Blog - Page 169 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Does Integrity Mark Your Life and Mission?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:25-05:00December 21st, 2009|Categories: Personal, The Christian Minister/Ministry|

As I wrote on Friday (December 11) I lost a long time friend, Dr. Hudson Armdering, on December 1. Dr. Armerding was more than a college president who served Wheaton during my years there as an undergraduate and graduate (B.A. 1971, M. A. 1973). He was actually a beloved friend who prayed for me and gave me personal counsel. He also gave our mission monthly donor support from the beginning. His funeral on December 12 was a special time in my life to reflect back over the last forty years since we first met.

My first impression of Hudson Armerding was that of a cool-natured, deeply intellectual man who loved Christ very deeply. Once I got to know Dr. Armerding personally I saw real warmth, even a sense of humor, both of which were widely known to his closer friends. He was serious, very serious. But he was never cocky or self-confident. The 1960s were a tough time to be a college president. Turmoil impacted most campuses and Wheaton was no exception. Hudson Armerding was tested over and over and […]

The Persecution of Christians Is a Serious Problem

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:25-05:00December 20th, 2009|Categories: The Persecuted Church|

One in ten Christians around the world live with persecution for their faith. Such persecution takes many forms. For some this means they live with daily fear of violence, kidnap, rape or even death. To talk with a friend about Jesus can land you in jail in many Muslim contexts. In other places being a Christian means you must live in utter poverty, trapped by a system that limits your opportunities to break free. In many contexts being a Christian means you carry a distinct social stigma. This affects the jobs you can get and how your children will be treated in school. Under shari’a (Islamic law) the court will reject your testimony as worthless when it is compared to that of a Muslim, regardless of the credibility of that particular Muslim.

In the global church today it is estimated that 200 million people live in areas where they face discrimination, persecution or oppression because of their faith. The two greatest threats […]

The Human Side of College Football

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:25-05:00December 19th, 2009|Categories: College Football|

My college football loyalties are well know. I bleed crimson, not just any old shade of red. I am rolling with the Tide and can't wait for the BCS Championship game on January 7th. My family used three phones and five computers to try to get a ticket for me when they went on sale last Tuesday. Like thousands who also tried we also failed. The few thousand that were sold to the general public were gone in three minutes I believe. I have plenty of free air miles, a place to stay with a nephew and a car to use. But no ticket. Guess I will watch on a big screen. No complaints here. But it would have been such a blast to be there.

What is often missed in the hoopla that surrounds sport in America is the real human interest stuff. The last coach to win a national championship at Alabama was not Bear Bryant, as some might think. It was Gene Stallings, a class guy through and through. Stallings left the game […]

Decluttering My Life

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:25-05:00December 18th, 2009|Categories: Personal|

For several years now I have tried to declutter my life on a regular basis. I routinely ask, "Do I really need this and what will I do with it if I keep it?" Before I save something I ask, "Why save this and to what end?" My pursuit of decluttering my life really began about ten years ago when I was forced to go through the earthly possessions of my mother. We had to move her from her private residence into assisted living. My sister-in-law and I were forced to dig into so much stuff and make a lot of choices and decisions. We trashed about 70% of what we found. We gave away those things that had meaning and value to our families and children so they are now in our respective homes as reminders of our mom and dad. We stored albums of photos and personal things that we believed had real meaning. In the end it was a massive task.

I came home from that three or four day experience in Alabama determined to never force my children […]

Oral Roberts: A True Pioneer

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:25-05:00December 17th, 2009|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

Oral Roberts was a true pioneer. He founded a multimillion dollar evangelistic ministry and a first-rate university. He proved that a man with deeply Pentecostal roots could change and express a more ecumenical spirit when he became a Methodist and began to embrace other Christians openly.

My first impression of Oral Roberts was formed by the old black and white television pictures of healing lines that are now a part of historic American religion over the last sixty-plus years. Roberts laid his hands on people one-by-one and prayed for healing. This was not new but putting this on television was and Roberts eventually became synonymous with the Pentecostal renewal in America.

