This is an update regarding the Lighthouse Trails report that New Age sympathizer Leonard Sweet is scheduled to speak at Calvary Chapel Albuquerque for the National Worship Leader Conference this June. Conflicting reports are occurring as to whether Sweet’s speaking engagement has been cancelled.
A number of Lighthouse Trails’ readers contacted us over the last couple days sending us copies of an email they each received from an undisclosed personnel at Calvary Chapel Albuquerque. The form letter states:
Thank you for contacting us here at The Connection and thanks for writing to Pastor Skip. We always love to hear from you. The conference is not a Calvary conference. The conference is being put on by Worship Leader Magazine using our facility – just like CAPE, Home school graduation, funerals, etc. Therefore, Leonard Sweet is not speaking at “Skip’s Church”. [LT: Heitzig is one of the speakers at this event.] He is part of a conference using Calvary’s facilities. Leonard Sweet will attend the conference but WILL NOT BE SPEAKING. It is our prayer that God will continue to reveal Himself to you through His Word as you seek to know Him.
Love in Christ,
Connection Communications
Because the National Worship Leader Conference website still maintains that Leonard Sweet will indeed be speaking at Calvary Chapel Albuquerque, an official public notice from CCA stating that Leonard Sweet will not be speaking there could help clear up the present confusion. Just as important, a statement explaining to the body of Christ why they have decided to remove him from the platform would be important. In a day and age when so many Christian leaders are sending out mixed messages to the Church regarding spiritual deception, those wanting to maintain biblical integrity need to be forthright and clear in what they believe and stand for. And regardless of what denomination or movement this confusion is occurring in, those particular leaders do have a biblical obligation to the entire body of Jesus Christ. This is not Lighthouse Trails saying this – this is what the Bible requests of leaders and pastors.
In a recent similar situation, when Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa invited emerging author Mike Erre (Rock Harbor) to speak to thousands of youth at the Movement 2009 event, Lighthouse Trails reported on this matter. Then at the beginning of that event, a Calvary Chapel pastor told these youth, referring partly to Lighthouse Trails, that the “haters” tried to stop them but they didn’t. Lighthouse Trails rejects this effort by some to villainize us because we are reporting on various public occurrences within the church that are affecting thousands and in some cases (such as Purpose Driven) millions. We have attempted these past eight years to maintain honesty and accuracy as well as uphold biblical integrity in how we report and write. It is wrong for Christian leaders and other figures to try to make Lighthouse Trails the issue when in fact their doctrines and public teachings should be the focus. It appears that many of these leaders do not like to be corrected or challenged. The fact that they often revert to vitriolic and untrue statements to sway public opinion is indication that something is amiss. Rather than becoming angry at Lighthouse Trails and other similar ministries, they should be able to scripturally or factually refute our protests, and thus neutralize our concerns. It is as simple as that.
Lighthouse Trails is not engaging in this work out of a sense of spiritual crankiness. We’ve documented in our books and articles that there are very clear and profound ramifications to this controversy – – the spiritual health of millions in the years to come is at stake. Lighthouse Trails is not merely picking on Leonard Sweet just for the sake of someone to bully. Sweet has made the clear statement that mysticism (the vehicle through which the present falling away is occurring) was once on the side lines of the Christian life and now is situated at the center; he supports the idea that the Christian of the future will be a mystic, or he or she won’t be a Christian at all.1 When you incorporate the fact that Leonard Sweet sees as “New Light heroes,” New Age mystics such as Matthew Fox, there are legitimate reasons for biblical Christians to raise concerns.
Notes:
1. Read our articles on Sweet, including the one below for documentation of these statements. Documentation on Sweet can also be found in A Time of Departing and A “Wonderful” Deception.
Related:
Rick Warren and Leonard Sweet Riding the “Tides of Change” on the Heels of Mysticism
Qu0tes by Sweet:
Mysticism, once cast to the sidelines of the Christian tradition, is now situated in postmodernist culture near the center.… In the words of one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, Jesuit philosopher of religion/dogmatist Karl Rahner, “The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, one who has experienced something, or he will be nothing.” [Mysticism] is metaphysics arrived at through mindbody experiences. Mysticism begins in experience; it ends in theology. (from p. 160, A Time of Departing, quoting Sweet from Quantum Spirituality, p. 76
For a collection of quotes by Leonard Sweet, see Sandy Simpson’s website.
