Blog - Page 64 of 318 - John H Armstrong

How Should We Understand Our Present Divisions?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:43-05:00April 4th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Evangelism, Faith, Gospel/Good News, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

There are many ways to understand the myriad divisions within the Christian church. Most are excuses for schism and sin. Some are rooted in theology and some of this theology is important, deeply important. Yet much of this disagreement and division is rooted in misconceptions about theological issues that remain because of centuries of misunderstanding. Sometimes the reasons are rooted in prejudice more than love and deep knowledge of one another.

When I say things like this many conservative Christians begin to talk and write about relativism and compromise. I once wrote a good bit using these words. There are numerous problems with this approach but the most fundamental one is that the responses often lack the truth. Even when truth is spoken it is often spoken in a way that further adds to our divisions rather than in a way that seeks to prayerfully find solutions. Face it, it is much easier to defend the wars and battles of the past than it is to admit there were mistakes all around and the best thing we can do is to start by acknowledging this fact.

As every […]

ACT3 Network–Partnering in Unity, Empowering Leaders and Movements

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:43-05:00April 3rd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

The mission of ACT3 Network is “to empower leaders and churches for unity in Christ’s mission.” I seek to do everything that I devote time and prayer to on a daily basis toward this one primary purpose, or telos. Many ministries and missions have great goals that are rooted in sound biblical ideas. We believe that ours is somewhat unique. We do not try to build up the organization of ACT3 so much as we try to develop our partners by serving their mission with our resources. This is true in several ways:

1. All the writing that I do is aimed at individuals, missions and churches to help them develop a theology of mission that is intentionally rooted in Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23. I believe most Christian ministries that focus on mission aim at individuals, not at churches and communities. I also believe that too few of them understand how much unity really matters to accomplishing Christ’s mission. Our unique call is to help you see this vision and to embrace it.

2. The Unity Factor Forums […]

How ACT3 Network Is Seeking to Make a Difference

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:43-05:00April 2nd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

The conviction of ACT3 Network, which grows out of my personal experience of John 17 in 1992, is that the church universal should pray for reconciliation and unity. This conviction is modeled by our Lord in John 17:20-23 and taught by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:1-16. There is one Lord and one faith. There is one baptism and one God and Father of us all. We should be known–when we are faithful–by the mark of divine oneness. This is not a minor point of doctrinal emphasis in the Scriptures. It was not considered minor in the early church either (Acts 15).

Historically the church has not always done a great job in working for reconciliation and unity. In fact, the evangelicals I grew up among, as well as the evangelicals who taught me my theology and ministry, never made unity a high priority. Most hardly ever talked about it at all. They were very comfortable within their “tribes” and didn’t want to be bothered by discussions about how we could reconcile our churches and ministries in the […]

Why Missional-Ecumenism Matters and the Difference It Makes

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:44-05:00April 1st, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Discipleship, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

The ecumenical movement, at least as we’ve known it in modern post-Reformation history, has 19th century origins. These origins arose out of the context of mission. Christians went to unreached places, often to cultures where no one had ever heard the name of Jesus Christ, and there declared the good news. This good news they proclaimed was that God loves the world and sent his son to redeem the world. Christ came to reconcile all people to the living God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As this message was preached people came to love Jesus and followed him through baptism into the church.

These missionaries, and the numerous “foreign” mission societies, not only preached the good news and made disciples but they planted new churches. Before long these churches represented the various sending bodies and agencies of the missionaries who planted them thus they looked like the various Protestant churches–Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist and anabaptist (e.g. Mennonite, Brethren, etc.). Catholics were also sent to many unreached places and Catholic Churches were planted, and […]

The Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation on Unity in Mission

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:48-05:00March 29th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Uncategorized, Unity of the Church|

Over the course of the last two weeks I’ve written about the new pope. I have tried to explain why I, an evangelical Protestant minister and mission director, find this new world leader so encouraging for the cause of global evangelization. Today I want to end this series on Pope Francis by telling you about the work of the Lausanne Movement and how this directly work relates to the Catholic Church and Pope Francis.

After my book Your Church Is Too Small was released in March 2010 we did a number of events to tell people about the vision that I sought to cast through my own story of missional-ecumenism. Once these book-launch events were over, and things went back to normal, a “new normal” became the daily norm for me personally. I never expected what followed in the wake of the book.

