Blog - Page 29 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Jeff’s Story

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:16-05:00September 9th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Discipleship, Evangelism, Love, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, The Future|

Last week I shared Sophia’s story. If you did not read this blog and see the video then please go back to September 2. Read my words and watch the 90-second video. Maybe even share this material with your church, your pastor, or your outreach team.

I am personally called to promote a vision I call “missional-ecumenism.” One way this vision works best is to get local churches to work in partnership as they reach into public space with the good news. In one case I know about here in the Chicago region a Catholic Church, and two Protestant churches, began a Crossroads Kids Club together.

I believe that we must get outside our church buildings and church systems and make new disciples. From what I can see this is not happening, or rarely happening. We should begin with children before they are adolescents. Why? Far too soon these children will find their identity and cultural formation from a gang, or at a minimum from entirely anti-Christian influences. Crossroads can change this pattern. But without local churches who will step out and act with vision and faithfulness it will […]

Let’s Talk with Mark Elfstrand – August 15, 2014

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:16-05:00September 8th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Current Affairs, Leadership, Pastoral Renewal|

I mentioned in my September 3 blog post that I would appear on Mark Elfstrand’s Chicago program (4:00 to 6:00 p.m.) on WYLL as a “Resident Theologian.” Here is a short appearance I made with Mark taken from a live broadcast on Friday, August 15. It includes my response to his question about the pastoral ministry of Mark Driscoll in Seattle. I had declined to provide a public response to Mark’s very public issues until I was asked a straightforward question on this particular program. Listen if you would like to hear how I responded to the concerns that surround Rev. Driscoll.

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Love Alone Is Eternal (Part Five)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:16-05:00September 5th, 2014|Categories: Biblical Theology, God's Character, Love, The Church|

Every Christian I have ever met, if they have living faith in Jesus Christ, knows that God is love. Yet few Christians in the West live like they really believe this to be true. These words – “God is love” – express life’s most fundamental decision.

Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical put it this way:

Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choir or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. Saint John’s Gospel describes that event in these words: “God so love the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should . . . have eternal life (3:16). In acknowledging the centrality of love, Christian faith has retained the core of Israel’s faith, while at the same time giving it new depth and breadth.The pious Jew prayed daily the words of the Book of Deuteronomy which expressed the heart of his existence: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall […]

Love Alone Is Eternal (Part Four)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:16-05:00September 4th, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

Last week I posted three blogs on love (August 26-28). I began to show why love is eternal. The reason is to be clearly rooted in the eternal mystery of the biblical truth: “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). Today I want to take another example that demonstrates my affirmation – the person of Christ.

Nestorius believed in Christ and followed him as a deep thinker. He insisted that the eternal God could not truly be born of a woman. He thus denied that Mary was “The Mother of God.” (This language, which troubles some modern readers who can say Mary was the mother of Jesus, but not the mother of God, must be properly understood in its original doctrinal development and context.) When this affirmation was originally made it was intended to underscore the fact that Jesus was fully human. He could only be fully human if he was conceived in the womb of a real woman, namely Mary. And he had to be birthed in a normal human way. (Remember, the idea of the virgin birth is generally misnamed since the church really confessed […]

Let’s Talk with Mark Elfstrand – August 1, 2014

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:17-05:00September 3rd, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Pastoral Renewal, Personal|

On Friday, August 1, Fr. George Koch (Resurrection Anglican Church, West Chicago), and Rev. Ian Simkins (Poplar Creek Church, Bartlett), both members of the ACT3 board, joined me for a lively in-studio “Pastors’ Roundtable” dialogue on WYLL in Chicago. Mark Eflstrand, the show’s host, is a long time friend. I met Mark when he hosted a program on WORD in Pittsburgh many years ago. He then spent many years as the anchor for the morning show on WMBI in Chicago. Now he has moved over to WYLL. This allows us even more freedom to work together in the media. This was my first live program with Mark. I hope there will be many others. I will also join him as a “resident theologian” for some shorter segments (by telephone) which I will also post for you to hear online.

Please let me know if you find this helpful.

