Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART II: T HEOLOGICAL AND M ISSIOLOGICAL P RINCIPLES AND I NSIGHTS • 149

In the Introduction to this section, I described how, as a child, I always looked for the central piece of the puzzle (the same principle also applies to the central thread of a tapestry). There is also a centerpiece in the Christian faith. And that center, that focal point around which everything else is gathered, is the work of Christ. . . . I have shared with you how the Fathers took me back to the biblical idea that the victory of Christ over evil results in the recapitulation. His victory over evil is the key not only to the early Christian tradition but to the renewal of our personal faith, and to the renewal of the life of the church. I want to show how every aspect of the Christian life relates to Christ’s victory over the power of evil and to the ultimate renewal of all things. The early church saw how faith centers in Christ. For them faith did not begin with the church, with worship, with Scripture, with theology, with spirituality, with education, with evangelism or social action. All these aspects of Christianity, important as they were, were servants of this central theme of the Scriptures: Christ became one of us in order to destroy the power of evil and restore us and the world to its original condition. I am firmly convinced that our whole life can be changed when we rediscover this radical vision of the work of Christ. A fuller view of Christ’s work will form our vision of life and our acting out of that vision in the here and now. I believe the rediscovery of this vision is transforming the renewing congregations of our time. In this emerging church, whether Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, or charismatic, the centrality of Christ’s victory over the power of evil is the dynamic that breathes new life into the church.

~ Robert Webber. The Majestic Tapestry. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1986, pp. 36-37.

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