In the past I've written a couple of short posts advocating the idea of building a biblical and theological "library" of books — a shelf (or shelves) with trusted books that can relied on to guide you in reading the Bible and navigating theological topics. (Click here and here to see the first two posts in what is now apparently a series!)

Some of these are books to read straight through; others are books to keep handy as reference books and turn to on an as-needed basis. All of them are worthwhile.

I'm still a fan of the books I recommended in the earlier posts — even as I now figure it's time to add a few more books to the list. If you're looking to slowly start building (or adding) to a biblical and theological library yourself, here are four books to add to the shelf:

Theology matters deeply. It summarizes and articulates what you believe about key topics that matter deeply. As Christians, the Bible must inform and invigorate our theology, as it is the final standard of authority for us — the primary means by which we discover who God is, what He's like and what He's doing, and what that invites us into. (You can find a bit more on the value of theology here, here, and here. It's something I plan on continuing to write about and advocate for.) 

But agreeing that theology is important doesn't end the conversation; rather, it opens up the conversation to other worthwhile topics — topics like "What does theology offer?", and "How should we define it?" 

Or another topic, "How do we do theology well?" There are so many things to factor into doing theology well: for example, (1) we do theology with the whole Bible as our final authority, (2) we do theology in a spirit of confidence and humility, (3) we do theology for the purpose of increasing communion with the Triune God and advancing His mission in the world. All of these (and more) are important and worth continued reflection. 

In this post I want to focus on the relationship between theology and the local church. Specifically, I want to make a brief and very introductory case that when thinking about theology and the local church, four prepositions should shape the relationship: we do theology for, in, by, and with the church.