Editor’s Note: Lighthouse Trails wrote this report in 2014. Since then, we have watched “Spiritual Formation” explode within the church. After over twenty years of warnings, to our dismay, the issue has not been challenged or even questioned by most of today’s Christian leaders and pastors. By Lighthouse Trails Editors Is your church involved in … [Read more…]
“The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will be nothing.”—mystic Karl Rahner With the Asbury “revival” spreading into various other colleges and universities (and even churches), and with so much talk about revival today, one question that needs to be asked is, what kind of Christian will the majority of today’s … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Please see editors notes below this letter. Dear Lighthouse Trails: Today my neighbor who’s in an emergent church . . . told me his church started a sermon series called “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.” Hmm . . . I’ve left enough emergent churches to know a sermon series probably has a book. … [Read more…]
The following is the new 2022 2nd edition of our 2013 booklet: Epidemic of Apostasy—How Christian Colleges Must Incorporate “Spiritual Formation” to Become Accredited. There is some important information in this updated edition, and we want to encourage everyone on this site to read it. Epidemic of Apostasy—How Christian Colleges Must Incorporate “Spiritual Formation” to … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: I live in Canada, north of Toronto, Ontario, and have kept track of your website for at least ten plus years now. I am not sure how I came across your site, but I had been reading books by the Berean Call, and they had books on the emerging church and such … [Read more…]
By Ray Yungen Two authors from Great Britain portray a stunningly clear picture of New Age spirituality. They explain: [T]he keynote of it appears to be a movement for synthesis derived from an understanding of the underlying unity behind all things and the sense of oneness that this brings. This oneness of all life is the … [Read more…]
Recently, we received an e-mail from a reader who is trying to explain to some people in a prominent Christian organization who are practicing contemplative prayer that contemplative prayer (i.e., Christian contemplation) is no different than Eastern meditation (i.e., mysticism). The following article by Ray Yungen explains what contemplative prayer is and how it is … [Read more…]
LTRJ Note: For 18 years, Lighthouse Trails has been warning about the contemplative prayer movement and its role in creating an “emergent” “progressive” church. Part of our investigative research scope has included Christian universities and seminaries, a majority of which now promote contemplative spirituality. Liberty University, one of the largest Christian universities in the U.S., … [Read more…]
By Lighthouse Trails Editors Is your church involved in a Spiritual Formation program? If so, you might want to ask the question, what exactly is Spiritual Formation? It’s a fair question, and one that, if not asked, could end up surprising you when your church changes in ways you never imagined. A Christianity Today article states: “Spiritual … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: I bought and gave the Be Still DVD to my last pastor prior to moving out of state. My husband and I had become horrified at the Beth Moore’s women’s gatherings that were being promoted at our church. I was already very familiar with Beth Moore’s stance on contemplative prayer. This gentleman, … [Read more…]
By Ray Yungen Contemplative advocates propose that something vital and important is missing from the church for centuries. The insinuation is that Christians have been lacking something necessary for their spiritual vitality; but that would mean the Holy Spirit has not been fully effective for hundreds of years and only now the secret key has … [Read more…]
By Ray Yungen Two authors from Great Britain portrayed a stunningly clear picture of New Age spirituality. They explained: [T]he keynote of it appears to be a movement for synthesis derived from an understanding of the underlying unity behind all things and the sense of oneness that this brings. This oneness of all life is … [Read more…]
There’s a lot of talk about it today; umpteen books are published and more are on the way about lectio divina; and an increasing number of evangelical/Protestant figures are writing about it, endorsing it, and teaching it. Some people think lectio divina simply means to read a passage of Scripture slowly (or “praying the Scriptures”) … [Read more…]
To Lighthouse Trails: The relationship Dallas Theological Seminary has with contemplative spirituality has been debated on Lighthouse Trails, and defended by DTS. As a current student, I can confirm some departments and professors do advocate explicitly for the contemplative brand of spirituality. The school requires four semesters of spiritual formation. Students must engage with the … [Read more…]
Three years ago today author and researcher Ray Yungen passed away at the age of 64. As regular Lighthouse Trails readers know, it was through Ray’s work that Lighthouse Trails began nearly 18 years ago. Interestingly, on the eve of this 3rd anniversary of Ray’s departure, we read an e-mail notice we received this week … [Read more…]
