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ACT 3 Needs You

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:13-05:00December 18th, 2008|Categories: ACT 3|

One of the most famous ads in American history is one that features "Uncle Sam" saying, "I need you!" It is a piece of cultural iconography. During World War II, and after, it symbolized something of the spirit of the nation.

Well, in the spirit of "need" I must tell you that ACT 3 "needs you." Every similar ministry will tell you at this time of the year that they need gifts to finish the year well. ACT 3 is in the same place. But I have been thinking a great deal lately about how you could help ACT 3 and me do this ministry.

We all know, by now, that President-elect Barack Obama unleashed the largest Internet response to a political candidate in history. He did this by putting his message before people who then shared it with their friends who then they shared it with their friends and eventually both the man and his message connected millions of people into a large movement. One of the most important keys to his political […]

The "Forced" Resignation of Richard Cizik, Part Five

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:13-05:00December 17th, 2008|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

In my final look at Richard Cizek’s resignation as vice-president of NAE I want to make some specific observations and issue a personal plea for a different kind of Christian presence in the public sphere.

Many Christian writers believe that Cizik should have resigned, some as far back as two years ago. Mark Tooley, a writer for the Institute on Religion & Democracy (IRD), believes that “Cizik has been very outspoken and in some ways ‘off the reservation’ for the last five or six years in terms of his global warming-activism, which the board of NAE had initially somewhat disavowed—but that had not discouraged him.” The terms Cizik’s critics use are often quite revealing. Tooley believes he is “off the reservation.” What an ironic expression. I doubt that Tooley meant this metaphor in the way I actually hear it. I know him to be an honorable and good man. But in his terms I suppose that I also live “off the reservation.” Frankly, […]

The "Forced" Resignation of Richard Cizik, Part Four

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:13-05:00December 16th, 2008|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

One of the more perceptive voices addressing Christianity and public policy is that of Calvin College’s Joel Carpenter (photo at left). Joel was once the director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE) at Wheaton. He is someone that I listen to much the way the old E. F. Hutton commercials suggested people listened to Hutton's advice about the market. Carpenter is an astute observer of evangelicals and the NAE. He has also followed the Richard Cizik matter very closely.

Last week Carpenter observed: “I think the public affairs office (of NAE) has been the most vital and important thing that the NAE has been doing in recent years. Joel Carpenter actually contributed a chapter on the history of the NAE to the book Revive Us Again, a history of fundamentalism and evangelism in America. He suggests, as a historian of this 66-year old organization which was birthed in opposition to the World Council (WCC) and National Council of Churches […]

The "Forced" Resignation of Richard Cizik, Part Three

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:13-05:00December 15th, 2008|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

The “forced” resignation of Richard Cizik has brought a great deal of attention to evangelical Christianity in America and most of it is very negative. We live in a time when spiritual interest is actually rising but respect for the church is in sharp decline. Most non-Christians associate our response to leaders like Rich Cizik with the gospel message itself, like it or not. We can say this is not the case but they see this very simply as Christians attacking Christians. To them we are all fundamentalists, whether we like it or not. And our standing in the culture is at an all-time low based on everything I have seen.

Statistics reveal that an unsettling exodus is also taking place in the American church. This is not a passing fad but a real, observable and much-studied trend. What makes young people leave our churches? And why is the name “evangelical” so […]

Priests and Prophets

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:13-05:00December 14th, 2008|Categories: Biblical Theology|

The Advent Sermon that I heard at the Lutheran Church of the Master (Carol Stream, IL), preached by the interim pastor Curt Gerald, was excellent. He preached from the two liturgical texts found in Isaiah 61:1-11 and John 1:6-9 and 1: 19-28. He explained quite well the frequent tensions that existed between the two ends of the Old Testament spectrum: the priests and the prophets. His point was that both were always needed but often they clashed and people tended to miss the importance of one or the other side of this emphasis.

