Blog - Page 297 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Witnessing to an AA Member

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:16-05:00June 15th, 2006|Categories: Evangelism|

I often have opportunities to share my hope of salvation in Christ with new people. There are several resources that I have found very useful for giving to people that I have met and talked with along the road of life. One is John R. Stott’s excellent book, Why I Am a Christian (InterVarsity Press, 2003). Stott, who admits that he took this title from Bertrand Russell’s famous book, Why I Am Not a Christian, shows in a clear and readable style why he has found faith in Christ both compelling and persuasive.

Today I am sending another copy of Stott’s excellent book to a man that I met last Saturday on my flight from Philadelphia to Chicago. This man has been successful in admitting his addiction to alcohol and drugs, and then breaking that addiction, for well over thirteen years. He openly admitted his need to better know “his higher power.” My words were carefully chosen in order to say to him, “The higher power that I have found to have the real answers, joined with the gracious saving power to […]

Relationships and Governance

By John Armstrong|2006-06-13T07:59:55-05:00June 13th, 2006|Categories: Personal|

I have always believed that the governance of Christian ministry, humanly speaking, was really about relationships and how people envision God’s mission through them as they learn to live and work together. Bonhoeffer’s classic Life Together has been the most important shaper of my thought beyond the Pauline letters. Ministry boards function best when there are truly good relationships among those who serve the particular ministry and govern it as a board of directors.

This is the case with the board of ACT 3, my own ministry. We have eight men and women on our board who love Christ and one another. We are presently meeting in Elburn, Illinois, spending two days and nights in fellowship as we plan and direct the work we share together. I could not imagine doing the work I do without these friends. If you think of it today pray for us by name: Wilbur Ellsworth, Mateen Elass, Richard Johnson, Susan Taylor, Kirsten Tjernlund, Don Broesamle, Kurt Klippert and Shawn Moran. We come from the Midwest and from both coasts. We are earnestly seeking God during these […]

Becoming a New Kind of Seminary

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:16-05:00June 10th, 2006|Categories: Education|

I spent all day on Friday in a board meeting for Biblical Theological Seminary (BTS) in Pennsylvania. Biblical provides a unique story that is not nearly as well-known as it should be. Begun thirty-five years ago as a conservative, independent Reformed seminary, in suburban Philadelphia, BTS began a new journey several years ago. The purpose statement now says the school exists: “To prepare missional leaders who incarnate the story of Jesus with humility and authenticity and who communicate the story with fidelity to Scripture, appreciation of the Christian tradition, and sensitivity to the needs and aspirations of postmodern culture.”

Our degree programs include the traditional M. Div., as well as a specially designed LEAD M. Div. designed for men and women already in ministry, or those in different careers who want to pursue the ministry as a career change. This program is built around cohort groups and includes a number of special features that are not common to typical seminary education. We also offer an M. A. in biblical studies, in ministry and in counseling, as well as a missional D. Min. All […]

A Surprising Conversation with Richard John Neuhaus

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:16-05:00June 8th, 2006|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

Life is often filled with surprises. One such surprise is to meet a person in a public setting very serendipitously. That is precisely what happened to me Thursday evening when I went to eat dinner alone in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. I was in Bryn Mawr because I serve on the board of Biblical Theological Seminary and was there for a board retreat on Friday-Saturday. I arrived early to be at a committee meting on Friday morning, thus I had a free evening to relax.

As I sat down to eat I looked to my right, not three feet away, and realized the man I was looking at was Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor of First Things (FT). Not only am I a devoted subscriber to FT but I have read a good bit of Father Neuhaus’ writing for many years. I once thought of him as a dangerous man, after all he was a convert to Rome from Lutheranism, but that was before I dropped my virulent sectarianism about eight years ago. Of course I disagree with Neuhaus, on both a number […]

The Da Vinci Code Uproar

By John Armstrong|2006-06-08T08:50:40-05:00June 8th, 2006|Categories: Culture|

The release of the movie The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks, was supposed to be the greatest challenge to Christian faith in America in decades, so say some conservatives. It was nothing of the kind. What the book and movie reveals, notes pollster George Barna, is that people’s religious views are not really being changed at all. They are simply being confirmed, Barna suggests.

I saw the movie about ten days ago. My first response was a non-response. Believe me, it is not a very good movie. The critics are almost unanimous in their dislike and the movie is proving to be a real dud for very good reason. The plot was hard to follow, the story line quite boring and within a half hour you begin to feel like you’re watching a high-priced fairytale that takes itself way too seriously. Hanks looks very old (I guess he is old by now) and turns in a very poor performance. After Forest Gump and Philadelphia I expected much more.

