Blog - Page 164 of 318 - John H Armstrong

What Is a Missional Church?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:15-05:00February 2nd, 2010|Categories: Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism|

Perhaps no term that I regularly use is more easily misused, and quite frankly misunderstood, than the word missional. Some have argued that this is reason enough to not use the word at all. I disagree. Though the term clearly carries a certain amount of potential for misunderstanding so did most new words that made their way into theological vocabulary in church history.

The term missional is rooted in the concept of the missio dei, a Latin phrase which means
"the mission of God." This term came into prominence in the early twentieth century as a way to ground missionary theory and practice in the missionary nature and activity of the triune God. The idea behind the concept of the mission dei was that all three persons of the Godhead were involved in "the sending" of the Son into the world. On this basis the church is now "sent" by the Triune God into the world because the sending God is reaching out to the whole world in Christ.

Mission is the carrying of the message and […]

A German Human Rights Story Misreported

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:15-05:00February 1st, 2010|Categories: Current Affairs, Separation of Church & State|

Over the past seven days I have tracked a story about a Christian family from Germany who were been granted political asylum in the U.S. after facing the threat of prison for home schooling their children. This is the kind of story that makes American conservatives excited and then tends to stoke Internet chatter pretty significantly. A number of U. S. newspapers and blogs picked up this story and a great deal is already being written about it. It appears the source being used is called the Christian Institute in England. Colin Hart (photo at left), director of the Christian Institute, writes on their Website that the Christian Institute exists for "the furtherance and promotion of the Christian religion in the United Kingdom" and "the advancement of education." Here is how the home school story was reported on Thursday of last week:

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, who are evangelical Christians, were forced to flee Germany as they wished to educate their five children at home. The news source wrote of the story: "Home schooling […]

Gluttony: The Most Common Deadly Sin?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:16-05:00January 31st, 2010|Categories: Personal, Spirituality|

Gregory the Great, a sixth century pope whose piety and teaching on spiritual formation have had an enduring legacy in the church, seems to have been the first Christian teacher to create the taxonomy of the "seven deadly sins." One thing is certain. Following Gregory these seven sins stood out as prominent in Christian theology. The seven were: pride, anger, envy, impunity, gluttony, slothfulness and avarice. I doubt many Protestants could name these if their life depended on it.

But what is gluttony? And is gluttony simply synonymous with being overweight? And if it synonymous with being overweight who determines what constitutes being overweight? If it is the infamous insurance tables then the standard has shifted quite a bit in the last decade. If it is the physicians and researchers then the standard is shifting even as I write these words. The most recent medical evidence suggests that excess weight is harmful to your well-being but there are many other factors that contribute to health and longevity of life than weight. In reality, some of […]

Pam Chose Life: The Tim Tebow Pro-Life Story

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:16-05:00January 30th, 2010|Categories: Abortion|

The following letter appeared in my box this week. I think it implores those who value unborn life to respond. I did. I hope you will too.

Dear Friends,

Once again our values are under intense attack from radical liberal feminists. Only this time they are venturing where they never should have gone.

Football. And not just any football game. The Super Bowl.

This week, the liberal feminist organization, National Organization for Women (NOW), launched an all-out effort attacking a pro-life ad that will be in the Super Bowl commercial line-up. The ad, produced by our good friends at Focus on the Family, tells the story of Pam Tebow's decision to continue with her pregnancy against her doctor's advice and give birth to the Heisman trophy winning Florida Gator Quarterback, Tim Tebow.

NOW's call to take this advertisement off the air is their attempt at shutting down […]

The Ongoing Struggle of Church and State is a Real Threat to Mission

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:17-05:00January 29th, 2010|Categories: Missional Church, The Church, The Persecuted Church|

A French court has ruled that the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Nice, built with funding from the Russian Tsar Nicholas II and completed in 1912, just prior to the country's revolution, belongs to the government of Russia and must be handed over. The victory is Russia's latest in a series of battles for church property around the world, which represent attempts by the Russian government and Russian Orthodox Church to reassert control over a widespread diaspora. A Russian émigré group has run St. Nicholas Cathedral under the jurisdiction of the Istanbul-based Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople since the 1920s.

