Louie Giglio is an extremely popular megachurch pastor and author as well as the founder and leader of the Passion conferences, which have drawn in hundreds of thousands of mostly young people since 1997.(1) On the week of March 16th, Giglio (a Calvinist) was a guest on emergent social-justice “Gospel” advocate Ian Morgan Cron’s Enneagram … [Read more…]
NEW BOOKLET: The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception? by Lois Putnam and the Editors at Lighthouse Trails is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The Booklet is 18 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are available. Our Booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: Much is spoken about apostasy in the Roman Catholic Church, but I would also draw your attention to the Methodist Church here in the UK. Below are some pics from the Gay Pride event in Chester the other week; you cannot see from the pictures but one carried a banner stating “This … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Recently, a father called us very concerned about the growing popularity of “Pub Theology.” He asked if we had any information about it. The late Larry DeBruyn wrote the following article in 2009 and gave permission for Lighthouse Trails to post it. Since 2009, Pub Theology has indeed increased greatly in popularity, especially … [Read more…]
NEW BOOKLET: Forgiving—A Story of Forgiveness and How and Why We Should Forgive by Maria Kneas and Egerton Ryerson Young is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The Booklet is 14 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are as much as 50% off retail. Our Booklets are designed to give away … [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…]
Editor’s Introduction Note: It is very fitting that our 100th Booklet is about emerging-church leader Leonard Sweet. Many of you may not know who he is or know very little about him, but his influence in the church has been significant. He is a prolific author who has been writing popular books since the 1990s, … [Read more…]
Dr. George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God denomination, is scheduled to share the platform with New Age sympathizer Leonard Sweet next year in Berlin, Germany at an event called Luther 2017. Dr. Wood was the subject of several Lighthouse Trails articles in 2013 for his promotion of contemplative teacher Ruth Haley Barton … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: I was thinking about the cost of mail and how it affects your ministry. I wonder whether it would now require broader topics to keep it going. So many of your readers like me have read your warnings about the contemplatives for many years now and perhaps there could be other areas … [Read more…]
On the week of May 16, 2016, Lighthouse Trails began a second booklet-mailing project. Whereas our first booklet-mailing project is sending out booklets and short letters to over 130 Christian leaders every 2-3 months, this new project is reaching out to 235 Christian college and seminary presidents (and some deans). After 14 years of research, … [Read more…]
In March of this year, Lighthouse Trails sent out a letter and a booklet to over 130 Christian leaders. We told our readers about this on February 25th in an article titled “Lighthouse Trails Publishing to Make Contact with Over 100 Christian Leaders to Warn About Jesus Calling.” The booklet we sent was Warren B. … [Read more…]
Spring 2016 is almost here, which means parents will be diligently helping their college-age children search for Christian colleges, seminaries, and universities for enrollment for this coming fall. As many of you know, Lighthouse Trails has been researching Christian colleges for 14 years. Three years ago, we published a report called An Epidemic of Apostasy, … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: The Wesleyan church is being lead by Jo Anne Lyon, who has yoked the denomination with false teachers. I had been in a church that was taken over by the Wesleyan denomination. I later transferred my membership away from it. She has spoken in our church and she all but tripped over … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: In the spring of 2011, Lighthouse Trails published Stories From Indian Wigwams and Northern Campfires. The book, written by Egerton Ryerson Young, an itinerate preacher and missionary to the Canadian Native Americans in the late 1800s, is a fascinating and inspiring account of Young’s work with the Cree people. Amazingly, as we were in … [Read more…]
In 2012, Lighthouse Trails posted the “50 Top Organizations With a Significant Role in Bringing Contemplative Spirituality to the Church.” We are reposting this list for those who may not have seen it then, and we have added 8 “runner ups” to the list (see bottom of post). From 12 years of research at Lighthouse … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Out of House News Source posted for informational and research purposes and not as an endorsement. PRLog (Press Release) – Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Baha’i and other faith leaders participated in a joint prayer service in Nevada on February one afternoon urging for divine intervention in view of persistent drought conditions in … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Texas Wesleyan University is connected to the United Methodist Church. This would be considered a mainline denomination (e.g, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian). These have traditionally pioneered the way in accepting heretical beliefs and practices into the church. Contemplative spirituality has, for the most part, been received with wide open arms in these denominations; later it moved … [Read more…]
