Blog - Page 263 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Half-Way Point in the Season

By John Armstrong|2007-07-07T20:31:23-05:00July 7th, 2007|Categories: Baseball|

Baseball enthusiasts all know that July 4 is the half-way point in the season. The All-Star game, often called the mid-summer classic, takes place next Tuesday, July 10, in San Francisco. This is the time of the year teams take stock and decide to become buyers or sellers in terms of the talent they need for the second half of this season or for their future talent if they think they can’t win this year.

I saw the White Sox last evening. It was my eighth game of the season. I am now 4-4, thus not a total jinx. But my record is going backward lately. The Sox are done I believe. I hate to see them trade a few stars but they need to go younger sooner than later. They have next to no chance at the post-season this year. It is amazing but they went from World Series Champions two years ago to a major disappointment in one and a half years. Their pitching has failed, their bats are cold, and the team looks terrible right now. No fire in […]

The iPod Revolution

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:01-05:00July 5th, 2007|Categories: Current Affairs|

I finally did it. After seeing the value of owning an iPod for some months I broke down and actually bought one this week. I have previously commented on the iPod revolution based upon seeing how they are used among those in the emerging generation. I have asked a lot of questions to almost everyone under 35 who owns one. I have been podcasting the ACT 3 Weekly articles since January 1, 2007. A lot of my readers would rather listen to me present this article orally so I began to see the value of this technology firsthand.

I also began to realize that there is a lot of truly good stuff that I could hear in the car as well as when I walk, fly, or just rest, so it became more important for me to get my own iPod. I am not an easily convinced consumer so I waited for the technology to work our some of the bugs for several years and then for the price to come down considerably. The Scots blood in me is still pretty obvious […]

Happy Birthday America

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:01-05:00July 4th, 2007|Categories: Politics|

America is a much about an idea as it is a nation-state. In fact, so long as this idea is what drives this nation-state we have a future as a republic. But when we give up this idea it really doesn’t matter since we are not that different from any other nation. Yes, we have a beautiful continent but there is beauty in South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Anyone who has traveled to such continents can tell you that people are people, many such places are beautiful and cultural diversity is often charming and attractive. There are people who are virtuous in every place and there are people who are mean and self-centered in every place. We are not fundamentally better than other people, since we and they are made in the imago Dei and we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And wonderful Christians live in almost every place on the earth so as believers, with our citizenship first in heaven, we have a home elsewhere in the end. Love of country must never take the place […]

Constellation: A Film on Race and Family

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:01-05:00July 3rd, 2007|Categories: Film|

Constellation is a deeply moving film that graphically chronicles the lives of an extended African-American family that grew up the deep South. Since I too grew up in the deep South, and saw the bitter impact of the kind of racism the film portrays, I particularly fell in love with this film when I saw it on DVD this week. (Constellation was released in theaters in 2005 but had a limited and unsuccessful showing, like so many redeeming and valuable films do these days. It is rated PG-13.)

The film explores the difficult and tumultuous past of the Boxer family of Huntsville, Alabama. When the much loved matriarch Carmel Boxer dies the family gathers to attend her funeral in Huntsville. There they are forced to confront the struggles of both their past and present. In the midst of this deep and agonizing struggle race plays an obviously big part in the story. Indeed, few films that feature the theme of race in the deep South address the pain of this period like Constellation. It is built around the story of a fifty-year […]

Blending Tradition with Innovation

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:01-05:00July 2nd, 2007|Categories: Church Tradition|

It seems to me that the path the church must always follow, and her leaders must therefore seek follow as they lead the church, is to learn how to stay rooted in the Christian tradition, which is both a living and historical reality, while also using innovation when it comes to mission and ministry. This is what my late friend Bob Webber meant by "ancient-future faith" I believe. Protestantism has tended to allow for the innovation part of this equation while Catholicism and Orthodoxy have both remained rooted in tradition and struggled with the innovation part. This is particularly so with many ethnic churches, especially ethnic Orthodox Churches. But it is not limited to these churches. Many Protestant congregations are more defined by the culture than the gospel, in fact most likely are.

