Viewpoint Volume 11 No 1
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Transcript of Viewpoint Volume 11 No 1
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8/14/2019 Viewpoint Volume 11 No 1
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Viewpoint
My riend John Armstrong is a church
leader who has traveled the distance
rom the separatist, sectarian xity
o undamentalism to embrace the
kingdom-centered vision o the church
and the call issued by a number o Bible-
based theologians and missiologists
during the past hal century.
What vision is this? It is the one that
views the visible church as a single
worldwide, Spirit-sustained community
within which ongoing doctrinal and
denominational divisions, though
important, are secondary rather than
primary. In this vision, the primary thing
is the missional-ecumenical vocation and
trajectory crystallized or us by our Lord
Jesus Christ in his teaching and prayer
and illustrated in a normative way by the
Acts narrative and much o the reasoning
o the apostolic letters.
Evangelicals have always urged thatthe church o God is already one in Christ
but have typically related this act only to
the invisible church (that is, the church
as God alone sees it). All too oten, they
have settled or division in the visible
church (the church on earth, as we see it)
as at least tolerable and at best healthy.
The vision Armstrong oers, however,
perceives by exegesis that the unity o
Christians, which Jesus prayed that the
world might see, is neither unanimity
nor uniormity nor union (as he neatly
puts it) but loving cooperation in lie and
mission, starting rom wherever we are at
ACT 3 is a ministry to equip leaders or unity in Christs missio
www.act3online.com www.johnharmstrong.com
equppg Lad o Uy ch Mo
Jn/F 2
Vol 11, N
A Corrective Vision for the Future of
the ChurchJames I. Packer
Continued on pa
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JaNuary 17
ACT 3 Luncheon Forum*11:45 ..1:15 p..
Aglam Ama:
Gopl Mo o sou Gap
Dad n
Holday i caol sam, iL
JaNuary 23
Synergy Conference*
caoly Jam ad Agl rhadch chuh Oak Book, iL
rgit t: ttp://c.ngtod.
og/Cicgo/stp1.px
February 21
Worship Service10:30 ..
N hop Conit Cc
Pak Pla, 550 s. Pak Bld
samwood, iL
marCh 17
ACT 3 Luncheon Forum*
11:45 ..1:15 p..
You chuh i too small: Poal rfo
Joh H. Amog
Holday i caol sam, iL
marCh 22
Open Conversation:Your Church Is Too Small
7:30 9:00 p..Wlo su, Fouh Floo, Blly Gaham c
Whao collg Whao, iL
Upcoming Events
Dr. James I. Packer (b. July
22, 1926) is an evangelical and Re-
ormed Anglican theologian andthe popular author o numerous
books, including Knowing God, that
have collectively sold over 3 million
copies worldwide. He is considered
to be one o the most important
evangelical theologians o the late
20th century and has been a riend
o ACT 3 rom its inception.
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8/14/2019 Viewpoint Volume 11 No 1
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the moment and ertilized and energized
by the creedal and devotional wisdom
o the past. Thus the internal unity o
togetherness in Christ may become a
credibility actor in the churchs outreach,
just as Jesus in John 17 prayed that itwould.
Embracing this vision will mean that
our ongoing inter- and intra-church
debates will look, and eel, less like
trench warare, in which both sides are
rmly dug in to deend the territory that
each sees as its heritage, and more like
emigrants discussions on shipboard that
are colored by the awareness that soon
they will be conronted by new tasks in
A Corrective Vision or the Future o the Church continued rom page 1
Viewpoint January/Febuary
an environment not identical with what
they knew beore. There they will all need
to pull together in every way they can.
The church in every generation voyages
through historical developments and
cultural changes, against the backgroundo which new angles emerge on old
debates and truths may need to be
reormulated in order to remain truly the
same as they were. Not to recognize this is
a deect o vision on our part.
This perception, not surprisingly
perhaps, disturbs persons brought up
to believe that Bible-based doctrinal
aithulness counts supremely (yes, indeed,
right so ar), and that some orm o
ahistorical undamentalist xity was, is, and
always will be the doctrinal last word. John
Armstrong knows; he has been there. His
corrected and corrective vision generates
deep suspicion and an onslaught against
its proponents as conused compromisersBoth he and I have learned this by direct
experience. Some years ago, in One Lord,
One Faith, Rex Koivisto made many o John
Armstrongs points and was eectively
ignored. I hope this book will not be
ignored but will have the inuence it
deserves. Aspects o North Americas
utureaspects, indeed, o the honor and
glory o Christ in this centurymay well
depend on whether or not it does.
