The Election is Over–What About the Department of Peace: Now that the election is over, Lighthouse Trails has a question, and that is, “What about the Department of Peace?” Most Christians have probably never heard of it. Those who have been tracking the news through Lighthouse Trails for some time most likely have. One thing that may happen with the new administration is that the Department of Peace will become a reality.
They Say the Emerging Church is Dead – The Truth Behind the Story: According to a September 19th Christianity Today blog article, the emerging church is dead. “An overused and corrupted term now sleeps with the fishes,” the article states. But is this even remotely true? Or rather could it be that the emerging church, or what we call the “merging” church, is morphing into its next “higher” level, and just as a butterfly would not want to be called a worm, neither do many in this evolving movement want to be called “the emerging church” any longer. However, unlike the beauty of a golden butterfly broken from its cocoon, the merging church does not share such grandeur. In reality, it is a dangerous pied piper leading millions over a deadly cliff of deception. And just as the “birth” of the emerging church was a well-thought out, highly-financed “dream” of millionaire corporations and futurists, so too will be its supposed “death” and rebirth. But don’t be fooled, the emerging church and the spirituality behind it is alive and kicking.
Why Christian Leaders Should Not Promote Henri Nouwen: Henri Nouwen embraced a New Age spirituality after many years of drawing from the wells of mysticism. From his earliest writings, Nouwen was interested in Thomas Merton (whom he met once at the Gethsemani monastery in Kentucky), the Catholic monk who helped to bring contemplative spirituality out of the monasteries and into Christianity at large. After turning to mysticism himself, Merton came to believe that Divinity (God) dwells in all human beings.
Brian McLaren’s Hope for the Future – The Minds of Your Grandchildren: In McLaren’s recent book, he gives a detailed analysis of how the emerging church is God’s answer to a stifled, fearful Christian church. He explains that this merging church must infiltrate the “institutions that rejected it,” adding that “conservative Protestants have repeated their Catholic sibling’s earlier mistakes (referring to the Catholic church’s one time rejection of Galileo). Then he says: “But over time, what they reject will find or create safe space outside their borders and become a resource so that many if not most of the grandchildren of today’s fundamentalists will learn and grow and move on from the misguided battles of their forebears [biblical believers].” You see, McLaren and his emerging church fellows (Pagitt, Sweet, Warren, et.al) want to change the minds of our children and grandchildren. That is why Rick Warren once said that the older traditional ones will have to leave or die because they won’t change, thus the emphasis in the emerging church on the youth.
Will Department of Defense Turn to Meditation?: An article, “A proven enlightened counter-measure,” written by Dr. David Leffler, an eight-year US Air Force veteran, now the Executive Director at the Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS), appeared in The Aljazzera Magazine, an “independent media organisation established in 1992 in London” reporting on world events that affect the Middle East.
In the article, Leffler discusses US Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Gates’ recent speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Gates said that “[e]nlightened counter-measures … will bolster the internal strength of vulnerable states so they will not harbor violent networks seeking to launch the next attack.” Leffler suggests that in the DoD’s “struggle to eliminate violent extremism,” eastern-style meditation techniques should be used
Rick Warren “Annoyed” with Those Who Challenge Him – Serving Two Masters Not Working:A recent USA Today article, “Saddleback founder Warren driven to expand his reach,” begins by asking the question “Could California pastor Rick Warren possibly be everywhere at once?.” The article mentions Warren’s global travels, while promoting his Purpose Driven Peace Plan and the recently launched Peace Coalition. The question that should be asked is “Can pastor Rick Warren possibly serve both God and man at the same time?.” With modern technology, jet travel, Internet and other high speed communication, and millions of dollars at Warren’s disposal from book sales, the first feat may not be too difficult to accomplish–in essence Rick Warren is everywhere at once. But the second, serving both God and man at the same time, is utterly impossible.
Saddleback IS a Contemplative Church As Lighthouse Trails has reported many times in the past, Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church) has been promoting the spiritual formation (i.e., contemplative prayer) movement for many years. This report will show that Saddleback Church is directly recommending numerous contemplative materials to those under their influence through “spiritual formation” and what they term “maturity.”
Christianity Today Proclaims Ancient Future Church At Hand: In the February issue of Christianity Today, the cover article titled “The Future Lies in the Past”” proclaims that the “ancient future” church is now a reality. The cover photo shows a young man kneeling in a pile of sand (shovel sitting next to him), and he has just dug up a medieval looking Christian cross. The caption reads “Lost Secrets of the Ancient Church: How evangelicals started looking back to move forward.”
Warren, Blanchard, Hybels, Laurie, Buford – Launching New York Leadership Center: the New York City Leadership Center. This is a inter-religious venture that is being supported by some of the country’s most prolific Christian figures including Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Greg Laurie, Ken Blanchard, Bob Buford and Frances Hesselbein (representing the late Peter Drucker). The new Leadership Center hopes to “see the redemption of [their] communities through leaders leading together.”
Obama Foreshadows Coming Spirituality (Mar. 2008): Rick Warren and Barack Obama share views on global peace and world-wide unification. Obama, who was a speaker at the “Pentecost 2006: Building a Covenant for a New America” conference, used “the speech as a call for continued dialogue and bridge-building between religious conservatives and progressives.” This “bridge-building” is the same kind of talk Rick Warren uses when he is discussing his “new reformation” that will include all religions, in which he states that he will do “whatever it takes” and work with anyone at all to accomplish this new reformation in his lifetime.
In Obama’s address at Pentecost 2006, he talked about the “connection between religion and politics.” This is what Rick Warren talks about with his “three-legged stool” philosophy that government, religion and business have to work together if global peace is ever going to happen. In light of the popularity of both these men, and given the possibility that Rick Warren could potentially be “the President’s pastor,” their views on global peace should not be overlooked.