Modern evangelicals, on the other hand, have so rejected the role of tradition that they have little or no place for the living and breathing life-giving power of the historic church. Confessional life is held in suspicion. Everything is up for grabs, all the time, in all places. The […]

Postmodernity and Apologetics

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:01-05:00June 30th, 2007|Categories: Evangelism|

I have spent the last three days in Madison, Wisconsin, teaching twelve staff members for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in classical and cultural apologetics. We have surveyed the great systems of apologetical thought, we have read several books, had some intensely interesting and lively discussions and watched some really wonderful video material. The 20 class room hours I am teaching here ends today with an entire segment on the life and work of Lesslie Newbigin, the finest missional apologist of the second half of the 20th Century. We will finish up a long group segment, where pairs of students are answering major apologetic questions they face in evangelism. Besides the ususal ones, such as "Is Christ the only way?" and "How do you explain that God is good and yet evil is allowed and does so much harm?" we will also talk about the issue of globalization and homosexuality, two huge hot-buttons for Christians in the campus setting.

I have learned a lot this week from these students. First, to teach 12 adults who are all engaged in actual evangelism on a campus […]

Bobby Cox Sets a Record to Celebrate

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:01-05:00June 28th, 2007|Categories: Baseball|

Real fans of the game know trivia and records. Only real fans will care about this blog because they will know that players and managers can be thrown out of a baseball game for arguing excessively or wrongly with umpires. Generally there are a few select words that a player or manager will use in the presence of an umpire and then they are “Gone.” Certain decisions cannot even be contested, at least legitimately. One is the umpire’s call of balls and strikes. This rule is bent now and then but woe to the one who “shows up” an umpire in front of thousands of fans. When an umpire ejects a player or manager there is a huge gesture made by the umpire by which he says, “You’re out of here!”

I say all of this because the Braves manager Bobby Cox, my favorite manager I admit, has recently set the all-time record for the most ejections from a baseball game of any player or manager ever. He was ejected for the 131st time last Saturday as the Braves lost a frustrating 2-1 […]

Did Paris See the Light?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:02-05:00June 27th, 2007|Categories: Uncategorized|

Like most of you I have heard enough about Paris Hilton the last few weeks. I can’t believe the media spends so much time on this stuff when major world issues are before us daily. Yet we can’t fully escape it since the modern media is virtually ubiquitous.

Now Paris reveals to Barbara Walters that she read the Bible for several weeks in jail and that she came to see how she had wasted her life very badly. She also says she wants to redirect her purpose for living. I confess I am skeptical about anything Paris Hilton says right now. Who isn’t? As she left the jail she responded to the media as if she was walking down the center aisle of a parade route.

But I am also reminded that if she did see the light she would not be the first person to come to real faith behind bars. After all, Charles Colson proved to be a real Christian because of a prison term and his Watergate experience and many doubted him for some time. So did Karla […]

Americans Giving at Record Numbers

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:02-05:00June 26th, 2007|Categories: Donors and Funding|

Charitable giving in America has risen for the third consecutive year. The picture behind this recent report is rather interesting. Due to the absence of natural disasters, both nationally and internationally, large giving to major relief projects declined. Giving to human services also fell. The giving of corporate America rose only 1.5%. But in a shift from previous years giving to the arts and to cultural and humanities organizations grew rather significantly. The lion’s share of giving is still done by individuals, not by foundations, bequests and corporations. In fact, individual giving was about four times the amount given by all of these other sources combined, demonstrating once again that when individuals have the freedom to gain wealth they are enabled to share. But, as always, the largest percentage of giving was not among the rich. (This comment is not one meant to oppose affluence since there are several reasons why this remains true, and not all of these reasons suggest that the rich are universally uncharitable in the least. There is not a simple pattern here to explain this fact.)

Philanthropy in […]

My Friend's Long Pastorate Ends

By John Armstrong|2007-06-25T10:39:42-05:00June 25th, 2007|Categories: Personal|

In the fall of 1978 I first met Thomas N. Smith, then a pastor in Tanglewood, Oklahoma, a few miles outside of Tulsa. Thom (as he spells his name) was a contributing writer to the Sword & Trowel (Amewican version) and a bright young man who interested me very profoundly. He was fresh, eager to learn, and willing to follow Scrioture where it took him. He was also one of the finest preachers I had ever heard. (He still is one of the finest praechers I have ever heard and those who hear him, down to this day, generally agree with me.) Thom is a unique friend. He has been a friend with whom I have shared great joy and deep sorrow, real differences and growing friendship. We have come close to ending our realtionship several times. We are both strong people with strong opinions, but love has always prevailed as we have worked out our challenges. Profound respect keeps us rooted in a relationship that we both now know will last a lifetime. We have so much invested in our friendship that giving […]