Building the Future Church: John McClean’s Impact Through Theology

“Overall, these are students who’ve put their lives on hold, who are investing money and time to understand something. We’re getting to talk about the great truths of the faith and explore Scripture in depth and reflect on that. And not only are they motivated to understand it, they want to put it into practice in their own lives and they want to use that to serve people. It’s pretty hard to get a better job than that.”

John McClean has a passion for seeing Christians better equipped in their understanding of theology. Currently Christ College Vice Principal, John is also a lecturer, author, and convenor of the Gospel, Society and Culture Committee of the Presbyterian Church of NSW.

Setting the Foundation

Born in Taree on the mid-north Coast of New South Wales, John had the privilege of growing up in a family that took the gospel very seriously. His grandfather was a minister, his uncle was a minister, and his father was an elder in their local church. 

“Growing up, I’d shared my parents’ faith, which is what I think kids should do,” John shares. “But you obviously need to reach a point where you need to own that for yourself. So for me that was Year 10 of high school.”

From Medicine to Ministry

John’s experience at university turned out to be very formative for him. He had arrived at UNSW to study medicine, but by the end of his third year at university a lot had happened. Over the course of those three years he had started thinking more seriously about Christian ministry, he’d become engaged to his now-wife, Liz, and his mum had died quite suddenly.

“The time at uni was really clarifying,” John explains. “Getting a bigger picture of the gospel and a bigger picture of what God’s doing in the world—that was all getting me thinking. There were lots of opportunities to be involved in leadership and discipling people and doing evangelism and all sorts of things like that. It was a growing conviction.”

So instead of continuing on to study medicine, John chose to graduate with a Bachelor of Science and spend the next four years on staff in campus ministry. After completing four years of study at Moore College, John became a Presbyterian candidate. He and Liz moved out to Cowra where he served as the minister at Cowra Presbyterian Church.

By his own admission, John has always enjoyed studying and engaging with ideas and learning about theology, especially understanding the big picture of the Bible and how it applies to life. So while he was serving at Cowra, he started work on a research Master’s degree. At that time, he wasn’t necessarily looking for work in theological education, but he was genuinely interested in studying.

Training Future Leaders

A few years later, a role was advertised at what was then called PTC (Presbyterian Theological Centre; now Christ College) for a lecturer in Systematic Theology, which John ended up applying for—and he was successful.

“I did start the teaching role probably more with a sense of duty than anything else,” John reflects. “I think it is important for the future of the church that theology is taught well, and that people training for ministry not only hear the truth, but are shaped well. But it’s actually been a great role. I really feel very privileged, both what I teach and also the people that I get to teach.”

John and Liz and their children moved from Cowra to Winmalee in the Lower Blue Mountains. They have been part of Springwood-Winmalee Presbyterian Church for more than 20 years.

After a few years teaching at PTC, John enrolled in a PhD program and turned the Master’s thesis into a doctoral thesis on “Anticipation in the Thought of Wolfhat Pannenberg.” He later turned the thesis into a more accessible book: “From The Future: Getting To Grips With Pannenberg’s Thought.”

Bringing Biblical and Systematic Theology Together

John’s passion to see Christians and the church equipped through theological training extends past his lecturing work and into authorship and editorial work. More than a decade ago, he and (Christ College lecturer) Murray Smith had been chatting about the idea of a book series. The overall concept focused on how biblical theology and systematic theology can work well together.

It was roughly 10 years ago, while John and Murray were attending a conference in the United States, that their conversations started to turn into a reality. John met an editor from Lexham Press, Brandon, who invited the Christ College faculty members out for dinner.

John shares, “As we were chatting over dinner, Brandon said to us, ‘Look, pitch me a book idea, and then I can pay for dinner.’ So we said, ‘Oh, well, we do actually have an idea.’” The rest, as they say, is history. Currently, two of the eight volumes of the We Believe series have been published, and a third is currently with the publisher.

“Systematic theology is the discipline that I teach in, but I’ve really been very influenced by the biblical theological approach,” John explains. “Murray and I are both utterly convinced that the two shouldn’t be seen as competitors, but as collaborators, and that good theology needs both. We really want to demonstrate  in detail through this series how fruitful it is to bring the two disciplines together in conversation.”

John admits that seeing the first volumes in print is “almost a bit unbelievable.” After talking about it with Murray for so many years, he’s encouraged to see the series taking shape. 

For more information about the We Believe series, head here.