Say what you will about the recent “Together For the Gospel” conference (and many have), but I must say that there was one thing that united each of the pastors who spoke as well as each of the men I met and that was a profound God-centered focus.

While I hate to encourage stereotypes, I’m about to do just that. If you read here with any frequency, you know that (I hope), I try to give the emergents a fair shot. I do appreciate many of their concerns, I think there are some helpful things coming from the movement/dialogue/conversation/whatever-you-call-it. However, the more I read and interact with many (please note, I understand that I am merely speaking from my own experience here) within the movement, I sense a building contrast between them and the more traditional Reformed circles within which I typically travel.

Say what you want about Reformed people (and many have), but there has, at least in my experience, been the most solid concentration of people genuinely focused on God within these circles than anywhere else within the broad tent that is known as evangelicalism. Many of the emergents are very concerned with culture and how to best to communicate to it, but their focus is often merely horizontal. While I understand their concerns, it seems to me that the best way to truly be effective horizontally (with other people) is to be committed first vertically (to God).

The latin phrase: theologia a Deo docetur, Deum (or Diem) docet, ad Deum ducit means “theology is taught by God, teaches God and leads to God.” For me, it sums up so much about what I appreciate in the Reformed approach to theology. We do not study doctrine (or at least we ought not to) simply for head knowledge, for we know that “knowledge puffs up” and that it is love that “builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Rather, we study with our heads that our hearts might be ignited in worship to God. We study that we might know Him more, that we might see Him more clearly, for we know that it is as we see Him more clearly that we are moved to respond in worship.

Theology is nothing less than the study of God and it ought to remind us that our lives are to be God-centered. If the “Purpose Driven” progaganda got anything right, it’s that “it’s not about us.” However, we see many applying a very man-centered approaches to the church, whether it be draping everything in velvet or handing out Starbucks gift cards. It’s almost as if God were an afterthought in many churches which ought to break our hearts.

There was once a time when theology was known as the “queen of all the sciences.” That’s odd for many of us to consider theology as a science. Yet there is a distinct difference between theology and the other differences. Consider biology for example. When dissecting a frog, it is the examiner who sets the agenda, lifting the lungs to examine the heart, moving organs, determining what to look for etc. This is the case with all the “natural” sciences; we set the agenda.

However, in theology, it is the subject who sets the agenda because it is the infinite being studied by the finite. Thus, we only know of God what He reveals of Himself; it is God who controls the study of God, not man. Thus, theology, and by extension all of life is to be radically God-centered.

It is my prayer that those who regularly worship here at Grace Community Church and those who visit will have no question of our focus. It is my prayer that they will have their vision of God enlarged and their love for Him ignited. It is my prayer that this will begin in my own life, and thus I study theology.