Blog - Page 31 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Abuse of Women and Our Response (Part One)

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

Women are abused every day, perhaps no less so than a few decades ago when the problem was not as open for the public to see as it has been in the early 21st century. This abuse might be even less understood by the general public than it was a decade ago, at least based on some data I’ve studied. Reports of such abuse are as common now as ever but the response to them has not improved nearly as much as we should desire. Many abusive situations are settled in ways that leave me uneasy, to put it mildly. Let me cite one story to underscore how my sense of outrage about this issue was spiked just a few weeks ago.

Exhibit A – The recent ruling of the National Football League (NFL) in the case of Ray Rice. Rice, a star running back for the Baltimore Ravens, received a suspension of only two games for a domestic violence incident in February. This particular incident left Rice’s fiancé Janay Palmer (who is now his wife) lying unconscious […]

Luminosa Award Acceptance Speech (Part Five)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:18-05:00August 15th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, Unity of the Church|

Chiara Lubich ends her reflections upon the “inundations” of this love by providing two notes of commentary.

1. First, she says there are times when we think the gospel does not truly solve every human problem. “It brings only the kingship of God; understood in an exclusively religious sense” (The Cry, 132.) The gospel is not simply a private message that only solves religious problems with religious answers. She adds, “That is not so. Of course, it is not the historical Jesus, or him as head of the mystical body that resolves all problems. It is done by Jesus-us, Jesus-me, Jesus-you” (The Cry, 132.)

Paul says, “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Jesus said, “We are a city set on a hill” and “We are the light of the world.” Do we believe this? Not arrogantly. No never. God forbid. But do we believe, humbly, that we (together) are the Jesus that meets people in their deepest need and that in this process of loving and serving we actually meet the Jesus who is present in others (Matthew […]

Luminosa Award Acceptance Speech (Part Four)

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

The late Paul Harvey had a tag line that any listener to his radio broadcast will always remember. He would tell an intriguing story and then end by saying, “And now you know the rest of the story!” Well, brothers and sisters, the rest of my story is why I am here today.

Time will not permit me to say nearly as much about Chiara Lubich and the spirituality of the Focolare as I would like. So I want to end by sharing the part of her life that has most shaped me.

At almost the exact time that God gloriously brought me out of a twelve year period of exile and personal darkness he introduced me to this lovely woman and to her distinctive spirituality of unity and love.

Chiara said, “In Christianity love is everything.” Ponder that for a moment. How can this not be so? But do you believe that? Really? I do. I’ll stake the rest of my life and ministry on this.

I am currently trying to write a book titled Our Love Is Too Small. […]

Liminosa Award Acceptance Speech (Part Three)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:18-05:00August 13th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, Unity of the Church|

After being at Wheaton for one semester I returned home for a summer mission experience among the Navajo Indians in New Mexico. When I returned to Wheaton I experienced a deep sense of aloneness and spiritual malaise. The Spirit prompted me, I now believe, to organize a student-led movement of prayer. This movement was used by God as a precursor to a genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our campus that came on a memorable Thursday evening in February of 1970. I was transformed by this renewal of grace so powerfully that I would never be the same. I went on to do graduate work in theology, mission and ministry and became a church planter. In 1976 I returned to Wheaton and served a local church as pastor for sixteen years. My last Sunday, in April of 1992, I preached from John 17:21. I cannot tell you how all this happened but this text so deeply transformed my life that I have never been able to go anywhere, or do anything, without these words being at […]

Luminosa Award Acceptance Speech (Part Two)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:18-05:00August 12th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, Unity of the Church|

Today I post the second of five parts of my Acceptance Speech after being given the 2014 Luminosa Award for Unity on June 22.

The plaque I was given reads as follows:

The 2014 Luminosa Award for Unity

Presented to Reverend Dr. John H. Armstrong,

Founder and President of ACT3 Network

by

The Focolare Movement North America

For his tireless work in Ecumenical dialogue, helping Christians from different denominations work toward unity.

Mariapolis Luminosa, Hyde Park, NY

June 22, 2014

During these recent months I have tried to gain a sense of the history and development of the Focolare Movement. This reading has made me profoundly aware of the significance of this honor. This is why I stand before you with a deep desire to honor Christ by advancing his kingdom of love in all that I say and do. This is true not only today but will be, God helping me, in the days that lie ahead. I ask for your prayer that he will lead me into deeper love […]

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 […]