Theology in Practice with K.A. Ellis
On today’s episode of the Journeywomen podcast, we’re chatting with K.A. Ellis about what it means to put what we’ve learned in our current series, Journeywomen Goes to Seminary, into practice! In this episode, she reminds us that our ultimate goal is simply to know and love God more. K.A. Ellis is the Director of the Edmiston Center for the Study of the Bible and Ethnicity in Atlanta, Georgia. She's passionate about theology, human rights, and global religious freedom. Since 2006, it's been her pleasure to collaborate with the Swiss-based organization, International Christian Response, traveling internationally to connect local and global Christians while studying and advocating for global religious freedom. Her research explores Christian endurance from society's margins, particularly in places where it's most difficult to live the Christian life. Mrs. Ellis is the Cannada Fellow for World Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary. She holds a Master of Art in Religion (MAR Theological) from Westminster Theological Seminary, a Master of Fine Art (MFA) from the Yale School of Drama, and is a Ph.D. candidate in World Christianity and Ethics at the Oxford Center for Mission Studies in England.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
What have you been up to since we chatted in 2019?
How is the Edmiston Center different from your average seminary experience? What does the Center offer to enhance your seminary experience?
What does theology have to do with everyday life?
How does our doctrinal study influence our worship? How does what we know impact the way we live?
Can you offer us an example of how growing in your theology practically changed the way you went about life?
Does the way we live out our theology advance the mission of God? How?
What steps can we take to ensure that what we're learning doesn't just stay in our heads, but that it moves from our heads, to our hearts, to our hands? What is the danger in unapplied theology?
Have you walked through a season in which you're learning a lot about how you ought to live as a follower of Christ, but having a hard time connecting what you're learning with what you're actually living? What helped? What encouragement do you have for someone who finds themselves in that place?
How can we be careful that our study of theology is not making us more arrogant and eager to pick fights with those less knowledgeable?
What has helped you assume a posture of humility as you continue in your study? What words of caution or encouragement do you have for those of us who desire to do the same?
This series the Journeywomen listeners had a sampling of seminary topics. I know many of them are probably exploring the idea of actually going to seminary in a more formal capacity. Can you help us understand how going to seminary is similar to other forms of continued education, like going to medical school or law school? How is it different?
Is it different being a woman studying in seminary? Teaching in seminary?
What makes for the best or most successful seminary experience?
Who should go to seminary? Who comes to the Edmiston Center?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“Theology has everything to do with everyday life. If God has called us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, it’s not only how we’re thinking about Scripture, but taking it into that place where we actually render theology not as a noun, but as a verb.”
“Theology is something that you do.”
“What we know about God (our epistemology) and how we obey God (our ethics) should go together.”
“I went from rendering God as one God of many names to understanding that there was a God of the Bible who had revealed himself to people.”
“It makes such a difference to know that he actually started not just my life, but this whole process of human history. If I believe that and that it's going somewhere, it informs what I do and how I do it, what I prioritize and what I focus on today. Am I about the mission he has set his people on - to let others know who he is and what he’s doing in the world?”
“Every renewal or revival has started with prayer.”
“Starting with prayer and that reorientation, taking my mind and brain back to Genesis 1 and tasting and seeing that not only is the Lord good, but that he created us for something else.”
“When you handle the things of God every day, and you use the language of the things of God, you forget that it’s powerful, that it’s precious, because you're touching it every day.”
“There's a cost involved when we’re thinking God’s thoughts after him that is different from any cost we might experience when we’re thinking our thoughts after ourselves.”
“There’s benefit to looking at the places where the church got it right and individuals and communities got it right - in both the Bible and in redemptive history. There’s also value in looking at where things went wrong and asking, ‘How did they get it wrong?’”
“The only person to ever live the Christian life perfectly was Jesus. He is Christianity. He is who he says he is.”
“In going to seminary, you’re going to study and be formed by the King of the universe.”
“The ideal seminary experience is to come out a different person than you went in as - spiritually formed, more humble, knowing the character of God better. The ultimate goal is to know God better.”
“You’re not coming to study a subject; you’re coming to know a person. You're coming to handle and taste and touch and feel the things of God. That’s a very different approach to academia.”
“We’re not people of the book; we’re people of the person.”
“I have to hold onto the knowledge that God promises that he will one day balance the scales, and that everyone will be satisfied with how he does it because only he can execute perfect justice and mercy.”
“No death, no resurrection; no resurrection, no pentecost; no pentecost, no glory. We as the people of God are challenged to live that pattern in everyday life. God is saying, ‘Die so that you can live.’ It’s completely upside down, and yet there is life there.”
“There’s a reality that God’s working with that is completely different from what you're experiencing.”
“Suffering will teach you to hate sin, to hate the world and the state it’s in. Suffering will also teach you to trust God more.”
“In the Western culture, we are so conditioned to comfort and luxury. Our orientation is towards comfort, and we must lay it down consciously.”
“Everybody’s got something that’s their weakness and their strength.”
“God says, I’m not going to break you, you’re a bruised reed. I’m not going to break you as I form you this way [through suffering].”
“Cultural Christianity is being challenged, and it’s been good for us. There are a lot of people who are walking away from politicized Christianity, from cultural Christianity, and they’re saying ‘How do I go back to first things?’... and they’re coming back to the heart of Christ.”
“God has created a people for himself, and he has promised to keep that people from every nation, tongue, and tribe. How do we be a people and participate in that story as a people who know how to check their idols, whose ethics and epistemology match? How do we pass the kingdom ball forward to the next generation that’s coming up in a culture where Christianity - as the culture understands it - has lost all cultural credibility?”
“We are in a new day, we need to start asking new questions, and we need to train everybody.”
“Ask God to show you your idols. That’s hard, because you know he’s going to do it. If you’re thinking you don’t have any, you’re the main person who needs to ask this question.”
“I know you want me to tell you, ‘Go out and feed the poor.’ I know you want me to tell you, ‘Go out and start a ministry.’ I know you want me to tell you, ‘Go out and get involved in fighting human trafficking.’ I know you want me to give you something so that you feel like you’re doing something, but prayer is action. Prayer is revival. Once you start to ask God that first step, ‘Show me my idols.’ He’s going to take you on a journey that’s going to take you to a place where you will put your hands to something, but you do not want to put your hands to something until you lay your idols down.”
“When we ask God to show us our idols, that’s the bravest and best prayer we can ask.”
RESOURCES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What does theology have to do with everyday life?
How does your doctrinal study influence your worship? How does what you know impact the way you live?
Does the way you live out your theology advance the mission of God? How?
What steps can you take to apply your theology - or to move your theology from your head to your heart to your hands?
What are you going to do or implement as a result of what you’ve learned this week?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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