As I’ve mentioned in a comment earlier, I actually do fit Ken Silva’s description of a lead guitarist and pastor.  I started playing guitar when I was in college, and since then I have been trying to fulfill my dreams of becoming a rock ‘n’ roll star.  Occasionally, I go to online forums for guitarists where people talk about things like what pickups sound best in my Strat, what distortion pedal sounds best with this amp, was Jimi Hendrix overrated, etc.  Basically it’s stuff that most normal people don’t care about.  Sometimes I think the people involved in these discussion forget why they are there in the first place – to become better guitarists, supposedly.

Where I’m headed with all this is this.  Yesterday Tony Rose posted an article on CR?N that linked to this post on his blog entitled Knowing AND (not “or”) Doing… the Christian Life.  Now let me say from the start that Tony actually says some things I agree with.  I do agree with his assertion that knowing and doing aren’t opposite to one another.  I also agree with point that a proper understanding of Biblical knowledge should spur us on to do more.  My disagreement with his post comes down to the fact that he is still creating a hierarchy where knowledge is placed before and above action.  He says:

Preachers today should follow that model and preach and teach theology, to increase people’s knowledge, in order that they can understand the practical applications of their teachings on Biblical spiritual growth. And then of course, teach Biblical applications and not man-centered ones.

The problem with placing knowledge in a higher place than action arises when we realize that in most things in life, people can’t really learn without doing.  We can read books, hear lectures, and do other things to attain knowledge, but that knowledge remains useless if it isn’t put to use.  The way most people learn a skill go something like this.  First we watch someone do something, we then help someone do something, and then finally we are able to do it by ourselves, and ideally teach others.  The example of a carpenter that he uses is actually a perfect example of this.  For someone to be a carpenter, they must first be an apprentice.  This involves a relatively small amount of book knowledge.  One learns to be a carpenter by doing carpentry.

To get back to my guitar analogy, I look at like this.  I may know chords and scales, I might know all the ins and outs of the gear, and I might even know some music theory, but it’s all useless until I make the choice to pick up the guitar and practice.  I need to get callouses on my fingers, fumble around to find the chords for a while, and then eventually I’ll be able to play some music.  Knowledge doesn’t come before doing, it go hand in hand with it.  Isn’t this what James is saying in James in 1:26 & 27:

Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world. (from The Message)

We can talk a good talk, but if we don’t make the choice to walk the walk, then it’s worthless.  If we know all the right theology, but don’t choose to serve others, what good is it?  The problem with thinking that knowledge is always above action is that it will always give us a reason to delay action.  We can always learn more.

So how much do we need to know before we act?  Not much according to Paul (I’m stealing this from Brant Hansen in this podcast). In Romans 15:14, Paul says this:

I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

Now these are the same Roman Christians to whom just earlier in this letter Paul was explaining the basics of salvation!  Now either Paul thought they were incredibly fast learners, or he thought that God would honor their shaky steps of faith.  I think it was the latter.

So today it seems to me that we have the same choice the Roman Christians had.  We can continue to let our questions and doctrinal differences paralyze us, or we can choose to believe we know enough to serve each other and the world.  Maybe once we make that choice, we will find ourselves learning more than ever.