No one can doubt that Young Life, a 72 year old Christian organization that reaches out to young people, has a heart for kids. Volunteers and paid staff work diligently week after week in communities throughout America, Canada, and over 60 other countries to help get teens on the right path in life. In the course of a year, hundreds of thousands of kids come into contact with Young Life. Unfortunately, while their zeal to help kids is commendable, Young Life has been turning to contemplative mystics for guidance and spiritual instruction for at least a decade.
It was in the fall of 2000 when the 16 year old daughter of Lighthouse Trails editors David and Deborah Dombrowski brought home a required reading list from her Young Life group. She was a Young Life intern in training at the time. Looking at the list of the 12 required books, most of them were names the Dombrowskis had never heard of. Little did they know at the time that four of those names would become implanted in their minds and change their lives forever: Henri Nouwen, Richard Foster, Thomas Merton, and Brennan Manning. Providentially, the following week, the Dombrowskis were introduced to an unknown author named Ray Yungen. Yungen was carrying around a copy of an unpublished manuscript titled A Time of Departing that he had completed a couple years earlier. After talking with Ray Yungen and reading the manuscript, much to the Dombrowskis surprise, the names their daughter was required to read by Young Life were the key names talked about in Yungen’s book.
Within two weeks of reading A Time of Departing, Ray Yungen and Deborah Dombrowski made an appointment with the Oregon Young Life Director of Training from Portland. They wanted to show him Yungen’s work and explain why leading kids towards Foster, Merton, Manning, and Nouwen could bring detrimental results to the spiritual lives of countless kids being ministered to through Young Life.
The meeting at a coffee shop with the Young Life Director of Training went well. Yungen read him quotes from the contemplative authors and from New Age and eastern-style authors illustrating that the mysticism practiced in New Age and eastern religions is the very same mysticism taught by Christian contemplatives like Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Richard Foster, and Brennan Manning. The Young Life Director appeared to be profoundly affected, understanding the significance of what he was being told. At the end of our meeting, he promised to do all he could to relay to the national leadership of Young Life that they should reconsider these authors.
A couple months after the meeting, Deborah Dombrowski followed up by contacting, both by e-mail and by phone, top leaders at the national Young Life headquarters in Colorado. On one occasion, she spoke with Denny Rydberg (by e-mail), who has been the president of Young Life since 1993. Rydberg was once vice president of Youth Specialties, another Christian youth organization (that incidentally is a key player in the contemplative/emerging movement). Dombrowski also spoke by phone with one other national leader in Colorado Springs during this time period. In both cases, promises were made that they would study the matter and if deemed necessary remove all promotion of contemplative authors from the Young Life resources.
Lighthouse Trails never did hear back from Young Life leaders but over the years has witnessed the ongoing embracing of contemplative authors by Young Life. While today the organization boasts of reaching over 1.1 million kids, Young Life continues advancing the “resources” of many contemplative figures. In one Young Life leadership training manual, the following authors and books are listed as resources for “Personal Growth in Christ. You will see that this list contains a who’s who of contemplative figures, and in many of these books, mantra-style meditation is encouraged. You can read about most of these names at Lighthouse Trails Research (just plug the names into the search engine):
Abba’s Child, Brennan Manning
The Bible Jesus Read, Phillip Yancey
A Book of Daily Prayer, Robert Webber
Celebrate of Discipline, Richard Foster
The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction, Eugene Peterson
Devotional Classics, Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith
The Hound of Heaven, Francis Thompson
The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis
Life of the Beloved, Henri Nouwen
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson
Out of Solitude, Henri Nouwen
The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence
Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, Richard Foster
The Ragamuffin Gospel: Embracing the Unconditional Love of God, Brennan Manning
Space For God: Study and Practice of Spirituality and Prayer, Don Postema
A Testament of Devotion, Thomas R. Kelly
The Way of the Heart, Henri Nouwen
The Will of God as a Way of Life, Gerald L. Sittser
Working the Angles, Eugene Peterson
Another Young Life resource list, Equipping Volunteer Leaders, also includes contemplative figures. This list has some other names as well including emergent type authors. Many of these books are published by Jossey Bass, one of the most prolific publishers for emerging church writings. Peter Drucker’s management theme and the progressive “servant leadership” theme are found in some of these titles and authors also:
Authentic Leadership: Courage in Action, Robert W. Terry
Everyone’s A Coach, Don Shula and Ken Blanchard (New Age meditation advocate)
The Fifth Discipline: Mastering the Five Practices of the Learning Organization, Peter M.Senge (Buddhist sympathizer)
Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work, Eugene Peterson
In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership, Henri Nouwen
The Journey to the East, Herman Hesse (esoteric writing)
The Leader of the Future, Hesselbein, Goldsmith, Beckhard
Leadership Is an Art, Max Dupree
Leadership Jazz, Max Dupree
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey (New Age Mormon)
The Way of the Heart, Henri Nouwen
We hope and pray that Young Life leadership will stop turning to the contemplative/emerging mystics to train Young Life leaders and kids. You may contact the main office at:
Young Life International South Division
P.O. Box 520
Colorado Springs, CO 80901-0520
Phone: (719) 381-1754 Fax: (719) 381-1750