Many view the study of theology as solely an academic and impractical exercise that is optional for followers of Christ. I recently ran into a well-known minister from the United States in an airport in Nicaragua. We talked for a bit about our mission trips in the country. After I told him that we spent the week teaching pastors about the Doctrine of God, he responded by saying, “I hope you did not simply leave them with doctrine.” As I left that conversation I began to think, “What else would we have left them with?” Although he did not come out and say it, it was communicated to me that he viewed the study of theology as being an insufficient academic exercise. If this was his point, which I hope it wasn't, nothing could be further from the truth. Theology is extremely practical--one of the simplest reasons being that right thinking about God leads to right living for Him. According to theologian Wayne Grudem,
"The Bible often connects sound doctrine with maturity in Christian living: Paul speaks of 'the teaching which accords with godliness'(1 Tim. 6:3) and says that his work as an apostle is 'to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness' (Titus 1:1). By contrast, he indicates that all kinds of disobedience and immorality are 'contrary to sound doctrine'" (1 Tim. 1:10).Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1994. 29.
