John H Armstrong

A New Low for Evangelism in America

Scaring the hell out of teenagers will cost you $299 this year if you intend to use the Hell House Outreach kit written by the Rev. Kennan Roberts, of New Destiny Christian Center in Denver, Colorado. I’m not making this up! Roberts estimates that 800 churches, in every state in America and 18 countries, now use his product. He has sold over 3,000 of his kits to date. 

In one sketch the Roberts Hell House kit tells how you can do a tour in which a “demon” guide marries two men. The skit then fast forwards to a hospital room where one of the partners lies in a bed dying of AIDS. Roberts notes that, “We’re not saying if you have AIDS or an abortion you’re going to hell. There is forgiveness.”

In Burleson, Texas, a church uses the kit and charges $15 admission, Because of the show’s graphic nature children younger than 14 must have a parental release signed at the ticket booth. Teens are herded into pitch-black closets where the floor suddenly shakes and rumbles, creating the sensation that the enclosures are elevators and the occupants are descending into the pit of hell. After a glimpse of the nether-world they enter a softly lighted room where they face the Son of God, speaking from the cross. After filing past an empty tomb the kids are told, “You do have a choice.” When it all ends the teens enter a brightly lit room where adult church members counsel them how to make a decision for Christ.

At best this is the ultimate form of tacky evangelism. At worst it is crass manipulation. I tend to lean toward the worst case interpretation. Every time I think this kind of stuff is passé it takes a new form. And we wonder why modern secularists think Christians are either dangerous, or at least nuts.

Back to the Future: On Ancient-Future Christianity

My friend Bob Webber has been a future thinker for a lifetime. When I was a college student he often troubled me while he also deeply challenged me. (With life experience I have learned that this combination is often a great gift to the church.) He has done that for nearly forty years now. Bob may be making his greatest contribution to the church over the past five years or so. Not only are his books on the "Ancient-Future" aspects of Christianity stimulating, and much needed calls for awakening to a sagging and crippled evangelicalism, but his recent work on "An Ancient Evangelical Future" (see www.ancientfutureworship.com) is extremely important, at least to my mind. I resolved not to sign such documents a few years ago but this one was so important that I felt I could not resist.

There will be an Ancient Future Evangelical Conference (December 7-9, 2006) at Northern Semninary in Lombard, Illinois. I plan to be present. I hope some of you who read this blog will plan to join me. Information is available at www.ancientfutureworship.com. Speakers, besides Bob Webber, include Brian McLaren, Martin Marty, Lauren Winner, Frederica Mathewes-Green and Aaron Flores. It promises to be a very insightful and stimulating three-day event.

While I am it I urge you to pray for Bob Webber. His health has become a serious concern in recent months. I pray that God will spare his life for the sake of the church and for all of us who love him. I pray that he might be allowed to continue to provoke us all to deeper love for Christ and to true good works. His life has deeply impacted my own and I thank God for this new call to an ancient-future faith. Evangelicalism needs this call much more than most of us realize.

Mission Is The Mother of All Theology

Martin Kahler appears to have been the first theologian to say it: "Mission is the mother of all theology." I concur completely. One of the major problems of Protestant orthodoxy, especially when it becomes scholastic and academic in form, is that it is divorced from a truly missional context. Good theology grows best in the soil of good questions faced by the church in a true missionary encounter.

Several years ago Terry C. Muck asked, "Is there any other way to do theology?" He added, "A cogent argument can be made that to do theology is to do mission. An even more cogent argument can be made for the reverse: That to do mission is to do theology." Muck suggests that at every point in church history where significant debates about important theological matters occured, these debates were actually preceeded by a cultural clash that challenged some church teaching and this clash forced a more definitive theological formuation in the process. This seems self-evident to me.

I preached today on "The Conversion of the Church" from John 20:21, at Church of the King in Santa Cruz, CA. I argued that when the church is continually re-converted to faith in Christ, by engaging the world afresh, she will be regularly delivered from doing theology as an ideological and intellectual exercise. By being missional the church learns to think and confess a living faith in a truly missional context. This makes for faithful witness to both the kerygma and healthy theology. Increasingly, Catholic and Protestant missiologists are discovering this fact in new ways. Sadly, too many conservative thinkers get this process and relationship quite wrong since they have reduced faith to propositions and formulations as an end in themselves.

