Ancient-Future Evangelism: Making Your Church a Faith-Forming Community

by Robert E. Webber

Following his well-received Ancient-Future Faith, Robert Webber presents a new model for evangelism and discipleship, the first in a series of four books applying his theoretical ideas to practical situations.
Part 1 of Ancient-Future Evangelism surveys evangelism and Christian formation throughout the church and then translates the process for twenty-first-century Christians. Webber presents evangelism as four distinct stages and suggests three accompanying rites of passage that can be easily adapted to any church tradition.
Part 2 underscores how the four-fold process of faith formation is interwoven with three theological Christ as victor over evil, the church as witness to God's salvation, and worship as a witness to God's mission accomplished in Jesus.
Ancient-Future Evangelism will appeal to both emerging evangelicals as well as traditional church leaders. It relates faith to Christian practice by drawing wisdom from the past and translating those insights into the present and future life of the church.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Evangelism, Church, Church History, Leadership, Discipleship

219 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Tony Villatoro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book right here. Wow. Writing out the quotes that I highlighted as I read it has refreshed me once again in helping me understand a bit more of the work of evangelism that every Christian is called to do. I was attracted to this book since I wanted to learn about how the Christians before our time have done evangelism. Robert E. Webber gives high importance to the history and development of Christianity in this area (and many others). He writes, "These three - roots, connection to history, and authenticity - will help us maintain continuity with historic Christianity as the church moves forward in a changing world." (10)

From the beginning, he establishes how Christians throughout history have evangelized. The first part of the book is called "The Process of Christian Formation” and gives a broad scope of the call to make disciples in chapter 1. Chapter 2-5 deals with evangelism, discipleship, spiritual formation, and how to live out a Christian life as a vocation for the reason to evangelize through our daily lives.

The second part of the book is titled "Cultural and Theological Reflection." Here the author writes out a few underlying convictions he believes in as Christian proclaim the gospel in our post-Christian world.

A great book with so much content on the work of evangelism peppered with quotes from the church fathers. I could read this again one day. I could not fit all the quotes, but here are some that I enjoyed reading:


How can our evangelism produce not only converts but disciples who grow in faith and become active members of the church? -13

Disicipleship is "a process that takes place within accountable relationships over a period of time for the purpose of bringing believers to spiritual maturity in Christ.” -13

Chapter 1. The way New Christians Have Been Formed
Today, if you wish your church tho become a faith-forming community, it is necessary to establish a continuity between ministries of evangelism, discipleship, and spiritual formation. -20

One dynamic feature of Hebraic faith is holism. Our Western world has been shaped primarily by Greek through rather than Hebraic thought. Greek through separates, divided, and sees things in parts, whereas Hebraic thought sees things as whole and continuous. For this reason, when we approach the Scriptures and then our ministry, we need to “undergo a kind go intellectual conversion.” -20

The heart of discipleship in Matthew’s Gospel is the Sermon on the Mount, in which Matthew expected the followers of Jesus “to live according to these norms always and under all circumstances.” -22

Quote: “As I see it, in Christianity’s early centuries conversion involved changes in belief, belonging and behavior in the context of an experience of God.” (Alan Kreider) -23

Quote: Justin refers to them as persons who “are persuaded and believe that the things we teach and say are true” and moves on to emphasize behavior in saying baptismal candidates are to “promise that they can live” by the teaching of the church. He warns that “those who are not found living as Christ taught should know that they are really not Christians, even if his teachings are on their lips.” (Justin, The First Apology) -23

! The commitment to make disciples and not just converts is evident in the development of a fourfold process of spiritual development that carried a person from a position of seeking through a process of hearing the Word and becoming a disciple, a deeper process of spiritual formation, and finally a process of assimilation into the full life of the church. The terms Hyppolytus used to describe the spiritual journey of making a disciple are seeker, hearer, kneeler, faithful. -24

Prior to Constantine, the process was conversion, rigorous training in discipleship and Christian formation, followed by baptism and full admittance into the life of the church. After Constantine, however, the rise of infant baptism challenged the process and resulted in the breakdown of the process itself. This shift to infant baptism laid the groundwork for the developments in conversion and discipleship in the medieval area. -26

Of course, we cannot simply pick up the ancient model and drop it unchanged into the twenty-first century. Instead we need to draw from the principles at work in the ancient model and adapt these principles to Christian formation in a post-Christian culture. -36

Part 1: The Process of Early Christian Formation
…Conversion happens within community… Conversion is not merely embracing an intellectual idea; it is taking one’s place within the body of people who confess Christ and seek to live out the kingdom of Jesus. Thus one does not merely know intellectually nut one knows holistically in community. -39

Knowing God in community requires a participation in the language of the community. -39

