Thinking about what to read: Stan Grenz

I have a soft spot in my heart for Baptist theologian, Stan Grenz. It has little to do with his theology and more to do with his willingness, when I was a student at Regent College, to play his trumpet when students, like myself, had hair-brained ideas about trumpet fanfares at special events. He would show up and play like a pro, rarely needing extra instruction or direction. A great theologian and a rock solid musician, a man after my heart!

I never took a class with Grenz (since I didn't think that I really liked theology the year that I was in residence in Vancouver...how we change, and how we regret our missed opportunities) but I heard my friends talk about him leading classes in a song from his trusty guitar. I loved that idea so much that, in honor of Dr. Grenz, I too begin my theology classes with a hymn. As J. I. Packer is fond of saying, "All theology should lead to doxology." Stan Grenz lived this out with dignity and grace.

Grenz, who died too young, was always a pastor at heart. As the title of one of his books shows, Theology for the Community of God was not just a nice or high ideal, it was the very core of his theological agenda. He believed that the greatest call for humanity was to participate in and be the body of Christ in the world. His theology is an open invitation for us all to love and be for the sake of one another. And in various eulogies for Stan Grenz (such as this one by Brian McLaren) it is evident that his was a lived theology.

Grenz studied with the great German theologian, Wolfart Pannenberg. This influence is most keenly felt in Grenz's emphasis on the eschatological church. He believed that the Kingdom of God was now and not yet, and that the Christian church was called to live out this in-between reality every minute of every day. All the promises of God were already fulfilled, we just haven't experienced the fullness of that reality. Regardless, we should live as if the fullness of the Kingdom of God is here and now. As he articulates this in his book, Created For Community: 

“By linking our lives to God’s future, the Spirit admonishes us to open ourselves and our present to the power of God’s future, which is already at work in our world” (171-2).

Thanks Stan... we miss your wisdom and passion for the church...