I’ve got a hunch, maybe even a dream, that we as church leaders need to keep on returning to theology—not just the kind that fills books, but the kind that lives and breathes in the world.
It’s about getting back to thinking theologically, where the heart of the Christian faith meets the messy realities of the world we live in.
As Karl Barth once said, we need the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. We’ve got to bring scripture and tradition into dialogue with what’s happening around us—engage with the real issues people are facing today.
At the center of this is Jesus Christ, the one who stood with the marginalized and took on the systems of power.
Theology that’s grounded in Jesus isn’t content with “business as usual.” It’s got to stir things up, challenge the comfortable, and disrupt the status quo. This is prophetic theology—the kind that speaks truth in a world that often doesn’t want to hear it. It cuts through denial and addresses the realities of injustice and oppression head-on.
But I don’t just dream of a theology that talks about change. It’s got to lead to action.
Theology aligned with God’s kingdom doesn’t sit on a shelf or stay in a sermon. It’s lived out. It’s a theology that brings hope to those in despair and justice where there’s oppression. It’s not afraid to get messy and step into the hard places. It’s a theology in service of liberation, one that refuses to rest while the vulnerable continue to suffer. It listens to the cries of the poor and oppressed and responds with action, not just words, rooted in the radical love and mission of Jesus.
This is the theology I dream of—born from love, in love, and for love. A theology that’s alive, prophetic, and liberating. One that demands transformation—in our hearts, in our communities, and in the systems around us. It’s time we return to that kind of theology, where we refuse to let injustice and despair have the final word. A theology driven by the countercultural, revolutionary love of Christ.
Amen!