During one of his early visits to London, Billy Graham was confronted by an Anglican leader who causally dismissed the entire crusade effort.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cYoung man,\u201d said the priest, \u201cI do not approve of your style of evangelism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure that what I\u2019m doing isn\u2019t perfect,\u201d replied Graham. \u201cBut I like the evangelism that I\u2019m doing better than the evangelism that you\u2019re not doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Robert E. Webber knew that collision of styles inside out.<\/p>\n\n
The theologian spent most of his career working with people on both sides of the cultural divide captured in that familiar anecdote about the world\u2019s most famous evangelist. It helped that Webber \u2014 who died April 27, after an eight-month struggle with cancer \u2014 had lived and worshipped in both camps.<\/p>\n\n
As a graduate of the proudly fundamentalist Bob Jones University, Webber knew all about the style of evangelism that many believers can condense into a single blunt question: \u201cIf you died tonight, do you know where you would spend eternity?\u201d Yet, as a convert to the Episcopal Church, he also knew how to talk to those who are offended by any discussion of evangelism or, as unsophisticated folks call it, \u201csaving souls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe problem with evangelism is that churches either do it or they don\u2019t,\u201d Webber told me, before a Denver speaking engagement in the mid-1980s. This was about the time that he began to emerge as an influence on progressive evangelicals, in large part because of his strategic years teaching at Wheaton College, home of the Billy Graham Center.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI think every church that is alive has within it people who are gifted at evangelism,\u201d he added. \u201cIf a church doesn\u2019t have these people, then there are some tough questions that have to be asked. \u2026 You may be dealing with a dead church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Media tributes to Webber this past week have focused on his trailblazing work encouraging evangelicals \u2014 through his writings, both popular and academic \u2014 to begin weaving strands of ancient rites and prayers into the fabric of contemporary Protestant worship. An ecumenical document rooted in his work, entitled \u201cA Call to An Ancient Evangelical Future\u201d (aefcall.org), challenged its readers to \u201cstrengthen their witness through a recovery of the faith articulated by the consensus of the ancient Church and its guardians in the traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, the Protestant Reformation and the Evangelical awakenings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Webber\u2019s convictions can also be seen in the titles of his books, such as \u201cWorship Is a Verb,\u201d \u201cAncient-Future Faith,\u201d \u201cWorship Old and New\u201d and the once-scandalous \u201d Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail.\u201d In 1998, he founded the Institute for Worship Studies (now known as the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies), a high-tech global graduate school based at Grace Episcopal Church of Orange Park, Fla.<\/p>\n\n
This liturgical approach was a hard sell, especially in the age of media-driven megachurches offering services tuned to fit the fast-paced lifestyles of suburbia.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe truth is that we Americans are a-historical,\u201d wrote Webber, in \u201cThe New Worship Awakening,\u201d a book rereleased several times during the past dozen years. \u201cMost of us know very little about history and probably care even less. What we are interested in is the now, the moment, the existential experience. Unfortunately, most churches in this country have the same mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
However, there was a flip side to his tough message targeting evangelicals.<\/p>\n\n
Webber was convinced that far too many liturgical Christians \u2014 Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans and the Orthodox \u2014 have abandoned the task of evangelizing nonbelievers and those estranged from the faith. In their rush to reject what Webber called a \u201cLone Ranger,\u201d \u201chit-and-run\u201d style of evangelism, the leaders of these flocks have veered into apathy and silence.<\/p>\n\n
There is also a chance that many of them no longer want to discuss sin, evil, repentance, grace, death and, horror of horrors, heaven and hell. These eternal concerns are not going to fade away, said Webber.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhat lies behind the views of people who see these doctrines as negative, as subjects to be avoided, is probably an embarrassment about the historic Christian faith,\u201d he explained. \u201cUntil a church is ready to reckon with historic Christianity, it is not going to be interested in evangelism. \u2026 So I am probably not even talking to what you could call the average, mainline, liberal church.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During one of his early visits to London, Billy Graham was confronted by an Anglican leader who causally dismissed the entire crusade effort. \u201cYoung man,\u201d said the priest, \u201cI do not approve of your style of evangelism.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m sure that what I\u2019m doing isn\u2019t perfect,\u201d replied Graham. \u201cBut I like the evangelism that I\u2019m doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[121,318,330,1534,342,514,921],"class_list":["post-1436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-billy-graham","tag-emerging-church","tag-episcopalians","tag-evangelicals","tag-evangelism","tag-liturgy","tag-wheaton"],"yoast_head":"\n