Blog - Page 42 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Where Is the Millennial Generation in the Decline of the Church? (2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 13th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Religion, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

Some sociological studies say that millennials are selfish, greedy, and narcissistic. My optimism for this generation does not go unchallenged, especially by those in the Gen-X generation. (This includes those born after the baby boom, which ended in 1964, and before the millennial generation which began in 1982, thus they are between the ages of 34 and 50.)

Marketers and advertisers use this “selfish, greedy, narcissistic” stereotype to sell to this millennial generation. To some extent it does work. This is why they have been called “The Me Generation.” But the millennials I spend time with, Christian and non-Christian alike, are anything but selfish. They may lean towards being a bit too “entitled” but I find them to be an extremely thoughtful generation that is filled with enthusiasm for social justice and calls for a more generous lifestyle.

Churches are generally unaware of the potential of this generation, seeing them as people who do not want to join them in order to help run the church and its programs. This is completely […]

Where Is the Millennial Generation in the Decline of the Church? (1)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 12th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

I’ve written this week about church decline in America. The numbers are obvious, the reasons are less so. What pastors and leaders are doing about this varies and the hope for real change is not clear yet. But what about the youngest adults, the millennial generation (born from 1982 on)?

Many of you know that I spend a significant amount of time among millennial adults, both Christians and non-Christians. My millennial fiends include liberals, conservatives, singles, gays, married with and without children, and both Democrats and Republicans. I have never been able to segment any group and write them off. I have always welcomed dialogue, disagreement, and the potential for growth and learning from one another in real relationships. I do not reject my friends because they change their views, or practice, in some area where I disagree with them.

My generation was very different. When I began my pilgrimage toward what I now call missional-ecumenism many of my peers rejected me, both openly and privately. They would not support someone who worked with Christians who were more liberal, […]

How Big is the Drop-Out Rate in the American Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 11th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

Numbers are somewhat easy to crunch and study. But when this comes to the church they can be very deceiving. On the one hand some numbers say that a church is not in serious decline yet when spiritual vitality and sharing in the ministry of a church is factored into the equation there is a growing awareness that fewer Christians are as involved in the daily work of the local church as ten years ago. (One mega-church minister shared with me last year that about 12% of their average attendance was involved in any weekly ministry of outreach that could be tracked. The problem is that this is actually a pretty good number!)

Over the last decade I have personally gone from 55 to 65 years of age. I now clearly face the last segment, or phase, of my own life. I will slow down, face more challenges, grow old and (obviously) die. (It is obvious that we will all die but only at this stage, or so I think, does it sink in so fully that your […]

Reading the Numbers – Church Decline in America

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 10th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, The Future|

For some time it has been obvious to me, as I observe churches of all varieties and types, that church attendance and membership is in significant decline in the United States. All serious polling supports this conclusion but, as important to me as these polls, is my personal anecdotal experience gained from spending hours with ministers in all traditions, from Catholic to mainline Protestant and conservative evangelical. The only exception to this obvious decline is among Pentecostal and holiness churches and there the numbers are growing very, very slightly. On the whole I conclude these numbers have flat-lined but time will tell.

From historic highs in attendance and membership in the late 1950s and 1960s the mainline began its decades-long slide in the 1970s. In the last decade the historic mainline declined 3.4 million out of some 17 million. This is spread across all groups with a few doing slightly better than others. (One example of a mainline group doing slightly better is the denomination of my ministerial ordination, the Reformed Church in America, RCA). The RCA has […]

A Humble Conversation with a Christian Science Practitioner About Jesus

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 7th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Christ/Christology, Church History, Current Affairs, Friendship, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church|

One of those opportunities that I am afforded because of my mission in ecumenism is rich dialogue with people from many diverse backgrounds. Last fall I spoke to the North American Academy on Ecumenists, which met in Chicago. I delivered a paper about evangelical Protestantism and the new opportunities and models for ecumenism that are evolving in our world. This paper will be published in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies in 2014 so I cannot publish it online here.

Before I spoke at the NAAE I was preceded to the podium by a Christian Science practitioner named Shirley Paulson from Evanston, Illinois. Shirley gave a wonderful paper about her own pursuit of the larger church in ecumenism. She shared openly, and quite winsomely, about the work that she does within her own tradition of Christian Science. My reaction, like that of most evangelicals, was to wonder why this work was even being presented, given the story that I had always assumed about Christian Science. But Shirley Paulson did not fit into my box. In fact, she eloquently exploded […]

What Is the Main Problem in the Western Church?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 6th, 2014|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

A friend recently sent me a short YouTube message by the world renown biblical theologian N.T. Wright. Bishop Wright speaks about the “main problem in the Western church.” I cannot, in less than three-minutes, express my view of the present problem in the West better than Tom Wright does in this short, powerfully clear, video. I encourage every person who reads my work, and who supports my mission, to see this amazing video. Share it and watch it several times.

