Quote of the Week
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May 23, 2022: How to Evangelize
Our emphasis . . . must not be to make Christianity attractive, as attractive as it is, nor to make it a panacea for all ills, as much as it does give life meaning and purpose. Instead, we need to emphasize the necessity of a faith that issues forth in obedience, and our belonging to an alternative culture shaped by the kingdom of Jesus. -Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 145.
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May 16, 2022: Meaning of Baptism
In most evangelical churches of the Enlightenment, baptism is seen as my witness to my salvation. The divine action of God’s work in baptism is often neglected. The biblical meaning of baptism is that through identification with Christ we are called to put to death everything that is sin in our lives and bring to life a new person shaped in the image to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is not a once-for-all my-witness-to-the-world action. It is the ritual that initiates us into the body of Christ and begins our lifelong pursuit of holiness, which takes place in the accountability of God’s community on earth, the church. -Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 144.
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May 9, 2022: Communal Model of Evangelism
Evangelism is shifting away from Enlightenment individualism to the more communal model of the early church. . . . Evangelism is therefore not only a conversion to Christ, who has won a victory over the powers of evil, but a conversion into a community. These are the people whose outlook and lifestyle are being reshaped by their participation in the alternative community of faith. . . . At conversion, a convert has only begun the process of being saved, the church is the community in which this process in encouraged and brought to completion. -Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 143-144.
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May 2, 2022: Classic Webber
Here is a classic Bob Webber quote: pithy, poetic, and profound:
There is no story but God’s; no God but the Father, Son and Spirit; and no life but the baptized life.-Robert E. Webber, The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2006), 243.
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