Blog - Page 31 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Luminosa Award Acceptance Speech (Part One)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:18-05:00August 11th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Current Affairs, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, Unity of the Church|

On June 22 of this year I received the Luminosa Award for Unity. This weekend of June 20-22 in Hyde Park, New York, was a time of profound encouragement for me and for the work of ACT3 Network.

This week I am going to post my acceptance speech in five parts, each running about 600 words in length.

At the end of each part there is a video of the entire speech. If you watch the video you will see that I departed from this script more than once, injecting aspects of what I felt led to say in the moment. (I have never been very good at staying on script!)

Today you can read the first part of my prepared acceptance speech here. You can see the entire video at the end if you’d like to watch it.

I wish to begin by expressing my deepest gratitude to my friends of the Focolare, friends I have known since 2012 and many new friends that I’ve just come to know this weekend. Thank you for inviting me […]

Joseph – A Type of Christ?

By John Armstrong|2014-12-18T09:21:28-06:00August 9th, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

I am invited to preach in worship contexts in several different places, at least now and then. Here is my most recent sermon from Genesis 37 given at Lutheran Church of the Master in Carol Stream, August 3, 2014.

https://soundcloud.com/act3network/jospeh-a-type-of-christ

Jesus’ Greatest Desire for His Church on Earth

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:18-05:00August 8th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, Love, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

When I first began to understand John 17 I realized that Jesus’ greatest desire for his disciples was that they would live this oneness together. He wanted them to be united as a powerful witness to the reality of the relationship between the Father and the Son. His prayer is that our becoming one will be the catalyst for people to come to know God’s love. I had never clearly seen this before. I had engaged in evangelism since I was twelve years old, but I had never known that unity between believers had anything to do with evangelism and mission. But this is precisely what is said in the prayer: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. . . . so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me . . .” (John 17:21, 23, NRSV).

Christian unity in growing relationships is clearly God’s […]

What Has Love Got to Do With Unity?

By John Armstrong|2014-08-07T07:58:38-05:00August 7th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, Love, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

So what has love got to do with unity? Everything!

When God revealed to me a whole new understanding of Christian unity in Christ’s mission – what I call missional-ecumenism – I began to share this message as widely as possible. Over time I came to realize two things.

First, if I teach and practice our Lord’s will for unity in Christ’s mission then I need to love more deeply than I have ever known. This love would have to be both relational and inclusive. My church was genuinely too small. I had limited the borders of my church to those who embraced my theology, my culture and my preferences. I soon realized that I did not need to change my understanding of the church so much as I needed to have a vision of the church that was much bigger than anything I had ever understood. This journey began in the early 1990s and continues today. The mountains and valleys that I passed over and through in the subsequent years have revealed to me that my deeper problem is not a unity problem so much as it […]

Does Jesus Love the Whole World?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:18-05:00August 6th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, Love, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

Jesus enlarges his prayer circle in John 17:10 to include his disciples: “I have been glorified in them.” In verse 9 he transitions from praying for himself to praying for his own disciples: “I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me.” He plainly says he is not asking on behalf of the world but for his disciples. Does this mean that Jesus does not love the world? Only an understanding of the word “world” can provide a solid answer.

I submit that Jesus is not excluding anyone from his love. Yet here he is clearly praying very specifically for these eleven men. It might seem that his love excludes some if we had only had these words. But we have numerous other verses in this same Gospel which tell us otherwise. The most prominent is John 3:16 which says God “gave” his only Son because he loved the world. So what does the word “world” mean here?

In this context the world refers to the “hostile” and unbelieving world, those […]

Our Judgment: How It Destroys Christian Unity in Love

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:18-05:00August 5th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, Love, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Over time I have come to understand that deep Christian ecumenism is essential to the well-being and genuine faithfulness of the whole church. This is true precisely because no one “member” of the body of Christ has gained all the truth for all time. Further, without each other we will continue to miss what God is saying to the whole (catholic) church. The Spirit leads us into truth through the process of listening, receiving and applying. The full and final understanding of all that this means will remain inscrutable to us unless we discover the truth relationally. This means we must learn how to seek it together. My understanding here has to be right since our Lord prayed for the unity of all “those who will believe in me through their (the disciples’) word” (John 17:20). No one who believes the gospel is left out. Since our Lord alone “knows those who are his” (2 Timothy 2:19) we should “love one another deeply from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22). Judging one another because we disagree is dangerous […]

Unity is Always Found in Love

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:19-05:00August 4th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, Love, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

In my book Your Church Is Too Small I try to show how the unity of the church, established in Christ’s love for his Father, leads to a growing relational unity that follows him into his mission to the world. When this love happens in us we have what I call missional-ecumenism. The call to follow Jesus in his mission requires us to actively preserve the unity we already share in union with Christ. This prayer for unity in mission does not mean that we “win” some battles while we “lose” others. What I learned in the early 1990s, after I received this vision of a “big” church, was that all of the great traditions of the Christian faith, throughout the entire history of the church, have vital elements of truth in them. These elements should all be honored and preserved. When we adopt a zero-sum game – in which the winner takes all – then our gifts and diversity become the basis for more division and disrespect. A better understanding of our gifts, […]

A Young Artist – Soul and Christ-centered Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:19-05:00August 1st, 2014|Categories: Uncategorized|

Steve Slagg, a good friend whose friendship I cherish, did a lot to help me launch some of my newer social media and online development. He is a fellow Wheaton graduate but young enough to be my youngest son. He is also a very talented artist. I highly commend his music. Visit his website and get some free material here. You will very likely enjoy it as I do. You might also consider having a concert with Steve. He is not a “star” but he is a well-kept secret who will encourage your journey of faith deeply as he has my own.

http://youngestsonmusic.com/allsoulsday

Why Love is Vital to Unity in Christ’s Mission

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:19-05:00July 31st, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, Love, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

This week I posted some of the content that I have written for my forthcoming book: Our Love Is Too Small. I have no idea when this book will be completed so I cannot promise a completion date, though I am sure it will not be in 2014. I am blogging parts of my writing in the weeks ahead. This work will likely provide content for some months to come. I will interrupt the flow of this writing now and then but each week on my blog site I intend to post some of the material from my ongoing work. Your comments and suggestions will help me. None of this material is in finished form. This means that none of it has been carefully edited yet.

This video underscores my passion as expressed in these posts from earlier this week. I hope you will watch this short video and pray for me in all that I do to promote love in Christ’s unity. Your support in prayer and gifts helps me and the growing work of ACT3 Network.

Our Lord’s Prayer for Unity in Triune Love

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:19-05:00July 30th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, Christ/Christology, Jesus, Love, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

Jesus begins his prayer in John 17 by asking the Father to glorify him so that he could glorify the Father. These words (“glorify”) are too easily passed over. When the Bible speaks of glory it uses the word doxa, a Greek word which comes from the Old Testament Hebrew word kabod. The widely accepted meaning of doxa is “fame and honor,” usually what is given for an extraordinary achievement. It also refers to the “visible splendor of the divine, the shining forth of a transcendent presence.” John’s Gospel suggests that the Father will be glorified in and through Jesus’ accomplishment of the task given to him by his Father (cf. 4:34; 11:4; 17:4). But in both John 11:4 and 12:23 it is evident that Jesus will be glorified by means of his death on the cross. According the the apostle Jesus was glorified in his messianic activities, especially in his signs. John 12:28 makes this clear: “‘Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again’” […]