Theological education can be overwhelming for many people. Formal study is located outside the church in seminaries. Podcasts are helpful for some people, and small videos or blogs can help because they are short. Many people attending churches could benefit from regular doses of theological education in similar ways that they gain from regular preaching from biblical passages in sermons.

Just as a Sunday morning service has several elements that are good for all Christians in a church — prayer, announcement, singing, a sermon, communion — five minutes given to some brief and clear explanation of a topic could make important Christian theology accessible for everyone. Over the course of a single year, adding a five-minute theology moment to a church's Sunday service could give people four hours of accessible theological education.

The need for theological education for everyone is that some important theological topics require multiple Bible passages; simply preaching through one Bible passage at a time will not adequately explain some doctrines. Sermons usually have different functions to encourage and exhort the church from one piece of the Bible. Theological topics are conclusions derived from several biblical passages linked together. Examples are the Trinity, the hypostatic union, the atonement, regeneration, the return of Jesus, final judgment, Hell, the New Creation, justification, faith, sin, the Lord’s Supper, water baptism, Israel’s place in God’s works, predestination, progressive sanctification, etc.

Even for Christians who know something about these topics, they would benefit from a brief encounter with precise definition and explanation of the deep theological reality. A good grip on a precise aspect of a topic can be explained in five minutes. Some topics could be treated in a series, such as three weeks on regeneration (that is 15 minutes total).

Similarly, topics of apologetics are also valuable for all Christians to understand clearly: arguments for the existence of God, responding to the problem of evil, human free will and God’s plan, God and time, etc.

Another option is to use the five minutes to introduce a helpful book on a topic, mentioning why it is valuable and explaining the main points, as in a concise book review.

Also, many Christians are interested in rival religions. A possibility is to do a series of weeks on “Salvation in various religions” to focus on salvation in Islam for one week and then look at salvation in Judaism or Buddhism the next week, and on and on.

Five minutes is a small enough amount of time that people won’t be bored with this addition, like adding another healthy side dish to balance a meal. Some churches might want to provide a half-page handout with an outline of details on the theological topic, starting with a clear statement of definition, essential biblical passages, and lists of resources for further study.

Many churches catechize new members and young people in their congregations to deepen and extend the theological education for everyone. The difference of a Theology Moment in the Sunday morning meeting is that this is not a program to follow or a book to read at home. Many Christians are involved in churches only at the point of attending the Sunday morning meeting, and perhaps additionally in a small group. The Theology Moment is a provision for everyone to benefit from theology in ways that are normally limited to seminary or undergraduate curriculum (such as the 10 courses in Bible and Theology that every student takes at Biola University).

Adding a theology moment to the sermon is another way to get more people of a church involved in the Sunday meeting. Perhaps someone is really interested in prayer, or arguments for the existence of God, or the meaning of humanity as the image of God. The theology moment is a way for many others in the church besides those who can share in the preaching, song leading, or public prayers to contribute to the whole church in a brief way, regulated by the limitation to five minutes.

All Christians benefit from being able to represent what they believe, whether to non-Christian friends, for parents to explain things to their children, or for friends to be able to consider the beautiful and mysterious aspects of the faith in discussion with each other. The theology moment could equip people to think theologically and have greater confidence to explain their faith to others.

Once everyone is used to this as a regular element in each Sunday meeting, it could add interesting shuffling of content and contributors, fulfilling the biblical descriptions of the church as an organism in which people are truly teaching one another.

The only administrative piece is that someone could log the topics covered week after week, so that repetition of topics would be avoided. It would not be hard to do 500 unique topics from theology, apologetics and book reviews. Over the course of 10 years, that would be 40 hours of theological education for everyone in the church, just by attending on Sunday mornings.