I plan to use this video again and again to make my central point clear to everyone who will listen. Why? Because of its clarity and simplicity in “making the main thing the main thing.” We must begin here and then we can seek the grace of God in our mission together. The scandal of disunity is deep and centuries old. The next generation is openly insisting that this change. I work to build prayerfully focused people movements committed to this great change.

The Emotive Cry for Community

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:49-05:00February 5th, 2014|Categories: Acton Institute, Books, Culture, Current Affairs, Economy/Economics, Ethics, History, Ideology, Personal, Philosophy, Politics, Poverty, Religion, Roman Catholicism, Wealth|

Michael Novak, in his stirring memoir of a journey from left to right, devotes an entire chapter to community, as I noted yesterday. He writes: “One of life’s most time-consuming tasks is to achieve disagreement with an ideological opposite. Without blinking, you might object; ‘It’s not had to disagree. Heck! Most people do it all the time” (282). But aren’t disagreements really inevitable? After all we have different understandings of terms, widely varying perspectives on history, and unique sets of fears and rosy scenarios that we all entertain? But, says Michael Novak, “We are most often like two ships passing in the night” (282). Is he right? Could this really be true? I think so.

One of America’s most wise and important Catholic thinkers in the last century was the Jesuit John Courtney Murray. Novak says that Murray once said two people cannot (to use Novak’s description of Murray’s point) come to a “real disagreement without sticking to the argument for a very long time–maybe long enough to work through a case of brandy together as they ruminate. […]

The Carter Years and the Bankruptcy of Bad Economic Ideas

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:50-05:00February 4th, 2014|Categories: Acton Institute, Culture, Current Affairs, Economy/Economics, Ethics, Freedom, Ideology, Personal, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Roman Catholicism, The Future, Wealth|

The Carter years profoundly convinced Michael Novak of the bankruptcy of his previous economic ideas. While Novak explains Carter’s personal love for Jesus Christ as genuine, and easily misunderstood, he rightly separates the good heart of the man from some of his very bad ideas about what makes for a free and prosperous society. During the Carter years Novak’s own views were taking new shape. He was writing more about economics and making new friends globally. When Ronald Reagan was elected the president in November of 1980 he asked Michael Novak, lifelong Democrat, to become his ambassador to the UN Commission on Human Rights. After a time in Geneva Novak returned home but then was sent back again in 1982. This work had an immense impact on Novak’s view of the world.

Novak’s new friends, which he cultivated in the late 1970s, began to gravitate to his home for meals and thus came into his personal life as confidants. These friends included Fr. Robert Sirico, Bill Bennett, Jack Kemp, Mort Kondracke, Ben Wattenberg, Irving Kristol, George Weigel, Henry […]

From Socialism to Capitalism – A Move That Cost Michael Novak Friends and Prestige

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:50-05:00February 3rd, 2014|Categories: Acton Institute, Books, Business, Culture, Current Affairs, Economy/Economics, Ethics, Ideology, Money & Stewardship, Philosophy, Religion, Roman Catholicism, Wealth|

Michael Novak, author of the memoir Writing from Left to Right: My Journey from Liberal to Conservative (Basic Books, 2013), writes eloquently of how he became disillusioned with the “new” versions of the old Keynesian liberalism of the 1970s. This economic view promoted government spending to excess in order to stimulate the economy and create jobs. The core belief was that this approach would solve the problems of the poor through a greater expression of compassion which would come about through direct governmental help. Nothing awakened him to the failure of this kind of thinking quite like the policies, and outcomes, of the Jimmy Carter era.

As I noted in my blog on Novak’s memoir last Wednesday (1/29) one of the reasons that I so deeply appreciate his position, and thus his memoir, is that he openly explains why he “resist[ed] libertarianism” (159). He admits that he found great reasons in libertarian arguments to reject his strident socialism but not enough to compel him to embrace the total package. To make sure his position is properly stated I […]

ACT3 Luncheons in 2014 – A New Opportunity for Missional-Ecumenism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:50-05:00January 31st, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Discipleship, Leadership, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Religion, Renewal, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

As the ministry of ACT3 developed over the last five years I began to lead occasional lunch gatherings that felt a bit like those old Whitefield Fellowships that I wrote about yesterday. These fellowships began in 1981 and continued until about 2000. At one point I lead four of these groups in the greater Chicago area. Many of my friendships, and church-based relationships, came out of these groups. (Several Whitefield Fellowships still exist in other cities. These are, in some instances, led by people that I helped to begin them in these other places.)

These Whitefield Fellowships took many shapes and forms over the years. Most of them were lunch meetings held at my own church and then, later on, at College Church in Wheaton. (One was a breakfast meeting in the south suburbs, for example.) We invited a guest to speak and then conduct dialogue with us. The attendance varied over the years but ranged from lows of 10-15 to highs of over 100. The important thing was what came out of these meetings. Deep and lasting […]