From a Former Nazarene to the Church of the Nazarene: Why Now Do You Practice These Things?

LTRP Note: Lighthouse Trails has been posting articles by Manny Silva for many years. Manny became part of a group called Concerned Nazarenes over fifteen years ago to warn the Church of the Nazarene denomination about the emergent movement and how it was entering into that denomination. Those warnings were largely unheeded by Nazarene leadership. The following is Manny’s most recent article and plea:

“Why Now Do You Practice These Things?”

By Manny Silva

There are some Christians in the Concerned Nazarenes group who sincerely have asked questions about Lent and our objection to participating in it. Some believe there is no harm and it helps their spiritual growth. Perhaps that is the case with some people. They have legitimately asked the question: what is wrong with practicing Lent, putting ashes to the forehead, and giving something up for forty days?

Perhaps the answer is another question: why now? For decades after its founding, the Church of the Nazarene never had participated in these Lenten activities. To everyone who believes that Lent and its rituals are completely harmless and there is no problem, consider the many other practices, rituals, and teachings that have also suddenly become part of the Church of the Nazarene. To many members and former members, these things have weakened the church, not strengthened it.

I would suggest that the following questions be pondered, within the framework of a much larger set of circumstances:

• -Do practices such as ashes to the forehead, giving something up for forty days, and other such rituals always provide a lasting spiritual benefit to anyone who does these things?
• -What is the spiritual benefit if someone, for example, gives up his excessive drinking for forty days, only to go back to drinking heavily after Lent has ended? (Is this symbolism over lasting substance?).
• -Why now are many churches and districts using the word “Eucharist” instead of Communion or the Lord’s Supper? Why abandon the traditional reference to communion?
• -Why are many pastors coming out of the seminaries dressing up now with the collared shirts and priestly gowns that are most worn by Roman Catholic priests?
• -Why now are there “new” types of services, such as Maundy Thursday, which are all derived from traditional Roman Catholic services?
• -Why is it that prayer labyrinths have popped up at Trevecca Nazarene University and various Nazarene churches? This is a practice whose origin is from Eastern style mysticism and is very commonly practiced in Roman Catholicism.
• -Why is Yoga practiced at some Nazarene colleges, and even offered up at some Nazarene churches as a side activity? Yoga is a pagan religious prayer ritual whose true goal is to lose one’s sense of self and unite with the “Divine” or “Supreme Consciousness.”
• -Why is there so much instruction and teaching of “practicing the silence,” lectio divina, prayer stations, breath prayers, and other unbiblical rituals that are part of contemplative mysticism?
• -Why do college leaders like Dan Boone promote unbiblical practices to students every year, such as “practicing the silence” and visiting a monastery to connect with monks who preach a “false jesus”?
• -Why did the youth section of Nazarene Publishing House include a devotional book with instructions on how to use prayer beads and building your own labyrinth to use for “meditation.”
• -Why at some Nazarene General Assemblies did they set up prayer rooms that featured books by mystics such as Richard Foster?
• -Why is it that a seminary theology professor at Nazarene Theological Seminary, Doug Hardy at NTS, is allowed to teach a course about Celtic Spirituality, which teaches such unbiblical things as mystical “thin places” where a believer can make a mystical encounter with God?
• -Why does Doug Hardy teach Nazarenes about the “benefits” of the enneagram, whose origins are from the occult and have no basis and support from Scripture?
• -Why does Doug Hardy continue to be a resource at Spiritual Directors International, an organization dedicated to interspirituality and led by a Zen Buddhist priest?
• -Why would Eastern Nazarene College invite Tony Campolo to speak in chapel, allowing him to promote ideas such as “thin places” and also to promote mystical prayers such as mantras?
• -Why is it that college presidents, district superintendents and other Nazarene leaders are referring to Roman Catholics (in general) that they are our “brothers and sisters in Christ”? Why is there no emphasis to evangelize Catholics?
• -Why is it that Nazarene churches across the USA have started a tradition of having joint services at a Roman Catholic Church? (Does a Nazarene know who the Catholic person next to them is praying to for sure?)
• -Why did a Nazarene youth camp in New Hampshire promote an entire list of books that were mostly written by authors who promote contemplative spirituality?
• -Why are so many Nazarene pastors spending time reading and teaching out of books written by Richard Foster, Henri Nouwen, and others who promote contemplative spirituality?
• -Why do more Nazarene pastors now quote (often from the pulpit) Roman Catholic priests, Mother Teresa, Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, and other heretical Roman Catholic mystics?
• -Why is it that a prayer retreat at a Roman Catholic monastery was scheduled and held at the same time as General Assembly was held, sponsored by one of the Nazarene colleges (in 2017, at the Benedict Inn Retreat and Conference Center)?
• -Why did NNU have a chapel service that celebrated the Taize tradition, an interspiritual, multi-religious ecumenical worship style based in France?
• -Why did Nazarene Youth Convention allow speakers who promote contemplative mysticism and other false teachings? (This included a chaplain from Mid-America Nazarene University).
• -Why did the Wesleyan-Holiness Women’s Conference promote Henri Nouwen and also mystical practices at their conference in 2015?
• -Why is it that most of the Nazarene colleges and Nazarene Theological Seminary use books in their curriculum authored by Roman Catholic mystics who promote contemplative spirituality?

** These and more questions are all part of the Big Picture, which is the ecumenical movement that is infecting the Church of the Nazarene. It’s NOT just Lent. It’s all of the above being connected.

Related Articles:

Nazarene Superintendent Praises “A Time of Departing” – But Denomination’s Schools Sinking into Contemplative by Lighthouse Trails Editors (2009)

Nazarene Pastor Fired For Fighting Emergent Ideology by Manny Silva (2010)

A Plea to the General Assembly 2013: Death of the Church of the Nazarene or Repentance? by Manny Silva (2013)

Letter to the Editor: Our Sad Departure From the Church of the Nazarene Over Unbiblical Teachings (2020)

A Parent’s Summary of the Spread of Critical Race Theory At Gordon College by Manny Silva (2021)