Yesterday evening as I entered the house around 5:45pm or so I noticed that a new book from Amazon had arrived and was waiting for me on the arm of the couch. I always get an email update letting me know that my order has shipped. So I was anticipating receiving "Ancient Future Worship" by Robert E. Webber.
I have been reading through some of Webber's writings and leaned on them during the season of Lent (you may have noticed). Through getting familiar with him I realized that he had been diagnosed with cancer.
Robert Webber died of pancreatic cancer on April 27, 2007. So this would be his last work. As I cracked its cover and even now as I write I was overpowered by the work and words of a man in his final months, weeks, days and moments of life. These are among his final words to the world, to the church, to us.
Here is an excerpt from the back cover:
God has a story. Worship does God's story. There is a crisis of worship today. The problem goes beyond matters of style--it is a crisis of content and of form. Worship in churches today is too often dead and dry, or busy and self-involved. Robert Webber attributes these problems to a loss of vision of God and of God's narrative in past, present, and future history. As he examines worship practices of Old Testament Israel and the early church, Webber uncovers ancient principles and practices that can reinvigorate our worship today and into the future. The final volume in Webber's acclaimed Ancient-Future series, Ancient-Future Worship is the culmination of a lifetime of study and reflection on Christian worship. Here is an urgent call to recover a vigorous, God-glorifying, transformative worship through the enactment and proclamation of God's glorious story. The road to the future, argues Webber, runs through the past.
Robert E. Webber (1933-2007) was, at the time of his death, Myers Professor of Ministry at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois, and served as the president of the Institute for Worship Studies in Orange Park, Florida. His many books include Ancient-Future Faith and The Younger Evangelicals.
No comments:
Post a Comment