Forging of Theologia: Proclamation

A “Practical Theology” with “Theologia”

Ever since I started serving as the President of the Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary (HKBTS) nine years ago, I have unceasingly worked on the praxis and development of practical theology. Following in the spirit of the Princeton Theological Seminary and taking in the essence of the Yale Divinity School, Duke University and Fuller Theological Seminary, I have envisioned the development of a kind of practical theology that is capable of embracing both the Church and society. The professed “practical theology” is “theologia” (the wisdom of theology) that could discern Jesus Christ’s heart. It is fulfilled concretely in various areas ─ proclamation, mission, pastoral care and Christian education ─ assisting us to practice, to live out, to witness, and to teach Jesus Christ’s thoughts, passions and exemplar.

Synergy: Interdisciplinary Research

From the beginning of 2009, HKBTS has been endeavoring to construct a practical theology with theologia; we started a new stage of “synergy” among our faculty members. Since then, our teachers have not only immersed themselves in their specialized research areas but also researched other areas, moving forward in creative interdisciplinary research and dialogue. Here are some practical examples of synergy among our HKBTS faculty:

For Biblical Studies, two of our New Testament teachers are specialized in Pauline studies and Greek, yet they have undertaken interdisciplinary research on the church-state relationship and Jewish tradition. Our two Old Testament teachers, who teach and research on Pentateuch, Books of History, Poetries and Prophets Literatures, now also work in interdisciplinary areas such as ethics, leadership, Bible translations and Biblical teaching in pastoral ministry. As for Christian Thought, our faculty includes experts in systematic theology, theology and culture, theology and philosophy, as well as Church history. They, at the same time, also do interdisciplinary research on ethics, Biblical studies, spirituality and leadership. In the aspect of Practical Theology, we have experts in Christian ethics, missiology and world religion and proclamation. At the same time, they are also researchers of Baptist history and faith, ecological theology, mission theology, leadership, spirituality and life-coaching as well. Lastly, for Religious Education and Church Music, our faculty are experts in Christian education, childhood education, educational assessment methods and its designs, hymnology, and choral music. They also do interdisciplinary research in areas such as practical theology, theologies of disabilities, ministering to the marginalized, social ministry, developmental psychology, theories of intelligence, spiritual formation and theological expression through music as media.

The synergy among our faculty members not only avoids the problems of over-specialization and fragmentation in contemporary theological education, but also, more importantly, generates an enormous power that pushes the seminary to develop with Jesus Christ’s heart and wisdom, facing the challenges in the Church and society.

Synergy: Team Teaching

Walking together side by side for almost ten years, our faculty members have gradually developed deeper trust and friendship among each other; it thus naturally brings us a tight interactive relationship and excellent mutual understanding. This can be seen in our teachers’ proclamations at the chapel services in recent years. Often, they choose their preaching focuses and themes in accordance with the current learning direction of the seminary. In addition, this relationship is revealed through their teaching: they are willing to discard academic parochialism and teach as a team for any single course.

“Team teaching” is another practical form of HKBTS’s practical theology. In God’s grace, our faculty members in Biblical Studies and Christian Thought are increasingly strengthened. For the branch of Practical Theology, I think we can invite top Christian academics who have abundant practical experience in certain professional fields to co-teach pastoral care and counselling courses with our specialized teachers. In doing so, we can provide both theoretical and practical knowledge to our students, boosting their learning potential. I also arrange for teachers to co-teach some courses, in order to introduce our students to different aspects of thinking on the same topic. For instance, to strengthen the theological meaning and biblical foundation of the course “Church Worship,” apart from Church Music teachers, we also arrange Old Testament, New Testament and Christian Thought teachers to form a five-person-teaching-team to co-teach the course.

Furthermore, some teachers voluntarily initiate and invite other teachers to co-teach new elective courses. These includes the course “Ecclesiology” in Spring 2015-16, which was taught by six teachers: Prof. Andres Tang, Prof. Fook-kong Wong, Dr. Jonathan Lo, Dr. Freeman Huen, Dr. Vincent Lau and Rev. Brian Lam; and the course “William Willimon on Worship, Ethics and Preaching” in this semester, by three teachers: Prof. Andres Tang, Dr. Freeman Huen and Rev. Brian Lam.

In these past few years, I have witnessed our teachers wholeheartedly contributing their research expertise and practical experiences. Without academic parochialism, they use each others’ strength in lessons and exchange knowledge freely. On the one hand, their own knowledge is thus enhanced; on the other hand, students can learn more fully by using the perspective of different teachers. This scene delights me, and I believe God would also be fully contented with this group of teachers who humbly learn from each other.

