Blog - Page 95 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Friendship and Psychological Visibility

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:05-05:00December 19th, 2011|Categories: Friendship|

Now and then I post a guest blog my readers are not likely to see unless I share it. Such is the case today. The author, Dr. Monte Wilson, is a true friend. We do not see one another face-to-face very often but when we do we instantly connect again in a deeply relational way. Monte is "my friend" in the very way he writes about friendship in this lovely article. This is why I am sure I resonnate so very deeply with this post.

Monte E. Wilson

Some years back, a man whom I had known for about 10 years was describing me to a new acquaintance of ours. It was all very positive and complimentary, but with one small problem:he wasn’t describing me. In fact, the more he waxed eloquent about the attributes and personality of Monte Wilson, the more invisible I felt. All I could do was sit there thinking, “You really don’t know […]

The Aurora Christian Ministry Network

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:05-05:00December 17th, 2011|Categories: Uncategorized|

The Aurora Christian Ministry Network (ACMN) meets at 9 a.m. this Tuesday, December 20, at Wayside Cross Ministries in Aurora, Illinois. I have accepted an invitation to speak.

The Aurora Christian Ministry Network (ACMN) invites all Aurora and Fox Valley area pastors and Christian leaders to the next ACMN meeting on Tuesday, December 20, from 9-10:30 a.m. Wayside Cross Ministries chapel is at 215 E. New York St., Aurora, IL 60505. Here is how the ACMN presents their invitation:

Dr. John H. Armstrong, president of ACT 3, www.act3online.org, will discuss his new book “The Unity Factor” (all participants at this meeting will receive a complimentary copy). Coffee and rolls will be served.

Please RSVP for this gathering!

Limited parking is available on the west side of the building and across the street (marked spaces) in the Dolan-Murphy parking lot. Also parking is available at the Warehouse Church (E. Galena […]

"Lord, Have Mercy"

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:05-05:00December 17th, 2011|Categories: God's Character|

When Johann Sebastian Bach sought to give musical expression to what he believed was the greatest of Christian truths he turned to the Mass. The Mass in B Minor opens with the poignant cry of the whole chorus and orchestra, Kyrie Eleison, Lord have mercy. In the fugue which follows all the voices and instruments independently take up this one theme; there are no other words used but Kyrie Eleison! Over and over this one theme is developed masterfully.

If you've ever heard this piece you cannot doubt that this universal cry for mercy leads us to the very threshold of true faith and knowledge. And this is not simply the preliminary introduction to something else. The sense of utter sinfulness that we innately feel is the foundation of all spiritual wisdom. This base is the sure foundation through which the mercy of God sounds into our soul. The subtle epitaph for a Christian in this Advent season is composed of only two words: "Jesu, mercy!" […]

Trends That Call Us to Understand Our Mission Differently

By John Armstrong|2011-12-16T04:00:00-06:00December 16th, 2011|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Culture, Missional Church, The Future|

There is a continual danger that the church is driven by various trends. Evangelical churches are most susceptible to this danger. “Trendier than thou” is a real problem if our vision of discipleship is stunted and consumer oriented. Given the great desire to reach people with the good news we can easily adapt our methods and approaches in ways that are inconsistent with our message.

Having acknowledged this real problem to be trendy I retain a deep and growing concern that churches (in general) have very little idea about how much the shift in values and religious practices has impacted the mission field that we call the United States of America. There can be no serious doubt that the religious makeup of our population is shifting very rapidly. And there can be no serious doubt that most Christians understand very little about what these trends actually mean for the future of mission in America. One of the core values of a missional church is that the whole church will seek to incarnate the whole gospel in ways that serve the people who are their neighbors. The church […]

Thirsting For Friendship: Jean Vanier Reflecting on Henri Nouwen

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:05-05:00December 15th, 2011|Categories: Uncategorized|

via www.altervideomagazine.com

via danbrennan.typepad.com

The Promise of Rivers

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:05-05:00December 14th, 2011|Categories: Contemplation, Prayer, Spirituality|

In John 7 our Lord visits Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. John 7:1-10:21 covers a period of only eight days. But what an amazing eight days it was in terms of our Lord’s mission and what he revealed. People had all kinds of responses to Jesus during these days of his flesh. Some thought him mentally deranged (7:20) while others thought he was the promised Messiah (7:31, 40). Verse 1 says the religious leaders sought to kill him. We should not read this as if all the Jews, in some general way, wanted him dead. Jesus taught in the temple and attracted a great deal of public attention. The response was truly varied as the text indicates.