A Visit to GTU

GTU is the Graduate Theological Union, a fully accredited association of theological schools situated in the San Francisco Bay area. I visited GTU yesterday with my friend Andrew Sandlin. We went to look for that special book that we have not yet found! We enjoyed a gorgeous day, with a sunny blue sky and temps in the low 80s. We also enjoyed an incredible lunch with Andrew's son Richard, a wonderful, thoughtful and tender-hearted young man who recently completed his B.A. in philosophy at Cal. Richard is now beginning preparation to pursue his doctorate in philosophy. I have no doubt that he will make a first-rate teacher someday.

GTU is an intriguing place. You can study subjects like art and religion, biblical languages, biblical studies, Buddhist studies, Christian spirituality, ethics and social theory, Jewish studies, Near Eastern studies and systematic and philosophical theology. They have just about every thing you could want in the field of religion. And you are across the street from Cal Berkeley, a world class university, where you can also take classes. GTU draws from traditional Christian roots but seeks to address current issues from a liberal social and political perspective. You can find traces of Christian orthodoxy at GTU but only traces.

The strengths of a place like GTU are the exposure you have to the modern world and the real dialogue with living religions. The weakness of GTU is evident and it underscores my central concern for the church in this age---pluralism. Almost everything I read and saw at GTU suggests that being a Christian is valid so long as you do not insist that "Christ is the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6). While fundamentalism refuses to enter the dialogue with other truth claims people at GTU appear to allow the dialogue to determine the outcome, an outcome that is not acceptable to Christians who affirm the creeds and follow the historic Christ as he is revealed in the storyline of the New Testament. GTU invites conversation and research. This is great. GTU does not seem to offer much direction for the serious orthodox Christian. It may be a good place for strong believers to do research but it would not be such a good place to send a young student who is not yet rooted in the deep mysteries of the historic Christian faith. This is not a fundamentalist reaction but a pastoral concern for the formation of Christian faith in a challenging age.

The Growing Stature of Barrack Obama

Barrack Obama, the junior senator from my state of Illinois, is presently the most talked about politician in America. I am not sympathetic with some of the political philosophy of Barrack Obama. If he is nominated for the presidency in 2008 he will most assuredly need to present a thoughtful expression of his views on many issues, something he has yet to do. Having said this I must confess that I actually like Obama a great deal and I find his credibility as a person quite compelling.

I expect many conservatives will quickly say to me "No way I can listen to Obama, he is a liberal Democrat." I would say, "Before you assume the worst about him, and there is much to disagree with that can be seen in his senate votes to this point, read the man's story. Listen to what he says and how he says it." Obama's expression of how he came to Christian faith (in this week's TIME magazine excerpt from his new book, The Audacity of Hope) is quite moving to me. Frankly, Obama is someone who compels me to listen to him and to take him seriously in a way that I find surprising. Only two, or at most three, leaders on the present political scene fit this description for me.

Besides the various questions that Obama must answer to become a viable candidate for president, if he does choose to run, I would ask a question that is rarely asked in partisan debates: "What consitutes true leadeship and how much does this matter in a president?" I would argue that in the twentieth century presidents like Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagain were true leaders. (Most fair-minded people agree that Abraham Lincoln was the best such leader we have ever had. I can hear the anti-Lincoln crowd saying "No" even as they read my words!) Such leaders, regardless of their politics, compelled people to listen to them and to believe them. They had vision, perspective, conviction and an ability to show genuine impartiality. They also had unique communication skills, intellectual curiosity, genuine empathy and the ability to listen to others before they made up their minds. They could also face negative poll numbers and hold their ground if they felt they were right in principle.

I found it interesting that TIME noted that Barrack Obama makes white people feel that they are not responsible for "collective guilt" about the nation's race struggles. We have been impacted by race as much as any Western nation. I am interested in anyone who can help us further the national healing that is desperately needed. I do wish the church would play a much larger role in this healing process but we are still segregated in the Christian community and will not admit it or face it.

