Blog - Page 147 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Did Our Missionaries Lose Their Chariots of Fire?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:35-05:00July 21st, 2010|Categories: Evangelism, Missional Church|

Brad A. Greenberg, author of the God Blog, contributed a recent article to the Wall Street Journal in which he wondered aloud if the Edinburgh 2010 meeting, which I devoted six posts to last week, offered “a modern master plan [that] was less ambitious [than the 1910 version].” The 2010 version of Edinburgh was a call to global missions and “to witness and evangelism in such a way that we are a living demonstration of the love, righteousness and justice that God intends for the whole world.” Greenberg see this as a dramatic shift from 1910. In 1910 those who came to Edinburgh thought of taking over the world by preaching the gospel but in 2010 they “wondered if they should even try” (quoting the words of C. Douglas McConnell, dean of Fuller Seminary’s School of Intercultural Studies).

Greenberg makes a serious point but one […]

Baseball's Second Half: A Wild Ride Ahead

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:35-05:00July 20th, 2010|Categories: Baseball|

I suppose you have to be a real fan to appreciate this year’s baseball season but it has to rank as one of the most interesting first-half seasons in a long time. At the All-Star break, which is actually a little more than half a season in terms of the games played, the leaders in the National League (NL) were not the favorites coming into the season. And in the American League (AL) two of the leaders were not the favorites. And one of the more amazing things about this season has been that pitching is back and I mean really good pitching. Two perfect games and one no-hitter, plus another perfect game lost to a blown call by a very good umpire who just messed up. As a lifelong fan I love it. Great defense and good pitching wins ball games and the real drama of the game is back without the taint of drugs and drug-juiced home run hitters. “Chicks may dig the long ball,” as the corny ESPN ad put it, but real fans dig great pitching!

In the NL the San Diego […]

A Championship Ring: The Symbol of Success

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:35-05:00July 20th, 2010|Categories: Baseball, Humor|

I love sports humor. I am not a Chicago Cubs fan so I particularly love Chicago Cubs humor about their futility. A friend recently sent me these photos, which tell enough in pictures to say it all well.

Here is the 2008 World Series ring won by the Philadelphia Phillies.

Here is the 2009 hockey ring won by the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team.

Here is the Super Bowl winning ring of the Pittsburgh Steelers won two seasons ago. One can get the feeling that diamonds are a players best friend when it comes to championship rings.

And my favorite baseball ring is the one shown below, won by the really good team in Chicago, the Chicago White Sox. This was their 2005 World […]

What Is Missional-Ecumenism?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:35-05:00July 19th, 2010|Categories: ACT 3, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

No single idea is more important to my vision of the church and to its future than what is meant by the hyphenated word: missional-ecumenism. I am not sure how I came up with this term but in working with the ideas of missional church, and with the development in the early twentieth century of the ecumenical movement and its concerns for the unity of the Christian church, I put the two words together to describe what I saw going on in John 17:20-23.

I mention in the book that I had never previously seen the two words put together in this form but since the book was published in April I have discovered some online places where the term seems to predate my use. I never claimed originality to this word choice so this is fine with me. What I did claim is that these […]

Loving Your Neighbors or Dividing the Church: The Immigration Issue in a Missional-Ecumenical Context

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:35-05:00July 18th, 2010|Categories: Immigration, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

I have written a good deal about the present immigration debate. I will continue to write about it because it resonates so deeply with faith and Christian mission. I would be willing to argue that no issue, at least one that presently concerns so many American Christians, has more direct bearing on missional-ecumenism than this one. I further believe that the polarization we know in the church regarding this issue is real and it is deeply felt. Some of you have been directly hurt by illegal immigrants in your own personal lives. I respect these painful realities but I also believe that unless we get beyond the political debate, and the anger and deep hurt, we will never get to the question of what it means to “love our neighbors” regardless of whether those neighbors are here legally or illegally.

