Blog - Page 103 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Radical Forgiveness at the Heart of the Gospel

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:17-05:00September 13th, 2011|Categories: Forgiveness, Gospel/Good News|

At the heart of the gospel is radical forgiveness. God has forgiven us in Jesus Christ. Forgiveness removes the wall that separates us from God and one another. In the Roman Empire nothing could be further removed from religion and everyday life than forgiveness.

I recently watched several historical series on Rome and the Empire. This viewing was connected to my interest in all things Roman after personally seeing some of the more impressive ruins of the ancient Empire in March. I am struck by the absence of forgiveness in Roman practice and Roman religion. The teaching of Jesus and Paul challenged the very heart of the Empire regarding what was most basic to faith and life: forgiveness.

Modern Christian scholar Miroslav Volf has written: "Forgiveness places us on a boundary between enmity and friendship, between exclusion and embrace. It tears down the wall of hostility that wrongdoing erects, but it doesn't take us into the territory of friendship. Often, that's all we can muster the strength to do, […]

All Good Things

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:17-05:00September 12th, 2011|Categories: Film|

The movie All Good Things is a spell-binding love story wrapped in a true crime riddle that keeps you on the edge of your seat for 101 minutes. It is actually bio-fiction based upon one of the most notorious missing person’s case in New York state history. Add on an unsolved murder in Texas and other painful sequels involving bizarre behavior and you have the story of real estate heir Robert Durst.

All Good Things, starring Ryan Gosling (Robert Durst) and Kirsten Dunst, as the now missing and presumed dead Kathie McCormack (Durst’s young and bright wife), is a real spellbinder. Rotten Tomatoes, which I generally find extremely helpful, says in its lead review of the movie: “It's well-acted, and the true story that inspired it offers plenty of drama — which is why it's so frustrating that All Good Things is so clichéd and frustratingly ambiguous.” I did find it ambiguous but the nature of the crime, and the fact that the lead […]

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:17-05:00September 11th, 2011|Categories: Film, Politics|

How does an attorney general of the state of New York become the governor by a vote of 69% in his favor, go to Albany to clean up the state’s mess, and end up being forced to resign because of a high-class prostitution sting run by the federal government? This is, for those who remember, exactly what happened to former-governor Eliot Spitzer, who in 2006 was a strongly favored person of interest in the Democratic party in discussions about the next candidate for President of the United States. Spitzer rose like a rocket and came down almost as fast.

I followed the Spitzer story when it broke like many of you probably did as well. But I had never investigated the sordid tale with any degree of objective interest. Then I saw the incredibly well-done documentary Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer.

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer is a documentary directed by Alex Gibney, an award winning documentary producer. It is, of […]

Lessons on Life from a Hall of Fame Pitcher

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:17-05:00September 10th, 2011|Categories: Baseball, Discipleship, Leadership|

Many of you already know I am a huge baseball fan. In particular, I am a life-long Braves fan. I loved them when they were in Milwaukee and when they moved to Atlanta in 1966 I was a 17 year-old kid who found ways to drive four hours to Atlanta to see them play several times a summer. I have followed them over all these years and seen them play in at least nine different cities as the visiting team. I watch some of their games and listen to them on my MLB App now and then.

A few days ago I listened to one of those rare moments when a baseball analyst talked about pitching. The announcer asked him how a young guy could learn to be a big league pitcher. The commentator was Don Sutton, a Hall of Fame hurler who won over 300 games. Sutton is a regular on Braves radio and an astute student of the game. His subject was what about […]

The Amazing Story of Congressman Bobby Rush

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:17-05:00September 9th, 2011|Categories: Civil Rights, Gospel/Good News, Kingdom of God, Politics, Race and Racism|

U. S. Congressman Bobby Lee Rush was born November 23, 1946 in Albany, Georgia, but grew up on Chicago’s North Side, where his mom was a Republican precinct captain. Today he is the U.S. Representative for Illinois' 1st congressional district. Rush worked as a medical clinic director during the early 1970s, and as an insurance agent in the late 70s and early 80s. In 1983 he was elected a Chicago City Alderman, and the following year became a second ward committeeman in Chicago. He began serving his congressional constituency in January, 1993, and is a member of the Democratic Party, the Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus. His district is located principally on the South Side of Chicago and is a minority-majority district that has the highest percentage of African Americans (65%) of any congressional district in the nation. Bobby Rush has the distinction of being the only person, at least to date, to ever defeat President Barack Obama in an election for office. Obama challenged […]

Mission Must Be Contextual

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:17-05:00September 8th, 2011|Categories: ACT 3, Missional Church|

Each Monday morning ACT 3 publishes an online article of 1,000 to 1,600 words (usually, but not always, written by me). We call this the ACT 3 Weekly. This article is also turned into a podcast.

