Richard Webb
I’m Richard. My religious pedigree makes me a bit of a mutt: baptized Lutheran (the baby variety), then Congregationalist (as a little kid), then Bible Presbyterian (as a bigger kid), Bible Baptist Fellowship (upper elementary), Non-Denominational (Jr & Sr High), United Methodist, Charismatic House Church (ah, the college years!), and finally Lutheran again. Interestingly enough, each tradition gave me a gift and has helped me claim “both sides of the aisle” (Evangelical and Mainline) as my tribe.
My particular passion around worship is that people go beyond the ritual and actually encounter the living God. I personally don’t care about the worship style or heritage, just that people run headlong into God. That means worship needs to be coherent, truthful, and transformative.
My struggles in worship? Right now I’m struggling with making the Lord’s Supper make sense and have some sort of impact on 21st century worshipers. This applies to the whole of the worship event, but particularly to Communion.
What do I do during work hours? I’m a teaching pastor at Lutheran Church of Hope in Des Moines, IA. My areas are worship, prayer, leadership, and teaching.
What do you have to know about me to “know” me? I am an N. T. Wright junkie. I read like crazy (lots of Philosophy, Culture, Theology, History and Science Fiction), love to drink coffee at Starbucks and solve the world’s problems at least ten times over. I also like to be in conversation with “creative igniters.” I love plotting the next revolution.