The recovery of the practice of “ecclesial theology” and the identify of pastors and theologians as “ecclesial theologians” has an exemplar in the late John Webster. He understood his own work in academic theology as a self-conscious repudiation of the practice of theology as a critical science and undertook instead to employ theology in service to the church. He considered the work of theologians to be crucial to the church as the means of the church’s continued submission to judgment by the gospel. His own personal involvement in church leadership, especially in the early stages of his career, reveals his desire to employ theology in service to the church. He buttressed this involvement with occasional essays throughout his career which responded to various doctrinal and practical concerns. Rather than examining Webster’s essays on ecclesiology proper, which have received multiple treatments, the paper proceeds by testing Webster’s self-perception and practice as an ecclesial theologian against the taxonomy of theologians defined by Hiestand and Wilson in their own project of renewing the ecclesial location and practice of theology. It does this by close interaction with his occasional work in ecclesial matters, framed within the contours of his various deployments as a theologian at Durham, Wycliffe, Oxford, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews. The paper asks whether Webster serves as an exemplar or outlier in the project of recapturing an ecclesiologically-determined vision for the practice of theology, ultimately arguing that his example should be followed. The paper provides opportunity to assess and carry forward Webster’s theological project, indicating ways in which it can continued in both ecclesial and academic settings.