>The Third Annual Conference on the Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future will be held on the campus of Northern Baptist Seminary on October 9-11, 2008.

The following information has been released to by the Robert E. Webber Center for an Ancient Evangelical Future. This information provides a summary of each lecture to be presented during the conference.

Discovering Your Church’s Missional DNA

Rick Richardson, Director, Masters in Evangelism and Leadership, Wheaton College

Missional is the new code word in the theology and praxis of ecclesiology. But how do we become genuinely missional and not just rhetorically missional? Rick Richardson will help you understand what God is doing in restoring the missional identity of the church, and where your church–with its unique missional DNA–might fit.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ridiculous: The Church Visible

Jenell Parish, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Messiah College

We need an authentic common sense approach to connect the AEF Call to “take seriously the visible character of the church” with what can be observed in the everyday life of our congregations. Jenell Parish will help you think about how your congregation incorporates the good, the bad, and the ridiculous. She will help you consider the unique stories of your congregation, and how those stories fit with the larger story of the church.

Can the Church and Capitalism Get Along?

David Fitch, founding pastor, Life on the Vine Christian Community and Professor of Evangelical Theology, Northern Baptist Seminary

Despite the benefits they bring us, capitalism and consumerism distort the church, its fellowship, its spiritual formation, and its mission. How do we shape a community of Christ that is in capitalism, but not of it? David Fitch will offer some basic practices we can adopt to protect our churches from being squeezed into capitalism’s mold.

Tracing the Church’s Journey

Howard Snyder, Professor of Wesley Studies, Tyndale Seminary; former Professor of History and Theology of Mission, Asbury Seminary

The twists and turns, the highways and detours, of the church’s journey through 2000 years of history and a slew of cultures clarify our present challenge. Howard Snyder will help you think about how that journey will help your congregation effectively come to grips with its own story and mission in light of “God’s narrative” and the biblical story.

Preserving the Church’s Story

D. H. Williams, Professor of Patristics and Historical Theology, Baylor University

If the church forgets its story, it will be shaped by the world’s stories. We can easily lose our identity and our mission. To prevent such loss, the ancient church developed a systematic approach to Christian education. It aimed to preserve its message by teaching its story. Because many of its members were illiterate, the church’s message had to be preserved in the minds and hearts of its members.

To register for the Conference, click here.

To read “A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future,” click here.

To read “A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future” in Spanish, click here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tag: Ancient Evangelical Future

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