I am amazed at how many regular readers of my blogs do not receive these free weekly articles. While the blogs offer my shorter thoughts on a variety of issues and themes related to the church, mission and ecumenism (along with some personal stuff that I like to share with friends), these ACT 3 Weekly articles are my most serious writing. Here I generally develop a subject in more depth and write things that may, and in some cases will, be turned into published books.

I recently concluded a series of sixteen on “The Church and Her Modern Mission.” I consider this material to be at the very core of my call and vision. Here is a sample of what I wrote in the August 15 issue title: “Mission in the […]

A Simple Bibliography on Ecumenism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:17-05:00September 7th, 2011|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

Recently a friend asked for a simple, not-too-academic, listing of some primary books on ecumenism that I have found helpful. My answer is below. Forgive me for putting my own books at the top of this list but I do believe they are important for serious interest in this discussion and my name just happened to come first alphabetically. When I was in school I hated being called on first but sometimes it has had its advantages.

I have put an asterisk by the seven books that I recommend most if you are interested in a shorter reading list. By far the Rex Koivisto volume is the best evangelical work on the subject.

Bibliography of Ecumenism

*Armstrong, John H.; Your Church Is Too Small: Why Unity in Christ’s Mission is Vital to the Future of the Church (2010)

*Armstrong, John H.; The Unity Factor: One Lord, One Church, One Mission (2011).

Boardman, George Dana; The Church: The Divine Ideal (reprint, 2008)

*Braaten, Carl E. and Robert W. Jenson; The Catholicity of […]

Why Theological Education Fails the Need of Our Times

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:17-05:00September 6th, 2011|Categories: Education, Pastoral Renewal, The Christian Minister/Ministry|

My title is big and broad, I understand. I believe, simply put, that contemporary theological education is failing to produce true leaders. We teach to our level of competence and the competence of most of our best schools is to teach courses that are helpful but not necessarily centered on the missional reality of the church. Generally speaking our seminaries fail to clearly grasp the gospel of the kingdom. Even where they do grasp the kingdom message (some teachers get it as evidenced by their academic writing) most have not learned how to put this message into practice. The kind of changes that are needed to produce real change at the congregational level is not being unleashed by our schools.

Please do not misunderstand me. I believe in higher education. I do not believe that it is desirable, in most cases, to put men and women in pastoral leadership who are not intellectually and spiritually prepared to serve well. What I reject is the idea that a 200-year old German model of seminary curriculum is the best model to base a good education upon. I also do […]

Words of Wisdom for Labor Day

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:18-05:00September 5th, 2011|Categories: Business, Economy/Economics|

Milton Friedman (1912-2006) was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was a prolific public intellectual, and an American Nobel Laureate economist, something we need a lot more of these days. He made major contributions to both economics and statistics. In 1976 Friedman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy. Simply put, Milton Friedman was the best known advocate of economic freedom in recent American history.

According to The Economist, which is not a pro-Friedman magazine, Milton Friedman "was the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century . . . possibly of all of it.” Former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan stated, "There are very few people over the generations who have ideas that are sufficiently original to materially alter the direction of civilization. Milton is one of those very few people." I agree with Alan Greenspan’s analysis. This does not mean […]

Big Picture at World Youth Day: 'It’s the Evangelicals, stupid!'

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:18-05:00September 4th, 2011|Categories: Uncategorized|

This blog by John Allen, a veteran Vatican observer and author, is one that should stir us all to further conversation and prayer about what is going on in the world and the whole church.

Big Picture at World Youth Day: 'It’s the Evangelicals, stupid!'.