! Knowing God, becoming a disciple, learning spirituality, and fining your Christian vocation all occur in community. This is the central theme of ancient-future evangelism. -40

Chapter 1. Make Disciples
The issue is not “now that you are a convert, you may want to consider being a disciple.” A convert is a disciple, and a disciple will do what the Master wants. Yet the new disciples has to learn how to be a disciple, and that is the work of the church - to make disciples. -43

Becoming a disciple, just like becoming a fully mature human being, takes time, takes the involvement of committed people, and takes a process of growth and development that is intentional and well worked out. -43

Evangelical churches are good at reaching out and bringing people in through conversion, but they are not nearly as good at nurtutring and bringing to maturity new Christians. A desperate need exists for a process that takes the new disciple by the hand and leads him or her toward maturity. -43

The fourfold structure of the ancient process is very simple: 1. Evangelize. 2. Disciple. 3. Spirtually Form. 4. Assimilate. -46

Quote: “It is the sincerity of your resolution that makes you ‘called.’ It is of no use your body being here if your thoughts and heart are elsewhere.” (Cyril of Jerusalem) -47

! The content of evangelsim and discipleship is thoroughly biblical. Therefore, the emphasis of each stage of development can also be followed: 1. Evangelize into the gospel of Jesus Christ. 2. Disciple into the church, its worship, its Scripture, its disciplines. 3. Spiritually form into the ethic an lifestyle of faith. 4. Assimilate into he church through a discovery of gifts, the Christian vocation of work, an caring for the poor and needy. -48

! The ancient process of Christian formation includes three passage rites that can be translated: 1. a passage rite of conversion. 2. a passage rite between the stages of discipleship and spiritual formation. 3. a passage rite between the stages of spiritual formation and Christian vocation. -48

Obviously the Christian faith is word oriented, but the use of symbol and ritual does not ask the faith to be any less verbal, only more symbolic. Word and ritual go together. The word communicates to the verbal and cognitive side of the person, whereas the symbol and ritual communicates to the emotive side of the person. The issue is bot either/or but both/and. -49

The teaching of justification by faith in romans 5 is immediately connected to Paul's great exposition on baptism in Romans 6. Baptism is the sign of our identity with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. -50

The ancient process does not need to be treated legalistically and translated into our post-christian culture in a wooden and mechanical way. Let each local congregation catch the spirit of the ancient model and listen to how the Sprit leads them to apply the model in their cultural setting. -53

Chapter 3. Evangelism
The early church teaches us three principles for evangelism in a secular/spiritual culture: we must be open to all; we are to preach, teach, enact, and live an exclusive Christian message; and we need to create a community that not only looks tafter its own but cares for the needs of the world. -57

First… Drawing from the example of the early church, today’s church must be a hospitable community of people who reach out through social networking. -57

Quote: “The first [theme] is that Christians must recognize themselves as strangers in the world. The second is that Christians must recognize strangers as Christ." (Amy Oden) -57

Social networking in a post-Christian world will primarily happen where people eat together in homes of Christians and in neighborhood communities where faith is shared. Eating has always played a central role in the Christian faith. -58

! Engagement with non-Christians through social networking that results in home gatherings around the table and an invitation to be part of a neighborhood community is the crucial first step in evangelism. -59

…Three major obstacles to community throughout the warp and woof of the Western way of life - individualism, isolationism, consumerism. -59

! Neighborhood is related to place. The church, to be missional, must define the boundaries of its ministry and create neighborhood communities within those boundaries where the sense of community can grow in a natural an spontaneous way. This is the “old parish” principle. If you lived in a particular neighborhood, you became a member of the church that served that neighborhood… The missional church seeks to minster to the neighborhood. -60

! The church that addresses the issues of individualism, isolationism, and consumerism by building a “neighborhood house community witness” will be the church that effectively evangelszes and makes lifelong disciples. It will fulfill the three characteristics of the early church that grew rapidly in number and depth. It will be open and accessible to everyone. It will have a clear set of beliefs and lifestyle, and it will achieve a sense of community. -61

Second… for evangelism in the post-Christian world is for the church to build an intentional community. -61

The model for the missional church differs from mass evangelism, and from seeker evangelism because missional evangelism locates the focal point of evangelism in a community of people who embody in their lives he message and reality of the Christian faith. -62

The missional church evangelizes primarily by immersing the unchurches in the experience of community. In the community they see, hear, and feel the reality of the faith or “catch” the faith. The social context of the neighborhood community is that of extended family and friends… 79% of people who vconvert and enter into the church sdo so because of personal contact with a relative or a friend. -62

The alternative way of knowing truth in the postmodern world is to be “convinced of truth through particiipation, not consumer appeals; through wholly lives displayed, not reasoned arguments.” -62

