John Armstrong’s “Your Church Is Too Small”

You’ve seen me write about “Why I am Converting to Catholicism” in one of my other posts, where  I basically explain that I am going to begin to work on unifying the Church instead of destroying it. Interestingly, that’s before I went to a luncheon at Biblical Seminary which hosted Wheaton College Graduate School adjunct professor and author John Armstrong. John was there to speak about what he had established in his book Your Church Is Too Small: Why Unity in Christ’s Mission Is Vital to the Future of the Church about the importance of Christian unity. So, obviously, I was intrigued.

John’s talk that day at the luncheon did not disappoint. He spoke of how Jesus prayed for the unity of his people (John 17), and, if we are going to argue over points of doctrine, John 17 is doctrine as well. I was left with the nagging question, Why have I never held Jesus’ prayer in John 17 on equal footing as, say, my views on the atonement, etc.? The fact is, I wasn’t, but John Armstrong does; and that was convicting to me. Thus, the obvious thing to do was to pick up my NOOKcolor and download the book. So, I did…

Within a matter of a couple of weeks, I completed the book. I was encouraged by John’s ability to draw together various voices from other traditions (including Catholicism) to push for what he calls “missional-ecumenism,” which he stresses two points, “(1) God is both a unity in himself and as such is a sending God, and (2) God’s revealed desire is that we would be (relationally) one with him in this sending and sent (mission) process” (p. 187). John emphasizes both the importance of holding on to our convictions as well as holding on to our relational unity.

What John does not say: John does not say, “Let’s all leave Protestantism (or Orthodoxy) and rejoin Rome.” Unity is not uniformity. He does not say, “Let’s continue the efforts to liberalism’s ecumenical movement during the last century.” That movement failed because ideology is held above mission.

What John does say:

1. John does say, unity is just as important as truth. Thus, let’s (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox) pursue a relational unity working with one another, agreeing to the fundamentals found in the early creeds (and we should know these) and to Christ’s mission to seek and save the lost. This must be the driving force of our unity.
2. John does say, drop the “we-are-right-you-are-wrong” approach to Christianity, as well as “these-are-true-Christians-and-these-are-not” lists. Such are what destroy our unity.
3. John does say, unity must be visible. Why would Jesus pray for spiritual unity? That doesn’t make sense. We must find ways to work together and be visibly “one.”

One of the greatest compliments ever given to Christians is what Tertullian reports, “Look,” they say, “how they love one another” (for they themselves hate one another); “and how they are ready to die for each other” (for they themselves are readier to kill each other).” Christianity has failed to continue this, but, if Christians take seriously the points of Your Church Is Too Small, we might once again be ready to die for one another because of the love we have for each other.

If we love each other to the point of dying for one another, division and schism will be distasteful, as it should be. In the words of John Armstrong, “We should never become complacent about the disunity of God’s people. We must cultivate a holy discontent about our unholy divisions” (p. 62). Let that be put on every church sign across the world, or the every bumper sticker next to every “Jesus fish.” This is what the Church should be about doing!

Score: 9 out of 10