Francis on the Protestant Reformers

Years ago, Francis spoke harshly of the Protestant reformers. But in the run-up to the trip, he has had only words of praise for Luther. He recently called the German theologian a reformer of his time who rightly criticized a church that was "no model to imitate."

"There was corruption in the church, worldliness, attachment to money and power," Francis told reporters this summer.

They are the same abuses Francis has criticized in the 21st-century Catholic Church he now leads.

Source: Andrew Medichini, Jan M. Olsen & Nicole Winfield  -  Associated Press, "Pope on Reformation: Forgive 'errors' of past, forge unity", 31 Oct 2016, https://www.yahoo.com/news/reformer-pope-heads-sweden-mark-luthers-reforms-050227744.html

John Armstrong

The vision Armstrong offers, however, perceives by exegesis that the unity of Christians, which Jesus prayed that the world might see, is neither unanimity nor uniformity nor union (as he neatly puts it) but loving cooperation in life and mission, starting from wherever we are at the moment and fertilized and energized by the creedal and devotional wisdom of the past.  Thus the internal unity of togetherness in Christ may become a credibility factor in the church's outreach, just as Jesus in John 17 prayed that it would.

Source: J.I. Packer  -  Forward from Your Church is Too Small, by John Armstrong, p. 11

Paul's Urgency

Paul here was writing to those who had already put their faith in Christ, yet were now estranged from him and his companions who were carrying the message of the Gospel.  This fragmented relationship gave way to a disconnect from God's purposes towards them.  To be estranged from God's ambassadors and community was to be estranged from God himself.  Alternatively, to be reconciled to them was to be reconciled in Christ to God.
 
There is an urgency in Paul which invites his pleading with this fragmented community.  Reconciliation and unity are not subsidiary realities to the Gospel, but at the core of salvation and what it means to be the church.  If God was in Christ to reconcile the world to himself, and he is now in the church, then he must be at work within the church to reconcile men one to another.
 
God continues to work to reconcile the community of the redeemed and the church is still his chosen method in revealing himself.  The message of salvation is incapable of being disconnected from its incarnation in the community of Christ.  As Christ works through to us to plead to the world, he is also at work among us in a similar way with the plea, 'be reconciled to God,' and with it, 'be reconciled with each other.’

Source: A2J Community  -  Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day 5", 22 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-5

Corrie & Betsy Ten Boom

"Betsie, don't you feel anything about Jan Vogel?  Doesn't it bother you?"
"Oh yes, Corrie!  Terribly!  I've felt for him ever since I knew - and pray for him whenever his name comes into my mind.  How dreadfully he must be suffering!'
For a long time I lay silent in the huge shadowy barracks restless with the sighs, snores, and stirrings of hundreds of women.  Once again I had the feeling that this sister with whom I had spent all of my life belonged somehow to another order of beings.  Wasn't she telling me in her gentle way that I was as guilty as Jan Vogel?  Didn't he and I stand together before an all-seeing God convicted of the same sin of murder?  For I had murdered him with my heart and with my tongue.
"Lord Jesus," I whispered into the lumpy ticking of the bed, "I forgive Jan Vogel and I pray you will forgive me.  I have done him great damage.  Bless him now, and his family ..." That night for the first time since our betrayer had a name, I slept deep and dreamlessly until the whistle summoned us to roll call.

Source: Corrie Ten Boom  -  "The Hiding Place", Ch. 12, pp 192-193

William J. Seymour

I admire the persistence and faith of William J. Seymour, the pioneer of the Azusa Street Revival of the early 1900s. Several modern Christian movements spun out of that or were influenced by what happened there. He was blind in one eye, and he was a black man who was the son of former slaves. I learned that he was segregated from his fellow students who were white, while in the Bible school he was a part of in Houston led by Charles Parham. But he stayed and learned.
He landed in Los Angeles, convinced that there was a baptism in the Holy Spirit experience like what happened in Acts 2 and power that would come with that, both for him and for the greater body of Christ. He doggedly proclaimed the word he read in Acts 2 for a time before he ever saw what he was proclaiming manifest in his life personally and even as others started to experience it before he did.
But when that well broke open, it influenced far more people than he may have ever imagined and certainly has shaped the global Christian picture. The Azusa Street movement was a great miracle of unity for a time as people of different ethnicities gathered together through the outpouring of the Spirit.

