JI Packer On ecclesiastical plumbing

A theologian's business is to make sure that the church has what I will call a pure water system-thinking of the word of God as the water of life.

You could describe him, therefore, as a kind of ecclesiastical plumber, or sewage engineer.

In the church, there's always going to be muddy water, there's always going to be mistaken ideas going around; theologians are the people whose business is to keep the flow clear and pure.

In order to do that, they have to understand the faith as a whole, and that usually means that they have to do something like specialist work in the exposition of Bible truth-because the people who are stirring up the mud are also doing specialist work....

Any section of the church which doesn't have theologians-as point people and whistle blowers and plumbers and water engineers-is, sooner or later, going to be bogged down in muddy water.

(J.I. Packer)