Your Church Is Too Small is the narrative o
one mans discovery o a proound spiritual
truth, and a sustained argument or a oun-
dational change in thinking or the sake o
mission. Dr. John Armstrong oers a narrativeo his own conversion to belie in the neces-
sity o working or the restoration o Christian
unity, then uses his personal discoveries as the
basis or a clear and thoughtul call to action.
Dr. Armstrongs irenic approach should make
it easy or Christianswhether Catholic,
Orthodox, or Protestantto engage the chal-
lenging thesis o the book, while recognizing
that there remain points o doctrine between
them which will require urther clarication.Anyone concerned about either evangelism
or Christian unity should read this book and
take seriously its call or both mission and
ecumenism.
Fr. Thomas A. Baima,provost
University o Saint Mary o the Lake
reso
urc
es
Johns new book will be released in March.Copies can be pre-order at www.amazon.com
and rom other online sources.
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My daughter, Stacy, and my daughter-in-
law, Adriana, are serious runners. I have
been watching them train or various racesor years. They have written schedules
o how many miles to run each day, and
which days will be their easy days when
they do weight training and maybe a little
ast walking. They wear special socks, spe-
cial clothes, and even use special laundry
detergent! They have proessionals t their
shoes so they can run with maximum sup-
port or their eet. When they run, they
dont carry anything more than is absolute-
ly necessary. Occasionally, Stacy asks me to
leave a bottle o water on my porch so she
can grab it when she runs past my house.
Oh, and you olks in my generation will love
thiswhen its cold outside, sometimes
runners will even wear long, between-the-
elbow-and-the-shoulder gloves, like the
kind women wore as a bride or bridesmaid
in the 1970s! Beore Stacy runs in the Dis-
ney hal-marathon, she prepares by wear-
Running the RaceAnita Armstrong
ing extra-warm clothing when she trains,
so she will be used to the warmer climate
or the race. They enjoy running, and theyencourage others to run as well. Adriana
has gotten her little girls, Gracie and Abbie,
to run in races, too! Stacy got John to run
the Disney 5K, and she is constantly nudg-
ingwell, actually orcing me to train my
muscles, too! I tried running once, and Im
telling you nowi you eversee me run-
ning again, CALL 911, because someone
will denitely be chasing me!
Last week, when I arrived at the top o
the stairs to start working out at Lietime
Fitness, the towel lady smiled at me and
asked, Are you here or rehab? How insult-
ing! Do I lookthatbad? I usually walk on
the treadmill, the elliptical machine, and
even on a new machine we aectionately
call the monster machine because its
huge and takes a lot o eort to get it go-
ing! But Stacy told me I needed to train
dierent muscles occasionally, so she made
me try the stair machine! Ugh! Now thats
AnitAs PersPective
Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
hebrews 12:1
a workout! Recently I was trying to pro-
gram inormation into the machine and I
mistakenly entered my weightinstead o
the level! It started moving so ast that Iell o! Fortunately, I landed on my eet,
but all the way down to the oor each stair
scraped my let shin. I noticed that people
were staring at me, so I kept my, Ow! Ow!
Ow! Ow! to mysel. My exercise buddy,
Lynn, asked i I wanted to stop but because
people were still staring at me, I said, No,
Im OK. I climbed back on and started
stepping even though my leg was throb-
bing. I wore two huge bandages on my
bloody shin or days!
Every weekday morning, Stacy, Lynn and
I talk on the phone at 8 a.m. to share what
we are going to do or exercise that day.
We plan. We try to schedule appointments
around our designated exercise time. Id
like to say that I have the same discipline
with my devotional time, but Im ashamed
to admit how easily a phone call interrupts
Bible reading or prayer time. And most
days I never get back to it. How aboutyou? Do you share my experience? For
the new year, I would like to be as protec-
tive o my quiet time as I am with my ex-
ercise time. I we all put hal as much time
planning our devotional time with the Lord
as we do planning other things that are
important to us, wed be super Scripture
athletes! Lets work our schedule around
worship, not the other way around. Lets
fndthe time! Letsmake the time to run
with endurance the race that is beore us!
Let and above: John and Stacy at race fnish.