Four challenges face preachers, which will be addressed through this series: 1. Think as Trinitarians 2. Act as Trinitarians 3. Preach as Trinitarians 4.Prepare worship services as Trinitarians
THINK AS TRINITARIANS
God’s promise of “renewed intelligence”8 that enables believers to be transformed and to test God’s will involves deeper spiritual understanding. With renewed thinking, believers “test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2). The challenge for preachers to think as Trinitarians is not an invitation to engage in stimulating, though time-wasting, intellectual theory, but rather a call to engage with God afresh.
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Robin Parry believes that such thinking is vital for worship leaders too. “Good theology matters for good worship.”
I used to think that sorting our your doctrine and sorting out your worship were two quite separate things. Now I see that right belief about God is intimately connected to right worship because believing right things about God is an essential component in honoring God appropriately. That is why Christians speak of right belief about God as “orthodoxy,” which means “right glory.”9 Preachers believe orthodoxy, “right glory,” in order to express doxology, “glory words.”When preachers think as Trinitarians, everything changes.
ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND
Some treat the doctrine of the Trinity lightly because of the apparent paucity of specific Scripture references (see part three of this series) or consider it mere abstract terms and concepts derived from ancient church councils. But the Christian God of Scripture cannot be understood without the doctrine of the Trinity. True, it took the early church nearly four centuries to finally articulate this doctrine. However, early Christians expressed the doctrine from the very beginning (Matthew 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).
The practice of speaking of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is embedded in the New Testament, though working out the profound theological implications of such practice necessarily took some time. Trying to understand God’s DNA as revealed in Scripture understandably demanded the best “renewed intelligence” available!
The complex and arduous theological process of formulating the doctrine of the Trinity out of Scripture resulted in the Nicene-Constantinople Creed (381 AD) that emphasized how the eternal relationship between Father and Son is essential to revelation and salvation. Its language has remained seminal for all subsequent reflection. It formulated that God is one in his essential being (ousia), but subsists eternally in three persons (hypostases) — Father, Son and Spirit. During these early church debates, two different models and terms emerged that continue to be vital for preaching.