Blog - Page 56 of 318 - John H Armstrong

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 […]

Sex in the Modern City: The Consequences of Our Cultural Patterns

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:18-05:00July 19th, 2013|Categories: Culture, Current Affairs, Homosexuality, Marriage & Family, The Future|

Sex is the lifeline of all human life on this planet. Virtually all forms of animal life mate in one form or another. This is how they procreate their species. For most species the ability to share the physical act of sex is restricted to only a few time periods during each year. This natural observation leads me to the conclusion that God designed humans so that we have a unique ability to couple sexually much more often than most species. During each month there are several days in which a woman is fertile and can conceive a child but most of the time we can have sex and not create a child.

Let’s face it – sex is a powerful human force, for good and ill. Men have killed their rivals for it and died to protect those they are sexually committed to in various contexts.

I am old fashioned enough to believe that one of the greatest gifts that you can give to your spouse is the gift of sexual purity before you are married. This means […]

Sex: Understanding the Two Great Fallacies That Harm Marriage

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:19-05:00July 18th, 2013|Categories: Church Tradition, Culture, Current Affairs, Homosexuality, Love, Marriage & Family, The Church, The Future|

The current debate about marriage, same-sex marriage, and the relationship of both to orthodox Christian teaching, all seems to finally come down to sex itself. I am convinced, however, that if we draw this conclusion it is incredibly flawed.

I ended yesterday’s post by saying that we have inherited two fallacies regarding sex. First, we have inherited the idea that sex is nasty, dirty or disgusting. This is often (wrongly to a large extent) blamed on the Puritan ethic. In reality this idea is generally due to a virulent strain of old-fashioned Manichaeism. The Manichean heresy taught that the spirit was good, nice, clean. The body, and thus all matter, is dirty and evil. This is total heresy. The church teaches that matter and spirit are both equally good since God created them. If you’ve ever read that the church taught the world at large that sex is unclean then you have read something that is far, really far, from the real truth. (St. Augustine’s personal issues and concerns, rooted in his life of promiscuity before conversion, aside.)

The […]

Human Sexuality and Holy Marriage

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:19-05:00July 17th, 2013|Categories: Biblical Theology, Culture, Current Affairs, Ethics, Friendship, Homosexuality, Love, Marriage & Family|

I concluded in yesterday’s post that marriage is in deep trouble as a social institution in Western culture. After centuries of development, and developing legal support, the institution is now falling apart in a little more than one generation. This tragic loss has little, or nothing, to do with the same-sex debate that is raging at the moment.

I ended yesterday’s post by giving three purposes for marriage as I understand the ancient faith tradition of the Christian church and the fairly straightforward teaching of Holy Scripture on this subject. I begin today by saying that marriage is a rich, rewarding and holy thing. God gave me a wife in order to bless me and to call me to deep love. I am called to intimacy with this amazing person so that I am deeply prepared for eternity and the romance and bliss of my eternal marriage with Christ (cf. Ephesians 5:21-33).

Jesus said that in heaven there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage. But the closest thing on earth to the joy of heaven is a deep, […]

Why the Institution of Marriage is Failing and What We Can Do About It

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:30-05:00July 16th, 2013|Categories: Church Tradition, Culture, Current Affairs, Love, Marriage & Family, Personal, Sexuality, The Church|

Marriage is in a very sad state in modern secular culture. I am not, in stating it this way, specifically responding to the same-sex marriage debate that I addressed last week. I am referring to marriage as a social and religious institution that brings a man and woman together in a promise to live together in love until death separates them.

For all of the couples who get divorced, a number which reveals just how troubled the institution really is, there are still a considerable number of couples who remain married, many of them in unhappy marriages where they are trying to make the best of it. Honestly, I have encountered all too few truly happy and healthy marriages in my days on this earth. At best, most marriages seem to get by but very few thrive in a deeply satisfying way.

If half of America’s businesses failed we would be in the worst depression ever. If half of the students in my class failed I would quite likely fall into complete despair. My point is that individuals who […]

Romance, Human Bliss and the Changing Place of Marriage in Our Culture

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:32-05:00July 15th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Culture, Current Affairs, Homosexuality, Marriage & Family, Psychology, The Church, The Future|

In the introduction to his classic book, Orthodoxy, the famous G. K. Chesterton says that he wished “to set forth my faith as particularly answering this double spiritual need, the need for that mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar which Christendom has rightly named romance.”

This quote baffled me at first sight. How can a “mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar” in Christian thought and practice, or orthodoxy, be called “romance?”

Romance refers, at least most commonly, to a love affair. It especially describes an intense and happy affair involving young people. It can also refer to an inclination, or spirit, for adventure, for excitement, or for mystery; e.g. one rooted in love and deep, intense feeling.

Chesterton juxtaposes ideas like “strange and secure” as well as “wonder and welcome” to describe the yearning he believes lies behind all human pursuits. This is the hunger that we have to climb the next hill, or peer around the next corner, and to gaze longingly into another face, to see the true home which we long for so deeply. Chesterton was […]