Blog - Page 299 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Liberal Arts Education of Patrick Henry College

By John Armstrong|2006-05-27T12:03:13-05:00May 27th, 2006|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

Patrick Henry College, a rural Virginia school of only three hundred students, has been making big news lately. This very conservative Christian school only has sixteen faculty members and five of their professors left this month. Others are thinking about leaving soon. What is the problem? The faculty is having trouble with the president’s understanding of what a liberal arts college does with the liberal arts.

The founder and president of Patrick Henry College is Michael P. Ferris, a fairly well-known conservative attorney with a long-standing commitment to, and legal defense of, home schooling. Indeed, Patrick Henry College aims at home school graduates as their target audience. Ferris expresses deep commitment to teaching a “biblical world view” and openly desires to train graduates who will become movers and shakers in the culture. (World magazine has featured news on the school on several occasions.) Some Patrick Henry students have even interned with noteworthy conservative political leaders such as Karl Rove, Tom DeLay and Bill Frist. The problem at Patrick Henry College is that Michael P. Ferris understands the idea of a “biblical world […]

Working and Praying for the Real Peace of Jerusalem

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:17-05:00May 26th, 2006|Categories: Israel|

Columnist Robert Novak praises my own Illinois congressman, soon-to-retire Representative Henry Hyde (R), in Wednesday’s edition (May 25) of the Chicago Sun Times. He writes: “Showing the courage that has typified a political career now in its final months, [Hyde] is pleading the case of endangered Palestinian Christians to President Bush.” Hyde’s letter to Bush, in part, says: “I cannot be blind when Israeli actions seem to go beyond the realm of legitimate security concerns and have negative consequences on communities and lands under their occupation.”

The House International Relations Committee, chaired by Congressman Hyde, recently issued a five-page report which further concluded:

The Christian community is being crushed in the mill of the bitter Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [And further, the security wall and expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank] are irreversibly damaging the dwindling Christian community.

This response is not a new one from Congressman Hyde. Two years ago he wrote Secretary of State Colin Powell to raise the same issue. He now claims that things are much worse. There is every reason to believe that this is the […]

A Catholic Protestant Wedding Revisted

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:17-05:00May 25th, 2006|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

On April 25 I wrote a blog about a wedding between two young Christians, one Protestant and one Catholic. This wedding was performed by my good friend Andrew Sandlin, one of the ministers of the Church of the King in Santa Cruz, California. I expect this blog generated three responses. The first one is the response I grew up with in the Bible-belt. Such weddings are "mixed" marriages and will lead to nothing but heartache and turmoil. The children of such a union will be completely confused and probably lost to the gospel. The second response would be one of liberal toleration that misses the fact that there are still real differences in our views of the church. This one leads to a shrug which says, "It doesn’t matter." The third response, which is the one I would appeal for personally, is that such a wedding has inherent problems but these problems can be overcome and should not prohibit a Christ-centered home and family. In fact, such problems could, in very strong marriages, produce fruit that is rarely seen in modern Christian homes on […]

Signs of Renewal Amidst the Rubble?

By John Armstrong|2006-05-24T09:07:01-05:00May 24th, 2006|Categories: Renewal|

It is common to hear references to Protestant mainline churches as those churches which are in a state of confusion, or churches that have become a theological rubble. Many conservatives are quite surprised to learn of the wonderful renewal efforts being faithfully made in these older churches.

Like all of these historic Protestant denominations in North America the United Methodist Church has been embroiled in a controversy about homosexual practice. The most significant recent case was that of Pastor Ed Johnson, a UMC pastor in South Hill, Virginia. Following ethical and biblical protocol Johnson postponed receiving an unrepentant and actively involved homosexual into the membership of his congregation. For this faithful action Bishop Charles Kammerer ordered Johnson to receive the man into membership. Johnson, being faithful to both God and conscience, stood against his bishop. For this decision he was removed from his ministry, and all financial support, and placed on Involuntary Leave of Absence. He was, in short, thrown out of his pulpit, without pay, and with no place to live!

Such actions remind me of other times in church […]

A Missional Church with a Bright Future

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:29-05:00May 22nd, 2006|Categories: Missional Church|

I am afforded numerous opportunities to see the church in its various expressions across North America. For nearly fifteen years I have traveled across the land speaking in congregations of all sizes and forms. I have preached to mega-churches and new church plants. I have tried to encourage older struggling small churches in decline and newer small churches seeking to grow and minister in hard areas. I have preached in storefront settings, rural country white frame churches, urban centers, and living rooms. I have spent most of this time with churches ranging from 100 to 300 people in Sunday worship. My favorite size congregation, for reasons well beyond this present entry, is about 250-300. In this setting there are enough people to cover the bases of organizational need while the group is about the right size for real pastoral care and hands on friendship building in the congregation. Usually such a church has only one, or sometimes two, ordained pastor(s) on the staff. The sense of collegiality between the pastor(s) and the lay leaders is often great. Vision is also rooted in biblical goals […]