Source: Clinton Scroggins  -  Posted on FB 29 Oct 2017, reposted 3 years later in 2020

TJCII in Prague

From October 8 to 10, 2015 a group of TJCII leaders and intercessors gathered in the Czech Republic to confess and grieve for the sins committed over the centuries relating to the Eucharist / the Last Supper / the Table of the Lord, which created obstacles in the way of a shared celebration.  The journey was discerned to be necessary by the TJCII international leadership who were convinced that the obstacles could be removed only by confession of sin and repentance - something which had never before to our knowledge explicitly been done.

Source: Peter Hocken  -  TJCII Communique, 2016-1

The Will of God is Clear

The church in its 2000 year history has done much to make vain the grace of God within it by its splintered fellowship and the discord found between those who confess the reconciling truth of the Gospel in Christ.  It has forgotten that its working together is a working with the one who expresses his love in service, humility and sacrifice.  This appeal to remember God's favor and working is now an appeal through the Spirit to us, reminding us that God is once more a deliverer and is capable of bringing his saving power to our disunity and divisions.
 
Much time is spent speculating on the circumstantial will of God and how we are to use our time.  We can become mired in our inability to know how and in what way the Lord is leading us.  In situations like this though the will of God is clear.  Now is the time of God's favor, the time of healing and reconciliation, where once more his grace finds its fullness in us, those who are working together with him in his salvation.  

Source: A2J Community  -  Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day7", 23 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-7

Catholic Repentance for Distortions and Deviations

As we were repenting for the sins against the Eucharist, we were very careful not to critize the teachings and beliefs of other Christians.  Our desire was to confess what a treasure this gift of the Eucharist is, and the deep longing of the Lord that we partake of it together.  The problem is not the rules, discipline or practice of any one Church or denomination, but the distortions and deviations in practice that have brought about the present situation.  We believe that confessing these sins with which we identify clears the ground and opens the door to new breakthroughs in the future.

Source: Peter Hocken  -  TJCII Communique, 2016-1

The "Knowledge Deficit" About a Lynching

A church book discussion about lynchings piqued Wesley Edwards' curiosity in area hate crimes, leading to Austin Callaway. A longtime African-American friend, Bobbie Hart, confessed ignorance to the lynching, prompting them to form the group "Troup Together." Through archival research and interviews, they pieced together parts of Calloway's story.
The "knowledge deficit" is what worries Edwards. If Callaway's lynching remained a mystery all these years, what else don't they know about?
"If white people have one version of history and African-Americans have a different one, then we don't know what we don't know," he said. "We've got to bridge that gap."

Source: Wesley Edwards  -  Quoted in "'Justice failed Austin Callaway': Town attempts to atone for 1940 lynching", Emanuella Grinberg, CNN, 28 Jan 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/us/lagrange-georgia-callaway-1940-lynching/index.html

Rick Warren honors Johann Christoph Arnold

On Holy Saturday, April15, the world lost a giant of the faith, Johann Christoph Arnold.

Christoph had served as a pastor of the Bruderhof Communities for 43 years, as Elder for 18 years, and as Senor Elder since 2001.

Christoph was a passionate leader and author of 12 books that sold millions, including Why Forgive? his most famous book. He always went right to the root of life’s problems - whether writing about marriage and family, racism, peacemaking, death and dying, forgiveness, faith, and moral purity.

I met Christoph in the most unlikely place for both of us: in Rome at the Vatican. Pope Francis had invited both of us as non-Catholics to speak on the biblical meaning of marriage at his Vatican conference on marriage and family.

Although I had already loved reading many of his books, meeting Christoph made me love him even more. His quiet humility, his contagious smile and laugh, his deep love for both Jesus and people, and his passion for peacemaking evidenced the true spirit of Christ. I look forward to long discussions with him in Heaven one day. I thank God for the life of Christoph Arnold.

Source: Rick Warren  -  Posted on FB 18 April 2017

The Sins of Our Nation

These are struggles common to us all and illustrate the need for honest identification with the sins of our nation when we stand before God asking for His mercy.  Nehemiah and the families with him assembled themselves before the Lord with fasting, in sackcloth and with dust on their heads.  Though they were just a remnant, they completely identified with their nation and its history.  "Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all the foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers."  (Nehemiah 9:2)  When we ask for God's mercy on others, we should never say, "How could they do such a thing?"  We know exactly how they could do it, for the potential for worst evil lies within each one of us, apart from God's saving grace and the life of Christ within us.  "I find then the principle of evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good," Paul said in Romans 7:21.

