Blog - Page 38 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Problem of Separatism for Christian Unity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00May 1st, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Missional-Ecumenism, Separation of Church & State, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Christian Separatism is historically rooted in Congregationalism. It is an outgrowth of historical developments in the English Church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The fundamental belief of English Separatists can be seen in their idea of the gathered church. They believed that such a church should exist in contrast to the territorial basis of the Church of England. The Church of England, through an anomaly rooted in its origin, was established upon a parish church model. In the parish each person in a certain area (geographically) was assigned to the parish church. Historically, a parish referred not only to the territorial unit but also to the people of its community as well as to church property within it. English Separatists believed that the foundation of the church should be the Scriptures and the work of God’s Spirit, not man or the state. These Separatists further believed that Christians should seek out other Christians and gather together to make up a particular (local) church. This belief was the basis for an autonomous local church, creating an ecclesiology […]

I Am the Adult Child of a Dysfunctional Ecclesial Culture

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00April 30th, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Church Tradition, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

At first glance the very mention of ecumenism, in the same sentence with the word evangelical, seems oxymoronic. Modern evangelicals have a well-deserved reputation for being less than excited about serious, modern ecumenical dialogue. I know this because I have lived my entire Christian life inside evangelical Protestantism, expressed in several different varieties or outward forms.

I have come to see that I am the adult child of a dysfunctional ecclesial culture. My evangelical subculture historically prided itself on being truly faithful to the gospel of Christ, thus entirely separated from those Christians and churches who compromised the gospel that we preached and defended.

I lived, and even preached, among people who loved to quote Galatians 1:6-9 as a kind of war cry:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven […]

Is There an Emerging New Ecumenism – Evangelical Engagement with Catholics and Protestants?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00April 29th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

In 1963 a group of Roman Catholics, in the immediate context of Vatican II, saw a need to equip local leadership for the task of ecumenical ministry. In 1969 these Catholic leaders invited leaders from several other Christian communions to join them in this equipping of leadership for unity. The result of this invitation was the formation of an organization now called the National Ecumenical Officers. This group is made up of representatives of the respective churches who oversee a workshop that is planned annually by national and local committees. Today this gathering is called the National Workshop on Christian Unity and it is sponsored by the National Ecumenical Officers Association.

The National Workshop on Christian Unity meets after Easter each year and includes both denominational and ecumenical sessions during the three-day workshop. The 50th year of the National Workshop on Christian Unity began last evening in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The workshop opened this year with a worship service at the Cathedral of St. John (Episcopal). Bishop David Bailey preached. Bailey is the Bishop of the Episcopal Church […]

How Does ACT3 Network Make a Real Difference In Empowering Unity In Christ’s Mission? Video

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00April 28th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church Tradition, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Renewal, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

In 1991 I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to begin a mission for leaders and churches that would pursue the wide-scale renewal of Christian faith and practice. This work was called Reformation & Revival Ministries. We published a quarterly journal by that name while I was still a Wheaton pastor. I taught, wrote and traveled widely across the U.S. and abroad. I was blessed to speak to some wonderful conferences, churches and people. That ministry was growing beyond my wildest dreams. But something was happening from the very beginning that I did not understand for nearly ten years. Let me explain very briefly. My last Sunday in the pulpit of my church I preached from John 17:20-26. My heart was powerfully moved by the prayer of Jesus for our being “one.” It was two years later (1994) that I was arrested by the Spirit while saying the Apostle’s Creed. The words “one holy catholic church” floored me. I heard God asking me, “What are you doing with what I gave to you back in May of 1992?” I took a small step in this direction but […]

Salvation and the Christian Life – Doing Theology in the Era of Global Ecumenism, Part 5

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00April 25th, 2014|Categories: Biblical Theology, Faith, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Theology|

What I have written in my previous four posts on salvation and the Christian life can be stated very precisely in the following way – we are saved by grace alone, but we are saved for works and through works in the sense that such works are evangelical and always proceed from faith and serve the advancement of our real sanctification. Our good works do not increase God’s grace but neither are they merely a by-product. Said Bloesch, “They signify not an appendage to our salvation but the flowering and fruition of our salvation” (18). The Christian life is thus a real working out of our salvation so that faith comes to real fulfillment in transformation and Christlikeness.