I quite agree with Curt and this take on the Old Testament story. Our churches have both types of people in them. The "priests" want to make sure the church is run right and the worship remains sound. They are concerned about the operation of the ministry and in things like "decency and order," to use Paul's well-known phrase. The prophets, often less in number, want to make sure that […]

The "Forced" Resignation of Richard Cizik, Part Two

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:13-05:00December 13th, 2008|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

On Wednesday of this week Richard Cizik resigned as the vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). The preceding week had been filled with calls for his removal by constituent members of NAE who were deeply distressed that he was shifting his views on same-sex marriage. As I showed in Part One Richard Cizik has been under considerable fire for over two years. The statement that led to his resignation became, without any serious doubt, the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Leith Anderson, president of NAE, wrote to the board members of NAE the following: “Although he has subsequently expressed regret, apologized, and affirmed our values, there is a loss of trust in his credibility as a spokesman among leaders and constituencies.” I have no doubt that Leith Anderson spoke the truth here and nothing but the truth. The issue was not so much what Cizik said in the December 2 interview with Terry Gross on […]

The "Forced" Resignation of Richard Cizik: Part One

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:13-05:00December 12th, 2008|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

For those of you who follow the news about highly public evangelical Christian leaders and personalities you are most likely now aware of the resignation of
Richard Cizik as Vice-President of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). The story itself can be read at on a number of Web sites and is objectively reported in a number of news reports today, December 12. I read several of these, especially at the NAE site and that of Christianity Today.

I have already received emails asking me to comment on Cizik and his resignation. I know that if I do so, at least publicly, there is considerable risk. My comments about this matter will bring some condemnation and further misunderstanding of my own views. Yet I have a growing number of friends who want to dialogue about such public issues. In that spirit I enter the dialogue with my sense of this sad controversy.

Over the course of the past two years […]

We Need Showers of Mercy to Fall Again

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:13-05:00December 11th, 2008|Categories: Renewal|

The latest Wall Street Journal economic-forecasting survey suggests that the current recession may turn out to be the longest and most painful downturn since the Great Depression. On average, these economists expect the downturn to conclude in June 2009, marking an eighteen-month duration, the longest postwar period of decline. The economists on average said the unemployment rate will peak at 8.4% in response to this recession, as pain in the labor market extends into 2010.

We have lost more than two trillion dollars in personal savings already. A crisis of character linked to greed, fraud and arrogance plagues us profoundly. (Consider the hubris and corruption in Illinois alone!) An unprecedented national deficit reveals that both political parties are “out of control.” Many states, my own included are broke. Some are even seeking bankruptcy. And this doesn’t even deal with the looming insolvency of programs such as Medicaid and Social Security. The U. S. average, average mind you, for credit card debt is $13,000. […]

The Corrupt Politics of Illinois

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:14-05:00December 9th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

Well, as I long expected, Governor Rod Blagojevich will likely join his predecessor, Governor George Ryan, in prison. I am glad the "pay to play" schemes we have heard about for more than two years are finally out in the open before the public. The States Attorney did his job and the governor will now fall. The people of this state will be much better off when this man is gone. The sad fact, however, is this—my state is filled with this type of political greed and corruption. It has been for fifty-plus years. The Daley machine started it, or at least mastered it, and state leaders from both parties have followed the pattern for more than fifty years. I have lived in Illinois since 1969. Four governors will have gone to prison in my time in the state. Is another state remotely close to this ignominious record?

The most striking of the two […]

Apologetics for Postmodern Evangelism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:14-05:00December 8th, 2008|Categories: Apologetics|

Thanks to all of my readers and friends who prayed for my class at Wheaton last week. I had twelve students for a five-day intensive graduate class in apologetics at Wheaton. This is my fourth year teaching this class. (I have taught several others; e.g. revival, spiritual formation, etc.) Each class has been a bit larger and thus it becomes a real challenge to me since I seek to use a method that involves all the class in open discussion and requires the students to present and defend their own views as we go along ("The Socratic Method").

This class included a pastor from Tanzania, a missionary to France, several InterVarsity staff, several pastors, several people in the world of business or commerce and one senior undergraduate student. It was a most unusual mixture of people and the Lord blessed us as we learned together. I use four text books and one supplemental guide plus numerous hand outs of readings from things I have collected over the years. […]