If you do not follow such news this may strike you as quite unimportant. It strikes me as both sad and dangerous. By danger I am not reworking the old themes of the cold war, not at all. I am reminding Christians of the danger the church faces when it gets too comfortable with the state. From 1917 until the fall of the U.S.S.R. the church and state were very separated in Russia. In fact, […]

A Day in the Life of John H. Armstrong

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:17-05:00January 28th, 2010|Categories: ACT 3, Personal|

Regular readers of this blog might actually wonder what I do from day-to-day. Do I sit in front of a screen and write articles, blogs and books? Well, yes and no. I do a lot of writing for sure. But I do even more work with people. I follow the "rule of thumb" I heard not too long ago from Bishop N. T. Wright who said that if he did blog he would spend one hour with real people for every hour he spent online. I spend far more hours with real people than with virtual realities and blogging. Do not misunderstand, I believe the Internet revolution is not only real but I believe it has the most amazing potential to stir the church unlike anything that has happened since the invention of movable type. I also believe that social sites like Facebook have immense value. I have reconnected with so many friends, and built so many relationships with new friends, that I have become a huge fan of this tool. But again, this all has to […]

When and How Should We Speak Out About the Persecution of Other Christians?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:17-05:00January 27th, 2010|Categories: The Persecuted Church|

The Institute on Religion & Democracy (IRD) recently expressed its dismay (January 14 post) at the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA)’s for having ignored religious persecution in China during its recent visit. Instead, says Faith McDonnell of the IRD, the WEA spoke only of cooperation with the government-registered church while disregarding restrictions by the communist regime on unofficial churches. The vast majority of Chinese Christians, conservatively estimated at 80 million in number, worship in unregistered congregations that meet in homes and other settings.

The IRD post adds that: “In the past week alone, leaders of the Chinese House Church Alliance were detained by the authorities in Hebei province according to China Aid. House churches in both Beijing and Shanghai have also been closed recently by the police. In Shanxi province, authorities demolished the Fushan House Church’s building, giving church leaders long prison sentences. In December, a Ugyhur Christian convert from Islam was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his faith.”

There is no question, to my mind, that this report from the IRD is accurate. Having served […]

How Meeting Real Christians from Different Traditions Makes a Real Difference

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:17-05:00January 26th, 2010|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism|

A regular reader of this blog, who is Roman Catholic in his faith and practice, told me that he was recently at an A.A. men's retreat conducted at a Jesuit-run retreat center. This retreat was specifically geared toward men involved in A.A. but it incorporated the Spiritual exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola. Because of this Catholic connection the retreat included Catholic prayers such as the angelus, the rosary, the daily and Sunday mass, morning prayers, as well as evening eucharistic adoration and benediction. In such settings no one is forced to participate in these spiritual practices that are specifically Catholic but all are invited to participate to whatever degree they choose to do so. What follows is an account by the writer (edited by me) of the letter, a Catholic friend, that was sent to me a few days ago.

“There was a man at the retreat from out-of-state who had traveled some distance to be there. He is a Baptist and, […]

Pope Benedict XVI on Knowing Christ, Witness and Unity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:17-05:00January 25th, 2010|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism|

On January 20 Pope Benedict XVI said, “Being a witness to Christ presupposes knowing him firsthand, not just being told of him by others.” The Pope made this comment during a general audience in Pope Paul VI Hall. He took up the theme of ecumenism, during what is called internationally a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

This year's theme for the prayer week is "You are witnesses of these things," taken from the Gospel of Luke. Pope Benedict XVI noted in his homily the following points based upon the biblical text:

If we look at the context of the chapter [of Luke], “these things” means above all the cross and resurrection. The disciples have seen the Lord's crucifixion, they see the Risen One and thus begin to understand all the Scriptures that speak of the mystery of the passion and of the gift of the resurrection. “These things,” therefore, is the mystery of Christ, of the Son of God made man.
[…]

Please Stop the Interpretations of Divine (Secret) Providence

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:17-05:00January 24th, 2010|Categories: Biblical Theology, Current Affairs, Hermeneutics|

If there is anything the most elemental study of the Bible, theology and church history will reveal it is the simple, but profound, truth that we have no business trying to explain divine providence in terms of what God is saying or doing in a catastrophe or tragedy. American history is, however, littered with preachers telling us what God was specifically saying to the world, or to some person or group of people, when a particular event took place. The greatest illustration of this problem occurred during the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was once asked, "Whose side is God on in the war?" He said he was not concerned with that question but rather with the question of whether or not he, that is Abraham Lincoln, was on God's side. That is the point!

Lincoln, not even a member of a Christian church, understood better than many ministers when to speak about providence, and how, and when to be quiet. But the problem persists. […]