Blog - Page 131 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions: Engaging the Mystery of Friendship Between Men and Women

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:04-05:00December 21st, 2010|Categories: Books, Friendship, Sexuality|

I began reading the book Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions (2010) with an eye to find loopholes and practical problems in the author’s thesis. To say that his idea made me very cautious about endorsing this is a huge understatement. When I finished the book my personal copy was marked and annotated throughout. And almost every concern that I had was addressed in a way that I found quite satisfactory. This does not mean there are no practical problems in working out the thesis in everyday community but it does mean the thesis is itself worthy of the serious attention it just may not get from far too many Christians.

Let me begin by telling you that the author is a personal friend. Dan Brennan was once a part of the church family that I served as pastor for sixteen years. We have recently reconnected in a deep and personal way as older (hopefully much wiser) men. But I hasten to tell you that I do not endorse […]

Dr. Rick Richardson on the Mission of ACT 3

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:04-05:00December 20th, 2010|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism|

Many of you have seen the video that was made about thirteen months ago on the vision of ACT 3. This thirty-minute video was made by two great friends before the book, Your Church Is Too Small, was released. We made the film to help make our vision as clear as possible to a wider circle of people. Several of the interviews that appear on this longer video, which is available on the ACT 3 site, make great clips to help you, our friends, understand our mission and vision.

This very brief interview with Dr. Rick Richardson, author and director of the M.A. program in evangelism and leadership at Wheaton College Graduate School, is one that captures my heart and passion beautifully. I share it today with the desire that you will watch this sixty-second clip and through watching better understand what makes me get up in the morning and why I give myself to missional-ecumenism as my life’s mission.

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Fatal Attraction

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:04-05:00December 19th, 2010|Categories: Lordship of Christ, Personal, Spirituality|

The classic Hollywood movie, Fatal Attraction, was truly a surprise film in 1987 when it first appeared. It has endured, over nearly twenty-five years now, as a film noir. The premise is that a person may form an attraction for another person (in a sexual and emotional way) that is much more than it appears to be on the surface of things. This relationship may ultimately become so neurotic that it becomes fatal. When I recently watched this dark film again I was struck by the parallels between the figure in the apocalypse who is, “The woman clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand the golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication” (Revelation 17:4). This metaphor is meant to remind us of the allure of “Babylon the Great,” a symbol for the power (and ideology) of the world as arranged against the cross of Jesus Christ. This woman is said to be “drunk […]

How Can Doctrinal Fidelity and Christian Unity Be Reconciled?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:04-05:00December 18th, 2010|Categories: Roman Catholicism, Theology, Unity of the Church|

Cardinal Avery Dulles, one of the truly important voices in American Catholicism in the twentieth century, was a very insightful thinker about the nature of the church and ecumenism. Not only was he a first-class scholar he was also a first-class Christian gentleman. He was a man of the mind and the heart. He worked tirelessly for the greater good of all Christ’s people. Though I have many friends who knew Avery Dulles personally I never had the privilege of personally meeting him face-to-face.

In an article he wrote in 1986 he posed a question I am asked on a weekly basis: “If a measure of doctrinal accord is a prerequisite for Christian unity then how can we proceed in the real world?” Dulles’ second principle, under the first of his ten theses about doctrinal agreement, was (he believed) “equally indisputable.”

Complete Agreement on All Matters of Doctrine is Unattainable

Agreement on all matters of doctrine should never be regarded as necessary for unity. Why? “In every church there are certain and disputable questions.” For example, in the Roman Catholic Church, […]

Cardinal Dulles on Doctrine and Ecumenical Unity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:04-05:00December 17th, 2010|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, Theology|

The late Cardinal Avery Dulles (August 24, 1918 – December 12, 2008)who died two years ago this week, was a Jesuit priest, theologian and Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University. He was also an internationally known author and lecturer. My first exposure to Dulles came as a college student in the late 1960s. Several of his early books were influential in my early theological journey to missional-ecumenism. Revelation and the Quest for Unity (1968) and Models of Church, Doubleday (1974) both come to mind in this context. In 1985 he published The Catholicity of the Church (1985), which still impacts my thinking very profoundly.

Dulles had a deep family connection with the government of the United States. He was the son of U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his uncle was the Director of Central Intelligence. Both his great-grandfather, John W. Foster, and his great-uncle, Robert Lansing, served as U.S. Secretary of State.

