Blog - Page 55 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Seminaries, Pastoral Training and the Future of the Church in North America

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:17-05:00August 5th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Education, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Postmodernity, The Church, The Future|

I visited the campus of Northern Seminary in nearby Lombard (IL) last week to meet with Greg Henson, the chief of institutional advancement for the school. Greg and I were connected by three mutual friends within the short span of three weeks. We felt it important to talk face-to-face since so many friends had suggested that we meet. Greg is a 31-year old innovative (Millennial) thinker who understands what is really happening to educational institutions in America. He also grasps how these changes are having a profound impact on all our seminaries. His daily work is to understand these changes and to help Northern adjust to the post-Christendom future. One of my partner ministries in the ACT3 Network routinely sends me to seminaries all over North America to recruit faculty for a summer training opportunity. As a result of this work I have visited something like 40-50 seminary campuses over the last 28 months. By asking a lot of questions, and by spending time with administrators, faculty and students, I have seen first-hand what is going on […]

Why Ecumenism Matters to Missional Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:17-05:00August 2nd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Emergent Church, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

The difficulties in the Methodist-Roman Catholic International Dialogue lie in the area of “instrumentality.” Catholics maintain that elements of teaching and ecclesial practice must be held in common before there can be “full communion.” Sister Lorelei Fuchs examines the central idea of church as koinonia from the perspective of both Methodism and the Catholic Church. She follows the line of thinking that I have seen bear fruit from first hand observation, namely that we need a model of the church that embraces both unity and diversity. Sister Lorelei challenges this Methodist-Catholic dialogue to move forward by dealing with unresolved issues in a way that embraces a unity and diversity paradigm.

My good friend Jeffrey Gros, a leading Catholic ecumenist who has had a critical role in working with evangelicals, examines several critical ecumenical texts in the book Celebrating a Century of Ecumenism: The Fruits of One Hundred Years. Jeff says that “an exchange of theological views [is needed] in order to increase mutual understanding and to discover what theological ground they hold in common.”

For me this is the bottom […]

The Rise of Ecumenism and Why It Matters

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:17-05:00August 1st, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Emergent Church, History, Kingdom of God, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

A little over 100 years ago the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh (1910) was a prophetic foretaste of a century-plus renewal of Christian ecumenism, a renewal that has proved to be quite substantial on many different levels. If the truth is told I believe we have made more progress than the participants at the famous Edinburgh Conference imagined at the time. I also believe the last century is a prelude to what is to come in the decades ahead.

We must begin by stating the obvious–full visible unity between the various Christian churches and denominations has not been realized. Nevertheless, Catholics, Protestants and the Orthodox have all found ways to reach new levels of understanding and mutual respect. Christians in the global Anglican Communion, to cite but one example, have made significant contributions as a via media (middle way). Even a growing number of voices within the Free Church communions have joined this dialogue. One could say that a rapprochement has been reached that would not have been seriously thought possible at Edinburgh.

The World Council of Churches (WCC), […]

The "god of American belief" Has Failed Us – Now What?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:17-05:00July 31st, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Church Tradition, Culture, Discipleship, Emergent Church, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

America did not need an established church (i.e., a state church wedded to public practice) because the everyday habits of Americans assumed the establishment of the Christian church. This assumption has become our biggest problem since the Millennials have come of age. This new generation no longer assumes the church or the public role of religion. They are spiritual questers but not religious in the normal American sense. This is why I meet more and more people my own age (55+) who say, with great emotion and sadness, “I love Jesus very much but I no longer pay any attention to the church. It simply doesn’t seem relevant to my faith journey.”

As a result of significant historical developments Americans continue to have an abiding belief in this god. The god they believe in is really the god of American thought and imagination. This god does not require much of American believers nor does he/she/it connect people deeply to community, thus to anything like the (visible) church. Stanley Hauerwas adds, “To know or worship that god does not […]

The Missional Perspective and Its Meaning for the Church in North America

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:17-05:00July 30th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, America and Americanism, Church History, Culture, Discipleship, Emergent Church, Kingdom of God, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future|

A theology of the church that confesses the Christian community to be missio Dei (mission of God) means that the church is much more than a voluntary association of members joined by various means and methods. It is – “the household of God” – the place where Christ dwells by the Spirit with his people upon the earth. When this understanding of the church is rightly grasped the church can never settle for the role of chaplain to society or the vendor of religious goods and services. It certainly cannot exist to serve the consumer’s needs by recruiting potential members.