Let me be very clear about this–the book is not a bestseller. I never expected that it would be. I did pray, however, that it would find hearts waiting and longing for what I wrote […]

A Pentecostal Ecumenist Reflects on the New Pope and His Installation (2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:48-05:00March 28th, 2013|Categories: America and Americanism, Church History, Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Uncategorized, Unity of the Church|

Papal Audience with Ecumenical and Interreligious Representatives

March 20, 2013

Last evening, we were informed that Pope Francis I needed to postpone our audience with him by one hour. Thus, following a leisurely breakfast at our hotel, which we shared with General Linda Bond, about 25 people boarded the special bus to take us to the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. At 10:45 AM, we were escorted by the Carbonieri, with lights flashing and sirens wailing. Fortunately, it was no longer rush hour and our trip was a quick one. While the sky was clear when we rose, by the time we left for the Apostolic Palace, it was raining, and it rained steadily for most of the day.

Upon our arrival at the Vatican, we were driven through the Vatican gate next to the Doma Santa Marta as we were yesterday, and then we were driven around the back of St. Peter’s Basilica to the far side near the Vatican gardens, entering through two more gates and into a plaza or square around which the Apostolic Palace is built. For several years, St. Peter’s Basilica has been under […]

A Pentecostal Ecumenist Reflects on the New Pope and His Installation (1)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:48-05:00March 27th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

My Friend Mel Robeck: Pentecostal Ecumenist

Dr. Cecil M. (Mel) Robeck, Jr. is professor of church history and ecumenics and the director of the David J. DuPlessis Center for Christian Spirituality at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. His recent publications in the field of ecumenics have focused on the Holy Spirit, the Church, unity in the Pentecostal perspective, and potential contributions the Pentecostal Movement can make to the worldwide Christian Movement.

Mel Robeck is an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God and has also worked on ecumenical issues for nearly 30 years with the World Council of Churches, the Vatican, the World Alliance [now Communion] of Reformed Churches, and other groups. He serves as a Consultant to the Chairman of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization for long-term relations with the Vatican. For the past 13 years Robeck has served on the steering committee of the Global Christian Forum. He also participated with Pope John Paul II in worship events in Rome and Assisi. For 18 years he has met annually with the Secretaries of Christian World Communions […]

Back to Lausanne

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:48-05:00March 25th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Gospel/Good News, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Evangelicals will always have a mixed reaction to anything papal. After all, we do not accept the Catholic claims regarding the Petrine office as adequately and properly rooted in biblical authority. But we can respect the man, even love him as many of us did the last two popes, and still not believe that the office itself is rooted in either Scripture or the earliest history of the Christian church. Yet evangelicals are gospel driven people. (The very word “evangelical” is a reference to the evangel, or the good news of Christ.) We deeply desire to see people come to know and love Christ regardless of how they understand the priesthood, the papacy or the precise nature of the church. In this sense I suppose evangelicals are Christ-centered pragmatists. (I do not say this negatively in the least.) This doesn’t mean that we are not interested in ecclesiology, though at times it seems that way. We are just not convinced of Catholic claims about a successor to Peter and the way this successor is chosen by the church of Rome.

I was recently asked by several friends, […]

Who Is Pope Francis, Really?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:49-05:00March 25th, 2013|Categories: Church History, Church Tradition, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Yesterday marked the beginning of Holy Week in the Western Church. I am well aware of the importance of each day in this week for Christians who follow the liturgical calendar. Many of you, like me, follow the liturgical calendar in both your private devotional life as well as your corporate church life. I personally share in Holy Week remembrances in my own Protestant community where I have come to deeply appreciate the ebb and flow of the liturgy. This special week is the greatest of all liturgical weeks for Christian believers who deeply treasure the greatest mysteries of our faith. Thus, with deep respect for the whole church, especially in a week that brings us together in profound unity as we remember our Lord’s sacrifice for our common salvation, I would like to complete the series that I began last week on the election of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as pope. We now know him as Pope Francis, the pontiff of the Catholic Church.

I want to remind you, if you are new to my vision of mission […]

Habemus Papam Franciscum (5) – Why the Name Francis?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:49-05:00March 22nd, 2013|Categories: Church History, Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

What About the Junta Years? “The Dirty War”

One subject of controversy that has begun to surround the new pope is his role under the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976-1983. when he led the country’s Jesuits. According to the BBC’s Vladimir Hernandez he was accused of effectively delivering two fellow priests into the hands of the military authorities in 1976 by declining to endorse publicly their social work in the slums of Buenos Aires, which infuriated the junta at the time.

Another accusation leveled against him from the “Dirty War” era is that he failed to follow up a request to help find the baby of a woman kidnapped when five months’ pregnant and killed in 1977. It is believed the baby was illegally adopted.

Adolfo Perez Esquivel, a human rights activist at the time of the “Dirty War” was jailed and tortured by the regime. Esquivel told BBC News: “There were some bishops who were in collusion with the military, but Bergoglio is not one of them.” One would hope such credible witnesses will be enough to quell this kind of personal attack on the character of Francis.

Vatican […]