by Roger Oakland Understand the Times (author of Faith Undone: the emerging church—a new reformation or an end-time deception) Stimulating images that provide spiritual experiences are an essential element of the emerging church. While many are bewildered as to why their churches are darkening their sanctuaries and setting up prayer stations with candles, incense, and … [Read more…]
Kyle Strobel, son of prolific Christian author, speaker, and teacher, Lee Strobel, grew up at Willow Creek Church and later studied at Biola’s Talbot School of Theology. Today, he is helping to pave the contemplative way by touting the works and practices of mystics, contemplatives, and emergents. Kyle’s website ministry Metamorpha is called “an online … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: The following news report by the L.A. Times regarding Crystal Cathedral and Robert Schuller is being posted at Lighthouse Trails because of our articles regarding Schuller’s Rethink Conferences and the co-mingling of popular Christian figures such as Kay Warren, Erwin McManus, Ravi Zacharias and several other evangelical leaders with Robert Schuller (see links … [Read more…]
Billy Graham, and his son Franklin, will be speaking at the upcoming Catalyst Conference on October 8-9. Possibly, the father/son Grahams are not aware of the teachings and the spirituality that the Catalyst Conference represents. Unfortunately, Catalyst will gain respect and audience by many trusting and unaware admirers of the Grahams for including them on … [Read more…]
According to a September 19th Christianity Today blog article, the emerging church is dead. “An overused and corrupted term now sleeps with the fishes,” the article states. But is this even remotely true? Or rather could it be that the emerging church, or what we call the “merging” church, is morphing into its next “higher” … [Read more…]
Evangelical speaker and author, Ravi Zacharias, is scheduled to speak at Robert Schuller’s second ,Rethink Conference at Crystal Cathedral in February 2009. Other speakers scheduled so far for the 2009 event are emerging church pastor, Dan Kimball, Miles McPherson, Nancy Ortberg, Robert Schuller, Henry Cloud and others. More are expected to be added to the … [Read more…]
On May 18th, the World Peace Prayer Society will host the “World Shift Day” where organizations, groups, and people around the world will synchronize their watches and meditate together for the purpose of bringing peace to the earth and helping to create a “critical mass.” This year’s event carries a theme of “The 3rd Timely … [Read more…]
This week, the Awaken 2008 with Erwin McManus is taking place at William Carey University in Pasadena, California. Many of the event speakers (called “Thought Leaders”) promote contemplative mysticism, but one in particular, Mark Batterson, points readers on his website to Eckhart Tolle, a New Age guru who is currently being heralded by Oprah Winfrey. … [Read more…]
As was reported in two previous stories (February 2007, August 2007), Liberty University has been incorporating contemplative/emerging authors into their classrooms and college life. Nearly a year after our first report, Liberty shows no signs of taking a stand against this anti-biblical belief system. Students attending Liberty will be required to read the following books … [Read more…]
On May 8-9, Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral will present the “Praying the Psalms with Jesus Retreat.” The retreat will be held at the Prince of Peace Abbey and will feature a contemplative spiritual director (William Gaultiere), stations of the cross, meditation in “various ways,” and “Benedictine monks heavenly chants.” The retreat comes just a few … [Read more…]
When it comes to publishers, there is no question about it – contemplative prayer and emerging spirituality are on their minds, both the secular and the Christian ones. 2007 saw the release of numerous titles that fall within this category. It would be impossible to list them all, but here are some of the ones … [Read more…]
Pastors and church leaders who are planning on attending the 2008 National Pastors Convention, which will be presented by Zondervan Publishing and InterVarsity Press this coming February, should think twice about going. After travel expenses, ticket, lodging and food, the cost for the event for one pastor could easily run over a thousand dollars. In … [Read more…]
by Kim Olsen DiscernIt One would be hard-pressed to find a more complete description of the various end-time deceptions currently exploding in our churches in one single paperback book. Roger has accomplished this feat in “Faith Undone” Why is his book so relevant today? Consider this statement. “In the near future, Christians of every denomination … [Read more…]
According to an Orange County Register article, Rick Warren’s conference on AIDS (taking place this week) is attended by one thousand people and 100 speakers. With a wide array of speakers including Hillary Clinton who spoke on Wednesday, the Global Summit on AIDS and the Church at Saddleback has drawn much media attention. Secular and … [Read more…]
In August 2007, Lighthouse Trails wrote a College Alert about Alberta, Canada’s Prairie Bible Institute. The article documented numerous scenarios at Prairie that show the college is being influenced by contemplative spirituality. However, in the most recent issue of Servant (Prairie’s magazine), Prairie president Jon Ohlhauser discussed Lighthouse Trails’ article (not mentioning LT directly).1 Ohlhauser … [Read more…]
