I asked readers to pray on Monday for our annual ACT 3 board meeting. The three-day meeting ended at noon today as members returned to their homes in Illinois, Texas and California. A number of important things were accomplished in this meeting.

1. ACT 3 has a clearer vision for what God has called us to do than ever before. We are a bridge building missional ministry that wants to leverage my gifts, and those of others who share our vision, to expand the mission of Christ’s kingdom through publishing, teaching, preaching and the Internet. All of this is to be done in ways that stress the human elements of ministry relationally, not simply the academic side of teaching and content-driven ministry.

2. We will do this in creative ways. This includes major new Internet work and a growing commitment to expanding our work via this medium. This likely means new staff help to accomplish this goal.

3. I will attempt to write even more for print publication than previously, which means a bit less travel and speaking away from Chicago.

4. We will further develop the concept of ACT 3 as a Christian "think-tank" for the wider service of many leaders and ministries.

5. We will facilitate what I have called "un-conferences." We believe the day of the big-speaker driven personality conference(s) is ending given the huge shifts in culture that we now see. We will begin to employ an entirely different philosophy that includes small events for 100 or less people where community, conversation and bridge-building can all take place among brothers and sisters who will respect and love each other in ways that will allow learning to happen in fresh and creative ways.

6. We want to work even more closely with other ministries, and teachable church congregations, that are open to renewal. Our goal is to promote personal wisdom and classical Christian thought in an incarnational context that calls Christians to embrace the victory of Christ and his kingdom. We are very optimistic about the future of Christ’s work, believing that Christian pessimism has profoundly hindered the growth of God’s people. Our unique role will be to connect both people and culture with deep spiritual realities, always seeking to deepen the mystery of real faith and thoughtful orthodox Christian theology. We want to model a new way, which is really not that new. It is as old as the early church and the classical Christian faith. We want to draw from treasures both old and new in order to help people see why the Christian tradition lives and can be as fresh and new as today’s challenges and opportunities.

I will be saying a great deal more about this in coming weeks in terms of specifics. For now, thanks for praying for our board and for this ministry. I am tired, very excited and really ready to lean into a vision that I believe the Lord clearly gave to us this week.

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Comments

  1. Dozie May 17, 2007 at 9:19 pm

    “I will attempt to write even more for print publication than previously…”
    And
    “We are a bridge building missional ministry that wants to leverage my gifts, and those of others who share our vision, to expand the mission of Christ’s kingdom through publishing, teaching, preaching and the Internet”.
    Mr. Armstrong, I am trying very hard to understand how anyone who believes in sola scriptura (may be you don’t) can, with a straight face, assert the need to write more and more books as a means of expanding Christ’s kingdom. When you are done writing, will your audience have more or less Bible to work with? I often watch, with amazement, Protestants who on one hand assert sola scriptura but on the other hand, flaunt the number of books they have written trying to explain the Bible. I see a disconnect there, do you?
    You would you not agree that the Bible has greater authority than a book written to explain the Bible? If this is the case, who needs the fifty books or so each by RC or John or White, for example?
    Please note that as a Catholic, I have no problems reconciling the need for the Bible and the need for trust worthy teachers. I would be interested to read how a consistent Protestant would reconcile what seems to me as a contradiction (only, no lectures on what SS means or does not mean – I am supposing it means what it says or else, it should be scrapped).
    In the tradition of sola scriptura do you not think that every mouth should be shut and every finger mangled so that the Bible alone could be exalted? A little sarcasm, but serious question.

  2. John H. Armstrong May 17, 2007 at 9:38 pm

    Dozie,
    Multitudes of Protestants never bother to understand Catholicism and simply retreat to misunderstandings and stereotypes. You continue to do the same as a Catholic. If you would bother to read the name of this organization and also bother to read my comments about tradition you might actually see that I am not saying anything close to what you are suggesting I am saying by this comment.
    In short, my view of Scripture is not “the Bible alone” that you seem to assume here. What I reject is the Catholic view of the magisterium, not that Christians must write, think and read the Bible as a community in fellowship and under authority besides private opinions. You have taken my view for the garden variety evangelical view and not understood that I am as critical of this view as you would be as a Catholic.
    By the way, what do you do with the entire Eastern Orthodox Church since it doesn’t fit your view or mine exactly? A serious ecumenism, as proposed by Vatican II, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and men like Cardinal Kasper would never propose the kind of response you make by these types of comments.
    You may, if you wish, hold this view of me and what I believe about Scripture and authority but you are simply wrong in your understanding. If you wish to be charitable read me a bit more carefully please.

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