Theological Education Occures All the Time! - Sheryl Chng

My impression of typical theologian.

I have always associated theological education with those with white fizzy beards longer than that of the hairs on their heads, those whose photos when taken appear in black and white. In church, there are the reverends, elders, deacons, pastors, preachers, mentors, and all the other important people serving, and then there’s Sheryl. Just like an education in business is for the businessmen, I had long relegated theological education to the theologians. 

However, today, as Prof. Simon Chan was speaking about the importance of theological education, he mentioned that theological education occurs all the time, whether we know it or not, and everyone has a part to play, and I was like, hey that's me! Although I don’t receive formal training in a theological college, I too, have a part to play in promoting theological education.

I learnt later on in his presentation, that theological education is very important in our social engagement, such as social service, which I am currently quite involved in. Stopping to think for a moment, I realized I have been working a lot with the old oldies lately. For one, I have this adopted grandma that I visit weekly. She stays alone and has difficulty moving about, so whenever I visit, I try to help her with her chores as best I can, like doing her laundry and stuffs. 

It was said that in everything we do, we should always have our pragmatic reasons, as well as the theological reasons as to why we do what we do, so that we never lose sight of our ultimate goal, or give up when things don’t go our way. So, the fact that she needs help is definitely the pragmatic aspect as to why I pay her regular visits, but I think I always fail to put God into the picture, and I forget about the theological aspect of it. 

Why am I doing this for God? Well, she is a fellow sister in Christ, so I figured I could read the Bible together with her! Instead of just cleaning up for her (and after her), maybe I should just have a nice chat with her about her journey with God. Although it’s something simple, and something small, but I guess it’s a start. :)

Sheryl Chng