Synergy: “Flying on Two Wings” and Preaching

As a disciple community, HKBTS’s effort on practicing synergy is not confined to interdisciplinary research among faculty members, but it also extends to our graduation sermon arrangement. In 2010, the seminary resumed the graduation sermon arrangement. However, there are not enough chapel services in the seminary for every graduating student to deliver a sermon. To resolve this difficulty, I suggested the “flying on two wings” approach which means arranging two students to preach at the same chapel service. The two students may collaborate ─ each choosing a closely related topic, explaining two related passages in one book, or explaining related passages from different books so that the two messages delivered are coherently and mutually affirming ─ creating the effect of “flying on two wings.” In 2017, some teachers even collaborated with the graduating class; a teacher was paired with a graduating student, each proclaiming an associated and reaffirming passage at the same chapel service. The messages proclaimed by our teachers and students echoed and responded to one another, fully embodying the very essence of “flying on two wings” and leaving us delighting in talking about it with an unforgettable enthusiasm.

Recently, I have become aware that the preaching styles and contents of our teachers are steadily transforming and improving. This is surely attributed to human efforts, but more importantly, it comes from God’s renewal and formational work in human lives, enabling the seminary as a whole to surrender under God’s almightiness, to discern Jesus Christ’s heart together, and to proclaim the gospel of God’s Kingdom and peace.

Synergy: “Teaching Assistant” in Preaching

In the semester of Spring 2017-18, since one of our adjunct teachers is unable to teach the course “Preaching” for our M.Div. program, without any better choice, I replaced the teacher and braced myself for the responsibility of teaching this course. For someone who is trained as a systematic theologian like me, I was not confident enough to teach preaching competently at first. One day, it came to mind that I can invite an “old hand” of preaching, Rev. Brian Lam, as my co-teaching partner. When he gladly accepted the invitation, I was notably joyful.

From the brainstorming of the course arrangement up till now as the course is halfway through, I have been not only cooperating closely with Rev. Lam without any conflict, but also enjoying the love of fellowship and the joy of team teaching he brings me. On the one hand, I have a chance to assimilate Rev. Lam’s experiences in teaching proclamation; on the other hand, I grasp this valuable opportunity to generate and integrate some of our theological thoughts. Moreover, this co-teaching course provides me with a second chance to study homiletic theories attentively. I keenly studied a renowned book about proclamation with Rev. Lam, and we believe that we not only learned from its superb homiletic theories, but would also deliberately practice those theories in our actual proclamations.

I can still remember that when the semester started and we expressed our expectations for this course to our students, some of them seemed crestfallen. Moreover, some showed hesitation in reading that famous publication about proclamation. Thanks be to God; I later witnessed that students absorbed the wisdom of that classic text earnestly. Rev. Lam and I were genuinely pleased by this. When we went through the stage of first trial preaching, from our students’ preaching performance, I found traces of the attentive teaching of their prior Biblical Studies teachers. The students’ proclamations were eminently faithful to the biblical texts. They exercised our motto: “correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). In fact, our students not only displayed this kind of Bible-based proclamation in lessons, but also demonstrated it in their graduation sermons. Now, the third part of the course has not started yet, but I expect our students can grasp the form and structure of a sermon well so that their audiences could participate the whole preaching incident and hear God’s words. Rev. Lam and I look forward to this with a prayerful heart.

Teaching preaching at this time allows me to hear the voice from the top anew: the whole seminary has to concentrate on the most crucial ministry of a pastor ─ proclaiming the gospel of the cross ─ and proclamation would be the characteristic of HKBTS’s practical theology. Teachers and students, we together discern God’s will in preaching and listening, so that we can meet the needs of the Church and face the changes in society. I anticipate that HKBTS will hold more workshops and seminars about proclamation, as a way to further the development of pastoral ministers and lay leaders in God’s words.

Forging of Theologia

It has been nine years since I began serving as the President of HKBTS. I have been urging the seminary to unceasingly develop its practical theology, feeling like I myself am doing a master of divinity program all over again, and I hope that I can go deeper and broader in knowledge about missiology, proclamation, Christian ethics, pastoral care and Christian education. In order to enter the field of practical theology, I reexamined a numbers of classics. Also, even when I write articles like this “President’s Word” in the Newsletter, I expect myself to achieve at least the writing standard of an eminent M.Div. student.

After nine years of thorough endeavor and careful cultivation, from the quality that our graduates and alumni exude, we see the first fruit of our students’ theologia. Recently, our Publication Office collected thirty articles that I wrote for the “President’s Word” in the Newsletter and published a book entitled the “Forging of Theologia” as a gift to our triune God who has been guiding us in our development. Looking back, I cannot help but offer sincere thanks to the Lord. He teaches me how to think and lead the future direction of the seminary, and He grants us a teaching team with one heart; thus we can stride across boundaries and work at something most people see as impossible. Looking to the future, I hope that with God’s grace, our seminary can move fervently toward the goal of “striving for academic excellence and improving our theology for the sake of the Church, so that the Church can be blessed even more.” God is the head of HKBTS; whenever He guides us toward a direction, we press on toward the goal and to Him alone be glory. Amen.

May 2018