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The Jesus Prayer

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:46-05:00February 15th, 2007|Categories: Spirituality|

The apostle Paul commands believers, in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, to "Pray without ceasing (continually, TNIV). It seems apparent that we cannot be in the continual posture of prayer, or in the place of prayer, at all times. But can we live a life of prayer that keeps us in the continual practice of prayer while we do a hundred other things throughout a busy day?

The Eastern Church developed a monastic practice that was rooted in the Greek word hesychia, which meant silence or leisure. This practice developed whereby the monks learned to pray monological prayers in order to experience elements of the mystery of the Christian faith deep within. Aspects of mysticism followed, some good and some a bit removed from what seems to be biblical spirituality. Hesychast practice focused on the concentration of attention within, first verbally, and then in the depth of one’s being, using what was called The Jesus Prayer.

The Jesus Prayer is: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Variations exist, with some forms omitting the last two words, but […]

Marriage & Abortion: There is a Link

By John Armstrong|2007-02-14T21:23:35-06:00February 14th, 2007|Categories: Marriage & Family|

For some time I have believed that there had to be a clear link between marriage and abortion. Yesterday I heard a commentary on Relevant Radio (Catholic) that showed there was an obvious connection. Unmarried couples are four times more likely to have an abortion than married couples. And single mothers are also four times more likely to have an abortion than married mothers. Further, children growing up in homes without married parents are far more likely to have an abortion as well.

We recently heard that the number of unmarried adults in America now exceeds the number of married adults, with almost 51% of adults not married. This stastic is a bit misleading in several ways, including how the data was gathered. Yet I would have to guess that things do not bode well for either marriage or the pro-life movement over the long term unless we see a new generation arise that is deeply committed to a culture of life. Except for a religious awakening of major proportions this seems quite unlikely.

One things is certain. The church […]

The Prayer of Compline

By John Armstrong|2007-02-13T07:31:21-06:00February 13th, 2007|Categories: Spirituality|

In the fixed-hour prayer tradition, which I spoke about last week, the final hour (the fourth) is called compline. Here one prays prayers that are for retiring for an evening to sleep. Last evening “The Reading” (always short) for compline was from Thomas a Kempis. This reading went with me into my dreams (literally) and I arose today still praying it.

We should renew out purpose daily, and should stir up ourselves to fresh enthusiasm, as though this were the first day of our conversion, and we should say, “Help me Lord Jesus, that I may persevere in my good purpose and in Your holy service to my life’s end. Grant that I may now, this very day, perfectly begin, for what I have done in time past is as nothing.”

Compline is designed to be the hour of rest and is thus structured. I found myself dreaming of how I could be stirred up to “fresh enthusiasm” through the evening, or at least in the moments before awaking today. “The first day of our conversion . . . life’s end.” What […]

A Postmodern U2 Worship Experience

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:46-05:00February 12th, 2007|Categories: Postmodernity|

Like it or not, U2 and lead singer Bono, are a huge success. They are not only a huge media success, and have sold millions of CDs, but they are having an even bigger impact upon the world for the cause of social justice and AIDS awareness in Africa. This phenomenon is not just about the music of U2, though their music has a power and an appeal that is unique.

Last evening my local congregation in Carol Stream, The Lutheran Church of the Master, hosted a U2 Eucharist. This service was the first of a new postmodern congregational gathering called Nexus, which will meet once a month on the second Sunday evening. The context for this “journey” was the music of U2 combined with many ancient practices of the Christian Church. And the band, a local Chicago group called Vertigo, was a pretty good U2 knock-off group.

This U2 Eucharist included strobe lightning, very loud music and the popular songs of Bono’s famous band that speak of deeply spiritual themes: “Pride,” “I Don’t Know the Way,” “I Still Haven’t Found […]

Helping An Aged Parent

By John Armstrong|2007-02-10T22:57:30-06:00February 10th, 2007|Categories: Personal|

It is late on Saturday night. I just returned from a two-day visit with my aged mom (91 years old) and my brother and his family, in Huntsville, Alabama. I have made these trips more often over the past few years. It is increasingly evident that my mom is failing more and more with each visit, becoming quite frail, much less mobile and increasingly forgetful. Nothing you do in life prepares you precisely for these difficult days of caring for a very old parent. On one level it is a pure delight to care for my mom since she gave me life and nurtured me for eighteen years. And in some ways a parent never stops parenting you, even at this stage. But the roles have changed. Along with my brother and his wife, I am now helping make the basic decisions that relate to mom’s life and care just as she once did for me. It is a major role reversal that comes when a parent lives this long, and more and more people are living past 90. If you have older parents […]

The Role of Limited Government

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:46-05:00February 9th, 2007|Categories: History|

Our religious and political rights are uniquely bound up together. Most young Americans, and far too many older native born American citizens, have little or no idea how important this truth really is.