Does Obama have these qualities of real leadership? We will find out if he runs for president, or at least I hope we do. He has a lot to offer to a nation that hungers for a new kind of leadership.

The Politics of Jesus?

We have had a book called God's Politics, by Jim Wallis. Now we have one called The Politics of Jesus, by Obery M. Henricks, Jr. Does anyone on the Left, who so freely decries the Right for their excessive claims to truth, ever stop to think that they have no more claim on God's truth than the Right does? While the Left assaults the Right for partisanship they continue to produce books that tell us "How to rediscover the true revoltuionary nature of Jesus' teachings." The hubris in such a claim is quite staggering. Hendricks spends most of this book arguing that the two primary culprits in our lifetime, men who both attacked the true revolutionary teaching of Jesus, were Ronald W. Reagan and now George W. Bush. Surprise, surprise!!!

Former moderate Republican senator John Danforth (MO), an Episcopal priest, gets a lot closer to the truth in his new book, Faith and Politics: How the "Moral Values" Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together. Danforth suggets that it is simply wrong to equate "faith with political agenda." The Right has done its fair share of equating God's law with their politics for the past twenty-five years but the Left was doing this for fifty years before the Right decided to join the partisan parade that now badly polarizes America. The sad reality is that the Left now acts like they have always held the moral high ground and the Right is thus a movement filled with self-righteous idiots who want to take over America for God. I sure wish these folks would talk to the intelligent conservatives I converse with day-to-day but they often choose to major on a few public figures in the Christian media (Falwell, Robertson, etc.) that are not true representatives of thoughtful and serious conservativism. (It is much easier to demonize your opponents than to face hard and serious issues honestly. Just accuse Republicans of not caring for the poor and the game is over if you buy this approach.)

I am sometimes asked why I am not impressed with Sojourners magazine and the editor, Jim Wallis? My answer is that when Wallis endorses this kind of book by writing "In The Politics of Jesus, Obery Hendricks articulates a critical prophetic message that interrogates our nations politics according to the values of Jesus. . . . This book is a must-read for everyone who seeks to understand and live out the revolutionary implications of following Christ" I am frankly staggered by how much he lacks credibility as a Christian thinker or serious political voice. And he claims, cleverly times ten I would add, that "God is not a Republican." I agree! But Mr. Wallis, please, God is not a radical liberal Democrat either! A touch of humility in all of this public philosophical debate would be a helpful step toward fruitful discussion among Christians. I have a number of real friends who disagree with me politically but the reason they remain my friends is that they treat me with respect. I think I return the favor. I wish people on the Right and the Left would stop this kind of moral triumphalism. It is poison to the nation.

An Interview I Enjoyed

I am in Newark, Delaware, this weekend in order to speak at the 20th anniversary celebration of Glasgow Reformed Presbyterian Church. This afternoon the pastor, Dr. Charles Betters, arranged for an interview session with Bryan Chapell and myself. I hope to put this interview on our Web site soon. Bryan is president of Covenant Seminary in St. Louis and one of the finest preachers, and teachers of preaching, in America. I am always encouraged by being with Bryan. He is a solid conservative thinker and a genuinely kind and Christlike man.

A good bit of our interview focused upon the emerging generation and the opportunities and potential problems that we see in these younger Christians. Bryan noted that he has rarely met a group of Christians more committed to evangelism. He also observed that this generation will need to pursue personal holiness more intentionally if it is to make a real difference in the future. They are a generation completely comfortable with relational commitments. They also embrace real conversation while they are totally suspicious of cant and technique. We both welcome a great deal of what we see coming in this new generation but we also hope for a deepening commitment to ancient Christian thought. I believe that a generation so committed to sharing the love of Christ with others, because they truly love them, may well provide the context that we need for a new spiritual awakening.

Donna Shalala's Willful Blindness

The University of Miami has become a great football powerhouse over the past twenty years or so, winning several national championships. It has also earned a reputation for problem athletes and bad behavior, both on and off the field. Last Saturday Miami lived up to this reputation by engaging in one of the most brutal on-field episodes of fighting that I have seen in my lifetime. Players from Miami and Florida International University, an upstart big-time college program, exchanged blows for several minutes and created a huge battle on the field that made for rare, and disgusting, video footage.