The Feast of Tabernacles was an eight-day harvest festival commemorating the time when Israel walked in the wilderness of Sinai and lived in tents. Along with Passover and Pentecost this was one of the big three in Israel’s liturgical remembrance. In later times water would be mixed with wine and poured at the base of the altar, both as purification and as a remembrance of the water flowing from […]

A Story of Missional-Ecumenism in Action

By John Armstrong|2011-12-12T04:00:00-06:00December 12th, 2011|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism|

Joshua Lichter is a young man who has a unique mission in Auburn, California. (The only Auburn I knew as recently as a few years ago was in Alabama. It is the home of my biggest football rival. I’ll save that story for another time!)

Josh and his wife (Rachel) are good friends. Josh was recently ordained in the Reformed Church in America. He understands missional-ecumenism in a unique and powerful way. I saw Josh a few weeks ago when I spoke to the Central California Classis of the RCA. Josh later sent me an account of one aspect of his unique mission. With his permission I post part of his story to demonstrate how one visionary church planter is engaging modern mission realities with clarity and openly following Jesus into the world where he actually lives and serves. Here is Joshua’s account:

Once a month, I have been participating in a book reading/ discussion club with several local clergy, most of whom are Episcopal priests. Most are quite liberal in their theology.
This past week, we met and discussed a book called The Meaning of Mary Magdalene by […]

God’s Love Brings About Real Change

By John Armstrong|2011-12-09T04:00:00-06:00December 9th, 2011|Categories: God's Character, Love, Mysticism|

I was taught, like most, that God loved me if and when I changed. Simply put, if I repent then God will love me. But 1 John 4:8 and 16 says, “God is love.”

Love is the supreme revelation of the Christian faith. Divine love is the chief characteristic of living faith. Other religions know something about a God who is compassionate (to varying degrees) but no other religion has known the dynamism of divine love, a love that moves the entire creation toward the Creator. This God-Love is the most distinctive quality to be discovered in true Christianity. But listening to much of what I hear Christians say about God and faith you’d never know this to be the case.

Because God-Love is who God is we are loved. God loves you and me so that we can change. Richard Rohr says, “What empowers change, what makes you desirous of change is the experience of love. It is that inherent experience of love that becomes the engine of change. If the mystics say that one way, they say it a thousand ways. But because most of our […]

Missional-Ecumenism: A Lecture on Video

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:05-05:00December 8th, 2011|Categories: Uncategorized|

I recently taught a group of Chicago church leaders on missional-ecumenism. If you would like to watch this presentation it lasts a little over an hour and a half. (I believe it is 94 minutes long.) I offer it to readers of this blog who have the time and interest in watching and hearing my message on mission and unity in a very human and interactive context. You can acccess the video file at: http://vimeo.com/32636755.

Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:17:05-05:00December 7th, 2011|Categories: Mysticism, Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Spirituality|

Before I found the book, Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer, I confess that I had never heard of Catherine Doherty. She was a remarkable lady who sought to translate Eastern Christian insights (sometimes called “desert spirituality”) into the context of Western life. More than a half century ago Catherine arrived in Canada as a Russian refugee. She used her background in Russian Christianity to give her a matrix for responding to the needs of Christian life and work in the busy, modern West. Catherine became “poor to serve with the poor Christ” among the poorest people in Toronto and Harlem. But the work that led to my finding her moving book was the establishment of a spiritual lay center, the Madonna House Apostolate, in rural Ontario.

The title of this book bears the Russian word for “desert.” At the center of Catherine’s lifelong journey was her experience of the desert. She writes, in the opening chapter, “For the mystery of men in the midst of […]