Blog - Page 63 of 318 - John H Armstrong

My Sisters the Saints (4) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:42-05:00April 11th, 2013|Categories: Books, Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Feminism & Women, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, Spirituality, The Church, The Future, Women in the Church|

In the spring of 2001, five years after Colleen Carroll Campbell had moved from Memphis to St. Louis to write for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, she fell in love with John Campbell, a young physician in training who would become her husband. Their love story is endearing and genuinely sweet. During this same time, in 2001, she took a year-long leave from the newspaper to write her book titled: The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2002). She describes this project as a “labor of love . . . a young writer’s dream” (55). She received a grant to travel around the country interviewing hundreds of her peers, mostly Catholics and evangelicals. Her desire was to track and reveal a growing trend among younger adults who were embracing more orthodox expressions of the Christian faith. Her interest grew out of her own experience of faith and astute professional observations. The book is not based on a poll, or the gathering of scientific data. It is anecdotal and profoundly fun to […]

My Sisters the Saints (3) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:43-05:00April 10th, 2013|Categories: Books, Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Feminism & Women, Love, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Spirituality, The Church, The Future|

As Colleen Carroll Campbell’s spiritual memoir, My Sisters the Saints, evolves we begin to understand how her relationship with men was being changed profoundly. These changes clearly grew out of the spiritual formation that was now powerfully shaping her life as a growing Catholic Christian.

She writes that before Christmas break was over she did not want to make long-term plans with a man who regarded God as a competitor for her loyalty (22). She, in her own words, “surrendered her relationship [to] take a chance on God instead” (22). Her attempts to enter into a relationship with God was, at first, one of fits and starts. She was grasping for something, anything, that would “help her get her bearings” but the journey was not easy. (Is is ever? If it is then it will likely not last.) She finished college with many more questions but writes: “Teresa’s example convinced me that my journey to understand who I was and how I should live as a woman was inextricably bound with my journey toward God” (24). The party […]

My Sisters the Saints (2) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:43-05:00April 9th, 2013|Categories: Books, Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, The Church, The Future|

Colleen Carroll Campbell’s new spiritual memoir informs the reader, very early in the book, of how her reading St. Teresa’s biography brought deep change. She understood anew why her parents read the lives of the saints as she found in Teresa a woman of passion and purpose whose journey was deeply compelling for its many detours. What she describes as Teresa’s “spicy, messy, and meandering spiritual journey cast my own struggles in a new light” (19). She saw huge differences between her life and that of Teresa but she wondered if the aching hunger that she knew, and her boredom with worldly pleasures, could find an answer in such a deep spiritual experience.

Before Christmas break was over she realized that she did not want to make long-term plans with a man who regarded God as a competitor for her loyalty (22). In her words, she “surrendered her relationship [to] take a chance on God instead” (22). Her attempts to enter into a relationship with God was, at first, one of fits and starts. She was grasping for […]

My Sisters the Saints (1) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:43-05:00April 8th, 2013|Categories: Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Feminism & Women, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, Spirituality, The Church, The Future|

Collen Carroll Campbell is an accomplished, award-winning author, as well as a print and broadcast journalist. I have followed her writing and professional career, at least from a distance, since I read her first book, The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy, back in 2002. I later quoted from that hopeful book in my own book, Your Church Is Too Small (Zondervan, 2010). I admit that Colleen has become one of my favorite religion writers in America. She writes an op-ed column on religion, politics, and women’s issues for the St. Louis Post Dispatch; blogs on those subjects for the New York Times and the Washington Post; comments on them on such networks as Fox News, CNN, and PBS; and discusses them as a host of Faith & Culture, a weekly television and radio show that airs on EWTN, the Catholic network. Colleen Carroll Campbell’s new book, My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir, is an intensely readable and highly evocative book. As a college student, at a fairly secular Catholic university, she was […]

Two Unique Opportunities to Consider the Question of Unity & the Gospel

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:43-05:00April 5th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Church History, Church Tradition, Faith, Gospel/Good News, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

On Tuesday, April 30, ACT3 Network will host a Leaders Luncheon beginning at 11:45 a.m. The meeting will end at 1:30 p.m. This event will be at Alberto’s Restuarant at the Holiday Inn in Carol Stream, Illinois. The topic is: “Calvin & Aquinas: Friends or Foes in Understanding Paul’s Letter to the Romans?” John Calvin and Thomas Aquinas are, arguably, the greatest theological representatives of the Reformed Church and the Catholic Church in history. The popular narrative has been that these two giants of faith and doctrine are avowed theological enemies who preached a different gospel message. In this unique luncheon, open to anyone who registers, Dr. Charles Raith II, Assistant Professor of Religion & Philosophy at John Brown University, will speak on the theology of Calvin and Aquinas, asking the question: “How Did These Two Great Theologians Understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans?” A time for Q & A will be part of the event.