Missional theology, when correctly understood as a way of seeing the church missio Dei, sees the church as an alternative community that witnesses corporately by living as the new community in the power of the Spirit. The church exists for others, not for itself. It is mission before it even thinks about “doing” mission. Read that sentence again. We have thought of mission as something the church does for many centuries. A fundamental difference between missional thinking […]

Theology and Missional Church: How Shall We Respond to Our Seismic Culture Shifts?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:18-05:00July 29th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Apologetics, Culture, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Emergent Church, Evangelism, Kingdom of God, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

Theology is vitally important. To listen to many progressively oriented voices these days you’d think that theology really doesn’t really matter, only love for our neighbors. Christians who are serious about the once-for-all revealed faith must understand that this is a false contrast. Both theology and love matter. Indeed, they matter profoundly. Good theology will actually help you to understand what love is and then how to properly love God and others. Good theology fuels the fire of true love in action.

I am inclined to believe that a major problem at this point is a false contrast between the word theology and the biblical idea of true love. Some believe that theology is not important because theology is, to their way of thinking, only about being right in one’s views regarding various truths. But sound theology is really about humbly submitting both our mind and heart to the living God. The living and true God has revealed himself in Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). To reject theology altogether is a colossal mistake. […]

ACT3: A Network Rooted in Love

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:18-05:00July 25th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Biblical Theology, Kingdom of God, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future|

ACT3 added the word “network” to our name last year. The reason for this is both pragmatic and utilitarian. The word “network” had its origin in technology, so far as I can tell, but it has become a useful modern word to describe “an informally interconnected group or association of persons, as friends or professional colleagues” (Merriam-Webster online dictionary, 2013).

ACT3 has always been about people, partnerships, building bridges and promoting Christ’s mission for more than two decades. We have always felt that this ministry was called by God for others, not for me or our name. I have honestly never understood why Christian ministries compete and promote themselves like products. I see nothing of this kind of emphasis in the teaching of our Lord or in the actions of the apostles. These brothers and sisters were first called “Christians” because of their following Jesus, not a party or a sectarian religious program. The first mention of the name “Christian” was as a designation for Jesus’ followers. It is given in a narrative that occurs in Acts 11.

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ACT3: Where It Began and Where We Believe God is Leading Us

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:18-05:00July 24th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Kingdom of God, Leadership, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

I am often asked, “When and how did you first get the idea to launch a mission like ACT3?” I could go back to my childhood, at least on one level, but I think the most accurate answer is to go back to the year 1981. That was the year I began what we called: “The Whitefield Ministerial Fellowship.” This was a monthly gathering of pastors that I started in my local church in Wheaton. From an original twelve who attended the first gathering the group grew. We eventually had three fellowships running throughout the Chicagoland area. In 1991 I began Reformation & Revival Ministries with a board of four members. This ministry grew out of those Whitefield Fellowships. The new ministry was started in order to publish a quarterly journal on the twin themes we carried in the name of the new mission: reformation and revival. These two themes were the titles of the first two addresses given to the original Whitefield Fellowship in 1981.

One of the greatest joys of those early Whitefield Fellowships was meeting […]

ACT3: Our Mission with Catholics

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:18-05:00July 23rd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Current Affairs, Love, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future|

After a brief overview of the history that led ACT3 Network to the present I now turn to what God is doing in the present and, more importantly, where we believe he may be leading us into a hopeful future. In writing these words I am reminded of the counsel of the Scripture: “People plan their path, but the Lord secures their steps” (Proverbs 16:9). It is our task to plan our path and it is God’s to give life; i.e., to bless and secure our steps!

After Your Church Is Too Small was published in 2010 I knew in my soul something was in the wings. I had a profound sense that this something was to be big, at least in missional impact, though not necessarily in size as measured by numbers or dollars. I also had a deep awareness of my vocation and of the Spirit’s work. This made me fear and rejoice at one and the same time. I feared because I did not want to mess this up. I rejoiced because I was quite sure that I was “keeping in step with the […]

ACT3 Network: A Journey of Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:18-05:00July 22nd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Kingdom of God, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

Now and then I take an opportunity on my blog to provide an update on the mission of the ACT3 Network, a ministry I began in 1991. For those who read my ACT3 Weekly (email) our news comes to you each week in the form of announcements, reflections and personal prayer requests. I encourage you to sign up for the ACT3 Weekly at www.act3network.com. When you sign up you can also download a free PDF of my book, The Unity Factor (Christian’s Library Press, 2010). If you want to connect with ACT3, and pray for me, then please get this ACT3 Weekly.

The next few days I will share more about the recent past, and pressing vision, of ACT3 – thus a survey of where we’ve been and where, in God’s kindness and grace, we seem to be going by faith. The single most common visual image that comes to my mind when I think of ACT3 Network is that of “bridge building” with many others for work of the kingdom of God in mission.

First, where we’ve […]