Blog - Page 37 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Missional-Ecumenism in Dubuque

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:36-05:00May 8th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Christian Minister/Ministry, The Church|

I have spent the last two full days in Dubuque, Iowa. I have been visiting the University of Dubuque. Today I will meet with Dr. Les Longden, a professor who retires this term after fourteen years in Dubuque. I will teach his final class of the term on missional-ecumenism. (I am honored to teach this final class and to spend much of this day with Dr. Les Longden, a devout Methodist scholar and serious ecumenist!)

Dubuque is about 160 miles northwest of my home in the Chicago suburbs. I have a lifetime of memories connected to this old city located on the Mississippi River where Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin converge. My first trip here in the 1970s was to make a “blind” attempt to meet the well-known Protestant theologian Donald Bloesch (1928-2010). All I could do was leave a note under his door. But a relationship was eventually begun. Bloesch became a very good friend who supported my work, both financially and personally. I was in his home, and he in my home, many times. We interacted deeply as […]

Must the Reformation Wars Continue? (Part One)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:36-05:00May 7th, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church Tradition, Creeds, Current Affairs, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

I confess that I do not read the popular blogger Tim Challies. I was aware that he writes blogs which are very popular among conservative Christians, especially extremely conservative Reformed Christians. (I do not think my choice of words here is offensive and think Challies would accept this designation based upon how he presents himself!)

Before last week I was aware that Tim Challies covers a lot of ground in his blogs and touches on many “hot button” issues. He also alerts his readers about great deals on books and kindle specials almost daily. This is a very clever way (and I do not mean this in a flattering way) to increase online traffic and to draw readers back to his site and to reach new readers. I wish I was this clever (and had so much time) but I am not a blog-marketing writer. I obviously do blog but I am content to use this social medium as a side-line for my more important face-to-face friendships, public and academic teaching, networking and permanently published writing of new books, articles and academic papers.

Tim Challies is currently serving […]

Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:36-05:00May 6th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Current Affairs, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, Unity of the Church|

I have a deep personal commitment to being catholic before I am Protestant. I also have a deep commitment to being Protestant before I am evangelical. These commitments are very easily misunderstood. The common and popular tendency is to conflate these three terms, or at least the last two, and then to insist that agreement on every matter of faith is essential to any collaborative work for Christian unity.

Furthermore, some evangelicals do not want to be called catholic in any sense of the term. This is especially true of those who are deeply conservative in their evangelical or fundamentalist expressions of the Christian faith. The reverse is true for some of my deeply conservative Catholic friends. They often oppose the word evangelical because it is not their word thus it “feels”to them to be very non-Catholic. A wonderful exception to this can be seen in how the devout Catholic writer George Weigel who has chosen to use the term evangelical as a very positive word in his recent book: Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church (New York: Basic Books, […]

Should I Host a Unity Factor Forum in My Community?

By John Armstrong|2015-01-23T16:23:59-06:00May 5th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

One of the most fruitful strategies that I believe God has given to the ACT3 Network is what we call a Unity Factor Forum. This event is a five-and-a-half hour gathering which allows participants from a given area to gather around the theme of John 17:21-24. My role is not to create something new, or to insert ACT3 into your ministry, but to gather Christians in an area and then help them to envision how partnering together might help them to have a much stronger witness than they’ve had when they have not worked together.

I began hosting Unity Factor Forums in January 2013. At first I lectured for about half of the time (three full presentations). We shared questions over a meal and a few others were asked to tell their story of unity in mission. After leading several of these, and after a faithful friend encouraged me to reshape the event and do less teaching in oder to allow more participation, I saw clearly how this was a far better approach. Now a Unity Factor Forum begins with my story and the prayer of Jesus in John 17. Then […]

Do You Have Enough to Retire?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00May 2nd, 2014|Categories: Money & Stewardship, Personal|

Recent estimates suggest that the traditional $1 million life savings target before retirement is just not enough. Financial planners suggest that we now need $2 million to have “financial security.” In Monday’s (April 28) USA Today a report on this led to the response of various people. A person who seemed to be in the know about these matters said, “A $1 million nest egg along with Social Security isn’t really that much. Some accident or calamity would have the potential to drain away a big chunk of your principal, after which you can be destitute.” If you think this is crazy talk you should read the mainstream financial columns and see the advice that major investors give on these matters.

