From the Editor: Ancient Future Applied

My story is likely yours, too—or at least part of it. May I explain?

At the graduation of the inaugural “Alpha” class of IWS, our beloved Bob Webber revealed to us eager grads that he had been praying that our experience would be “ruinous.” Heaven help us, that is what he said: “Ruinous.” Mine has been. And I’ll bet yours has, too.

There is an epidemic among us, IWS colleagues. The “ruinous” part is the epidemic—and that’s almost entirely good—but the fallout has sometimes been terribly painful, especially for some who labor in difficult situations. Some have been fundamentally changed at IWS, only to return home and have little or no institutional authority to implement what was learned and experienced. Still others have returned to leaders who are even hostile to ideas of worship renewal.

Not long after my graduation, our family moved to California with high hopes and prayers when I answered the call of a large, evangelical Presbyterian church. The search committee, pastor, and leadership knew about and embraced the ruinous work of Bob Webber in my life and, in fact, wanted it for their congregation. This continued for about four years until the arrival of new leadership that wanted to go in other directions. Sound familiar, anyone?

And so I resigned—without any place to go. Ruinous. We spent the next few months looking at nearly a dozen potential jobs across the country. None were right. But God had something else in mind.

While I was scurrying around the country looking for places to land, a small team of dedicated leaders, I later learned, had been working on what eventually became “Epiclesis: An Ancient-Future Faith Community” here in Sacramento. This leadership team loved Bob Webber as much as I and, after a warm endorsement from the denomination to which I am accountable, they asked me to consider a calling as their pastor. That they called me to this work is the most humbling event of my ministry; that they want to intentionally form this community according to “Webberian” principles is the privilege of a lifetime. From “Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail” to “Who Gets to Narrate the World” (and most everything else in between), we are conspicuously and unapologetically ancient-future. And we are spending time intentionally thinking about—and living out—what it means to be ancient-future.

Now at the close of our first year, we are going about the singular purpose of the church—worship—and her many tasks with much energy and zeal, including a discipleship process with “Journey to Jesus” at its core. We worship weekly in rented space, a beautiful chapel, and are blest with a team of gifted musicians and volunteers. You’d easily recognize the feel of our worship: We surround the Table of the Lord, the pattern is four fold, and the style is convergent. (You can find copies of our weekly liturgies on our website, and I’d love for you to get to know the amazing work of our liturgist, composer, and pianist Ellen Koehler.) Our worshiping community presently numbers about 50. Everyone is in a small group that meets weekly, currently walking together through the “Journey to Jesus”. (It has been breathtaking to see lives being changed through this material and process.) We also meet for weekly prayer. In just one year, we have sponsored and participated in three major mission endeavors—one international—and done some amazing hands-on work of ministry right here in our own community.

Of course, it hasn’t been without challenges and a lot of hard work. (I know more about constitutions and bylaws and 501(c)(3) and federal paperwork than I’d rather.) But I must say that it has been amazing for all of us to be on the same page—“ruined”—with the freedom and appropriate accountability to put into practice what I learned and experienced at IWS.

The mission of IWS is alive and well and vital, and her present ministry to train worship leaders is changing lives and churches across the world. To be sure, many of our graduates are able to freely and effectively implement what they’ve learned. Others are meeting with opposition, but still feel led to walk out that intentional work of worship renewal in their current settings. Many of us have also walked difficult paths that led to new and different ministries.

We are considering an additional endeavor, believing that perhaps God is leading us to establish a network of ancient-future communities of faith. Not a denomination, this non-sectarian network of like-minded churches would exist for the purpose of mutual encouragement and resourcing. First, I can imagine that it might include churches, already established, of a wide variety of denominations that want to learn more, would like access to ancient-future resources and seminars, would affirm and support the mission of IWS, and want to promote worship renewal. Second, I can easily imagine that this network would be a great resource to new church starts that need the encouragement of like-minded communities. In our few months of existence, many individuals have asked Epiclesis for a variety of resources, which we are always happy to share.

I’d love to hear from you and learn your story. And I would love for you to visit the Epiclesis website (www.epiclesis.org). Even better, let’s begin talking and praying about how the Spirit may be moving when it comes to resourcing churches and even planting ancient-future churches. What a great blessing it would be to love, support and learn from one another.

The Lord be with you!

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