Blog - Page 153 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Can the Mainline Churches Come Alive?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:54-05:00May 27th, 2010|Categories: Church History, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Renewal, The Church|

Yesterday I wrote about the meaning of the term “mainline” churches in American church history. I wrote that I grew up in a very culturally conservative, even insular, background as a small town Southern Baptist. I do not want to be misunderstood when I write about my background as a child. My memories of my childhood and my Baptist church are almost all positive. Except for the pervasive racism I came to loathe, and the ever present aspects of ecclesial nominalism, which were both so common to many churches of the time, I have very positive memories. (We have as many or more such problems in churches in our day. The anti-Christian philosopher Nietzsche once said that the church is “human, all too human.” He was right for the wrong reasons but we should keep this in mind always.)

Now that I am a minister in the mainline I have a very different perspective on these churches, both their present decline and their long-term future. I do believe they have a future and I also believe it could be better […]

Can the Mainline Churches Come Alive?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:57-05:00May 26th, 2010|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, Unity of the Church|

The historic Protestant churches in America are often called the “mainline” churches. Some have said the mainline is now the “old line” and others have declared that the “old line” is simply dead. And if the mainline is not dead then it soon will be dead once the endowments run out and the party is finally over.

The term mainline seems to have evolved from the traditional aristocratic community located just outside Philadelphia. This community was once served by the main line of the former Pennsylvania Railroad. The Oxford Dictionary says the first use of the term came in 1841 and adds that the first use of the term to describe churches did not come until 1972. The term appears to have emerged from within the 1960s youth culture as the counterculture responded negatively to the historic churches and called them the mainline.

It is not perfectly clear […]

Why Did I Write Your Church Is Too Small?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:57-05:00May 25th, 2010|Categories: ACT 3, Books, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, Unity of the Church|

I have written or edited twelve books. I have enjoyed the work involved in every one of them, some of them much more than others. But I have never written a book that I felt so deeply about as Your Church Is Too Small. This book is really “my story.” It tells what my wife and I wanted everyone to know about our journey to missional-ecumenism and why we remain committed to the larger work of ACT 3. This is also why this book is so intensely personal and why I employ narrative in the way I did in writing it. It is something of a memoir. It tells a story and then explains the theology behind how that story. Here is how I explain it.

A Fond Farewell to Jack Bauer

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:57-05:00May 24th, 2010|Categories: Television|

When the television series 24 was first introduced in 2001 I was not a fan. Friends urged me to watch but I remained a hold out until about three years ago. After five and a half seasons of 24 I decided to see if the hoopla was really worth the time. I started, as I was dutifully told, with Season One and watched them on disc. I still remember the sense of addiction that soon developed. Such a television series had never captured my interest and sustained it. If someone had said, “I bet you can’t watch just one episode and stop I would have argued that surely I could.” Truth is, I watched two or three at a time, reminding myself that I did not have to endure the commercials and could watch each show in 40 minutes, thus three of them was a movie-length film. More than once I planned on watching one more episode before going to sleep but then […]

The Feast of Pentecost

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:57-05:00May 23rd, 2010|Categories: Church Tradition, The Church, The Trinity, Unity of the Church|

Today is the beginning of a new cycle in the church year, the Feast of Pentecost. Easter has ended liturgically but Pentecost reminds us that the resurrected Christ is still with us by the gift of the Spirit who makes him known to all who believe.

The word pentecost (from the Greek pentekoste hemera, meaning “fiftieth day”) was originally a Hellenistic term for the Jewish Feast of Weeks. For the early Christians Pentecost, eventually celebrated seven weeks after Easter, or fifty days after the Easter Vigil, commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples when they were empowered to preach the gospel. It marks the beginning of the church, at least as we know it in this present age (Acts 2:1-13). Pentecost was actually the third major Jewish feast. It initially celebrated the harvest of grain and later the giving of the Law to Moses on Sinai.

On the first […]

A Statement of Repentance for the Lack of Kingdom Thinking and Living

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:57-05:00May 22nd, 2010|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Renewal, Unity of the Church|

My dear friend, Rev. Dale Schlafer, is the director of the Center for World Revival and Awakening, based in Bradenton, Florida. Dale has encouraged me and taught me a great deal for many years. We have served together on a number of projects. Dale directed the well-known Promise Keepers gathering on the Washington Mall many years ago but left PK to pursue prayer and teaching for revival as widely as possible. He is one of God’s choice servants, a man in whom there is no guile and a brother who loves the kingdom of God and will do anything he can to extend that kingdom and to promote the unity of Christ’s people in prayer and awakening.

Dale is also the author of a wonderful small book that is one of the finest studies of true revival you will ever read, Revival 101. I recommend this booklet very highly and urge […]

Why Do So Many Good People Oppose a Just and Compassionate Response to the Immigration Problem?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 21st, 2010|Categories: America and Americanism, Current Affairs, Politics, Poverty|

I am convinced that most of those who oppose what I have written over the course of the past two days do so for reasons that they believe are compelling and sound. I am also convinced that most of those who take a strong stand against legalizing illegal immigrants is rooted in our past history and their present fear. These are real concerns and unless, or until, those who favor the kinds of proposals that I have set forth offer a good answer to these questions then their minds cannot change on this subject. The art of good politics is to get people to move toward each other and thus to reach agreement wherever possible.

A major problem with the immigration debate right now is that we are less than six months from a congressional election. No one, including the President, wants to tackle this issue right now. Even Senator John McCain, who has historically […]

The DREAM Act and What It Means for Young Americans

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 20th, 2010|Categories: America and Americanism, Current Affairs, Ethics, Personal, The Church|

The video story that I shared yesterday introduced many of you to what is called the DREAM Act. I learned of this proposal from my son, Matt. Matt pastors a multi-ethnic congregation and thus remains deeply involved in issues of justice and compassion day-to-day. I would like to explain this sane and humane act as clearly as possible so I asked Matt to help me. Here is what I learned.

The DREAM Act says that to be eligible, a student:

1. Must have come to the U.S. before the age of 16.

2. Must have lived here for at least five years.

3. Must have graduated from high school.

If they meet those three criteria, then such immigrants get a five-year visa and need to do one of the following during those five years:

1. […]

The DREAM Act and the Problem of Immigration in America

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 19th, 2010|Categories: America and Americanism, Current Affairs, Politics|

Perhaps no single issue is more often in the news these days than that of immigration. Consider the debate over the recent bill signed by the governor of Arizona. This has stirred millions of Americans and might awaken the conscience of more people than anything done by a state government in recent memory.

I have found people all over the map on this issue. And most of these people have very strong opinions about immigration whether they have considered the real facts or not. Few people actually seem to understand what is really involved in this issue and how Christians should think about it with a balanced view of justice and compassion. Even fewer still understand the consequences of this issue for their own brothers and sisters in America. One person who does understand, and whose voice I listen to on this subject because I love and respect him so much, […]

A History of Christianity on DVD

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:18:58-05:00May 18th, 2010|Categories: Church History, Church Tradition, Film, The Church|

I recently viewed an excellent six-part video series titled: “A History of Christianity” presented by Professor Dairmaid MacCulloch, a professor of church history at University of Oxford (since 1997) and Fellow (formerly Senior Tutor) of St Cross College, Oxford (since 1995). MacCulloch is the highly esteemed author of several important volumes that have won numerous literary awards.

His published works include the eminently useful work Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 1490-1700 (2003). This volume won the 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award and 2004 British Academy Book Prize, adding to his earlier success in carrying […]