To Lighthouse Trails: I am a graduating senior thinking about attending California Baptist University in Riverside, CA. I did not see this college on your list of emergent colleges. However, it was also not on the list of colleges that are safe to attend. I was just wondering what research you had about that college. … [Read more…]
A better name for David Teague’s 2012 book Godly Servants – Discipleship & Spiritual Formation for Missionaries would be Making Contemplative Missionaries. Published by the pro-contemplative Zondervan, Godly Servants falls into step with the numerous other books that advocate for spiritual formation (i.e., contemplative spirituality). However, this may be the first book that is specifically geared toward missionaries, and … [Read more…]
Baptist students walk the labyrinth in 2004 Dear Lighthouse Trails: I just received the latest edition of The Baptist Standard. It has been one of the leading state papers in Southern Baptist work. Though independent in production now, it has been closely associated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas through the years. The BGCT … [Read more…]
After being alerted by a concerned parent who’s child attends Campbell University in North Carolina, and after doing our own research, Lighthouse Trails has added Campbell University to its Contemplative College list, a list that includes the names of Christian colleges, seminaries, and universities, which promote spiritual formation (i.e., contemplative spirituality). In virtually every case where a college … [Read more…]
Lectio Divina – 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 … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: The following is a letter we received from someone who has a legitimate concern. Below his question is our response and some added information. The Question: To Lighthouse Trails: I have been enjoying your expose of the emergent church. We share the same concerns; however, it seems that anyone who has uttered the … [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…]
In answer to an e-mail we received this past week asking if Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS is a contemplative school, we responded: As to your concern whether contemplative is being taught at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS, the sad truth is the seminary is promoting contemplative spirituality. Here are a few links from … [Read more…]
By Dr. James Maxwell III President Faith BaptistBible College and SeminaryAnkeny, Iowa Like many false teachings, The New Spirituality uses Christian terms and practices but infuses into them meanings far different from what we find in Scripture. Even some evangelicals have embraced various forms and teachings of this movement. In this article Dr. James D. … [Read more…]
Just this week, on Swindoll’s website in an article he wrote, “Segments of Solitude,” he is again pointing his readers toward Henri Nouwen. (article from p. 14 of Swindoll’s book, Wisdom for the Way) In 2011, a caller told Lighthouse Trails she had heard that Chuck Swindoll said he wants to “get back to Bible basics.” We told … [Read more…]
Cure for the Common Life, by author Max Lucado, is a book about “living in your sweet spot.” Lucado tells readers in chapter one to “[h]eed that inner music,” and quoting mystic Martin Buber from his book, The Way of Man (a book on Jewish mysticism), Lucado tells readers they each have a “divine spark.” … [Read more…]
The title of Ken Boa’s book, Conformed to His Image, is taken from the Scripture Romans 8:29: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” However, before believers delve into this book with the hope it … [Read more…]
By Deborah Dombrowski Editor – Lighthouse Trails Every good mystery starts off with “It was a dark and stormy night.” But this is a different kind of mystery. It’s about a church, a Bride, that was mysteriously kidnapped by a dark deceitful stranger who came as an angel of light and promised her many great … [Read more…]
Over the years, many of our readers have asked for a list of authors who are promoting contemplative prayer. Well here is a list we have compiled. This is from 10 years of research at Lighthouse Trails. The list includes those authors who directly teach contemplative prayer as well as those who have consistently promoted contemplative prayer teachers. All … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: The following letter to the LT editor and the response this person received from Focus on the Family is used with permission from our reader. Important to note that FOF’s response is similar to the response FOF was giving back in 2006 (when we received a letter from them) when asked why they were promoting Richard … [Read more…]
Renovare, as many of you know, is Richard Foster’s organization and his mainstay platform for promoting contemplative spirituality. In a November 2011 letter to supporters, Renovare president Christopher Webb states the following: At this writing I am attending a gathering of national ministries that promote Bible reading and engagement; spiritual formation is at the very top … [Read more…]
by Roger Oakland Proponents of contemplative prayer say the purpose of contemplative prayer is to tune in with God and hear His voice. However, Richard Foster claims that practitioners must use caution. He admits that in contemplative prayer “we are entering deeply into the spiritual realm” and that sometimes it is not the realm of … [Read more…]
In September of 2010, Lighthouse Trails wrote an article “Richard Foster’s Renovare Turns to Panentheist Mystic Richard Rohr and Emerging Darling Phyllis Tickle For New Book Project” telling our readers about a new book that Richard Foster would soon be putting out. The name of his now released 400+ page book is titled 25 Books Every … [Read more…]
This summer, the Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution rejecting Zondervan’s new gender-neutral NIV Bible. A Christian Post article states: “Southern Baptists repeatedly have affirmed our commitment to the full inspiration and authority of Scripture,” the resolution states. “This translation alters the meaning of hundreds of verses, most significantly by erasing gender-specific details which appear … [Read more…]
One day we received a call from one of our readers who wanted to share some news concerning his pastor’s son. He told us the son, after sitting under Dallas Willard for four years in university, declared himself to now be an atheist. How could this have happened? The boy was raised in a Christian … [Read more…]
A Time of Departing speaks on breath prayers: “When [Richard] Foster speaks of the silence, he does not mean external silence. In his book, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, Foster recommends the practice of breath prayer—picking a single word or short phrase and repeating it in conjunction with the breath. This is classic contemplative … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: After confirming the information in this email, we have added Westmont College to the list of Christian schools that are going down the contemplative/emerging spirituality path. (Our list) Dear Lighthouse Trails: I have benefited from your Lighthouse Web site, especially in researching Spiritual Formation. Our _________ graduated from Westmont, where we were very … [Read more…]
The headline in this article may seem preposterous – Brian McLaren and two other contemplative prayer proponents (Richard Rohr and Phyllis Tickle) agreeing with what Lighthouse Trails has been trying to say for eight years now? That the same contemplative prayer which is advocated by mainstream Christian leaders (Beth Moore, Chuck Swindoll, Rick Warren, Focus on the Family, … [Read more…]
In an email sent out by Richard Foster’s Renovare organization this week, it was announced that Renovare is working together with HarperOne publishers on a booklet titled 25 Books Every Christian Should Read: A Guide to the Essential Devotional Classics. The email sent out asks readers to visit the Renovare website and fill in a form … [Read more…]
by David Cloud Way of Life Ministries Richard Foster’s writings have been at the forefront of the contemplative movement since the 1970s. No one has done more than this man to spread contemplative mysticism throughout Protestant and Baptist churches. Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline, which has sold more than two and a half million copies, … [Read more…]
In 2007, Lighthouse Trails posted an article titled Church, Congregations Increase Focus on “Spiritual Formation.” The article, released by Adventist News Network, showed how the emphasis of contemplative/spiritual formation was moving into the Seventh-day Adventist organization. The article stated that “this subject [spiritual formation] is receiving serious emphasis in Adventist institutions, as well as in local … [Read more…]