If you are planning on sending your child(ren) to kid’s summer camp or Vacation Bible School this summer, please use caution and discernment. Find out if the program you are looking at is going to be including a spiritual formation program and if so, you should avoid such programs. Also be careful about receiving advice or recommendations regarding kid’s summer camps or Vacation Bible School from contemplative-promoting organizations, such as Awanas. In their book, Perspectives on Children’s Spiritual Formation, one of the authors (Trisha Graves, p. 178) talks favorably about “Vacation Bible School” at Mariners Church in Irvine California, saying that “the gospel is presented” during Vacation Bible School at Mariners. But Mariners is a church with contemplative/emerging propensities. One example of this is the upcoming Mariner’s evening with contemplative proponent John Eldredge. And last year, in July of 2008, Mariners Church hosted an evening with the New Age sympathizing book The Shack author William Paul Young. 1 In addition, Mariners Church is tied in with Metamorpha. Mariners Julie Barios is part of the Student Ministries Department doing pastoral care and spiritual direction at Mariners and is one of Metamorpha’s “Spiritual Directors.” 2 Metamorpha was the subject of a Lighthouse Trails article because the organization, run by Lee Strobel’s son, is very pro-contemplative touting Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, and other mystics and emerging figures.3 This is just one example of why parents must use care when choosing a camp or Vacation Bible School this summer.
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