Coming From the Lighthouse

Printer Friendly Version (click here) January 28, 2008

In This Issue -

Cedarville University Bringing Emerging Church Activist to Campus

Awana Revisited: Is it or is it not promoting contemplative spirituality?...

Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) Adds Spiritual Formation and Promotes Contemplative

Conference Alert: Brian McLaren Tour Starts Soon

Change! New worlds, New ways, New minds, New gods

Book on the Emerging Church Issues Warning Around the World

Falling Sparrow book series

Publishing News...NEW IN 2007

Newsletter in Print - Coming Soon

If the church is to dance, however, it must first get its flabby self back into shape. A good place to begin is the stretching exercise of touching its TOEs [which he also refers to as Grand Unified Theory].... Then, and only then, will a New Light movement of "world-making" faith have helped to create the world that is to, and may yet, be. Then, and only then, will earthlings have uncovered the meaning of these words, some of the last words ... Thomas Merton uttered: "We are already one. But we imagine that we are not." (from Faith Undone, p. 163)

Awana Revisited: Is it or is it not promoting contemplative spirituality?

Nearly two years ago, Lighthouse Trails issued its first report that the Christian children's club, Awana, may be heading toward contemplative. Since then, further evidence has come to the surface, and yet Awana leaders continue to deny that this is happening. This week, we received another email backing up their insistence that nothing is amiss. Thus, we revisit the Awana issue - where do they stand when it comes to contemplative spirituality?

In our initial February 2006 report titled "Awana Clubs Are They Heading Toward Contemplative/Emergent?" we began:

Awana Clubs has been a respected and trusted Christian organization for many years. Countless children have been Cubbies and Sparkies and have memorized Scripture through the program.

With so much of the church heading into the contemplative/emergent camp, also known as the spiritual formation movement, what a tragedy it would be to see Awana being sucked into this also. Few things are stable these days ... is Awana the next to cave in?

Our report showed some connections between Awana and Willow Creek (a contemplative/emerging organization) as well as promotion by Awana of other contemplative/emerging organizations such as Youth Specialties. Later in August of 2006, we reported that Awana had begun using (and selling) a book by Purpose Driven youth pastor Doug Fields (published by Zondervan and Youth Specialties) to train Awana leaders.

The book by Fields, Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry, is still being used and sold by Awana today. Inside the book are several sidebar commentaries by various people who promote contemplative and/or emerging spirituality: the emerging and mysticism promoting Tony Campolo, the late Mike Yaconelli (founder of Youth Specialties), Rick Warren, Marv Penner (Briercrest Biblical Seminary, Canada), Duffy Robbins, Bo Boshers (leader at Willow Creek), and others, most of whom promote contemplative spirituality and the emerging church.

One year after our second report in July 2007, we issued another one titled "Awana Embraces Contemplative Spirituality." Even though Awana had been contacted by many people over the previous year regarding their move toward contemplative, the organization continued in that direction. The July report explained:

[T]hrough Awana's prison project, the organization is incorporating New Age sympathizer Ken Blanchard's Lead Like Jesus Encounter program.... Blanchard has been promoting eastern-style meditators for over twenty years, and to this day is still doing so. In addition, he is a board member for the occultic Hoffman [Quadrinity] Institute. Blanchard participated in the Hoffman Process and said it made his spirituality come alive. We believe this experience he had through Hoffman is similar to what Blanchard refers to in his Lead Like Jesus book, when he says people who "quiet their mind[s]" during the Lead Like Jesus Encounter have "powerful experience[s]." This means that now children and families in Awana could possibly wind up with the same experience.

Blanchard, who has been a professing Christian since the 1980s, wrote the foreword for a 2001 book titled What Would Buddha Do at Work?. In the book, Blanchard said: "Buddha points to the path and invites us to begin our journey to enlightenment. I ... invite you to begin your journey to enlightened work." ... Amazingly, in the book that inspired the Lead Like Jesus Encounter that Awana is using, Blanchard acknowledges Norman Vincent Peale's role in his spiritual walk. According to Ray Yungen (For Many Shall Come in My Name - p. 47), Peale had strong New Thought connections.

Our July report then revealed that Awana had become involved in a book project called: Perspectives On Children's Spiritual Formation. Of the book (carried and sold in Awana's bookstore) we stated:

The book offers four different views on how to transform children. One author, Scottie May, a professor at Wheaton, writes the section titled, "Contemplative-Reflective Model." May gives a hearty promotion of centering prayer, the Jesus prayer, Christ candles, the Catholic Eucharist and a strong endorsement for contemplative spirituality ala Thomas Merton, whom she favorably quotes in the book. Two Awana staff writers respond in the book to May's contemplative approach and give it a thumbs up with only minor cautions. But overall they believe that contemplative is a valid approach for all Christians, including children. Perspectives on Children's Spiritual Formation is giving a green light to Awana leaders around the world to practice contemplative prayer.

