What is “ancient-future” worship? Here’s a brief overview written by Drew Dyck:
Ancient-future worship involves the melding of contemporary forms of worship with ancient ones. But according to the late Robert E. Webber (who coined the term “ancient future”) it is far more than a paradox of style. By connecting us to the early church, ancient-future worship allows us to taste, as Webber wrote, the “communion of the fullness of the body of Christ” while rooting us in God’s story and mission in the world.
Webber believed that the church’s worship had become vapid and self-centered. According to Webber, the sad state of worship was the result of losing sight of God and his historical narrative. By adopting worship practices from ancient Israel, the early church and other epochs of church history, we could enact God’s story in our contemporary world.
Ancient-future worship seeks not only a broader historical context, but a wider spiritual view of worship as well. It calls for awareness that worship is not merely a human affair.
The home page for ancientfutureworship.com describes Webber’s final book this way:
With the many models of worship available, choosing a style to worship God can be a bit overwhelming. Is it better to go with traditional or contemporary models? Christians may find themselves asking how early believers worshiped and whether they can provide insight into how we should praise God today. Rooted in historical models and patristic church studies, Ancient-Future Worship examines how early Christian worship models can be applied to the postmodern church. Pastors and church leaders, as well as younger evangelical and emerging church groups, will find this last book in the respected Ancient-Future series an invaluable resource for authentic worship.
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.
Rockbridge Seminary students who have completed the online seminary course “The Theology and Practice of Worship” may be helped by reading the full Dyck article and by exploring the ancientfutureworship.com website.
