Blog - Page 150 of 318 - John H Armstrong

What Is the Role of Tradition in Church Unity?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:49-05:00June 21st, 2010|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church Tradition, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

I grew up in a background that had little or no regard for Christian Tradition so it seems more than a little odd that the name of my mission, ACT 3, stands for Advancing the Christian Tradition in the Third Millennium. More than one person has asked, “Why on earth do you want to advance tradition?” Their assumption is that tradition is unhealthy, even opposed to the Bible. It was when I began to understand that “tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living” (Jaroslav Pelikan) that I saw how important tradition really was for a living, healthy Christian faith.

Jesus did not oppose tradition. He opposed “vain human tradition.” The two are not the same. I believe the confusion created by the typical American reaction against Christian Tradition is not only unhealthy but it promotes a kind of faith that will be inherently disconnected from the renewal that we desperately need in the church in 2010. This is why I devoted so much to this subject in my book: […]

More Words of Love from Mount Athos

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:51-05:00June 20th, 2010|Categories: Love, Spirituality|

The last several weeks I have shared insights from my recent reading in the book, Wisdom From Mount Athos: The Writings of Staretz Silouan 1866–1938. Staretz Silouan was an Orthodox monk who lived on the mountain in Greece that is most often associated with monasticism in the Eastern Church, at least outside of Russia. The term Staretz means “Elder” and is a title given to the Orthodox monks of a particular spiritual development. Silouan was a Russian peasant whose only formal education consisted of two winters at a village school. It was on Mount Athos that he received his education through a tradition that reaches back to the beginnings of Orthodox monasticism. His wisdom, according to many of the Orthodox, is akin to that of the more famous Desert Fathers.

This compilation includes material on subjects such as the knowledge of God, the soul’s yearning for God, the likeness of the Lord in his children, prayer, humility, peace and […]

Read the Label Before You Apply

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:51-05:00June 19th, 2010|Categories: Personal|

We’ve had a humbling experience recently. It involves our lawn! John has always taken pride in our lawn. He meticulously mows, weed-whips, and spot sprays the few stray weeds that pop up here and there. For years our lawn has resembled the beauty of a golf course—until now!

I accompanied John to our local Ace Hardware store to buy weed killer and a pumper-spray gizmo to apply it. We looked over and discussed all of the options—you know, like concentrate or ready mixed—stuff like that. Well, we purchased our supplies and John happily measured the weed killer concentrate, mixed it with the right amount of water, filled up the pumper spray, and went after those weeds!

Day after day our lawn looked worse and worse! Disgusted with the weed killer, John took a picture of the lawn to show to the workers at Ace Hardware and ask for a refund for the weed killer. I […]

An Act of God or a Coincidence?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:51-05:00June 18th, 2010|Categories: Divine Providence, Homosexuality|

Last August, during the now famous Lutheran (ELCA) church-wide assembly in Minneapolis, lightning struck the steeple on a downtown Lutheran church where part of the meeting was being conducted. Since the ELCA voted to accept same-sex marriages at this meeting, a decision which created a storm of response pro and con, the news media covered this event rather intensely. As is typical of these types of events people were lined up on both sides like political parties set to win a debate. Some saw God’s smile in the events that unfolded while others saw a divine frown. Condemnations were forthcoming from all sides, especially from some evangelicals who relished the providence of this particular steeple being struck by lightning. They openly said that this somehow displayed God’s obvious displeasure. At the time I wondered (again) at this odd and all-too-frequent attempt to explain what we cannot, and should not, explain.

Was the lightning an act of God? Well, yes I think so myself. In fact, even insurance policies still use this kind of language about such events. But the question here is really simple: “Do […]

Do High School Graduation Ceremonies in Church Buildings Violate the Separation of Church and State?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:51-05:00June 17th, 2010|Categories: Current Affairs|

The separation of church and state continues to dog our political conversation and public reactions on a daily basis. Sometimes there are real issues involved that Christians are far too slow to recognize. The reverse is true when radical separation seems to be the goal. Some would like to remove all traces of religion from all elements of public life, period. This perspective surfaced again during recent high school graduation ceremonies both in Connecticut and in suburban Chicago. On Memorial Day U. S. District Court Judge Janet Hall ruled that two Connecticut schools could not hold commencement ceremonies in a church because "it was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion." These ceremonies were to be held on June 23 and 24 at the First Cathedral in Bloomfield because of space and price. The suit was brought to the court by two students and three parents.

