Blog - Page 42 of 318 - John H Armstrong

A New (Ancient) Way to Read the Bible

By John Armstrong|2014-02-19T16:57:46-06:00February 20th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Discipleship, Missional Church, Personal|

Nothing is more important to spiritual growth than regular, meaningful engagement with God’s Word in the power of the Spirit. But it’s not happening in most churches. Nine out of ten churchgoers say they need help in understanding the Bible in depth and four of five say this need is simply not being met in their lives.

I recently spent some enjoyable time with two very good friends who work for Biblica. They are trying to do something to address a serious answer to this issue. Biblica is the Bible Society, formerly known as the International Bible Society, that translates and produces the NIV. Biblica also promotes the recovery of Bible reading as story. Their plan, which I will be promoting and talking about in the days ahead, is called: “The Community Bible Experience.”

http://youtu.be/XfDagPr-k_M

How can you understand the Scripture by engaging with whole books and by “hearing” the story as you should? Biblica has some answers. To learn more check out Community Bible Experience.

You can check out the resources mentioned here, and get more extremely helpful information, at Biblica.

Prayer for the Unity of the Martyrs

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:48-05:00February 19th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Current Affairs, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Prayer, Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Pope Francis recently spoke of an “ecumenism of blood.” He was referring to the martyrs of the Christian faith – those who actually die for faithfully following Christ. I wrote a blog about his statement a few weeks ago. I believe that it summarizes a kind of “bottom line” for true ecumenism. If we can suffer and die as one people, named through our following Christ together, then surely we can find more Spirit-given ways to pursue our unity in the one, holy, apostolic faith that we confess together both in life and in death.

A dear friend, who is serving in Boston and is a graduate of the first ACT3 Missional-Ecumenical Cohort Group, participated in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in Boston a few weeks ago. The video that follows is of the entire event which he gave to me via a link to this site. I encourage you to set aside an hour-plus of your time, if you have a real desire, and watch this video so that you might take in this very impressive prayer service for unity.

[…]</a></p> </html>

Jefferson and Hamilton: The Greatest American Rivalry

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:48-05:00February 18th, 2014|Categories: America and Americanism, Books, History, Politics|

John Ferling, professor emeritus of history at the University of West Georgia, is a wonderful writer of history and biography. I know his name through his evocative treatments of major figures in early American history. His special interest has always been the War of Independence, and the more prominent figures of early American history. He has done it again in a new book that I find quite exciting.

I recently began working my way each day through Ferling’s newest book, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2013). The book can also be purchased in a Kindle version for less than $10. For many years I realized that a number of our modern political debates have their real origin in the views, and even the temperaments, of these two giants of early America. But I had far too little comprehension of just how true this observation was until reading Ferling’s excellent book.

The decade of the 1790s has been called “the decade of passion” for good reason. Fervor for the new […]

A Call to Reject Triumphalism and Embrace Unity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:48-05:00February 17th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Church History, Current Affairs, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

I often speak of the scandal of Christian schism. I choose these words carefully. Indeed, they are by now “historic” and imminently important to the pursuit of unity among all Christians at this point in the third millennium. What do I mean by calling our divisions a “scandal?”

I recently came across these words, spoken by Pope Francis, that help me express my sense of this immensely:

Divisions among us, but also divisions among the communities: evangelical Christians, orthodox Christians, Catholic Christians, but why divided? We must try to bring about unity. Let me tell you something, today, before leaving home, I spent 40 minutes more or less, half an hour, with an evangelical pastor. And we prayed together, seeking unity. But we Catholics must pray with each other and other Christians. Pray that the Lord gift us unity!

A Catholic writer by the name of Keith Fournier has helped me for some years in my own journey to ecumenism. Fournier, a Catholic deacon (photo at left), has expressed deep concern about Catholic triumphalism regarding Christian unity. I […]

“Unmarried Young Adults Not Celebrated Here”

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:48-05:00February 14th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

When millennials come to embrace the Christian faith they are faced with a major problem when it comes to becoming connected with the life of most congregations. I have witnessed this again and again and saw it plainly during my recent week in Phoenix. In short, I witnessed a new form of separation that has raised a dividing wall between people in the church. This time it is not about race but marriage, children and singleness.

