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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

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Vol 11, N

A Corrective Vision for the Future of

the ChurchJames I. Packer

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JaNuary 17

ACT 3 Luncheon Forum*11:45 ..1:15 p..

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Holday i caol sam, iL

JaNuary 23

Synergy Conference*

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February 21

Worship Service10:30 ..

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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

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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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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.