As some of you know I have been working on a book on love. During the last year or so I have come to this understanding again and again in my theological outlook. Salvation really does alter my heart and life or it is not God’s grace at work in me, but something akin to notion […]

Alta Gracia – A Business Venture in the Developing World That Provides a Living Wage

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00April 24th, 2014|Categories: Business, Culture, Current Affairs, Economy/Economics, Poverty|

Every Sunday I record a program on PBS called “Religion & Ethics Weekly.” It is one of the finest programs I know on the major stories of the week in world religions. Several months ago I saw a broadcast that featured the story of Alta Gracia, an American company owned by a Catholic businessman in the U.S. Alta Gracia manufactures clothing. The owner is willing to make a smaller corporate profit in order to provide livable wages for his workers. He defines a livable wage as including the following:

Adequate money to provide for life’s essentials for an entire family:

3 Healthy Meals a Day
A Safe Home
Transportation
Healthcare
Education

The Workers’ Rights Consortium verifies that all workers at Alta Gracia receive a Living Wage, ensure that the workplace is safe and that workers’ rights are respected. Alta Gracia claims to be the only clothing factory in the developing world that pays the people who make clothing a LIVING WAGE – more than 3X the minimum wage.

Many of us have heard about the “name brands” and how they […]

Salvation and the Christian Life – Doing Theology in the Era of Global Ecumenism, Part 4

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:38-05:00April 23rd, 2014|Categories: Biblical Theology, Faith, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Theology|

Sixteenth-century Protestant Reformers stressed that we are justified while still in our sins. I believe they were right. We are, as they put it, simultaneously justified and still sinful. The Reformers, including the Augustinian Martin Luther, were zealous for the sovereignty of God. Many of their modern heirs remain zealous for this great truth. I see this zeal as inherently good. Yet this Reformation emphasis on God and free grace can very easily create a new imbalance, one which I think has been emphasized by Reformed and Lutheran scholasticism and its profound impact upon modern conservatives. It is a fact that post-Reformational orthodoxy tended to ignore the devotional life, or at least downplayed it considerably. (Again, John Calvin is a wonderful exception!) This over-emphasis on grace – especially the emphasis on right doctrinal concepts – led to a sterile and dead orthodoxy in some contexts.

Servile and dead orthodoxy became the deep concern of three groups of Protestants who had a great impact upon the eighteenth-century awakenings; e.g. the Puritans, the Pietists and the Evangelicals who […]

“Our Love Is Too Small” Video

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:38-05:00April 22nd, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Love, Missional Church, The Church|

Most of you who frequent my blog spot are aware that I wrote a book titled Your Church Is Too Small in March 2010. This book has redefined my life and ministry. I am now writing a sequel, or you could say it is a prequel, to Your Church Is Too Small. The working title of my new book is Our Love Is Too Small. I have written about a third of this book over the last two-plus months. Some days the writing flows and other days I feel like I will never finish this project. This is sheer hard work, but it is life-changing hard work. At times I feel like I’ve opened a vein and I simply bleed as I write. My soul is being poured out in trying to find the most authentic voice that I have for what I believe needs to be said about God’s love and our response to his great love which will be shown in loving others.

Several weeks ago I completed a two-year process of consulting the ministry of University Bible Fellowship (UBF). The international headquarters of UBF is located in […]

Salvation and the Christian Life – Doing Theology in the Era of Global Ecumenism, Part 3

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:38-05:00April 21st, 2014|Categories: Discipleship, Faith, Gospel/Good News, Lordship of Christ, Reformed Christianity, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Theology|

When Catholics and Protestants engage in the polemics of theological polarities they quite often misrepresent one another. In the process they miss the deeper fruit of real ecumenism in doing confessing Christian theology. Non-theologians often do this more poorly because they adopt the views they have been taught by their favorite teachers and then treat them as the gold standard.

One of the central issues between Protestants and Catholics has always revolved around the subject of God’s grace and our(human) response to divine grace. We can very easily get the wrong end of the stick in this debate. On one side we separate the life of the Spirit from the salvation of God. This can be seen in a number of Protestant and evangelical responses to grace and works. Donald Bloesch noted: “To separate the life of the Christian from the salvation of God is to divorce ethics from religion. It was precisely this non-ethical religion or religiosity that was attacked by the Old Testament prophets and by many saints and reformers through the ages” (The Christian Life […]

The Seven Last Words of Christ by Franz Joseph Haydn

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:38-05:00April 18th, 2014|Categories: Christ/Christology, Death, Music, Personal|

Readers who did not grow up in a liturgical tradition are not as likely to have experienced the seven last words of Christ in a Holy Week context. I had preached at Good Friday services but my experience Tuesday evening at Dominican University, where I heard a string quartet play Franz Joseph Haydn’s “The Seven Last Words of Christ” was a complete immersion experience in the richness of a Holy Week celebration. It is in this spirit that I encourage you to listen to the broadcast of this event tonight, at 8 p.m., on WFMT in Chicago. You can access the broadcast on the web at: https://www.wfmt.com.

Franz Joseph Haydn considered “The Seven Last Words of Christ” to be one of his greatest works. Haydn’s profound religious convictions informed this music deeply. Without a deep understanding of what Haydn actually did in this music it is hard to appreciate just how well he accomplished his purpose. Haydn wrote: “Each sonata or movement, is expressed by purely instrumental music in such a way that even the most uninitiated listener will […]