But he also became the leading representative of “Seed-Faith” theology and urged people to invest in mission in order to get seed back from God. This principle has clear warrant in 2 Corinthians 9:10–11 but the larger context seems to me to have […]

Have We Missed Jesus in the Church?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:25-05:00December 16th, 2009|Categories: Jesus|

I find it more than odd, but terribly common, that Christians know very little about Jesus. Most Christians know very little about Christian doctrine and practice but they know even less about Jesus. The reason for this is not hard to find in most contexts.

First, ministers did not learn much about Jesus in college and seminary. In the best schools we were taught how to exegete Scripture and how to understand basic doctrine. Catholics are given additional courses in canon law and liturgy that most evangelicals know nothing about. Both evangelicals and Catholics are given a course, or at least a part of a course, on Christology. They know about the two natures (Jesus was God and man) and about how the church developed its understanding of Jesus in the face of heresies. But hardly anyone learns in depth about Jesus himself. How does he think and feel, what are his values, what issues in life truly concern him?

Protestants are generally more […]

Mix-and-Match Religion on the Rise

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:25-05:00December 15th, 2009|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the most reputable and the most often cited source for such research, informed us on Wednesday that Americans are increasingly taking a "build-your-own" approach to religion. I have found anecdotal evidence for this movement for some time so the actual results of real research did not shock me at all.

Large numbers of Americans attend services of traditions other than their own and they are now increasingly blending Christianity with Eastern and New Age beliefs. There has been, the survey reveals, a dramatic increase over the last three decades in the number of people who have had a religious or mystical experience. The U.S. is still considered an overwhelmingly Christian country, in terms of membership and preferences, but there are growing minorities who hold beliefs of the kind found at Buddhist temples or New Age bookstores. 24% of those surveyed believe in reincarnation. 22% of Christians believe in reincarnation. Reincarnation, in case you wondered, is an […]

The Amazing Life of a Big Man: G. K. Chesterton

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:25-05:00December 14th, 2009|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

G.K. Chesterton was an imposing giant of a man, standing 6’4” and weighing almost 300 pounds. He was also a giant of a man intellectually and spiritually. His interests ranged very widely and the output of his mind was beyond incredible. His work includes some 4,000 essays, several hundred poems and around 200 short stories. On top of that he authored more than a hundred books. And for more than four decades he wrote a weekly column in from one to four different journals. These columns appeared along with a constant production of stories, plays, reviews, novels and commentaries. And he was in constant demand as a speaker, drawing large crowds wherever he went.

Chesterton was a prodigious intellectual for sure. But he was not your ordinary intellectual. He wrote and spoke in a way that often appealed to ordinary people and he relished the opportunity to speak to the common man. He claimed that he was nothing more than a simple journalist. […]

Humility Leaves Room for Complexity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:25-05:00December 13th, 2009|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism|

Nancy Gibbs, a long-time editor-at-large for TIME magazine, has written, "The problems we face are too fierce to accommodate arrogance. Humility leaves room for complexity, honors honest dissent, welcomes the outlandish idea . . . that feeds invention."

Nancy has authored over 100 cover stories for TIME, including four "Person of the Year" essays. She wrote TIME's September 11th memorial issue as well as weekly essays on how 9/11 impacted the nation. Her article, from which this comment is taken, "If You Want to Be Humble and Empire . . . ", won the Luce Awards' 2002 Story of the Year.

Nancy Gibbs spoke of American imperial ideals in her quotation. But I apply it to my own life and that of my work. The problems I believe the church faces are too fierce, too complex and too challenging to accommodate the arrogance that so many of our leaders bring to the table. We need the kind of humility that really leaves room for complexity and honors real dissent among fellow Christians.

[…]

Ingram Wins in Closest Vote Ever

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:26-05:00December 12th, 2009|Categories: College Football|

My man Mark Ingram won the big trophy tonight in New York City. With real class, and a lot of tears and some very obvious nervousness, Mark Ingram thanked God, his mother, his grandparents, his father (who is in a New York jail), his aunts and uncles, his coaches, his teammates and even the strength coach (who helped him build his body to become a more talented runner).

A friend twittered that Tim Tebow prayed with Mark just before the award to calm his spirit. Classy stuff from a fellow competitor, which is one reason I love the college game so much. Ingram thus becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner in Alabama's storied football history. If you had asked a student of this great game in September if this day would come no one, and I mean no one, would have predicted that unheralded Mark Ingram would win the Heisman Trophy in the closest vote in the seventy-five year history […]