping, singing, telling stories, grace, and friendship.
John F. Evans: A Guide to Biblical Commentaries & Reference Works
This is a "Reformed" flavored resource that guides you through the reference literature. I use it for helping pick commentaries. I always tried to read a few commentaries on each passage I preached as a check that I am preaching with the church's wisdom and not out on some wobbly limb leading people astray.
John Glynn: Commentary and Reference Survey: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical and Theological Resources
This is a Dallas Theological Seminary style reference guide that I have used with profit to sort through the reference literature and to pick commentaries.
Lesslie Newbigin: The Gospel in a Pluralist Society
This gives you a blast of mission and church from a capable pastor, administrator, evangelist, and missionary. Newbigin is not like some on my list here who are more poet, writer, professor and do not get leadership and evangelism. Still, he is a solid theologian and this book gives you a lot of what he has to offer. You could do worse than use his formulations as your basic working model for evangelism, leadership, and ecclesiology.
Richard B. Hays: First Corinthians (Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching)
I read this commentary all the way through while taking Gordon Fee's course on First Corinthians. Ever since truly understanding the disfunction and wackiness of the church at Corinth, the problems in my own church have never seemed all that bad. As Fee says, Romans has theology but First Corinthians has just as much and it is put into action. Hays, a Yale and Emory trained semi-conservative United Methodist New Testament scholar who has taught at Yale and Duke and has both communitarian and high church mainline sympathies draws heavily upon the Pentecostal free church Fee in his commentary. Hays is a fine interpreter, writer, and theologian and therefore a good guide to First Corinthians.
Richard Baxter: The Reformed Pastor
The Puritan pastor Richard Baxter (1615–1691) explained in this book how a pastor should disciple each family in his congregation. Baxter is driven maybe fanatical but it changed the way I think about pastoring.