Blog - Page 57 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Same-Sex Marriage: The Supreme Court Rulings

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:33-05:00July 8th, 2013|Categories: Culture, Current Affairs, Homosexuality, Marriage & Family, Missional Church, Politics, The Future|

The staggering decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court on same-sex marriage will reverberate throughout our culture for decades to come. I have no doubt that this is only the first of more such decisions that will progressively lead us to a culture-wide legal acceptance of same-sex marriage. I have been saying as much for at least five years. The demographics of those who favor same-sex marriage clearly show that our democracy will very likely embrace this huge social change much sooner than later.

I have a number of responses to this change that I hope will shed light on the debate. I hope to offer a reasonable, just and missional way forward for Christians in an increasingly secular culture. Before I comment, however, please understand that I am primarily interested in “the church being the church” in all cultures and contexts. I am not deeply motivated by partisan political debate about this issue.

This statement of my approach to this highly contentious issue does not mean that I think that the church should cease to be public about Christian […]

Karma and Christianity: Thoughts from Vishal Mangalwadi

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:34-05:00July 6th, 2013|Categories: Uncategorized|

Last Monday (7/1/13) I wrote a blog about the dangers of linking the teaching of karma with that of historic Christianity. I suggested that elements of karma thinking are present in some modern Christian teaching, teaching that at times borders on a number of serious errors. Several friends suggested that the teaching of Vishal Mangalwadi was helpful in this regard. Here is a good seven-minute video of Vishal speaking on the issue of karma and Christianity as distinctively different world views. I found this a helpful overview.

"I Have a Part in a Great Work" – Help Me

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:34-05:00July 3rd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal|

Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890) once wrote: “God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.”

I profoundly identify with Newman’s thinking on this point. I believe every human life has a God-given meaning. The Creator’s ways are good and right. Each of us seeks to know God’s meaning in our lives, in one manner or another, as best we can discern it. Many waste their lives and destroy themselves never finding the purpose for which God made them. For the Christian real meaning and purpose are discovered in God’s son, Jesus Christ. But sometimes a Christian will discover a deep sense of personal call and meaning before they are fully mature adults. I’ve heard this type of story for decades from my friends. In fact, as much as […]

A New Kind of Leader in the Irish Methodist Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:34-05:00July 2nd, 2013|Categories: Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Feminism & Women, Leadership, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Pastoral Renewal, Roman Catholicism, The Christian Minister/Ministry, The Church, The Future, Women in the Church|

Dr. Heather Morris, the first female leader of a major church body in Ireland, was recently installed as the President of the Methodist Church, at a gathering at Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim.

Martin O’Brien, editor of The Irish Catholic, writes that he first heard Dr Morris preach to a huge congregation at Clonard Novena where “she held in rapt attention” a large congregation. The 48-year-old wife of Neil Morris, Heather is a chartered accountant and the mother of two grown children. O’Brien says Heather Morris is “about as far as you can imagine from being a shrinking violet when it comes to presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the charism of her Church.”

He adds:

Radiating a joyous personality she could be said to embody the “heart strangely warmed [by God]” that Wesley famously wrote about in his journal. Morris says Wesley’s vision has not changed in our day but “we are in the process of rediscovery.” And she adds, “It is about being reminded of something we have forgotten. It’s about a warmed heart, and passion for […]

Watch Out for "Christian Karma"

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:34-05:00July 1st, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Culture, Incarnation, Mysticism, Religion, Spirituality|

The words “karma” and “Christian” do not naturally go together. Karma comes from Indian religions and is most definitely not a Christian concept. Karma refers to the concept of “action” or “deed” and is understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect. Thus people popularly speak of someone who experiences a lot of bad events in their life as “having bad karma.”

Karma is generally associated with spiritism and reincarnation. In this context “the law of cause and effect” is situated within a deeply spiritual way of understanding. Karma is even used to determine how one’s life should be lived. Spirits are encouraged to choose how (and when) to suffer retribution for the wrong that they did in previous lives. The problem with this kind of spirituality is simple–such teaching has no clear grasp of how we actually know this reality without remembering whether or not we had a choice in the first place. Disabilities, physical or mental impairment or even an unlucky life are all due, in some way, to the choices a […]

How Can Unity Be Beyond All Conflict?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:35-05:00June 28th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

I ended Thursday’s blog with the opening sentence of the second major point made by Pope Francis in his address on unity, given June 18, at the Vatican. His words are so startling as to jar you if you read them and just stop, I mean make a full stop! “Unity is beyond all conflict.” How can this be? What on earth is he talking about? It seems impossible to grasp in any ordinary sense of the words given what we know about church history and modern reality.