The central idea behind this unique relationship in American political understanding is limited government. This is really what classical liberalism understood and fervently practiced. Modern liberalism has little or nothing to do with this understanding, preferring to stress ideologies that are neither truly liberal nor limited.

The founding fathers fervently believed that we were all created equal, with inherent rights to life and liberty given to us by God. This belief was rooted in both Judeo-Christian beliefs and some elements of Enlightenment philosophy. The securing of these rights was the very basis for a limited government. And a limited government was based upon the understanding that true power arose from the governed who were willing to consent to a just government.

There were some very big differences of opinion among our founding fathers, such as two very different views of America’s future as represented by […]

Shepherd Leaders Needed: Others Need Not Apply

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:47-05:00February 8th, 2007|Categories: Pastoral Renewal|

For some years I have taught biblical and common sense principles of leadership to churches. This all began by way of a two-day seminar I taught for another ministry back in the 1980s. This experience actually launched my present ministry but I did not understand this at the time. I found that I spent lots of time with pastors and other church leaders, in these local-church based seminars, teaching sessions to between 10 and 40 people about ten to twelve times a year. This experience forced me to listen, interact and develop people skills in the process. Being a student of anything that interests me at all (including theology, film, political theory, public policy, history, baseball and college football) I found that I wanted to study this subject of leadership much more intensely. I thus read lots of books, Christian and non-Christian. I talked to lots of leaders, some well-known and some not well-known at all. This all impacted my own sense of being a pastor and helped me to grow in that role during my sixteen years in my second church (1976-1992). (I […]

The Place of Fixed-Hour Prayers

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:47-05:00February 7th, 2007|Categories: Spirituality|

I was interviewed by a reporter for the Chicago Tribune yesterday who is working on a story about “fixed-hour prayers.” She discovered my interest via this blog site. Having just begun my day with fixed-hour prayer I want to comment on this ancient Christian discipline again.

Phyllis Tickle, who authored a useful three-volume series called The Divine Hours, notes: “Like a double helix rendered elegant by complexity and splendid by authority, the amalgam of the gospel and the shared meal with the discipline of the fixed-hour prayer were, and have remained, the chain of golden connection tying Christian to Christ and Christian to Christian across history, across geography, and across idiosyncrasies of faith. The former is known as the food and sustenance of the Church and the latter as its work.” It is as if there is a two-fold strand—the sacrament of the holy meal and the daily prayers.

What surprises many Protestants when they first encounter this idea of fixed-hour prayer is that the practice is deeply rooted in both Judaism and the work of the earliest Christians. Consider Psalm […]

The Rise of the Nice Baptists

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:47-05:00February 6th, 2007|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

My friend John Wilson, editor of Books and Culture, wrote an excellent guest column in the Saturday edition of the Wall Street Journal (February 3, 2007). John is not a Southern Baptist but he demonstrated a keen insight into their recent history and the ongoing debates among the various camps of Baptists that now splinter the old SBC into new factions almost every passing day.

Wilson notes that certain “hardliners” control several of the official seminaries, referring particularly Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. Wilson correctly calls Southwestern’s president, Paige Patterson, a “hyper-conservative.” It was under Patterson’s leadership, for example, that a woman professor was asked to leave her job (as reported by the Associated Press) because Patterson believes women should not teach men theology. (This argument stands on slim, shaky and non-existent grounds if you pay careful attention to the Scripture itself!) This kind of action drives even more moderately conservative people away from the leadership of the SBC. It has even led others to leave the SBC altogether. Enter former president Jimmy Carter, who left the SBC in protest […]

Two Consistent and Courageous Senators with Totally Opposite Views on the War in Iraq

By John Armstrong|2007-02-05T19:59:28-06:00February 5th, 2007|Categories: Politics|

John McCain and Russ Feingold could not be more different about their views of the War in Iraq. Feingold is prepared to cut off all funding, to bring the troops home now, and thus to stop the President’s direction. McCain is just the opposite in his view. He believes we actually need even more troops than the “surge” calls for. He has been saying this for well over a year, long before most in the Senate or elsewhere even discussed it. But there is one thing that unites Feingold and McCain. Both are consistent and both are bold in stating their views. They are not willing to spin this war in the air waiting to see how much they can defend or attack and then get away with it. Both men have the courage of their convictions, which may explain why they stood side-by-side in their campaign for financial reform legislation just a few years ago. (Their famous bill, known as the McCain-Feingold Act, proved to really solve almost nothing even though it tried to present some real solutions in the area of campaign […]