Look, Dan Brown’s book is pure unadulterated fiction. Yes, I know, […]

Was There Really Any Doubt?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:16-05:00June 7th, 2006|Categories: Politics|

I read today that Alabama Governor Bob Riley (R) beat his challenger in a primary election yesterday. The challenger was the real issue in this race. Who was the challenger you ask? Judge Roy Moore of Ten Commandments fame, the man who has been previously mentioned critically on this site. Was there doubt in anyone’s mind that Judge Moore was really up to political ends in his "noble" defense of the decalogue? First we had a book by the judge, then this run for political office. When will Christians wise up to this crass use of God’s truth for personal political goals? As long as the Christian Right fails to take sin seriously, both personally and coporately, leaders will never have an adequate view of how to use power humbly and properly. Power can still corrupt, even good guys.

Thankfully Judge Moore acknowledged that "God’s will" was done in the primary yesterday. That may have been the most accurate bit of theologizing the judge has done recently. I hope he stops his campaign for God, goes on with his personal life, and […]

More on Baseball and Life

By John Armstrong|2006-06-06T15:41:12-05:00June 6th, 2006|Categories: Baseball|

George Ushela is a suburban Chicago high school baseball coach. In Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (June 4) he considered three parts of the game that still fascinate him after twenty-one years of coaching.

1. Failure. The hitter can do exactly what he wants to do and still make an out. The game has failure built into it. For this reason maturity comes through constantly failing. A mature player will realize that he did everything right and still failed. The difference will be that the truly mature player perseveres and thus eventually will know success.

2. Strategy. The way a baseball manager shifts his defense, plays the percentages, decides when to bunt or when not to bunt, and considers all the other elements that go into a complex game strategy make the game so intriguing for those who understand it.

3. Time. As long as your team is on the field there is still time to win. Anything can happen and a lot does. The clock never runs out on you in baseball, since both teams get the same number of outs. This […]

A Friend Moves On

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:16-05:00June 3rd, 2006|Categories: Personal|

Professor Mark Noll came to Wheaton College several years after I graduated (B.A., 1971; M.A., 1973). He has been an institution at my alma mater for nearly three decades. In some circles his name is virtually synonymous with Wheaton’s solid academic reputation. However, Noll is leaving Wheaton College this month to replace George M. Marsden at Notre Dame University. Both Noll and Marsden are world renowned scholars of American church history. And both are Christian gentlemen in the truest sense as well as serious Reformed scholars and Christians. George Marsden’s dad was an Orthodox Presbyterian minister and Mark Noll has faithfully served as an elder at Immanuel Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Warrenville, pastored by an ACT 3 board member, Dr. Mateen Elass.

Most know Mark Noll for his many books, especially for his two highly respected books: The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln. Marsden is known for his biography of Jonathan Edwards, thus his contribution to our own ACT 3 conference on Edwards two years ago here in Wheaton.

I […]

Questions I Ponder as a Reformed Christian

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:17-05:00June 2nd, 2006|Categories: Reformed Christianity|

Questions I often ponder these days as a confessional Reformed Christian living in a time of real ecclesial change in the West:

1. Why do modern conservative Reformed Christians seem to have historical amnesia when it comes to events that transpired in church history from the death of John on the Isle of Patmos, late in the first century, until the completion of the Canon several centuries later?

2. Why do modern conservative Reformed Christians virtually ignore the Church Fathers as well as the catholic creeds of the Christian church?

3. Why do modern conservative Reformed Christians ignore the fact that John Calvin was especially influenced by the Church Fathers? For that matter why do these same conservative Reformed Christians virtually ignore other Reformed writers who relied very heavily upon the classical catholic tradition such as Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley?

4. Why do conservative Reformed Christians treat only certain confessional traditions, such as the Westminster Confession or its cousin the London Baptist Confession, as if only these confessions and catechisms were the proper confessional grounds for the Reformed […]

Obama in ’08 and Reflections on Pastoral Leadership

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:17-05:00June 1st, 2006|Categories: The Christian Minister/Ministry|

Since I live in Illinois I hear more than my fair share of the hype about our charismatic and appealing Senator Barack Obama (D. – IL), who is seen by some as a viable presidential candidate in 2008. It appears that there is a substantial group of Democrats who want anybody but Hillary (Sen. Hillary Clinton, D. – NY), who is seen as too polarizing. If former Vice-President Al Gore does not run, and this is still anybody’s guess, then Obama’s chances dramatically increase, so it seems.

Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune columnist, summed up the case for Obama’s run in ‘08 in yesterday’s edition (May 31). Zorn wrote that he was fully aware of Obama’s shortcomings; e.g., little foreign policy experience, a complete lack of accomplishments on the national stage, and an apparent unwillingness to spend his political capital on unpopular positions. He writes, “Plans and philosophies are important, sure. But everyone in the game has a surplus of those.” Zorn even admits that Obama has already made clumsy moves that have alienated “his core supporters.” But none of this deters Zorn, […]