Dulles was raised a Presbyterian but had become an agnostic by the […]

Is Christianity the Most Persecuted Religion?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:04-05:00December 16th, 2010|Categories: The Persecuted Church|

The Catholic organization Aid to the Church in Need released a religious freedom report on November 30th. The report says that seven of ten people are unable to freely live out their faith without some form of state or personal opposition that seeks to make their expression of religion difficult or nearly impossible, at least in public. I am not sure what figures and means were used to determine this percentage but I have to believe the reality of this problem is much greater than almost anyone in the West knows or understands. And I do believe no other religious profession is as widely persecuted as the faith of Christian believers the world over.

Americans, in particular, take the freedom of religious expression for granted. We should be vigilant to protect this hard won freedom and we do all that we can to properly extend it to others wherever possible. This freedom is always tenuous and when virtue goes freedom is often not far behind, which should concern those of us who live in the modern West.

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What Can We Do About the Young Leavers?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:04-05:00December 15th, 2010|Categories: Evangelism, Love, Postmodernity, The Church|

When you study why young doubters are leaving the church moral or doctrinal compromise is not the major reason. (It does play a part but not in the way most conservatives generally think!) Some who leave, for example, have distinctly postmodern misgivings. When one young adult left his father learned of his decision to leave the faith and rushed his son a copy of Mere Christianity, hoping the book would bring him back. But C. S. Lewis's logical style left his son cold. "All that rationality comes from the Western philosophical tradition," he told an interviewer. "I don't think that's the only way to find truth." I find this response very common myself.

Drew Dyck says that he has met many leavers who felt Christianity failed to measure up intellectually. Shane, a 27-year-old father of three (to use one example), was swept away by the tide of New Atheist literature. He described growing up a "sheltered Lutheran" who was "into Jesus" and active in youth group. Now he spoke slowly and deliberately, as if testifying in court. "I'm an atheist and an empiricist. I don't believe religion […]

Why are Young Doubters Leaving the Church in Large Numbers?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:04-05:00December 14th, 2010|Categories: Evangelism, The Church, The Future|

In a recent provocative article by Drew Dyck, a manager in the Church Ministry Media Group at Christianity Today, there are alarming indications that young adults are leaving the church in record numbers. Some question this type of data but increasingly it seems to be beyond dispute. (I have rarely heard discussion of the fact that only 10% of the population attended church in 1800 before the campus revivals of New England and the Second Great Awakening!)

There are some striking mile markers that appear on the road through young adulthood: leaving for college, getting your first job and apartment, starting a career, getting married—and, for many people today, you can add walking away from the Christian faith to this list. Drew Dyck says that sociologists are seeing a major shift taking place among young adults who are moving away from Christianity. Dyck believes: “A faithful response requires that we examine the exodus and ask ourselves some honest questions about why.”

Recent studies have brought this exodus trend to light. Among the findings released in 2009 from the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), one stood out more […]

How Do Unity and Truth Relate?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:05-05:00December 13th, 2010|Categories: Unity of the Church|

There is a real danger, often cited, that we will pursue unity with Christians at all costs. We will sacrifice orthodox Christian faith in order to find a way to “get along.” Indeed, this is the most common objection to ecumenism I receive from conservative Christians. They are rightly concerned that theological compromise can harm the witness and faithfulness of the Christian Church.

But unity and truth are not binary opposites. They are complementary truths, truths that can and should be maintained side-by-side. To compromise unity is to compromise truth, and vice versa. This is why I believe we begin with the Apostles’ Creed. It is a simple, accepted way of confessing our baptismal and common faith together. It includes those truths that are genuinely central to common Christianity. It does not address every biblical doctrine but if we begin here we can move into other areas with more confidence and hope.

This week’s video addresses this issue.

The Grace of God in Salvation

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:05-05:00December 12th, 2010|Categories: Christ/Christology, Church Tradition, Personal|

I am working through several different resources during Advent this year. I decided to make more use of this liturgical time than I ever have in my lifetime. I have a book of Advent meditations called Light of the World. This is written by John Timmerman, a professor who teaches English at Calvin College. Anita and I read from this book each morning. Then I have a private book of Advent meditations including Scriptures, prayers and other readings, as well as information about special days in Advent. This is a compilation produced by Liturgy Training Publications, a Roman Catholic resource. It is called An Advent Sourcebook. These are both rich and valuable resources.

The second resource, An Advent Sourcebook, has some material in it for this weekend that includes the following statement from Reinhold Niebuhr, the famous Protestant theologian of the 20th century. Niebuhr wrote:

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true […]