Postmodern evangelsim is not so much an argument but a display. -63

In this sense evangelism not only invites people into a local community but a community that is shaped by a tradition of worship, discipleship, Christian formation, an vocation that is rooted in the teachings and practices that go all the way back to Jesus and his discples. New Christians do not enter into a community that reinvents the Christian faith for every new generation. Instead the local community in which faith is embodied and lived is a community with a both long-standing historical connection and relationships and a worldwide web of people in every culture and geographical area around the globe. -63

! In worship the unchurched are immersed in truth as the community remembers God’s great acts of salvation, discerns the ways God’s presence and power are now available, an points to the eschatological vision of the new heaves and earth. Here in worship, personal stories of faith and conversion are linked with the story of God’s saving acts, past, present, and future. -63

Worship is relationship in motion. Worship is a dialogue between divine action and human response. It rehearses a relationship between God and man as it is done. -64

! Through an association with authentic Chrisitans, truth is assimilated. At some point the Chrisitan faith is internalized and a personal commitment to Christ as Lord and Savior is made public. This may happen in a direct moment of DECISION within worship or with a friend, or conversion may be more gradual and DAWN on a person who wakes up one day to exclaim, “I am a Christian!” -65

The Holy Spirit testifies to truth; God has not established reason or argument as the means of conversion. From the very beginning of the church it has always been the testimony of the Spirit that validates the word and leads a person to Christ. (1 Corinthians 6:11). Paul brings the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit together. -65

John Calvin remarks on this point: “The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually binds us to himself.” In the post-Christian world in which the rational methods of modernity are suspect, the reliance on the Holy Spirit to buind a person to Christ has emerged as a primary factor in evangelism. -65

This New Testament conversion included belief, belonging, and behavior. -66

Drawing from the early church ad its effective evangelism in a secular/spiritual world, we have learned the following approach to evangelism in our post—Christian world: 1. a relationship established between a Christian and a non-Christian. 2. The interested non-Christian is invited to attend a neighborhood community fellowship where Christians gather to eat, socialize, and discuss spiritual issues. 3. The interested person is brought to the church where the gospel is embodied in community an rehearsed in worship. 4. Genuine conversion is characterized by believing, behaving, and belonging. 5. Conversion is a start, not an end. -67

Chapter 4. Discipleship
True discipleship is to follow after Jesus and no one else. The work of the church in its initial discipleship is to make this concept of discipleship clear to the new disciple. “We are not making you a disciple of the church, this pastor, this denominational preference, or this or that theological teacher. We are first and foremost making you a disciple of Jesus.” -72

The process of initial disciples practiced by the early church an advocated by this book is a process that initiates a new disciple into the lifelong commitment to grow in the knowledge and understanding of the faith, to take on a full, conscious, and active life in the church, and to commit to a new life. -73

The church is the witness to the reality of God’s activity in history. he church is the witness to the entire story of God. -74

The church not only SAYS God’s mission, it DOES God’s mission because it embodies the very reality of God. The church by its very existence makes the reality of God present. -74

Quote: “You cannot have God for your father if you have not the church for your mother.” (Cyprian) -75

Quote: “There is no other way of entrance into life, unless we are conceived by her, born of her, nourished at her breast and continually preserved under her care and government.” (John Calvin) -75

When a new disciple is submerged in the communal life of the church - in its story, its values, its perspective - the countercultural nature of the faith is caught and the disciple begins to be formed by immersion in the ways of the community. -75

Worship is not a program presented to an audience but an invitation to the congregation to participate in the story that sweeps creation to recreation. -76

The early church taught the new disciple a form of daily prayer that enabled a person to experience the rhythm of the entire day from a Christian perspective. -76

Every Sunday the story from creation to recreation is the content of worship. -76

The early church also developed a yearly understanding of time, marking the entire year by the great saving acts of God: Advent waits for the coming of the Messiah. Christmas celebrates his arrival. Epiphany heralds the message that Christ has come, not just for the Jews but for the Gentiles and for the whole world. Lent marks the time to prepare for his death, a period that culminates in the rehearsal of God’s saving deeds in history during Holy Week. Easter is a fifty day celebration of Christ’s resurrection. Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit, the inauguration of the church, and the message that Christ is King. The season after Pentecost assures us of God’s saving presence in the church as we anticipate the second coming. -77

This rhythm of time practiced by a congregation forms congregational discipleship and spirituality. Any new disciple immersed in this process is bound to be formed inwardly by these outward disciplines of worship. -77

People are sick of show and superficial rah-rah Christianity. They want the real thing. They want a challenge to be real disciples and live the Christian life in an authentic way. -78

In Caesarea in the church pastored by Origen there was a daily morning service that included (1) an opening prayer, (2) a Scripture reading, (3) a sermon, and (4) a formal blessing, prayers, and dismissal. The service lasted about an hour and was primarily a time for teaching. -80

