Blog - Page 270 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Freedom Writers

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:23-05:00April 19th, 2007|Categories: Film|

The feature film "Freedom Writers" appeared on DVD this week. It stars two-time Oscar winner Hillary Swank as a very young Long Beach (CA) high school teacher assigned to a freshman English class made up of students all destined to fail. The kids are African-American, Asian and Latino inner-city kids raised on drive-by shootings in a hard-core death-based culture. The story is true and the film is genuinely beautiful.

Erin Gruwell, the teacher in the story, gave her students a voice of their own, a sense of place and a future. She empowered her kids by getting them to read, write and think. She accomplished this by getting them to read The Diary of Anne Frank and then by having them write their responses in a personal journal. The experience slowly transformed how these kids understood life and coped with their own past. Gruwell continually battled an uncaring school system that was set up to fail, like most school systems in the cities of America. She was hated by some of her peers for rocking their boats and she lost her husband’s […]

A Tragic Day in Blacksburg: Making Sense of People's Actions and the Words of Jesus

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:24-05:00April 18th, 2007|Categories: Current Affairs|

Americans are now forming impressions, based upon the unfolding news accounts, of the deadliest school shooting rampage in our history, a carnage that left 33 people dead on the Virginia Tech campus Monday. The questions that we generally raise are almost always the same: Why didn’t the school stop this sooner? How did the police, the counselors, the teachers, the dorm directors, all fail? How did the shooter’s parents fail? How can we stop this random violence in the future? And where can you go, or allow your children to go, and be truly safe? And, as with other tragedies, even non-believers often ask, “How could a good God allow such an act of senseless violence?”

Two questions interest me this morning. These are both questions that require you to dig a little deeper into the news cycle to get any resemblance of an answer. First, who was Cho Seung-Hui, the shooter? What do we know about the life of this 23-year old that might reveal to us why he began these random shootings, ending his life with suicide? And, second, how […]

Sometimes I Just Don't Recognize Myself

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:25-05:00April 17th, 2007|Categories: Personal|

When I first began writing blogs in 2005 I was not really sure about the value of this enterprise. At times I am still not fully convinced, though I still write blogs almost every day. In one sense, I write for myself just because I love to write. I think best when I put my ideas in writing. It is who I am and how I function. I understand blogs to be, at their best, a combination of philosophical insights, less than polished (as in polished for more formal publication) essays on sundry matters and personal autobiographical reflections. I try to do all of these in various ways, always in a way that I hope ministers to others in some small way.

But who reads these blogs? (I read some blogs and profit from these myself, though my time devoted to them is limited by personal time demands and health issues.) Do these blogs really make any difference, the kind of difference that brings about godliness and better Christian thought? Do they result in richer and better living under God? I do often […]

An Interview with My Friend Steve Brown

By John Armstrong|2007-04-16T11:09:21-05:00April 16th, 2007|Categories: Personal|

For some years Steve Brown, the radio voice of Key Life, has proven to be a really cool buddy who likes me just the way I really am. He is one of the most gracious, energetic and effective communicators I have ever met. More important than gifts is the reality of Steve Brown himself. He is what you hear and read and is as authentic as they get.

Steve serves on my Advisory Team for ACT 3 precisely because I desire, and need, the kind of counsel that he can and does provide for me. (I also need his prayers which he freely offers for me faithfully.) I am never with Steve that I do not walk away and say, "What a hoot. I love this man. He is so good for me to be with. He helps me to be a better Christian who truly lives grace." I have know lots of Christian leaders over my lifetime but few are as down-to-earth and real as Steve Brown. I mean it. I would not lie about such a matter if my life […]

A Fair Critique of Emergent

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:25-05:00April 16th, 2007|Categories: Emergent Church|

I have followed the Emergent Church (EC) phenomenon for several years now. I have not read all the books that are coming out with popular EC themes and titles but I have read several of them carefully. I have also used one or two of these books in my classes and openly shared in dialog with writers such as Brian McLaren, who is often seen as the leader of this movement by outsiders. Insiders respect Brian a great deal but they understand that the depth of leadership, and the varied important voices in this movement, is much wider than Brian. One of the most popular writers in EC circles, as one example, is Scot McKnight. Scot is anything but a young gun for a modern "cool" movement.

I have recently taken my own public hits for being "too emergent" yet I am not deeply involved in this, or any other, movement in any meaningful sense. I am certainly not an apologist for the EC movement nor do I intend to write emergent books. (I do count many emergent leaders as friends and desire […]

Jackie Robinson: A Tribute

By John Armstrong|2007-04-15T21:16:45-05:00April 15th, 2007|Categories: Baseball|

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the breaking of the color barrier in major league baseball in America. Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. On that day the sport, and the the nation, were changed forever. The complicated nature of race relations in this country were profoundly altered by the courage and skill of one baseball player. But Robinson was more than just a ballplayer. He was a great ballplayer and an even greater man. Inspired by his faith in Christ, and his Christian values, Robinson was willing to suffer immense opposition not just to play ball and be the first black player but to change a game, and through that game, a nation.

