Robert E. Webber, 1933-2007

Dr. Robert Webber spent his whole life teaching the church how to worship and now he is experiencing a greater worship than he ever did on earth. I never had the opportunity to hear Dr. Webber teach, but was touched greatly thorough the legacy he left at Wheaton College and through his many books. The whole Ancient-Future series changed the way I thought about church, life, mission, worship, and theology. Being at the Wheaton College Theology Conference earlier this month his presence was felt as almost every speaker referred to the influence he had on them and on the whole discussion of the Ancient-Future church. He will be missed, but he will never be forgotten. And even tomorrow as we join with the saints in worship we will think about him and look forward to that day in the renewed Kingdom of God where we can join him in front of our Lord in worship.

REMEMBER thy servant Bob Webber, O Lord, according to the favour which thou bearest unto thy people, and grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of thee, he may go from strength to strength, in the life of perfect service, in thy heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever, one God, world without end. Amen. O ALMIGHTY God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, who by a voice from heaven didst proclaim, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; Multiply, we beseech thee, to those who rest in Jesus, the manifold blessings of thy love, that the good work which thou didst begin in them may be perfected unto the day of Jesus Christ. And of thy mercy, O heavenly Father, vouchsafe that we, who now serve thee here on earth, may at last, together with them, be found meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; for the sake of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Some thoughts from Dan Kimball

Dan Kimball’s latest post at Vintage Faith could add a little bit to the current discussion going on in the comments section of my post about Tony Jones’ talk. Dan discusses the importance of core beliefs, and he lists some of his. However, even more important are his concluding words, and his reason for writing the post – to call our attention to Ephesians 4:29. He writes,

My prayer in all this is that we who are followers of Jesus will steward our time and focus our energies on what is most important. With all the trouble and pain this world and people are in, I hope we who blog will steward our time in the right way and right hearts, attitudes, and words we use towards others and whenever possible be building up, instead of tearing down. OK, that’s my long and lengthy post for those that care about what I believe on these things. May we yield to the Spirit’s guidance and obey Paul’s teaching where he says in Ephesians 4:29-5:2 …….

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

An Open Letter (of sorts) to Tony Jones…Based on his lecture at the Wheaton Theology Conference

It’s been over a week since I returned from the Wheaton College Theology Conference and I think that I have finally digested much of what was said there. While some may not have thought he belonged I was very happy that Tony Jones, the Big Kahuna of Emergent Village, was not only invited to speak, but to give a plenary lecture. It was the session I looked the most forward to and the session that I enjoyed the most. I knew going in that it would not be your traditional evangelical church speak, and I was sure that whatever he said would probably create some controversy and reaction – I was right on all three counts. However, what I was not counting on was how good lecture would be; I had heard of Tony and read his chapter in Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches, but past that I didn’t know much about him. Most of my friends would lead you to believe he was Satan’s henchman because of his association with the Emerging Church. I of course do not believe it; his talk and his graciousness in the face of questions illustrated to me that he deeply loves Jesus, his church, and also the lost world into which we are sent to do missions. What follows is an open letter of sorts to Tony Jones of my questions about his ideas.

His main point, drawn on a really cool baseball analogy, is that Orthodoxy Happens or orthodoxy is an event, and so there is (to paraphrase him the best I can remember) “no acontextual, universal orthodoxy.” To read his reflections on the conference see here and here. The second link contains his very good summary of his paper.

 

Dear Tony,

First, thank you for your presentation at the Wheaton Conference. It was not only enjoyable, but it was thoughtful and well put together. I also liked that you wore jeans and use PowerPoint; I even had a cup of coffee – if we would have had candles, couches, and some Sigur Ros playing in the background we could have had church. (I wish sarcasm came across in emails). Seriously, it was a fine presentation – and even more, it was refreshing that you prayed before your lecture as none of the other speakers did that. Thanks.

On another note, this is not my preferred way of doing to conversation. It seems so very unemerging to have a dialogue through the blog world. It would be much better to sit down over a beer or two and work through my questions. But such is life. This way will work.

Rather than respond to your presentation at this juncture I just want to ask you a couple questions. Any response you have time to give would be much appreciated. I am still working through your basic premise and D.H. Williams question about defining the strike zone and especially how we can be sure that the strike zone will never be above the head of the batter. I am beginning to formulate my answer to this, and I am comfortable living in the paradox, but this wrestling may influence a lot of my questions. At this point I can say that the strike zone will never be above the head of the batter because then the game would be impossible to play and no fun to watch – the connection to the event of orthodoxy is clear in my mind, but not settled. Anyway, to the questions:

1) As I said I am still working through why at some point the strike zone might not change so much that a strike can be called when the ball is above the head of the batter. I don’t mind the paradox, and maybe should just trust that as the community of baseball will prevent that from happening so the game can still be played, so will the community of those who follow Jesus.

2) Related to that though I have a question; What makes someone part of the community that gets to participate in the event of orthodoxy? To use your baseball analogy, it is the community of baseball that in a sense “determines” the strike zone and not the community of football or hockey – so are there voices that are not part of the event of orthodoxy…voices that should not have a role in defining the orthodox strike zone so to speak? If so, how do you determine this? [I think this is my main question - and I don't want to define people out of the kingdom/community at all - but just as there are standards for baseball there are standards for the Christian]

3) When I first thought of this question I wasn’t really serious, but I’ll ask it anyway – if orthodoxy is an event does that also mean that heresy is an event? Does heresy happen?

4) What role does Scripture play in your conversation about life and theology?

5) In the story told in Acts 16 a not-yet-Christian (to borrow the language of Rick McKinley) asks the apostles, “What must I do to be saved?” Now, I believe that Christianity is about so much more than “me and Jesus and my Bible.” We must stop preaching that all salvation is about is escaping hell. We need to recover the idea of the Kingdom of God as Wright is trying to do. We must also recover more of a communal idea of salvation (and this includes a recovery of the sacraments). We must also include with salvation the important concept of orthopraxy. I am also strongly in favor of the idea that people will belong before they believe. So I ask this question not from the typical crusade evangelism perspective. Nevertheless, we are still called to the missio Dei – so if you were sitting in an coffeeshop in downtown Minneapolis and someone asked you the same question, “What must I do to be saved?” what would you tell them? Or, even better, someone you have been friends with for a long time – they have seen the way you live – they have heard what you say – you have a relationship with them – and they ask you; what do you say?

Thanks. I am sure I will have more questions but I’ll start with these. Thanks. God Bless. And keep doing the work of the Kingdom.

In Christ,

Robert Lancaster

Wheaton Theology Conference

I got back from the Wheaton Theology Conference a week ago today. The conference was on the ancient church especially as we can use it today. All the sessions were good and I am still thinking through what was said. The emergent church was talked about by a couple speakers, most notably Tony Jones.

Jones’ lecture was very interesting and by far provoked the most reaction. I am still working through his idea that Orthodoxy Happens, or that Orthodoxy is an Event.

I tend to agree with a lot of what he said, but am still working through some questions.

This got me thinking this morning

David Fitch has some good thoughts on why leading smaller churches is more difficult that leading larger ones. Read it all here.

It is more difficult to build a gathering that is a mission in the world, than it is to build a gathering that comes to see the show. It is more difficult to build a crowd around a personality than it is around being the Body of Christ in the world. Yes it is more difficult, but in the end so much more satisfying. And when you’re gone this community will keep reproducing the love of Christ, the fruits of the Spirit and the leader(s) to carry on the transformation of the world until Christ returns.