Robert Webber’s books keep coming out, almost like testaments of his commitment to educate the church on worship. I thought they were done and yet, here it is, another final one: Ancient-Future Worship. If you are trying to resurrect the idea of “story” or if you are trying to be more calendrical in your worship style, this book will do it for you. Here’s what Webber teaches us about worship:

Worship does God’s story.
Worship remembers the past.
Worship anticipates the future.
And he discusses how the fullness of God’s story got lost. This part of the book reminds me of the new IVP book by John (not Tom) Wright, called Telling God’s Story. Wright’s book is a profoundly innovative new book on how to learn to preach narratively so that Christians are formed, and Robert Webber was dedicated to the same theme.
Then Webber shifts to applying God’s story to worship by examining how worship is transformed by remembrance and anticipation, how the Word is transformed by the narrative nature of Scripture, how the eucharist is transformed by the presence of God at the table, and how prayer is transformed by recovering the style of ancient worship.