On October 16th, Biola University will host its Torrey Conference 2013, and contemplative teacher Ruth Haley Barton will be a featured speaker at the event. This does not come as a great surprise to the editors at Lighthouse Trails because Biola has been going down the contemplative path for quite sometime. But because there are … [Read more…]
By Roger Oakland Understand the Times For those who are not aware of the Catholic Church’s New Evangelization program, let me provide a brief overview. The Catholic Church plans to establish the kingdom of God on earth and win the world to the Catholic Jesus (i.e., the Eucharistic Christ). This will be accomplished when the … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: In the spring of 2011, Lighthouse Trails published Stories From Indian Wigwams and Northern Campfires. The book, written by Egerton Ryerson Young, an itinerate preacher and missionary to the Canadian Native Americans in the late 1800s, is a fascinating and inspiring account of Young’s work with the Cree people. Amazingly, as we were in … [Read more…]
Summer is here, and the kids are out of school until fall. Many Christian parents will be sending their youth to Christian summer camps or retreats. But there are now many Christian retreat and conference centers that are advocating or promoting contemplative spirituality and the emerging church. Such camps would be spiritually dangerous choices to send … [Read more…]
An Epidemic of Apostasy – How Christian Seminaries Must Incorporate “Spiritual Formation” to Become Accredited is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The booklet is 14 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are as much as 50% off retail. Below is the content of the booklet. There is a also an … [Read more…]
In 2008, Lighthouse Trails wrote an article titled “Association of Christian Schools International Adds Spiritual Formation and Promotes Contemplative Authors.” The article challenged the ACSI because of its obvious contemplative propensities and how that was going to affect millions of students worldwide. You see, the ACSI claims to be the “largest Protestant educational organization in the world” … [Read more…]
Christian or Christ-follower. It’s a distinction that is being made more and more today, and often the latter term, Christ follower, is replacing the former term, Christian. Even many Christian leaders are making the switch. But just what does it mean? Emerging church leader, Erwin McManus says his “goal is to destroy Christianity as a … [Read more…]
Soul Feast by Marjorie Thompson is a book that promotes mantra meditation and New Age mystics. It stands among many other contemplative prayer books that do the same. But what is so alarming is that it also stands within the ranks of many Christian ministries, organizations, churches, and colleges. While Thompson does not hide her … [Read more…]
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun is a primer on contemplative mysticism, bursting with contemplative meditation instruction along with references and quotes by some of the movement’s most prolific mystics on the scene today. It’s a book one might expect to find on the shelves of a Catholic monastery, a New Age … [Read more…]
After posting an excerpt of the Lighthouse Trails novel Castles in the Sand last week, which we titled “An Afternoon with a Spiritual Formation Professor at a North American Bible School,” we received the following e-mail from a pastor. You give some good information in your letters that is useful. Why the garbage that no one … [Read more…]
From 10 years of research at Lighthouse Trails Research Project, we have found the following fifty organizations to have had a significant role in bringing contemplative spirituality into the evangelical/Protestant church. If you do not know or understand the implications of this, we urge you to educate yourself as soon as possible. Note: We have … [Read more…]
by Roger Oakland When Christians begin to chase after powerful mystical experiences that supposedly bring them closer to Christ, this becomes like a slippery slope that will have disastrous results. The emerging church is on this slope. When I do a series of radio programs or write commentaries for our website warning people about the … [Read more…]
On June 1st, Lighthouse Trails posted an article by M. Danielsen titled, “Sojourners Founder Jim Wallis’ Revolutionary Anti-Christian “Gospel” (and Will Christian Leaders Stand with Wallis?).” On June 19th, we posted a second article titled TRAVESTY at LIFEST – PARENTS: Don’t Send Your Kids – Radical-Emergent/Liberal Jim Wallis to Speak at Lifest (What is Luis … [Read more…]