by Understand the Times with Roger Oakland If you listen to the emergent conversation long enough, you will hear a recurring theme: Christians are wrong to confront unbelievers head on with the Word of God. We should instead lay aside our desire to preach or share the truths from the Word and spend more time … [Read more…]
A Commentary The headlines on a Townhall.com article this week certainly catch the attention: “A Shocking ‘Confession’ from Willow Creek Community Church.”The article talks about a survey Willow Creek performed and the findings of the survey: Willow Creek has released the results of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their programs and philosophy of … [Read more…]
WorldNetDaily by Warren Smith author of Deceived on Purpose As a former New Age follower, I could hardly believe it. On Oct. 17, 2004, more than 20 years after his first appearance on the “Hour of Power,” New Age leader Gerald Jampolsky was once again Robert Schuller’s featured guest. I was not surprised on one … [Read more…]
ARLINGTON, Va. – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon highlighted the common social concerns of the United Nations and the evangelical community as he informed leaders Thursday of the progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon addresses a group of evangelical leaders as part of the Global Leaders Forum in Arlington, Virginia … [Read more…]
When it comes to the emerging church, Christian leaders seem to lack understanding and discernment. Some books and several articles have now been written about the emerging church, and interestingly, nearly all of them lack the most important element -the emerging church (which incorporates the teachings of the Emergent leaders: McLaren, Pagitt, Kimball, etc.) is … [Read more…]
Prairie Bible Institute, a renown Bible college in Alberta, Canada, is showing strong signs that it is going in a contemplative direction. A concerned parent contacted Lighthouse Trails and told us about a Servant (the college magazine ministry) article that quoted New Age/goddess worshipper Sue Monk Kidd. Unfortunately, this is not the only indication that … [Read more…]
In January 2008, the Rethink Conference will take place at Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral. According to Church Communication Network (CCN), the event will be hosted by Robert Schuller and Erwin McManus. On the Rethink Conference website, the event is described as: “Leading Thinkers and Influencers offer a perspective you may never have imagined.” These thinkers … [Read more…]
In February of 2007, Lighthouse Trails reported that Liberty University of Virginia was using contemplative books in some of their classes. The February report stated: [I]n Dr. David Wheeler’s Foundations in Youth Ministry II, Wheeler uses Mark Yaconelli’s book, Contemplative Youth Ministry. Yaconelli, the son of the late Mike Yaconelli (founder of Youth Specialties), is … [Read more…]
In January 2008, the Rethink Conference will take place at Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral. According to Church Communication Network (CCN), the event will be hosted by Robert Schuller and Erwin McManus. On the Rethink Conference website, the event is described as: “Leading Thinkers and Influencers offer a perspective you may never have imagined.” These thinkers … [Read more…]
This week’s e-newsletter by Rick Warren (Issue 321)shows further indication that the Purpose Driven movement promotes and stands by the emerging/contemplative church. As has been reported and documented many times in the past, Rick Warren is one of the major catalysts of the emerging church movement as well as the contemplative prayer movement. Some of … [Read more…]
The name keeps popping up – Lilly Endowment . Huge amounts of money being given in the form of grants to proponents of the emerging church. As Roger Oakland documents in his book, Faith Undone, Lilly gave $691,000 to the Youth Ministry & Spirituality Project (Mark Yaconelli) in 2001. Lilly had funded the beginning … [Read more…]
Emerging church leaders have made one thing perfectly clear: those who oppose contemplative/emerging spirituality, who believe what the Bible says about the end times, who take the Bible literally, and who teach on hell and repentance are a problem. According to emerging leaders, these resisters are leaders from Hell, are the cause of the world’s … [Read more…]
The June 17th headline in the Seattle Times newspaper reads, “I Am Both Muslim and Christian.” Janet Tu, religion reporter for the Times has written the piece on an Episcopal priest named Ann Holmes Redding. Redding has been a priest for more than 20 years, and she became Muslim 15 months ago. She practices both … [Read more…]
According to an article in Catholic Voice, the upcoming Luis Palau event called Heartland Festival (taking place in Omaha, Nebraska) will have Catholic elements. The article, titled “Luis Palau’s Christian festival to have Catholic elements” states: When nationally known evangelist Luis Palau brings his two-day Christian festival to Omaha next summer, Catholics will not only … [Read more…]
In a Relevant magazine interview, Erwin McManus states the following: Because people don’t know where to put our community [Mosaic] they put us in the “emergent” category, and we really are a different animal than emergent. We’re not against emergent, but we are not like them. While it may or may not be true that … [Read more…]