Numerous schools are not able to conduct their graduation ceremonies on school property because […]

The Story of Amazing Grace That You May Never Have Heard

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:51-05:00June 16th, 2010|Categories: Church History, Music, Personal|

Well-known singer Wintley Phipps, born in Trinidad and Tabago in 1955, moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, at a very early age where he later attended Kingsway College, a Seventh-day Adventist Christian Academy. Before he became a world-renowned singer he also attended Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, where he received a Bachelors of Arts degree in Theology. I have a particular interest in Oakwood University since the campus borders the property where my mother lay in a rehab center before she passed into the presence of Christ less than three years ago in Huntsville. I wrote about Oakwood at that time commenting on my visit to the slave cemetery next door on the grounds at Oakwood. The school was begun by faithful Adventists who cared for slaves before the Civil War and for the poor former-slaves who struggled to recover after the war. Phipps later earned a Masters of Divinity degree from the best-known Adventist school, Andrews University in Berrien Springs, […]

Why Do People Stay Away from the Church?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:51-05:00June 15th, 2010|Categories: Evangelism, Missional Church, The Church|

I travel more than the average person. Flights often allow me the opportunity to talk, in a non-threatening way, with both Christians and non-Christians. I have discovered that the data we continually hear reported about the church is telling us a number of truths that we generally do not like to hear inside the leadership structures of the church.

While the church once was a thriving part of most America communities it has now been relegated to something seen as outside normal society, or something that offers no living, vital community to people. In the past, when people were in need, whether physical or spiritual, they would look to local churches for assistance. Most importantly they looked to the church for ways to cope and live every day life. The simple, measurable fact is that this is no longer true. The church has lost its value to people who still seek for ultimate truth. One study found that 60% […]

Who Is a Real Christian?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:52-05:00June 14th, 2010|Categories: Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Renewal, The Church, Unity of the Church|

Tertullian said, “Men are not born Christians but become such.” Being born and reared in a Christian church and family does not make you, ipso facto, a real Christian. Most know this but few will talk about it. Every great revival was birthed when people inside the church began to wonder if they really knew God in Jesus Christ. This is why the new birth has been so central to revival preaching and mission down through the ages.

But there is a corresponding problem with this emphasis. People who are born from above (that is the literal rendering of the Greek text in John 3) often judge those who have not undergone the same experience, or formula, as they have and conclude that they know who is and is not a real Christian. This problem is so great that it destroys most attempts at unity among evangelical and charismatic Christians in particular. We become quite sure who is “born again” and who is not and thus we make walls to keep out the people we know are not real […]

More Wisdom From Mount Athos

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:52-05:00June 13th, 2010|Categories: Church Tradition, Love, Spirituality|

Last Lord’s Day I introduced you to the Orthodox tradition of monasticism associated with Mount Athos in Greece (photo at left). I referenced the writings of Staretz Silouan (1866-1938), a monk whose writing has been particularly helpful to me. Today I return to Silouan and his amazing chapter on love (his words in italics):

At all times I beseech the Lord who is merciful to grant that I may love my enemies; and by the grace of God I have experienced that the love of God is, and what it is to love my neighbour; and day and night I pray the Lord for love, and the Lord gives me tears to weep for the whole world. But if I find faith with any man or look on him with an unkind eye my tears dry up and my soul sinks into despondency. Yet do I begin again to entreat forgiveness of the Lord, and the Lord in his mercy […]

The Dancing Grandma

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:52-05:00June 12th, 2010|Categories: Humor, Personal|

Tonight could be really fun or really embarrassing for me. You see, it’s the night of my granddaughter Abbie’s Streamwood Park District dance recital. Throughout this school year I have taken her to a few rehearsals. One time her mom was out of town and I was watching Abbie’s class through the one-way window. It is a mirror on the class side. I was getting bored watching the same routine over and over and since it was just big sister, Gracie, and me in the hall watching, I decided to start shuffle-stepping myself! I did the whole Calypso routine four times waving my hands in the air and shuffle stepping, shuffle ball-changing—you know, looking like a real “piece of work” as we say in my family. Gracie was telling her mom all about it on the cell phone, to which her mom replied, “There’s a security camera on the ceiling at the end of the hall!” Everyone at the front desk of the […]