An August 8, 2018 Christianity Today article titled Willow Creek Elders and Pastor Heather Larson Resign over Bill Hybels chronicles events that led to Willow Creek founder Bill Hybels’ resignation from the megachurch due to numerous women having come forth with accusations of years of sexual misconduct and abuse by Hybels. Because of the lackadaisical … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: From Beth Moore to Chuck Swindoll to Dallas Willard, Christian leaders are telling us we can’t really know God without the silence (stilling the mind). But is this really a biblical mandate? By Lynn Lusby Pratt Have you heard the rumor going around—that God can be found “only in the silence”? Don’t buy … [Read more…]
As many of you know, Lighthouse Trails has been mailing out booklets (1 or 2 at a time) since 2016 to a list of Christian leaders and pastors. We mail them out three times a year. This week, we are sending out our 8th mailing. Many of you have submitted the names of addresses of … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: For sixteen years, Lighthouse Trails has been warning about the contemplative prayer movement. In the following article, Ray Yungen has provided information that makes the contemplative argument (against it) irrefutable. We have sent a copy of this booklet to all of the major Christian leaders whom we have challenged including Beth Moore, Rick … [Read more…]
By Kevin Reeves and the Editors at Lighthouse Trails A number of years ago, a book written by emerging-church leaders Brian McLaren and Leonard Sweet was released. The book was called A is for Abductive: the language of the emerging church. Going through the alphabet, the authors identified many terms they hoped would be picked … [Read more…]
YWAM (Youth With a Mission), an evangelical missions organization (founded in 1960 by Loren Cunningham) that trains about 25,000 people every year for world-wide mission trips, has issued an announcement regarding its commitment to teaching contemplative prayer. On Saturday, a reader alerted Lighthouse Trails to a June 2018 YWAM promotional audio piece on the … [Read more…]
By Lighthouse Trails Editors Is your church involved in a Spiritual Formation program? If so, you might want to ask the question, what exactly is Spiritual Formation? It’s a fair question, and one that, if not asked, could end up surprising you when your church changes in ways you never imagined. A Christianity Today article … [Read more…]
In an article titled “How Evangelicals Became Over-Committed to the Bible and What Can Be Done About It,” Biola University professor J.P. Moreland says that evangelical Christians are too committed to the Bible. He states: “In the actual practices of the Evangelical community in North America, there is an over-commitment to Scripture in a way that is … [Read more…]
To Lighthouse Trails: After 1-2 years of practicing “chair yoga,” attempts at meditation (it didn’t work for me), and a Chinese practice called qi gong . . . I completely turned my back on ANY Christian ways I might have had! I quit Bible reading, study, most praying; my Christian life just disappeared. These two … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: With the majority of Christian colleges and seminaries now bringing in contemplative spirituality via Spiritual Formation programs, and with Christian leaders such as Rick Warren and Beth Moore endorsing the movement, and with countless pastors giving it a thumbs up to their congregations, isn’t it time professors, pastors, and leaders understand what the … [Read more…]
Today, our office received a phone call from a woman who had signed up through her church (with her husband) to take a college course from a local Christian seminary. The course is being held at her church and is on Spiritual Formation. The woman said she was unfamiliar with what Spiritual Formation was when … [Read more…]
To Lighthouse Trails and readers: As I stood at the bedside of my dad in a hospital, in shock at his unexpected passing, I looked up at the wall, and there on the whiteboard was written, “Last rites- 2:00 pm.” I had spent two and a half months visiting daily in the hospital while my … [Read more…]
By Ray Yungen Two authors from Great Britain portray a stunningly clear picture of New Age spirituality. They explain: [T]he keynote of it appears to be a movement for synthesis derived from an understanding of the underlying unity behind all things and the sense of oneness that this brings. This oneness of all life is … [Read more…]
For many years, Lighthouse Trails has written about the slide that Biola University in Southern California has taken into contemplative spirituality. Our first indication that the school was heading that way was in February of 2006 when we learned that Biola was actively participating in a publication called Conversations Journal, a magazine whose primary purpose … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: I wanted to write and share with you yet another example of church leadership embracing New Age methods. Recently, an acquaintance on Facebook posted a link to an Enneagram chart happily reporting her number and encouraging others to contact her if they want to know more about the Enneagram. What concerned me … [Read more…]