Today a number of baseball players wore number 42 to remember Jackie Robinson. Sadly, only 8% of major league players today are African Americans. Blacks play basketball in much greater numbers and over 70% of professional football players are black, exploding the myth that they do not play baseball simply because of the lack of space and money. Gerald Early, writing in Time magazine, […]

Lex Orandi, Lex Vivendi

By John Armstrong|2007-04-14T18:43:53-05:00April 14th, 2007|Categories: The Church|

Modern evangelicals generally approach the subject of worship by focusing upon biblical texts and/or biblical theology, or by focusing upon the style question as an end in itself. Rarely do they put the two of these together in any meaningful way. John Witvliet, professor of worship at Calvin College, addressed this subject in his lecture on Friday morning at the Wheaton Theology Conference by showing us how worship (lex orandi) and mission (lex vivendi) are intimately connected.

Witvliet, one of the finest voices in worship renewal within the Reformed world, stressed that discussions and considerations of the forms and patterns of worship must talk more about the strategic means by which real convictions can be expressed contextually in radically appropriate ways. He used various patristic sources from 4th century church to make his point. He did this by giving us a sampler of certain rich and full texts, suggesting that these were the kinds of texts that can provide a rich source of wisdom for contemporary practice. This kind of ressourcement could prove very helpful to many worship leaders but sadly most […]

Mayhem or Magisterium?

By John Armstrong|2007-04-13T07:02:40-05:00April 13th, 2007|Categories: Church Tradition|

As noted in yesterday’s post I am attending the 16th annual Wheaton Theology Conference, April 12-14. The opening address featured a presentation by evangelical patristics scholar D. H. Williams that was worth the entire event. Dan showed how evangelicalism’s new-found enthusiasm for the early Fathers is a welcome movement that can lead the church to renewal but in our enthusiasm we are in serious danger of misusing the ancients as well. A major reason for misuse is our failure to understand how truly unlike (dissimilis) us they are. There are some likenesses to Protestant evangelicalism (simiis) that should be observed as well. These realities call for caution if we are to recapture the patristic spirit and methods of spirituality and exegesis for their own purpose before we try to link them with our own. To inappropriately "claim" the early Fathers for our time, by a few simple suggestions, is a huge mistake. Williams offered some great suggestions about using the creeds diachronically. The early Christians, he noted, became subject to an agenda and thus by this they created their own culture. We must do […]

Ancient Faith for the Church's Future

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:25-05:00April 12th, 2007|Categories: Church Tradition|

The 16th annual Wheaton College Theology Conference begins today. This conference, originally the vision and dream of the late Timothy Phillips and former-Wheaton College theology professor Dennis Ockholm, has become a first-rate event for those who care about serious theological discussion and learning. This year’s theme is: "Ancient Faith for the Church’s Future." Speakers include D. Stephen Long, Brian Daley, Christopher Hall, Christine Pohl, D. H. Williams, Alan Kreider, Tony Jones, John Witvliet, Kathryn Greene-McCreight and Ray Anderson. These speakers represent an interesting blend of emergent leaders and ancient church scholars.

The conference is built on the premise that one of the more promising developments among evangelical Protestants is the recent rediscovery of the rich biblical, spiritual, and theological treasure to be found within the early church. The event will focus on the life and thought of the early church and ask a number of pressing questions: How do we appropriate the riches of the early church in ways that are faithful to its own world and relevant to our own? In what ways do the ancient practices of spiritual life and devotion […]

A Humble Reformed Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:25-05:00April 11th, 2007|Categories: Reformed Christianity|

The terms "generous orthodoxy" and "humble orthodoxy" have become popular in recent years. I like both terms a great deal, though definitions vary wildly. Who doesn’t want to be generous, or humble? (Actually, I can think of some people I know who probably think the term generous is nefarious in some sinister way!)

I am personally preparing for my oral examinations with a classis of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) on April 24. I am doing this in order to have my credentials as a minister transfered into the RCA. (I believe deeply in connectionalism so remaining independent of church accountability as a minister is not an option.) This decision has actually been developing over a long period of time. The largest hurdle, initially, was the question of baptism. I have always been Reformed, at least since I was a very young Baptist minister back in the 1970s. I came to embrace the Reformed view of the Lord’s Supper, a view that welcomed the mystery of Christ’s "real presence" in the meal (elements) about twenty years ago. But I could not yet […]