Source: John Dawson  -  What Every Christian Should Know About Reconciliation, p. 21

Gary Kinnaman (Phoenix)

• Our John 17 Movement has sprouted in NYC, where we held an advent worship event last fall, and in Houston, where the cardinal, bishops, priests and Protestant pastors have been gathering for fellowship and prayer.
• On June 10, at the invitation of the Vatican, seven prominent evangelical pastors from Phoenix and many others from Portland, Salem, LA, Denver, NYC and Richmond spent two hours with Pope Francis. We worshipped, prayed, and asked him prepared questions. He’s invited us back for similar meetings.
• Some years ago I launched a fellowship of the pastors of the largest churches in Phoenix. We/they have been meeting regularly now for ore than 10 years. Bill Hybels met with them two years ago and told them he had never seen that level of friendship and collaboration among influential pastor in any city in North America. This week they are gathering for their eighty annual summit. Several of these pastors were with us in Rome and have invited Joe Tosini to the retreat to talk about our extraordinary movement.

Source: Gary Kinnaman  -  Presented during Movement Day NYC, representing the John 17 movement and Greater Phoenix and Arizona Catholic/Evangelical Bridges, as posted on the John 17 FB page on 1 November 2016.

Does Forgiveness Excuse Abuse?

To make matters worse, some people claim that when a victim forgives an abuser, he is implying that he - the victim- is at least partly to blame.  Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth.  Forgiveness is necessary simply because both victim and victimizer - who in most cases know one another (or are even related) - are prisoners of a shared darkness in whcih both will remain bound until someone opens the door.  Forgiveness is the only way out, and even if an abuser chooses to remain in the darkness, that should not hold the victim back.

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.136-137

Don't Be Too Late

“You spoke at our church last weekend,” she responded. “You were teaching on Matthew 5:23-24, reminding us that Jesus commands us not to put off reconciliation. You said we should go today because tomorrow might be too late But I didn’t listen,” she went on. “And now it’s too late."

Source: Ken Sande  -  "Reconcile before it's too late", Relational Wisdom 360 blog post, 2017 Jan 8, https://rw360.org/2017/01/08/reconcile-before-its-too-late/

Foolish & Stupid

(23) Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid controversies, because you know they only produce arguments and divisions. (24) And the Lord’s servant must not enjoy getting into arguments but must be kind to everyone, able to teach the truth, and not resentful.

Source: The Apostle Paul  -  2 Timothy 2:23-24

Clergy & Lay Both

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster recently, Prof John Brewer of Queen’s University Belfast claimed that the churches have evacuated the public sphere and are not living up to their peace-making responsibilities.

In the wake of events on and following the Twelfth of July, there have been various constructive suggestions about how churches might take on this role from people such as Prof Brewer, Dr Gladys Ganiel of the Irish School of Ecumenics, Methodist President Rev Heather Morris, David Smyth of Evangelical Alliance, Fr Tim Bartlett from the diocese of Down and Connor and Rev Steve Stockman of Fitzroy Presbyterian, to mention a few.

In addition to what they have been saying, I would like to offer these suggestions, keeping in mind that for the churches to lead the way in reconciliation, it will take leadership from clergy and public figures, as well as ‘small steps’ by people at the grassroots.

Source: Fr. Martin Magill  -  As quoted by Gladys Ganiel in "Fr Martin Magill’s Small Steps Towards Reconciliation", an article on her blog Building a Church Without Walls, 2 August 2013, http://www.gladysganiel.com/irish-catholic-church/fr-martin-magills-small-steps-towards-reconciliation/

Fr. Frank Ruff

Father Frank [Ruff] said good relationships between denominations are a matter of the heart as well as the head.
“It is not enough to have formal agreements and scholarly statements,” he cautioned. “You have to bring the attitude of respect and cooperation with each other.”

Source: Fr. Frank Ruff  -  As quoted by Frank Lesko in "After the Fire", Posted 3 Jan 2017 on Glenmary Home Missioners, http://www.glenmary.org/after-the-fire/