Dr. Charles Raith received his Ph.D. from Ave Maria University, doing a doctoral dissertation on the theology of John Calvin and Thomas Aquinas in […]

How Should We Understand Our Present Divisions?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:43-05:00April 4th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Evangelism, Faith, Gospel/Good News, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

There are many ways to understand the myriad divisions within the Christian church. Most are excuses for schism and sin. Some are rooted in theology and some of this theology is important, deeply important. Yet much of this disagreement and division is rooted in misconceptions about theological issues that remain because of centuries of misunderstanding. Sometimes the reasons are rooted in prejudice more than love and deep knowledge of one another.

When I say things like this many conservative Christians begin to talk and write about relativism and compromise. I once wrote a good bit using these words. There are numerous problems with this approach but the most fundamental one is that the responses often lack the truth. Even when truth is spoken it is often spoken in a way that further adds to our divisions rather than in a way that seeks to prayerfully find solutions. Face it, it is much easier to defend the wars and battles of the past than it is to admit there were mistakes all around and the best thing we can do is to start by acknowledging this fact.

As every […]

ACT3 Network–Partnering in Unity, Empowering Leaders and Movements

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:43-05:00April 3rd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

The mission of ACT3 Network is “to empower leaders and churches for unity in Christ’s mission.” I seek to do everything that I devote time and prayer to on a daily basis toward this one primary purpose, or telos. Many ministries and missions have great goals that are rooted in sound biblical ideas. We believe that ours is somewhat unique. We do not try to build up the organization of ACT3 so much as we try to develop our partners by serving their mission with our resources. This is true in several ways:

1. All the writing that I do is aimed at individuals, missions and churches to help them develop a theology of mission that is intentionally rooted in Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23. I believe most Christian ministries that focus on mission aim at individuals, not at churches and communities. I also believe that too few of them understand how much unity really matters to accomplishing Christ’s mission. Our unique call is to help you see this vision and to embrace it.

2. The Unity Factor Forums […]

How ACT3 Network Is Seeking to Make a Difference

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:43-05:00April 2nd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

The conviction of ACT3 Network, which grows out of my personal experience of John 17 in 1992, is that the church universal should pray for reconciliation and unity. This conviction is modeled by our Lord in John 17:20-23 and taught by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:1-16. There is one Lord and one faith. There is one baptism and one God and Father of us all. We should be known–when we are faithful–by the mark of divine oneness. This is not a minor point of doctrinal emphasis in the Scriptures. It was not considered minor in the early church either (Acts 15).

Historically the church has not always done a great job in working for reconciliation and unity. In fact, the evangelicals I grew up among, as well as the evangelicals who taught me my theology and ministry, never made unity a high priority. Most hardly ever talked about it at all. They were very comfortable within their “tribes” and didn’t want to be bothered by discussions about how we could reconcile our churches and ministries in the […]

Why Missional-Ecumenism Matters and the Difference It Makes

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:44-05:00April 1st, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Discipleship, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

The ecumenical movement, at least as we’ve known it in modern post-Reformation history, has 19th century origins. These origins arose out of the context of mission. Christians went to unreached places, often to cultures where no one had ever heard the name of Jesus Christ, and there declared the good news. This good news they proclaimed was that God loves the world and sent his son to redeem the world. Christ came to reconcile all people to the living God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As this message was preached people came to love Jesus and followed him through baptism into the church.

These missionaries, and the numerous “foreign” mission societies, not only preached the good news and made disciples but they planted new churches. Before long these churches represented the various sending bodies and agencies of the missionaries who planted them thus they looked like the various Protestant churches–Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist and anabaptist (e.g. Mennonite, Brethren, etc.). Catholics were also sent to many unreached places and Catholic Churches were planted, and […]

The Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation on Unity in Mission

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:48-05:00March 29th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Uncategorized, Unity of the Church|

Over the course of the last two weeks I’ve written about the new pope. I have tried to explain why I, an evangelical Protestant minister and mission director, find this new world leader so encouraging for the cause of global evangelization. Today I want to end this series on Pope Francis by telling you about the work of the Lausanne Movement and how this directly work relates to the Catholic Church and Pope Francis.

After my book Your Church Is Too Small was released in March 2010 we did a number of events to tell people about the vision that I sought to cast through my own story of missional-ecumenism. Once these book-launch events were over, and things went back to normal, a “new normal” became the daily norm for me personally. I never expected what followed in the wake of the book.

Let me be very clear about this–the book is not a bestseller. I never expected that it would be. I did pray, however, that it would find hearts waiting and longing for what I wrote […]