Large numbers of millennials are single. Many will remain single for a long time, at least well into their 30s. And many who do marry will not have children, or at least not more than one child. There are a number of reasons why this is true but none of them have to do with deep convictions so much as fears rooted in the shared experience of millennials who come from broken homes and thus have marriage and parent-child anxieties. Many tell me they want to marry but just not yet. They are very unsure about the institution and have every reason to […]

Where Is the Millennial Generation in the Decline of the Church? (2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 13th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Religion, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

Some sociological studies say that millennials are selfish, greedy, and narcissistic. My optimism for this generation does not go unchallenged, especially by those in the Gen-X generation. (This includes those born after the baby boom, which ended in 1964, and before the millennial generation which began in 1982, thus they are between the ages of 34 and 50.)

Marketers and advertisers use this “selfish, greedy, narcissistic” stereotype to sell to this millennial generation. To some extent it does work. This is why they have been called “The Me Generation.” But the millennials I spend time with, Christian and non-Christian alike, are anything but selfish. They may lean towards being a bit too “entitled” but I find them to be an extremely thoughtful generation that is filled with enthusiasm for social justice and calls for a more generous lifestyle.

Churches are generally unaware of the potential of this generation, seeing them as people who do not want to join them in order to help run the church and its programs. This is completely […]

Where Is the Millennial Generation in the Decline of the Church? (1)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 12th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

I’ve written this week about church decline in America. The numbers are obvious, the reasons are less so. What pastors and leaders are doing about this varies and the hope for real change is not clear yet. But what about the youngest adults, the millennial generation (born from 1982 on)?

Many of you know that I spend a significant amount of time among millennial adults, both Christians and non-Christians. My millennial fiends include liberals, conservatives, singles, gays, married with and without children, and both Democrats and Republicans. I have never been able to segment any group and write them off. I have always welcomed dialogue, disagreement, and the potential for growth and learning from one another in real relationships. I do not reject my friends because they change their views, or practice, in some area where I disagree with them.

My generation was very different. When I began my pilgrimage toward what I now call missional-ecumenism many of my peers rejected me, both openly and privately. They would not support someone who worked with Christians who were more liberal, […]

How Big is the Drop-Out Rate in the American Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 11th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

Numbers are somewhat easy to crunch and study. But when this comes to the church they can be very deceiving. On the one hand some numbers say that a church is not in serious decline yet when spiritual vitality and sharing in the ministry of a church is factored into the equation there is a growing awareness that fewer Christians are as involved in the daily work of the local church as ten years ago. (One mega-church minister shared with me last year that about 12% of their average attendance was involved in any weekly ministry of outreach that could be tracked. The problem is that this is actually a pretty good number!)

Over the last decade I have personally gone from 55 to 65 years of age. I now clearly face the last segment, or phase, of my own life. I will slow down, face more challenges, grow old and (obviously) die. (It is obvious that we will all die but only at this stage, or so I think, does it sink in so fully that your […]

Reading the Numbers – Church Decline in America

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 10th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, The Future|

For some time it has been obvious to me, as I observe churches of all varieties and types, that church attendance and membership is in significant decline in the United States. All serious polling supports this conclusion but, as important to me as these polls, is my personal anecdotal experience gained from spending hours with ministers in all traditions, from Catholic to mainline Protestant and conservative evangelical. The only exception to this obvious decline is among Pentecostal and holiness churches and there the numbers are growing very, very slightly. On the whole I conclude these numbers have flat-lined but time will tell.

From historic highs in attendance and membership in the late 1950s and 1960s the mainline began its decades-long slide in the 1970s. In the last decade the historic mainline declined 3.4 million out of some 17 million. This is spread across all groups with a few doing slightly better than others. (One example of a mainline group doing slightly better is the denomination of my ministerial ordination, the Reformed Church in America, RCA). The RCA has […]

A Humble Conversation with a Christian Science Practitioner About Jesus

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 7th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Christ/Christology, Church History, Current Affairs, Friendship, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church|

One of those opportunities that I am afforded because of my mission in ecumenism is rich dialogue with people from many diverse backgrounds. Last fall I spoke to the North American Academy on Ecumenists, which met in Chicago. I delivered a paper about evangelical Protestantism and the new opportunities and models for ecumenism that are evolving in our world. This paper will be published in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies in 2014 so I cannot publish it online here.

Before I spoke at the NAAE I was preceded to the podium by a Christian Science practitioner named Shirley Paulson from Evanston, Illinois. Shirley gave a wonderful paper about her own pursuit of the larger church in ecumenism. She shared openly, and quite winsomely, about the work that she does within her own tradition of Christian Science. My reaction, like that of most evangelicals, was to wonder why this work was even being presented, given the story that I had always assumed about Christian Science. But Shirley Paulson did not fit into my box. In fact, she eloquently exploded […]