Blog - Page 172 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Synergy Network Conference in Chicago

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:38-05:00November 17th, 2009|Categories: ACT 3|

I have appreciated the teaching and mentoring ministry of Carolyn Custis James for some time. I came to know about Carolyn because of my friendship with her husband Frank, who is now the dean at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Carolyn is a prolific author and a first-rate thinker. She is also a warm communicator whose ministry to men and women is deeply Christ-centered. She is the author of several very popular books. There are many great women teachers who are well worth knowing today but very few quite like Carolyn. This is why I happily asked her to speak in Chicago in 2010, which led to a co-sponsored event to be held at Christ Church in Oak Brook (IL) on January 23. I hope all who are within driving distance of Chicago will plan to attend this great Saturday event. It might appear that this day is only for women but this is not the case. Wives, bring your men. Come and meet me at Christ Church […]

What John R. Mott Taught Me About Unity in Christ's Mission

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:38-05:00November 17th, 2009|Categories: Unity of the Church|

I was surprised, when the recent announcement of President Obama's winning the Nobel Peace Prize, prompted the famous atheist Christopher Hitchens to attack the selection of two previous Nobel Peace Prize winners that he particularly disdains: Mother Theresa and John R. Mott. I doubt that few who actually read Hitchens' article, where a photo of Mott appeared in a popular news magazine, had any idea who Mott was.

John R. Mott (1865–1955) lived an extraordinary life. What amazes me is not that so few people know anything about him but that so few serious Christians even know his name. much less anything about his life as a Christian leader. If any one individual could be said to personify the modern ecumenical movement, with a proper emphasis upon Christ and mission, it would be John R. Mott. Oliver Tomkins says, “In him converge uniquely the varied strands of which the ecumenical movement is woven” (Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement, page 703).

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The Central Core of True Faith is Jesus Christ

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:38-05:00November 16th, 2009|Categories: Christ/Christology|

John Stott has clearly given the church a treasure of biblical teaching that will feed minds and hearts for decades to come. One of Stott’s most useful books is Basic Christianity, a book that I have often used to train/mentor others. First published in 1958 this is vintage John R. W. Stott. He sets forth a compelling course of simple, yet very rich, study that defends the fundamental truth claims of Christianity. What are the basic beliefs of all Christians and why do they really matter? How do we live out the faith that we confess? Stott’s friend, J. I. Packer, calls this little gem of a book a “disarming introduction to personal faith [a] modern classic.” I agree.

Stott begins this incredibly useful book by saying: “We must commit ourselves, heart and mind, soul and will, home and life, personally and unreservedly, to Jesus Christ. We must humble ourselves before him. We must trust him as our Savior and submit to him […]

An Update on My Friend David Stopke

By John Armstrong|2009-11-15T05:00:00-06:00November 15th, 2009|Categories: Personal|

Some five months ago I wrote about my friend David Stopke. David was accidentally shot by his own son while his son was cleaning a firearm. They were cleaning the gun following an attempted break-in the day before. David, who was shot through the neck in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, was immediately flown to Las Vegas to a trauma hospital where he spent several months near death. It was there that I went to visit him a few days after the tragic accident. After a long stint in Las Vegas, with his life in the balance for several months, David recovered and was taken to Denver for further medical procedures. He was then taken back to Nevada for therapy and recovery. Before this year is over he hopes to go home. The fact that he is alive is truly amazing.

Over the course of these months I have had a number of conversations with David's family. They have expressed their profound concern for the prayers of all who know about their ordeal. I have also had two or three very short conversations with […]

Looking for Lincoln

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:38-05:00November 14th, 2009|Categories: America and Americanism|

PBS does some of the finest documentary presentations in contemporary television. To celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln PBS did a two-hour special (now available on DVD) titled: Looking for Lincoln. It features Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Gates travels around the country from Gettysburg to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. He stops in Springfield and rural Indiana. He interviews friends and foes of Lincoln, including a group of Southern Civil War supporters who see Lincoln as a terrorist. From Lincoln re-enactors at a unique convention to relic hunters and collectors he shows the impact of our sixteenth president on our national identity, past and present.

Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are featured as well. Both interact with Lincoln's legacy and what it must have been like to live in the White House in those darkest days in our nation's lowest point. Clinton is particularly impressive in his grasp of Lincoln's religious nature and the impact of […]

Holy Ground: A Book I Heartily Commend

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:38-05:00November 13th, 2009|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

I first met Rev. Chris Castaldo about eleven years ago, just before he headed off to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He was connected to a church in the area where I had ministered quite often. He instantly endeared himself to me for his warmth and graciousness. For six years Chris has served on the staff of College Church in Wheaton. Over the years since we first met we have become really true friends. I count Chris as one of the finest and brightest young ministers I know. He is an able preacher, teacher and now a first-time author. His first book, which will surely not be his last I pray, is Holy Ground, published last month by Zondervan. Chris is doing a "blog tour" this week. I wanted to participate in the fun. To this end Chris responded to several questions about his book for today's blog.

1. Why did you […]

How Will We Address the Problem of the Church in Decline?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:38-05:00November 12th, 2009|Categories: The Church|

Yesterday I wrote about the decline of churches in America. The facts are clear. Most churches are losing members faster than they are gaining. Those church groups that are not losing members are flat-lined, or barely growing at all. The percentage of growth, in the most spiritually virile groups, is in decline.

All of this underscores what many of us have seen coming for the last decade plus. We have entered what many think is the first stage of the long term breakup of Christendom. This appears to have begun in the 1990s. The evidence is now beginning to show us when it began. But the evidence does not clearly tell us why it began thus the conclusion as to what happened is unclear. And what we should do in the face of this tragic loss is not clear at all. Groups of all sorts offer solutions and advance ideas for how we should proceed in a “new world” context.

My conclusion is rather simple, but I think rather profound in its own way. We must make […]

Is Christianity in America in Decline?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:38-05:00November 11th, 2009|Categories: The Church|

American church bodies are clearly in a state of decline. Some are declining at an unparalleled rate while others have just begun to decline for the first time in the last year or two. Almost all American churches are in decline so denial of this reality serves no good purpose at all. Understanding it, and responding to it, will not be so easy. Most are likely to deny it for decades and simply do nothing. Those who are will keep asking, “What should we do in the face of Christendom’s rapid decline in the United States?”

When you take a ten year look at American church bodies it reveals that many have declined anywhere from 6.5% to 20% over the decade from 1997–2007. (The data I have is from Stephen Ministries which calls the statistical offices of these various groups to get their data. The most recent calls were made in April of this year. It generally takes about 6 to 9 months […]

Three Elements of Faith and Practice We Must Recover to Have a Robust "Ancient-Future" Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:38-05:00November 10th, 2009|Categories: Church Tradition|

Yesterday I argued that an inordinate desire for the new, coupled with a growing abandonment of the historically received faith, is now having hugely negative consequences in many Protestant mainline churches. We must again be reminded that, "She who marries the spirit of the age becomes a widow in the next generation." What is called for is a reformation, a return to the faith “once for all delivered to the saints.” This is not a call to modern fundamentalism but a call to a robust, confessional faith that shares in the recovery of three elements of our faith and practice. But how shall we go about this recovery? I answer that in order to reform the church in our time we need to recover at least three core commitments.

First, we need a return to the Holy Scriptures as authoritative in all matters of faith and practice. Many people and churches must be re-introduced to the Jesus of the New Testament as well as the high doctrine of the Council of Chalcedon. We must go back, back to a more robust, confessional […]

The Divisions That Now Threaten Churches in the West

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:41-05:00November 9th, 2009|Categories: Church Tradition|

The division that has risen within Christianity in modern times, at least in certain ways, now overshadows the older divisions of the Great Schism (1054) and the Protestant Reformation. The most obvious debate that threatens to divide the church in the West, and one that will likely continue for generations to follow, is the approval of same-sex marriage and the ordination of practicing homosexuals to the ministry. Related issues of gender, morality and doctrine have troubled the church for at least three decades but recent decisions in some churches seem to have finally created the perfect storm. Underlying this issue is the deeper and broader conflict over the nature of the Christian revelation and how to read the Scriptures faithfully.

Has God fully and finally revealed himself to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ and is this revelation timeless, unchanging and binding upon all people at all times? Traditional, confessional Christianity is convinced that these moral issues are not unclear in Scripture or in […]