Blog - Page 49 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Shameless: A Priest Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Faithfully

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:05-05:00November 8th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Homiletics/Preaching, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism|

Several years ago Father John Riccardo, a priest from Plymouth, Michigan, preached a sermon in the pulpit of the Kensington Community Church (MI), titled: “Shameless.” A better sermon on the gospel could not be found, at least in my judgment. For those conservative Protestants who insist that a Catholic priest cannot, or does not, preach the gospel here is a living, breathing example that you are wrong. Fr. Riccardo says that we should know Jesus, not just know about Jesus. Knowing Jesus is much more than knowing facts, truths or propositions. It is not about saying the words of the creed or about going forward at the end of an appeal. It is not even about saying the words of the sinner’s prayer. It is about knowing Him. This is about 35 minutes long but in your leisure be sure to watch it

“As Darwin Is My Witness”

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:05-05:00November 7th, 2013|Categories: Culture, History, Missional Church|

The title of my blog today was given to me by a new friend, Paul Miller, who lives in the Seattle area. Paul recently came to spend a day with me in Chicago. We talked about a wide-range of issues, particularly relating to missions, culture and the power of the gospel. We talked briefly about the failure of Prohibition in America. We both expressed reservations about imposing our evaluations of this failed experiment upon other nations. Paul made particular reference to the strictness with which the early 19th Puritan missionaries pushed temperance on Hawaii’s natives. Paul and I both observed that given the scourge liquor has often been on nations that received it from the West the missionaries just might have been right to teach temperance and take such a firm stand against Western lands that were importing alcoholic beverage into other cultures.

Paul said:

Here I call Charles Darwin to the witness box! While not a great fan of his biological theories, I find myself warming instantly to his cultural anthropology . . . and toward his open […]

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama – The Legacy Lives (3)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:05-05:00November 7th, 2013|Categories: America and Americanism, Church History, Civil Rights, Freedom, Gospel/Good News, Leadership, Missional Church, Personal, Race and Racism, The Church, The Future|

Birmingham pastor Fred Shuttlesworth (1922–2011) was known as a fiery preacher in the 1950s when he served the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham as a young minister. Born in Mount Meigs, Alabama, Shuttlesworth was licensed and ordained as a preacher in 1948. He earned an A.B. (1951) from Selma University and his B.S. (1953) from Alabama State College. Shuttlesworth served as minister at First Baptist Church in Selma until 1952, and the following year was called to lead Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham. Shuttlesworth tested the issues of segregation as a young pastor, eventually becoming emboldened in his intense struggle for the rights of all black Americans. Shuttlesworth, now an icon in Birmingham where the airport has been named in his honor, became a major civil rights activist at the time of the Freedom Rides. He also co-founded the SCLC. It was in this role that he welcomed two bleeding and battered Freedom Riders into his home in Birmingham at a turning point in the history of the city. (He left Birmingham for Cincinnati in 1961 to […]

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama – The Legacy Lives (2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:08-05:00November 5th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church Tradition, Civil Rights, Missional Church, Personal, Race and Racism, The Christian Minister/Ministry, The Church|

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church calls itself: “A Bible-Centric Ministry.” The Sunday bulletin proclaims, just under the name of the church, that this is a place “Where Jesus Christ Is the Main Attraction.” Inside the bulletin there is a vision statement, a mission statement and a statement of the church’s philosophy of ministry. Rarely have I read anything so biblically clear, and deeply moving, at least for its sheer simplicity.

Vision Statement

Our vision is to have a Bible-centric ministry that will reach, rebuild and reproduce, disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to introduce people to Jesus Christ and to encourage the cultivation of a personal relationship with Him. We are, therefore, committed to evangelizing the sinner, exalting the Savior, and equipping the saints.

Philosophy of Ministry

In order to accomplish our mission we faithfully pursue seven basic philosophies in our ministries:

1. EXALT the Savior in dynamic worship.

2. EVANGELIZE the unbeliever through outreach.

3. ESTABLISH the new believer in the basic doctrines of the faith.

4. ENCOURAGE every believer to cultivate an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus […]

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama – The Legacy Lives (1)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:08-05:00November 4th, 2013|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Civil Rights, Gospel/Good News, History, Personal, Race and Racism, The Church|

Organized in 1873, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was the first black church in Birmingham, Alabama. Initially, the congregation worshiped in a small building but in 1880 the church’s meeting place moved to its present location at 16th Street and 6th Avenue North in downtown Birmingham. A modern brick building was erected in 1884 that established the church’s presence in the city.

Over time the City of Birmingham ordered the congregation to tear down its building. The church commissioned the state’s only black architect to design a new building. A new church was completed in 1911 at a cost of $26,000.