The Greatest Game in the Greatest Stadium

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:29-05:00May 18th, 2006|Categories: Baseball|

I have loved baseball since 1956. I fell in love with the Milwaukee Braves during the summer of 1957, in my eighth year. They were the underdog in the Fall Classic to the much ballyhooed New York Yankees. The Yanks were led by the greatest switch-hitter of all-time, Mickey Mantle; and the greatest post-season pitcher of all-time, Whitey Ford; and also by the ole’ philosopher, catcher Yogi Berra. And their venerable manager was Casey Stengel, who racking up one championship after another during that wonderful era. I still remember running home from school to see the World Series that October and sitting in awe watching the games live from New York’s famous Yankee Stadium. Lou Burdette was lights out in winning the MVP as the Braves won the series in seven games.

Last night, in my fifty-seventh year, I finally saw a game, in person, in venerable Yankee Stadium, built in 1923. The Yanks beat the Rangers 4-3. I sat on row one, in upper deck, right behind home plate. My companion, Jonathan McGuire, is a wonderful young man who is the […]

Mother's Day or Eighth Day?

By John Armstrong|2006-05-15T10:45:34-05:00May 15th, 2006|Categories: The Church|

As our congregation celebrated the fifth day of Easter yesterday (May 14), or as early church fathers called it—the eighth day or the day of new creation—I reflected again on what the difference one’s view of the role of historic theology meant for the church in our day. I am convinced most evangelical churches celebrated Mother’s Day as the central event of the day on May 14. I have no empirical data to tell you what percentage actually made their service into a celebration of Mother’s Day but I do have little doubt that the majority of non-Catholic churches in America turned this day, and the worship of their local church, into an event centered upon mothers.

Over the past fourteen years I have preached widely in churches across North America. I have experienced almost every tradition and form of worship known to evangelicals. On many occasions I have been in the pulpit of churches on Mother’s Day. On several of these occasions I was even urged to preach about Mother’s Day. (One church changed my speaking date to protect the church […]

A Noteworthy Statement on Reformed Ecumenicity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:30-05:00May 11th, 2006|Categories: Reformed Christianity|

A document called "Presbyterians & Presbyterians Together: A Call to Charitable Theological Discourse” has just appeared online today. I have happily endorsed this statement which is now available online at http://presbyterianstogether.org

The drafters and sponsors of "Presbyterians & Presbyterians Together" constitute an inter-denominational grass-roots movement among Reformed pastors and leaders that desires to heal and move beyond the various rifts that seem to perennially surface in our tradition. While each of us acknowledges that important and substantive issues need to be considered and worked-through, we also want to do so in the bonds of peace, not in a context of mistrust, suspicion, and sectarianism (cited from the document).

This effort has been undertaken for the sake of Christ’s Gospel and our Triune God’s mission to a lost and broken world. God calls us in Christ, empowered by his Spirit, and guided by his Word, to proclaim and be a sign of his reign before the eyes of a watching world. Living as people shaped by that calling, the signers remain committed to truth and pursuing […]

The Conflicted Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:30-05:00May 10th, 2006|Categories: The Church|

The 217th General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) occurs on June 15-22 in Birmingham, Alabama. Contention and schism are not new to this church. Since the 1920s churches have been leaving, arguments have been all too common, and new churches have been formed as a result. What makes this GA any different?

Debate over several (overtures) proposals will occur at this meeting. Many believe that the end results of these actions will shape the future of the PCUSA more than any previous action at any previous GA. Why? In short, the issues all come down to the church finding a way to approve homosexual ordination even though the church has time and again rejected it. On three earlier occasions the GA has sent decisions to the various presbyteries, seeking a positive acceptance of homosexual ordination, and three times the 170 or so presbyteries across the United States have rejected the GA’s proposals. This time the approach taken, and thus the results, will likely be different.

A few years ago a Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity was formed. […]

Recent Megachurch Trends

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:24:30-05:00May 4th, 2006|Categories: The Church|

Recent reports on the megachurch phenomenon reveal some interesting trends. For starters, a megachurch has been defined, for several years now, as a congregation of 2,000 or more attenders in regular Sunday (in some cases also Saturday) worship settings. But during this rise of interest in such churches no one has paid much attention at all to the fact that there are scores of Roman Catholic churches that draw more than 2,000 to mass and never get listed by those who study megachurches. This, in itself, underscores that much of the interest in the so-called megachurch is more about fundamentalist/evangelical marketing (and mission) than about a profound search for what truly makes large churches different, and more or less effective in mission.

Second, evangelical megachurches are led by large personalities, in virtually every case. These churches are pastor-centered and work like corporations led by CEO’s. The campus of a megachurch may include job training, singles groups, classes in auto repair, tennis courts, rock-climbing walls, martial-arts classes, and gourmet coffee bars. Several even have a MacDonald’s restaurant! Critics should note that churches that […]