Another respondent to this story wrote: “We all need to take a hard look and figure out how to put away more for retirement.” Still another, “I now put away the maximum amount in my 401(k) that my employer will match. I also ditched a $275-a-month whole life policy in favor of a different policy for $25 […]

The Problem of Separatism for Christian Unity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00May 1st, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Missional-Ecumenism, Separation of Church & State, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Christian Separatism is historically rooted in Congregationalism. It is an outgrowth of historical developments in the English Church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The fundamental belief of English Separatists can be seen in their idea of the gathered church. They believed that such a church should exist in contrast to the territorial basis of the Church of England. The Church of England, through an anomaly rooted in its origin, was established upon a parish church model. In the parish each person in a certain area (geographically) was assigned to the parish church. Historically, a parish referred not only to the territorial unit but also to the people of its community as well as to church property within it. English Separatists believed that the foundation of the church should be the Scriptures and the work of God’s Spirit, not man or the state. These Separatists further believed that Christians should seek out other Christians and gather together to make up a particular (local) church. This belief was the basis for an autonomous local church, creating an ecclesiology […]

I Am the Adult Child of a Dysfunctional Ecclesial Culture

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00April 30th, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Church Tradition, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

At first glance the very mention of ecumenism, in the same sentence with the word evangelical, seems oxymoronic. Modern evangelicals have a well-deserved reputation for being less than excited about serious, modern ecumenical dialogue. I know this because I have lived my entire Christian life inside evangelical Protestantism, expressed in several different varieties or outward forms.

I have come to see that I am the adult child of a dysfunctional ecclesial culture. My evangelical subculture historically prided itself on being truly faithful to the gospel of Christ, thus entirely separated from those Christians and churches who compromised the gospel that we preached and defended.

I lived, and even preached, among people who loved to quote Galatians 1:6-9 as a kind of war cry:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven […]

Is There an Emerging New Ecumenism – Evangelical Engagement with Catholics and Protestants?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00April 29th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

In 1963 a group of Roman Catholics, in the immediate context of Vatican II, saw a need to equip local leadership for the task of ecumenical ministry. In 1969 these Catholic leaders invited leaders from several other Christian communions to join them in this equipping of leadership for unity. The result of this invitation was the formation of an organization now called the National Ecumenical Officers. This group is made up of representatives of the respective churches who oversee a workshop that is planned annually by national and local committees. Today this gathering is called the National Workshop on Christian Unity and it is sponsored by the National Ecumenical Officers Association.

The National Workshop on Christian Unity meets after Easter each year and includes both denominational and ecumenical sessions during the three-day workshop. The 50th year of the National Workshop on Christian Unity began last evening in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The workshop opened this year with a worship service at the Cathedral of St. John (Episcopal). Bishop David Bailey preached. Bailey is the Bishop of the Episcopal Church […]

How Does ACT3 Network Make a Real Difference In Empowering Unity In Christ’s Mission? Video

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00April 28th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church Tradition, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Renewal, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

In 1991 I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to begin a mission for leaders and churches that would pursue the wide-scale renewal of Christian faith and practice. This work was called Reformation & Revival Ministries. We published a quarterly journal by that name while I was still a Wheaton pastor. I taught, wrote and traveled widely across the U.S. and abroad. I was blessed to speak to some wonderful conferences, churches and people. That ministry was growing beyond my wildest dreams. But something was happening from the very beginning that I did not understand for nearly ten years. Let me explain very briefly. My last Sunday in the pulpit of my church I preached from John 17:20-26. My heart was powerfully moved by the prayer of Jesus for our being “one.” It was two years later (1994) that I was arrested by the Spirit while saying the Apostle’s Creed. The words “one holy catholic church” floored me. I heard God asking me, “What are you doing with what I gave to you back in May of 1992?” I took a small step in this direction but […]

Salvation and the Christian Life – Doing Theology in the Era of Global Ecumenism, Part 5

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:37-05:00April 25th, 2014|Categories: Biblical Theology, Faith, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Theology|

What I have written in my previous four posts on salvation and the Christian life can be stated very precisely in the following way – we are saved by grace alone, but we are saved for works and through works in the sense that such works are evangelical and always proceed from faith and serve the advancement of our real sanctification. Our good works do not increase God’s grace but neither are they merely a by-product. Said Bloesch, “They signify not an appendage to our salvation but the flowering and fruition of our salvation” (18). The Christian life is thus a real working out of our salvation so that faith comes to real fulfillment in transformation and Christlikeness.

As some of you know I have been working on a book on love. During the last year or so I have come to this understanding again and again in my theological outlook. Salvation really does alter my heart and life or it is not God’s grace at work in me, but something akin to notion […]