Blog - Page 30 of 318 - John H Armstrong

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) […]

Why Do Churches Not See the Mission Right Next Door?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:17-05:00August 25th, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Evangelism, Gospel/Good News, Missional Church, The Church|

My son, Matthew Armstrong, directs a ministry that began over fifteen years ago when a Christian businessman developed a plan to reach children in public schools. He invited my son to lead this effort which is now called Crossroads Kids Club. I am often in awe of this ministry and of my son, not because Matt is my son (which is enough in itself really) but because the ministry is so effective and so powerfully connected to the church and her mission to kids without hope in this world.

Recently Matt sent a letter to friends of the ministry that included the following:

We are in a very interesting place. If things come together in the next few days and weeks, we could have 30+ clubs. Likewise, we could end up losing ground from last year. I am someone who is a doer, and I have done all that I can do. I don’t see anything I could do differently or better, but simply we need God to intervene. Here are some very specific things I would […]

Personal (Non-Scientific) Reflections on Millennials and the Church (Part Two)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:17-05:00August 22nd, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, The Future|

Yesterday I shared seven observations that I’ve recently made based upon personal experience and conversation with leaders in the Millennial generation. These reflections are not all rooted in scientific social data but most that I say here can be seen in this kind of data if you look at it carefully.

Most churches tell Millennials, at least by their actions: “We have a program for you. Get married and have a family and you will find a place to join in with our community.” Given the large numbers of single Millennials, and the large number of Millennial couples who do not have children, this message pushes Millennials away from the church more and more. Large numbers of Christians who are now single young adults have left the church and have no plan to return. Thinking they will come home like previous generations is a huge mistake in my view.
Millennial Christians would rather not start another “generational” church but this will inevitably happen because of the reality of what I stated above.
Millennials can be reached but very few will be […]

Personal (Non-Scientific) Reflections on Millennials and the Church (Part One)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:17-05:00August 21st, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church|

I have had my fair share of engagement over the last few years with the Millennial generation (born since 1982). I am quite sure that most church leaders have very little understanding of this generation. Large numbers do not see the importance of what is transpiring in terms of the religious beliefs and practices of the majority of young Americans.

Here are a few observations I’ve recently made based upon personal experience and conversation with leaders. This is not all rooted in scientific social data but most of it can be seen in this data if you look at it carefully.

Millennials really are leaving the church in a way unlike any other generation in my lifetime. The rise of the “nones” (no-religious preference or church) is not being overly exaggerated in the least. In fact, Millennials may be leaving the church faster than any previous generation in our history except perhaps those who were young adults between the years 1790 – 1810. (An awakening began on college campuses during this period that many feel turned the tide in […]

The Growing Desire for Silence in the Church – How Shall We Respond?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:17-05:00August 20th, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Contemplation, Current Affairs, Personal, Roman Catholicism, Spirituality, The Church|

Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, recently said that at a time when young people are bombarded by noise and distractions, especially from the social media, there is a “deep desire” for silence and personal encounter with Christ. (The Tablet, July 12, 2014).

While I am not sure there is enough hard data to support this sweeping conclusion my own anecdotal experience says he is right.

The archbishop added, while speaking at a July 4-6 Catholic UK discernment festival:

Today there is so much noise, with social media, we don’t understand the value of silence. We go away from it, from ourselves. In silence . . . we encourage ourselves, and God. There is a desire for silence, desire for spirituality [amid] the problems of society. If we take time in silence we find the answer to this desire.

In the same issue of The Tablet, the leading Jesuit magazine in the UK, several Catholic bishops suggested that the Mass has become “consumerised.” Alan Hopes, the Bishop of East Anglia, says […]

The Abuse of Women and Our Response (Part Two)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:18-05:00August 19th, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Sexuality, The Christian Minister/Ministry, The Church, The Future, Women in the Church|

The case of Baltimore Ravens football player Ray Rice’s assault on his fiancé in February of this year underscores a major problem in the NFL and our culture in general – women are still being abused and many institutions (mostly those led by men) cover it up or deny its importance. They do this by being “tone deaf” to the deeper issues involved in this problem. I suggested yesterday that the NFL represents a larger problem in our society, a problem that extends into the leadership of our churches. Let me explain.

The Baltimore Ravens consider Ray Rice an important leader on their team and to their organization. Their response to this assault has been to address the whole nightmare as a public relations problem. They had Janay Rice sit beside her husband in front of a Ravens backdrop for a press conference after his arrest. This strikes me as major “damage control.” They were attempting, suggested Phil Taylor in the August 4 issue of Sports Illustrated, “to repair their star running back’s image.” This press conference even included […]