An April 2019 Religion News Service article titled, “For Millennials, Mysticism Shows a Path to Their Home Faiths” reveals how young (millennial) evangelicals are “[d]iscovering the Christian mystical tradition through the work of Franciscan friar Richard Rohr.” The article states: [Anthony] Graffagnino [28] was one of a number of millennials drawn to The Universal Christ—a … [Read more…]
Contemplative prayer is hearing the word of God … Contemplative prayer is silence.—Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994 edition, p. 652 LTRP Note: Since 2002, Lighthouse Trails has continued to issue warnings about contemplative prayer. We began our warnings after meeting Ray Yungen in the year 2000 and examining his extensive research. One of the … [Read more…]
Navigators is a Christian organization, founded in 1933 by a young man named Dawson Trotman, that eventually became a household name in the evangelical church.* The Navigators motto is, “To Know Christ and to Make Him Known.” However, Navigators and its publishing arm NavPress have been on a contemplative trend for over 15 years, and … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: The following letter to the editor is posted with permission. It is written by a graduate student of a Christian university. We find the professor’s remarks to this student provocative, especially considering what we discovered after reading the professor’s post. Please see our comments after the two posts below. Dear Lighthouse Trails: I … [Read more…]
Today, a Lighthouse Trails caller asked if we could tell her what “breath prayers” are and wondered if we had any information on them because someone in her church is advising others to practice them. Thus, we are posting some information we have previously posted on breath prayers. Breath prayers, like lectio divina, are a … [Read more…]
By Ray Yungen From a theological viewpoint, there now exist two branches (so to speak) of the Catholic Church—the traditional (as defended by someone like Karl Keating in his book Catholicism and Fundamentalism) and the progressive or contemplative* element (as exemplified by Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen).1 And while these two branches (or movements) can … [Read more…]
The following two lists are from Mary Danielsen’s booklet, The Dangerous Truth About the Social-Justice “Gospel,” which we posted earlier this week. It’s good to be aware of both the names and the language. (see video clip below) Some Key Players in the Social Gospel Movement* Bill Hybels Bono Diane Butler Bass Greg Boyd Henri … [Read more…]
A summer 2018 Relevant Magazine article titled “Why Learning to Breathe May Be the Best Way to Pray,” tells readers that, Breath prayer [are] an ancient Christian prayer practice with origins in the lives of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, is a vehicle we can use to live out Scripture’s call to “pray without ceasing. (1 … [Read more…]
In an August 13th Christian Post article titled “Serita Jakes’ Endorsement of Yoga at Potter’s House Sparks Debate,” popular pastor T.D. Jakes’ wife is reportedly promoting Yoga to congregants at Jake’s church. The CP article begins: Serita Jakes, wife of popular televangelist Bishop T.D. Jakes, has reignited debate over the practice of yoga among Christians … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: For sixteen years, Lighthouse Trails has been warning about the contemplative prayer movement. In the following article, Ray Yungen has provided information that makes the contemplative argument (against it) irrefutable. We have sent a copy of this booklet to all of the major Christian leaders whom we have challenged including Beth Moore, Rick … [Read more…]
By Lighthouse Trails Editors Is your church involved in a Spiritual Formation program? If so, you might want to ask the question, what exactly is Spiritual Formation? It’s a fair question, and one that, if not asked, could end up surprising you when your church changes in ways you never imagined. A Christianity Today article … [Read more…]
A Lighthouse Trails reader recently asked our editors to take a look at a page on the Focus on the Family website defending the practice of contemplative prayer. Those of you who have been readers of Lighthouse Trails for a while will know that Lighthouse Trails has challenged Focus on the Family on more than … [Read more…]
Today, our office received a phone call from a woman who had signed up through her church (with her husband) to take a college course from a local Christian seminary. The course is being held at her church and is on Spiritual Formation. The woman said she was unfamiliar with what Spiritual Formation was when … [Read more…]
By Ray Yungen It is not just a fluke or an aberration that the evangelical churches and the Catholic Church are coming into alignment with each other. The Catholic Church is taking a softer approach to the evangelical church, and the evangelical church is starting to downplay the traditional and significant differences that have kept … [Read more…]
To Lighthouse Trails and readers: As I stood at the bedside of my dad in a hospital, in shock at his unexpected passing, I looked up at the wall, and there on the whiteboard was written, “Last rites- 2:00 pm.” I had spent two and a half months visiting daily in the hospital while my … [Read more…]
