Blog - Page 148 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Edinburgh 2010

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:36-05:00July 11th, 2010|Categories: Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

One of the most significant modern events in Christian history, at least for the mission of Christ’s church, occurred in 1910 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Well-known contemporary author and missiologist Andrew Walls has said of the events at Edinburgh in 1910:

The Edinburgh Conference of 1910 was the high water mark of the missionary movement from the West. Now we are in a new phase of Christian history, with Africa, Asia and Latin America at the centre. The Conference of 1910 fostered Christian co-operation across confessional and national boundaries; brought a renaissance of mission studies (Statistical Atlas, International Review of Mission, Muslim World, etc), saw a compelling vision of God's Kingdom, and let to crucial initiatives, even (e.g. in Latin America) where the conference itself was silent.

In celebration of the centennial of this important event in church history over 1,000 Christian leaders were invited from around the world to come to Edinburgh 2010, […]

"Grandma, What's a Detention?"

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:36-05:00July 10th, 2010|Categories: Humor, Personal|

A few weeks ago when I was driving with Gracie and Abbie in the back seat, we passed Glenbard North High School after school dismissal hours. A few students were walking home long after school had let out. Gracie asked me why those kids stayed at school so late. I told her that there were many reasons a student could have stayed after school—to talk to a teacher, for sports, or maybe they even had a detention.

“What’s a detention?” asked Gracie. I told her what it was and she asked further, “What do you do in detention?” I explained that it was really boring, kind of like a study hall.

Abbie, who had quietly been taking the whole conversation in, asked, “How do YOU know what they do in detention, Grandma?”

“Oh, I had a few back in the day!” I admitted.

Gracie adamantly stated, “I’ll never get a detention […]

The Power of Real Friendship in a Culture That Gives You Rentafriend

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:37-05:00July 9th, 2010|Categories: Current Affairs, Evangelism, The Future, Web/Tech|

The writer of Proverbs says “A friend loves at all times” (Prov. 17:17). The Scripture says so much about friendship that it is staggering really. I am thinking through a future book on friendship to follow my current writing on the relational Trinity and how we live life in the Triune God. Clearly friendship is important to a healthy life, spiritually and emotionally.

The apocryphal book of Sirach adds this rather amazing wisdom:

Let those who are friendly with you be many, but let your advisers be one in a thousand. When you gain friends, gain them through testing, and do not trust them hastily. For there are friends who are such when it suits them, and they will not stand by you in time of trouble. And there are friends who change into enemies, and tell of the quarrel to your disgrace. And there are friends who sit at your table, but they will not stand by you in time of trouble. When you are prosperous, they become your second self, and lord it over […]

No Greater Love: A Christian Film With a Compelling Story

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:37-05:00July 8th, 2010|Categories: Film, Love, Marriage & Family|

I am generally more than a little critical of modern Christian films. I have felt the same way about Christian contemporary music for a long time and my basis for this response is not about the rhythm, the beat or the sound. I like almost all kinds of music, much as I like almost all kinds of film. My response has more to do with the inferior quality of much that is presented as “Christian.”

When it comes to film some of this can be directly traced to small budgets and a myriad of other limitations that flow from having a small budget. But this is not entirely true either since a large number of foreign films reveal that a creative (independent) artist can do good film without huge budgets or blockbuster, well-known actors. The major problem, at least for most Christian films, relates to the inferior story lines presented in a sappy, romantic and sentimental form. The second problem is generally seen in the very predictable, formulaic way the Scripture is used to give simplistic answers to life’s […]

A Fool for Christ

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:37-05:00July 7th, 2010|Categories: Current Affairs, Sports, The Persecuted Church|

Some of you may have noticed that the former NBA player Manute Bol died, at the age of 47, a few weeks ago. The sports world paid little attention. Bol was not known for stardom but for being a physical freak. He stood 7 feet, seven inches tall and weighed 225. He was both the tallest and thinnest player in the NBA. He averaged only 2.6 points per game over the course of his career, though he did excel at shot blocking given his towering presence.

Bol earned $6 million playing basketball. When his fortune was used up the Sudanese native became a humorous spectacle in order to raise more money. He was hired to be a horse jockey, a hockey player and a celebrity boxer.