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Sophia’s Story

By John Armstrong|2015-01-23T16:23:59-06:00September 2nd, 2014|Categories: Discipleship, Evangelism, Love, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future|

Last week I mentioned my son’s ministry, Crossroads for Kids. Please give me more liberty here, mixed with four parts grace, by allowing me to share another amazing story that marks the deep integrity and impact of Matt’s work. I have watched lives changed by this mission for over seventeen years now. This is not “hit and run” children’s (decisional) evangelism but Christ-centered, faithful, love-centered, life-changing mission. Sitting in a Crossroads context, and hearing and seeing stories like Sophia’s for myself, I have to say that as Matt’s dad I could not be more excited about the fruit that God is producing in the life of my own son and his vision for a nation-wide outreach to kids. On top of this my son (who is now 41 so he is not a young man any longer, which makes me an “old” man) brings the deepest delight to me. Nothing can compare. I believe, as well, that he delights his eternal Abba.

Someone said you cannot know the direction of your life until you have lived long enough to see it reproduced in your mature adult children. For those of […]

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:17-05:00August 29th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Prayer|

No teaching on prayer has more powerfully impacted the Christian Church than the “model” prayer, what I prefer to call “The Disciples’ Prayer” (Matthew 6:9-15). The Lord’s Prayer is slightly inaccurate since our Lord never prayed this prayer but rather taught us to pray it. It is both a prayer to be prayed and a model to follow in all we offer to our Father in regular prayer. We both worship and petition when we follow this model. One of the three petitions we offer is for our “daily bread.” Have you ever wondered what this really means? Why should we still ask when God has promised to provide for us? What difference does our asking really make?

On Sunday, August 17, I preached a sermon, in a series on this text that the pastor has followed this summer at St. Paul United Church of Christ in Bloomingdale, IL. You can listen to this sermon on our ACT3 website via the embed below.

https://soundcloud.com/act3network/give-us-this-day-our-daily-bread

Love Alone Is Eternal (Part Three)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:17-05:00August 28th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, God's Character, Love, Personal|

The thesis of the book I am currently writing is grounded in this point – divine love is a mystery. The mystery is this there is an infinite God who loves us eternally. This mystery is given only to those who hunger and thirst to live in his presence actively waiting upon him. We will “see” this reality, the reality of God’s eternal love, by remembering him and casting out in childlike faith into the depths of his goodness and grace. Difficulties and doubts will meet us along this way. But we must make it our daily experience to “ask . . . search [and] knock” if we would experience God’s love.

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how […]

Love Alone Is Eternal (Part Two)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:17-05:00August 27th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, God's Character, Love, Personal|

When we know that we are loved, and truly believe this with all our heart, all of life takes on new meaning, purpose and joy. This seems to be why Paul wrote:

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love ( 1 Cor. 13:12-13, NRSV).

The story is told of an American Zen master who became a Buddhist as a young woman. Her friends and family were having a hard time reconciling themselves with her religious decision. They kept asking her the kind of questions you would expect, including: “Do you at least believe in God?” One day, when they asked her this question for the umpteenth time, she answered with exasperation: “And who is God?”

This is the way Zen masters deal with what are called metaphysical questions. Instead of answering the question directly this […]

Love Alone Is Eternal (Part One)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:17-05:00August 26th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, Love, Personal|

Before the foundation of the world there was love. Love existed from all eternity. In God, who is Trinity, there is a vast ocean of love that can never be drained, a great energy of love that will never be used up. Excellent truths have been spoken and written about faith but even great faith loses its excellence when compared with love. In fact, the glory of true faith will always be that it leads the believer to God, who is love. Faith is only temporary but love is forever. God seeks us in love in order to bring us into the depths of his eternal love. The great end of all creation is love! Why? “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16).

My own religious tradition celebrated great faith. We honored those who believed the gospel and had the courage to express the faith, especially in acts of public witness that took courage. But long before anything was created, faith was unneeded. And long after faith becomes sight love will still reign supreme. “Faith (in general) is the evidence of things not seen.” Faith (in particular) […]