Quote: “When I unpack the holy scriptures for you, it is as though I were breaking open bread for you. You who hunger, receive it… What I deal out to you is not mine. What you eat, I eat. What you live on, I live on. We have in heaven a common storehouse, for from it comes the word of God.” (Augustine ) -81

The first principle of preaching from the early church applicable for today is that it should be Scripture based. -82

second insight from the early church fathers for preaching in today’s post-Christian world is that preaching needs to be related to the full Christian story. -82

Preaching from the larger context of God’s story brings us to a third lesson from the church, namely, preaching the centrality of Christ. -82

Finally, the early church fathers call us to preach to the heart as well as to the mind. -83

How do you preach to both the heart and mind today? It will happen through the kind of preaching that evokes a love of Scripture an da desire to live under the text. -83

Mentoring is not only the means of growing a church but the means through which a mentor and the new disciple will deepen their faith as they grow together. -84

…Christians are discipled through an immersion in community, through participation in worship, through the formative power of preaching, and through personal mentoring an small group accountability. -85

Chapter 5. Spiritual Formation
Paul’s understanding of spirituality is simple and direct: spirituality is to live in the pattern of the death and resurrection of Jesus. -89

True Christian spirituality is to live out our baptism by continually dying to sin and rising to the new life in Christ. -89

! The work of the church in forming the spiritual life of the new disciple is to train the new Christian in the practice of living in the pattern of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. -89

First, the central theme of Paul’s theology is the death and resurrection of Jesus. -90

Second, for Paul the death and resurrection of Jesus is the key to understanding the whole story that sweeps from creation to re-creation. -90

One way to describe the spirituality of Paul is to call it “baptismal spirituality.” We are called to live in our baptism. In our identity with the death and resurrection of Jesus, we live a life empowered by the Holy Spirit. a life that continually dies to sin and continually rises to the life of the Spirit. -92

Christians have been baptized into the resurrected life, the life of the Spirit. They are to cultivate the habits of the Spirit because they have been identified with Jesus through repentance, faith, baptism, and the seal of the Spirit. -92

[A.J. Mendoza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Webber brings in teachings from the ancient catechumenate in order to inform his foundation and practice of initiating someone who desires to become a Christian into a Christian community and lifestyle. Through these chapters one can find beautiful and time-tested theology that has been lost in some traditions (especially amongst Evangelicals). Would recommend for someone who is or who desires to work at a church. My main hesitation with this book was the lack of sufficient references to the early church fathers and the assorted writings that reveal this ancient catechumenate. Many times it felt like Webber would quickly make blanket statements on how the ancient church operated in ways that fit his current understanding of discipleship in lieu of an actual fleshed out and qualified truth on how they operated. This was a helpful introduction into the conversation of how the early church disciples new believers, but by no means this is a sufficient resources for that conversation.

Key Terms and Phrases:
- Catechumenate
- Discipleship
- Baptismal Theology
- Rites and Rituals
- Ceremonies
- Vocation
- Spiritual Formation

[Kyle McFerren · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This was a pretty good book making the argument that you can't separate evangelism and conversion from discipleship, or the result will be a church full of "Christians" who can't be distinguished in any meaningful way from non-Christians, as is largely the case today. Webber argues that we can learn a lot from the early church in how to develop a church-based system for bringing new converts to Christ and immediately beginning them in a process of discipleship and spiritual growth. He also makes a pretty strong case that our post-Christian, postmodern world resembles the Roman empire during the time of the early church, and that should give us hope, considering the explosive growth of the church at that time. Although the book was aimed toward church leaders (which wasn't made totally clear at the outset) I think this is a helpful book for all Christians.

[Matthew Fretwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of Webber's book are edifying in early church patristics and ecclesiastical history.

[Lance Mayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly Interesting

I found this book thought-provoking, but it seemed at times to drag on. It is more about discipleship — a process of evangelism.

[Joseph McBee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent installment in the series. It shows how evangelism and discipleship were done in the ancient church and what practices could be brought forward to our current cultural context and in what ways. How do people join the life of your church? There is a sort of recommended program in this book, but it is full of life.

[Timothy Braun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is maybe more of a generous 3.5 stars. I'm a big fan of Webber's writings but, in my opinion, this isn't one of his best works so, if you're new to the Ancient-Future series, don't start here.

To be sure, there are many helpful thoughts and, as always, there are some fantastic glimpses into the life of the early church which are applied to post-modern culture in an insightful way. That being said, just I didn't think this book quite measured up to the high standard evident in Webber's other books in the series.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of these books are excellent resources for teaching the importance of christian history and worship practice to evangelicals.

[Jt]

Webber, it was good