This week, two items on the Internet were brought to our attention, both of which may seem to be unrelated to each other but in actuality have a connection that we find to be an eerie reminder of the days in which we live. The first item is a Tweet written earlier this week by … [Read more…]
Just as Lighthouse Trails was about to issue a post this week about Celebration of Discipline’s (by Richard Foster) 40-year anniversary announcement (that we received by e-mail this month), we received the following e-mail from a Christian university graduate: Three years ago this past September, I began my studies at Tyndale University in Toronto, Ontario. … [Read more…]
We received the top two photos this week from a reader. Below that are photos of various labyrinths in churches across North America. We have posted these, not to single out these particular churches, but rather to show examples of how many denominations have now incorporated the contemplative mystical practice of walking the labyrinth. And … [Read more…]
A Lighthouse Trails reader sent us an article this week from a Pacific Northwest newspaper* describing how members of a local church are changing the way they practice church and view Christianity, doing away with their traditional church methods and embracing what they call a “contemplative approach.” The article states that they were inspired, in … [Read more…]
These revealing quotes are from well-known figures who have significantly influenced the religious landscape in today’s culture. Sadly, they have helped to mislead millions with their promotion of contemplative prayer (a mystical, panentheistic-rooted practice). Shalem Prayer Institute “This mystical stream [contemplative prayer and other monastic traditions] is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality.”—Tilden Edwards, Spiritual … [Read more…]
Hundreds of Protestant and evangelical scholars, pastors, and theologians have signed a document called “Reforming Catholic Confession” to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, which will be commemorated on October 31, 2017. According to Dr. Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, who co-chaired the Confession’s steering committee, “a significant motivating … [Read more…]
By Chris Lawson (Author of Taizé: A Community and Worship: Ecumenical Reconciliation or an Interfaith Delusion?) The worship practiced at Taizé has attracted many people from around the globe and from many different denominations. While many of the words found in Taizé worship music are words found in Scripture or words that do not necessarily contradict Scripture, … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails, I want to thank you again and possibly alert you on another author you should watch. Recently, my husband went to a pastor’s conference and brought a book back home titled The Spiritual Formation of Leaders by Chuck Miller, Ed. D. Immediately I saw the title, the bells went of in my head, … [Read more…]
Recently, we were asked to give an account as to why Dallas Willard (d. 2013), Richard Foster, and John Ortberg were listed in Roger Oakland’s booklet How to Know When the Emerging Church Shows Signs of Emerging Into Your Church as part of the emerging church. We would first like to say that it is … [Read more…]
Fall is quickly approaching, and by now, if you have a child or grandchild who is going to attend Christian college this year, he or she is most likely enrolled and ready to go. As Lighthouse Trails has reported over the last several years, the majority of evangelical/Protestant colleges, seminaries, and universities are now, to varying … [Read more…]
Also see Part 1: “Commentary: Assembly of God (AOG) General Council to Vote on Resolution Against Israel ” and Part 2: “Dr. George Wood Responds to Lighthouse Trails Article on AoG Resolution 3 and Israel” See concluding part. By Cedric Fisher Truth Keepers When I wrote my commentary on July 28th about the Assemblies of … [Read more…]
Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) has always maintained that while they teach Spiritual Formation, they only teach the “good” kind and that they are not a school that promotes contemplative spirituality. Lighthouse Trails has always challenged these suppositions. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago when Lighthouse Trails editors had some correspondence with two different DTS … [Read more…]
To Lighthouse Trails: I love your ministry and know that I’m talking to the choir when I say this, but it is mind blowing to me how widespread occultism has become. That said, I stumbled upon the following FREE offer from Charles Stanley’s In Touch Ministries. All I can say is “WOW!” https://www.intouchcanada.org/sharedjoy May God … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Friends, When I searched your blog, I did not find information on “Vicky Beeching.” She is apparently a big figure in Christian pop music. So you might want to put her on your blog list. I did not know about Vicky Beeching until yesterday: claiming to be an evangelical Christian, she revises Scripture … [Read more…]
The repetition [of a word or phrase] can in fact be soothing and very freeing, helping us, as Nouwen says, “to empty out our crowded interior life and create the quiet space where we can dwell with God.”—Jan Johnson, When the Soul Listens, p. 93 Years ago, I got a chance to meet Jan Johnson. … [Read more…]
