# Dr. Robert Norris on the Pastor as Theologian



## Archlute (Jun 24, 2008)

This quote is from a lecture series given at WSC in 2006 by the Rev. Robert Norris who is the senior minister at 4th Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Bethesda, Maryland. I have listened with much profit to those lectures several times over, and came across this passage while in study today which I thought would be beneficial in reminding the minister (and those who listen to us) of the importance of addressing his people theologically. In particular, by means of a grace-centered approach that understands our position as sinners all:



> “…and what we do is to make of them something close to God, because we secretly invest them with the attributes that they do not have. When we say, ‘You must have love, and joy, and strength, and morality, and all of these things!’ we are making of them God rather than the sinner in need of the grace of God, and we will be disappointed in our people, because we will find that they are sinners just as they will be disappointed in us, because they will find that we are sinners with them.
> On the other hand, if you are a theologian, and you see your fellow men and women as sinners then you are prepared to share with them in grief and shortcoming, pain or failure, because with them you stand in need and with them you are privileged to be able to bring the message of the grace of God. You see the preacher, the pastor, is set by God to come amongst his own people to talk about Jesus Christ, and if we do not talk about him then we deny to our people grace, and if we do talk about him we immediately make every last one of them sinners, because it is only to sinners that he has come! For others do not need him. And as a consequence grace is the main subject of pastoral conversation and it is the heart of preaching.”


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