Because of segregation Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and other black churches in Birmingham, served many purposes. This facility functioned as a meeting place, a social center and a lecture hall for a variety of activities important to the lives of black citizens. W.E.B. DuBois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson, and Ralph Bunche were among the noted black Americans who spoke at the church building during its early years. African-Americans from across the city, as well as neighboring towns, came […]

My Encounter with Street Evangelists – Entrenched Darkness or Emotional Ignorance?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:08-05:00November 1st, 2013|Categories: Evangelism, God's Character, Personal, Spiritual Warfare|

Engaging with darkness, or just entrenched spiritual and emotional ignorance, is not a hobby of mine. In fact I tend to avoid it wherever possible. I have dealt with evil spirits and even been used to remove a demonic spirit here and there. In saying this I am not boasting in the least. I am reminded that our Lord taught his disciples, who were also empowered by his Spirit to deal with demonic spirits, to: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

Last Saturday I was in Tuscaloosa enjoying a totally gorgeous fall day. I saw some friends, visited some Bama tailgaters and soaked in the ambiance of Alabama football before the kickoff at 2:30 p.m. Around 1:45 I decided it was time to walk down University Avenue to Bryant-Denny Stadium. A few hundred yards from the stadium, as throngs of people were moving along at a rather slow pace, I heard a street preacher just ahead of me on my left. […]

Can You Interpret the Signs of the Times?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:08-05:00October 30th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Apologetics, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Social Networking, The Church, The Future|

Except for political debate, popular culture may elicit as many responses, both pro and con, as any current subject discussed by Christians. There is a range of views in our ranks about culture. This range goes from one end of a spectrum – an end which says, “stay away, stay entirely away” – to another – which says “enjoy it without serious thoughtful consideration.” I have previously admitted that I embraced one side of this debate in my early years and then the other side (or extreme) in my thirties. I now embrace a third view, one that is hopefully a bit more theologically reflective. (One must be careful here since you should know that you always tend to favor your present view as your more mature and correct view!)

So why do I think engaging with popular culture is so important? To ask this question another way I put it this way: “Why should I write blogs about movies, books, art and music?” Or, to put this even more precisely: “Why should I engage with news events […]

Leisure, Popular Culture and the Modern Moment

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:08-05:00October 29th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Culture, Current Affairs, Film, Games, Personal, Television, The Church|

Any serious thinking about popular culture must take into account the amount of time we have to spend in the sphere of modern culture. Steve Turner rightly concludes: “It’s hard to argue that the Bible is a source of guidance when dealing with such areas of life as money, marriage, family, relationships, work, worship and prayer but has nothing useful to say when it comes to culture” (Popcultured, 19).

In reality what we now call popular culture is the result of the increase of leisure time we have in Western society. We can decry this all we want but it is reality for all but the extremely poor and in the West most poor people consume television, and music, to some degree, if not to large degrees as never before in human society. Great Britain’s Office for National Statistics reported in 2010 that Britons were spending nine times as much on recreation and culture as they had only forty years earlier in 1970. There has been a huge shift from material goods to experience, as another survey revealed. […]

Glorifying God in Our Cultural Pursuits

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:09-05:00October 28th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Culture, Film, Kingdom of God, Television, Theology|

Last week I asked a much-debated question raised by the patristic theologian Tertullian: “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” I observed that Tertullian was primarily concerned about what role philosophy had in dealing with the Christian faith. The same question, as I showed previously, can be applied to popular culture. What place does Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Madison Avenue have with Christ?

I am persuaded that far too few Christians have a serious view of culture, especially of popular culture. From TV shows to modern fiction we range from the extreme of “total separation” all the way to “uncritical acceptance.” Without a carefully developed theology of culture it seems to me that wide pendulum swings will inevitably characterize the Christian’s engagement with popular culture. Reconciling one’s faith with art, for example, has troubled more than a few Christians that I have known over the years. In my early Christian experience I personally ranged from general confusion, into a brief period of separation and then toward a wide-scale (uncritical) acceptance. Because I did not dig into the content […]

The Danger of Gossip

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:09-05:00October 25th, 2013|Categories: Ethics, Forgiveness, God's Character, Love, Personal, Spirituality, Unity of the Church|

Which is worse, lying or gossiping? Have you ever bothered to ponder this question? I have asked it, more than once, but not thought about it deeply enough I confess. Seriously, think about this one for a moment.

Mother Antonia Brenner, a precious Christian who passed away last week in Mexico, makes a clear and compelling case that gossip is a far worse sin than lying in this three-and-a-half minute video. I happen to think she is right! Decide for yourself but do not miss this as I assure you she will make you think more carefully about your own tongue and personal holiness, rightly defined.

May God forgive me and help me to be truly holy and thus become a man who learns how to stop the gossip chain. I confess that I am asking what this means about my Facebook posts that I put on my wall which (can) stir up controversy. I welcome your personal witness and insights in this regard.

Mother Antonia says: “The tongue that gossips is where the devil washes his hands.” It seems […]