Wall Street Journal writer Jon A Shields, assistant professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, noted that “Bol agreed to be a clown. But he was not […]

Adoration: A Film That Contextualizes Modern Life

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:37-05:00July 6th, 2010|Categories: Film, Postmodernity, The Future|

Atom Egoyan’s movie “Adoration” is a non-linear, fascinating and deeply suspenseful film noir that gives one of the best of post-9/11, postmodern and Internet-based cultural films I’ve seen. Included in this story are an assortment of pressing and provocative questions—the ethics of terrorism, the deceptiveness of what appears to be outwardly obvious and the numerous ways modern technology adds to dialogue. Perhaps the most interesting question the film poses is the one about dialogue and the Internet.

The story is of a high school boy whose parents were killed in a car accident when he was a pre-teen. He is being raised by his uncle, a not too pleasant character who slowly wins you over. Clearly there has been a breakdown in this family before and after his sister’s tragic death. (The uncle was only 22 when he began to raise his orphaned nephew.) You soon discover through Egoyan’s more postmodern method of story-telling, a method that cycles back […]

What Does “Small” Mean in Your Church Is Too Small?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:37-05:00July 5th, 2010|Categories: ACT 3, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Unity of the Church|

Most readers realize that I borrowed the idea for the title of my new book, Your Church Is Too Small, from a book written by the late J. B. Phillips (1953) titled Your God Is Too Small. I read Phillips’ book as a college student in the 1960s and always thought it was one of the best titles of any book of that era.

I recall Stuart Briscoe once saying that the title was actually much better than the book itself. That may be so but it is still a pretty good book and the title became one that I could not pass up on using when it came to my concept of the church and our mission. A friend in New York, Dr. Craig Higgins, actually suggested that I use this title and so I did.

But people are still puzzled at times. […]

Remembering the 4th of July

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:37-05:00July 4th, 2010|Categories: America and Americanism|

Today is the day of celebration for Americans. John Adams urged that we always and forever make a great celebration of this date. His list of things to do included fireworks, parades and community wide remembrances with great joy! Most of us have followed his advice. I confess that I have always enjoyed the Fourth of July (except as I get older the late night fireworks in my neighborhood are a bother). I am reminded each 4th of July of those great and unusual men who founded this nation.

I recently watched the two-part (three-hour) Ken Burns series on the life of Thomas Jefferson. It is truly worth seeing. Jefferson was the primary writer of the American Creed, the Declaration of Independence. He was brilliant beyond words. He was able to encapsulate, in a very few memorable words, the very essence of our national experiment in liberty. We can thank God, even though many false starts and serious mistakes […]

When I Fell in Love with Baseball

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:37-05:00July 3rd, 2010|Categories: Baseball|

I am a baseball fan, as regular readers know. With all the attention given to soccer (football elsewhere) in the FIFA competition in South Africa during June I realized again that baseball is the truly American game that has spread its influence to Latin America and Asia. There are many reasons for loving baseball but most are simply lost on people who do not love the game. And you can only love this game if you understand the game. Otherwise, baseball seems so slow and so boring. But for the true fan this is a special game that has its own pace and its own rhythms. It is also a game that requires thought and strategy in a way that allows the ordinary fan to manage in their mind, to question decisions carefully made and then to openly disagree. There are endless debates about baseball. Three people can see one play and form four opinions and all of them may be […]

A New Angle on the Catholic Church Sex-Abuse Issue

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:38-05:00July 2nd, 2010|Categories: Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality|

A recent AP report added a new insight into the Roman Catholic clergy abuse scenario that few have been willing to consider. Under John Paul II the church was recovering from a notable loss of priests, many of whom were leaving the priesthood to get married in the 1970s. John Paul made it harder for priests to leave the priesthood as one of several papal responses to the crisis. Since entering the priesthood involves a sacramental oath, and the reception of holy orders, leaving it for laicization requires what is often a lengthy church trial. This trial was often shortened, following Vatican II, making it easier for a priest to leave. But all this changed in the late 1970s when John Paul II changed course. These facts are not really debatable as much as I have been able to perceive from my study of the issue. (I am open to understanding this response better since I have no axe to grind here at […]