But here is what he said, in full, to give the larger context (italics are all mine):

Unity is beyond all conflict. Unity is a grace that we must ask of the Lord so he may save us from the temptations of the division, from internal struggles and selfishness, from gossip. How much damage gossip does! How much damage! Never gossip about others, never! How much damage divisions causes among Christians, bringing partisan, narrow interests into the Church! Divisions among us [i.e. among Catholics], but also divisions among the communities [i.e. ecclesial communities, what we call churches, are […]

Our True and Eternal Unity is in Christ Alone

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:35-05:00June 27th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

In Pope Francis’ general address on unity, given on June 18 last week, he has two major points. I commented on the first one on Wednesday, June 26. Now I comment on the second. Here is the point that the pope made:

And here I come to a second aspect of the Church as the Body of Christ. St Paul says that as members of the human body, although different and many, we form one body, as we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-13). In the Church, therefore, there is a variety, a diversity of tasks and functions, there is no dull uniformity, but the richness of the gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes. But there is communion and unity: we are all in a relation to each other and we all come together to form one living body, deeply connected to Christ. Let us remember this well: being part of the Church means being united to Christ and receiving from Him the divine life that makes us live as Christians; it means remaining united to the Pope […]

Living in Jesus Is Unity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:35-05:00June 26th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Sacraments, Spirituality, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

It is incredibly encouraging to read the moving words of Pope Francis on Christian unity that were given to a general audience last week at the Vatican.

Yesterday, I asked how Pope Francis could speak of unity with various other Christians, especially evangelicals, when the Catholic Church confesses itself to be the one, true church. Today I offer my commentary on the first major portion of the pope’s address. Here is what he said:

The image of the body helps us to understand this deep Church-Christ bond, which St. Paul has developed especially in the First Letter to the Corinthians (cf. chap. 12). First, the body brings our attention to a living reality. The Church is not a charitable, cultural or political association, but a living body, that walks and acts in history. And this body has a head, Jesus, who guides, feeds and supports it. This is a point I want to emphasize: if the head is separated from the rest of the body, the whole person cannot survive. So it is in the Church, we […]

If Rome is the One Church How Can Pope Francis Speak of Our Being One in Christ?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:35-05:00June 25th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church Tradition, Creeds, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

Yesterday, I shared the general audience address of Pope Francis from last week on Christian unity. Today I would like to offer some simple commentary and explanation of this amazing address.

The pope began his audience by saying:

Today I will focus upon another expression with which the Second Vatican Council indicates the nature of the Church: that of the body, the Council says that the Church is the Body of Christ (cf. Lumen Gentium, 7).

Lumen Gentium, in English, means: “The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.” It is one of sixteen dogmatic documents that make up the whole of Vatican Council II’s work. Lumen Gentium was the third of the sixteen formal documents, or decrees, that were passed by the council between October 1962 and December 8, 1965. Here is a part of that dogmatic constitution cited by Pope Francis last week:

The present-day conditions of the world add greater urgency to this work of the Church so that all men, joined more closely today by various social, technical and cultural ties, might also attain fuller […]

My Vocation for Unity and the Election of Pope Francis

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:35-05:00June 24th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

I am asked continually about Pope Francis, particularly by evangelical Protestants who have traditionally been suspicious of the Catholic Church in general and the pope in particular. I have shared here on this site, for some years now, reports of my growing friendships and unity with my Catholic brothers and sisters.

To put this very simply, and in my own context for this blog site, I believe my personal charism (vocation/calling) is to explain and model Christian unity (John 17) and to build relational and ecclesial bridges that promote and lead to deep unity. Back in the decade of 1990s this vision profoundly gripped my heart. This happened first in my preaching of John 17:20-26 in May of 1992. This was at the same time that I was leaving twenty years of pastoral ministry to serve this new ministry that I began for renewal in 1991. This happened again one Sunday morning at College Church in Wheaton in what I would describe as a Spirit-drenched encounter with the Apostles’ Creed. I had studied the creeds and was simply reciting it when the Holy Spirit fell on me […]