Pastor David Moorhead serves as the pastor of a new church plant (CRC […]

Hate Speech: Could One of Our Most Basic Rights Be Curtailed Because of the Homosexual Debate?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:35-05:00July 17th, 2010|Categories: Free Speech, Homosexuality|

I confess that the whole debate about hate speech troubles me a great deal. In no way do I want to promote angry, bitter or vindictive speech. I think some forms of speech are dangerous in some, narrowly defined, contexts. But the definition of hate speech is itself a very slippery slope at best. Celebrated cases in Canada have already brought down government opposition against Christians who oppose homosexual practice. Now we have a powerful case of the same problem developing in Illinois, my own state.

The University of Illinois recently fired an adjunct professor who taught courses on Catholicism after a single student accused the instructor of engaging in hate speech. What did the faculty member actually do to bring his firing? He told a class that he agreed with the official Catholic Church position that homosexual sex is immoral. The professor, Ken Howell, taught two courses: Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought. Howell says […]

Edinburgh: The Common Call

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:36-05:00July 16th, 2010|Categories: Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

The 2010 Edinburgh Centenary Conference (June 2-6) concluded with a worship celebration (see photo of the African leadership team in this closing service at right) and the issuing of a Common Call, a document which reflected the range of concerns of the participants at this historic event. The World Evangelical Alliance urged its members to read and respond to this Common Call. This is what I am also doing in posting the whole of the Common Call here.

I am a member of a mainline church that has membership in both the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the various evangelical bodies that unite Christians in common mission and witness to Christ. I have placed myself in this position intentionally because I desire to bear witness to my faith as widely as I can. I am fully aware that people on both sides of the ecumenical debate will question me but […]

The Intended Outcomes of Edinburgh 2010

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:36-05:00July 15th, 2010|Categories: Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

I have reported in my four previous posts on the missional-ecumenical gathering called Edinburgh 2010, held in the historic city of Edinburgh, Scotland, June 2–6. I have offered personal reflections upon this event and suggested that it was extremely important for all who long to see the kingdom of God come with power in the days ahead. One obvious reason for the importance of Edinburgh 2010 is that it brought together representatives from the great branches of historic Christianity, as well as independent church leaders and Pentecostals. This is happening more and more these days and those who share my vision for missional-ecumenism will rejoice in these evidences of the Holy Spirit’s movement among God’s people.

The conveners of Edinburgh 2010 stated, before the event took place, the following intended outcomes of their meeting. Reading these inspires me a great deal.

● Churches will be provided with an opportunity to celebrate what God has done in the growth of the Church worldwide over the past century and to prayerfully commit to God the witness of the churches […]

An Evangelical Commitment to Historic Ecumenism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:36-05:00July 14th, 2010|Categories: Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

The General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, noted at Edinburgh 2010 that the prayer of those who gathered in 1910—the prayer of Jesus in John 17 “that the church may be one”—was the same prayer for leaders that gathered in Edinburgh in June. Tveit added in his opening remarks at the Edinburgh event:

One hundred years after the Edinburgh conference in 1910 we are challenged to launch together a new beginning for common mission in the 21st century. We need to discern together what the call to carry the cross of Christ means for us today, as we witness together and find different ways to make it visible that we are called to be one.

In an earlier post I quoted from the address given by Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe. You can read his entire address online, plus see video and read other reports from this event, thus I […]

Edinburgh 2010: Thinking About Our Mission in a New Context

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:36-05:00July 13th, 2010|Categories: Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

Edinburgh 2010 was an event of the World Council of Churches (WCC). This fact alone makes many evangelicals nervous. There is good reason to be weary of the WCC if you know the events that followed its formation in 1948. The WCC has often lost its way over the last sixty years as it pursued a myriad of ideological issues that were interpreted in ways that rightly troubled evangelicals who were principally concerned about the spread of the gospel and the unity of Christian churches in that missionary effort.

The conveners of Edinburgh 2010 stated that there were important ways in which this new celebration, and the process leading towards it and what would then follow it, were very different from the Edinburgh 1910 Conference. Here are three specific ways noted, in advance of the gathering, by the leaders of Edinburgh 2010:

1. Rather than being centered in Edinburgh, a polycentric approach is being taken, both for the study process and for 2010 events which will take place in many locations around the world including Edinburgh.

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