Florida International University announced this week that it would suspend all the players involved in this fight indefinitely. Almost everyone agreed this action was appropriate. Miami decided to suspend all but one of its involved players for only one game. The one game is agianst Duke, a team Miami could beat without half its team. This punishment is so minor that everyone near the sport is stunned.

So, how do you explain the leniency of this action by the University of Miami? Well, the president of the University of Miami is Donna Shalala, a former Clinton administraton official. Dr. Shalala told the media that she would "not throw her players under the bus" by overreacting to their actions. She also noted that she "refused to watch the video evidence" before reaching her conclusion because "she did not want to be biased by the facts." Her logic is truly Clintonian! For eight years our national leadership refused to deal with evidence and failed to exercise anything remotely like moral character and real discipline. The nation suffered greatly. Now the University of Miami, and these student athletes, will suffer as well. Bad bahevior will be allowed to go virtually unpunished and younger children will take note. The sad fact is that the message this gives to these young men will never help them take responsibility for their actions in the future, which only complicates things if they are to ever become productive and healthy adults.

The iPod Revolution

As I road the Metro underground in Washington, D.C., this week I was struck by how much the iPod revolution has impacted people under 35 in age. I estimated, on about six or seven different trips that I took on the subway, that three of every young adults around me (unless they were talking to someone else) was using an iPod on the train. This is astounding when you consider that this technology was only introduced a few short years ago. It has impacted the emerging generation so profoundly that I concluded that if you want to talk to this group of people you had better consider podcasting as an important tool. I already put the ACT 3 Weekly into a podcast and intend to do more podcasting in 2007 in order to use this growing resource to reach younger people with the message of Christ's Kingdom.

The Work of Renewal & the ACR

I have the inestimable joy of serving on the Association for Church Renewal (ACR). This group existed for many years as an ad hoc committee of various renewal voices in the mainline denominations. The reason these men and women met over the past twenty-plus years was primairly for encouragement. (Encouragement is a real need when you seek to be faithful and prophetic in this culture.) When I began to work closely with mainline churches and institutions in the late 1990s I was invited to be part of this group by the leader, Dr. James Heidinger, IV. Jim leads the marvelous Methodist work for renewal and reformation called Good News. He is a refreshingly gracious and kind man who loves the whole church but has a real passion for revival in his own church, the United Methodist Church.

The reason I was in Washington, D.C., this week was to attend the semi-annual gathering of the ACR. This particular meeting could have been historic as we began a process that may lead us to make ACR more institutionally formal and visible. We believe, after discussion and prayer, that God would likely have us use ACR to serve wider needs in the church in North America. (ACR includes the US and Canada.) We will be able to decide more clearly what all of this means by our March 2007 meeting.

The Association for Church Renewal exists to be "an association of executives and leaders of more than 30 church renewal organizations and ministries that are related to mainline denominations in the United States and Canada." Its founding purpose statement says that it is "An association to encourage and support renewal and reform leaders from the 'mainline' denominations, assisting them in developing their ministries' witness to orthodox Christianity in both church and society." To fulfill that purpose the ACR will seek to do the following:

*Focus on common concerns and issues, including orthodox faith, holy living, moral relativism, marriage and family, human sexuality, neo-pagan worship, God-language, the free exercise of religion at home and abroad, the sanctity of life, and world mission and evangelism.

*Issue position papers and statements as consensus develops.

*Assist renewal groups in developing a common life of prayer, building networks, and in sharing strategies and resources.

*Promote orthodox leadership in the "mainline" denominatons.

*Seek to envision and model a genuine ecumenism for the church in the 21st century.

Please pray for the ACR. It appears that the time has come for it to take a much larger role in helping these goals come to fruition in both churches and culture in North America. I prayed and worked for something like this to come about in the mid-to-late 1990s. What I hoped for did not come to pass as sectarian concerns trumped genuine ecumenism and "mere Christianity." This may be the moment that many of those prayers will be answered in a fresh and powerful way. Lord, may it be so and may it please you!