It is this book that has prompted us to write this updated report.

Over the last two years we have received many emails from concerned parents who wrote to Awana about their move toward contemplative, and in these emails we were sent the responses from Awana. Here are a few:

"Dear __, the answer to question is NO, we are not moving toward contemplative prayer, nor do we use contemplative prayer in our materials. To answer the second question, our facilities are not far from Willow Creek, but we are miles away in philosophy."

"The headline in the article by Lighthouse Trails, "Awana embraces contemplative spirituality," is not true, nor is it borne out in the article ... Lighthouse Trails did talk to Lyndon Azcuna at Awana Clubs International, who told them that although Awana was using Ken Blanchard's materials, the prison program of Awana does not use New Age and mystical meditation. In the exercise that Lighthouse Trails quotes from Ken Blanchard's book, Awana uses it as a time for students to engage in individual silent prayer, something that we can agree is an appropriate exercise."

"The two staff writers [who participated in the spiritual formation book] from Awana, far from giving the 'contemplative-reflective model' a 'thumbs up' in their critique of the chapter by Scottie May of Wheaton College (as Lighthouse Trails claims), rather temper their statements in the few areas of agreement with the admonition to use Scripture, not experience or feelings as our guide to spirituality. Their disagreements with the 'contemplative-reflective model' are very specific and backed up with Scripture. Hence to say that Awana 'is giving a green light to Awana leaders around the world to practice contemplative prayer' is a misrepresentation of both our beliefs and practices as an organization.... just because Awana has had some association with those who promote contemplative spirituality or are in the emerging church movement, does not mean we endorse their teachings and practices."

"I and Awana are not in support of the Contemplative/Reflective style of ministry. I believe people are changed to be like Christ by believing and obeying the Word of God."

And finally, the email we received this week. It is referring to the book, Perspectives on Children's Spiritual Formation.

"Lighthouse Trials definitely gave a biased uniformed [sic - uninformed] critique. I saw no endorsement by AWANA of the contemplative approach. Rather, I viewed this book more as an academic/education assessment of four leading approaches used in children's ministry today. I actually was glad to see AWANA was invited to present its' position. Lighthouse should do more research before hastily making judgments. In fact, they should update their website and apologize for the misleading article, even if unintended, and I am copying them on this email as a request to do so.

At this point, let us look at statements made by the two Awana leaders who contributed to Perspectives on Children's Spiritual Formation. While some statements are made that "temper" the strong contemplative message in the book, several other statements show that the Awana leaders do not see a serious problem with contemplative spirituality. On the contrary they acknowledge its importance in Christian life. Remember, these comments are made in the book by the two Awana leaders (Gregory Carlson and John Crupper. Following each of their statements is a comment by Lighthouse Trails:

Page 82: "In his excellent overview, Streams of Living Water, Richard Foster outlines six different spiritual traditions that present within the Christian faith. They are the contemplative tradition, the holiness tradition, the charismatic tradition, the social justice tradition, the evangelical tradition, and the incarnational tradition. Each of these has played an important part in the larger history of the Christian church.... Each of these traditions has made significant contributions to Christian spirituality and each has weaknesses when isolated from other traditions.

Our Comment: It is in Streams of Living Water that Foster quotes panentheist Thomas Kelly as saying "within all" there is a "Divine Center" (p. 23). Foster also talks about a "kingdom of heaven" and a "vision of an all-inclusive people (p.12). He later in the book reveals his "I see a people" essay, which is a description of this all-inclusive kingdom (p. 273). This "great gathering of the people of God" includes evangelical pastors, Catholic priests, contemplative monks.

What Carlson and Crupper seem to have a problem with when it comes to contemplative, isn't contemplative itself but rather that it should not be isolated but should be included in Christian spirituality. That is why they said each has weaknesses when isolated from other traditions. Thus they give their ok to contemplative as long as it is combined with other "traditions." They say: Each of these models can learn from the other (p. 83).

P. 83-84: "While we believe that the Contemplative-Reflective Model highlights some significant needs in children's spiritual formation, we should see it as an addition to the base provided for us in the Scriptures....We share agreement with the Contemplative-Reflective Model in a number of areas ... we have much to learn from the Contemplative-Reflective Model. Many of our children's programs are far from reverential, and the constant barrage of impulses does not seem to help in developing this interior life."

Our Comment: This "interior life" of getting rid of distractions is classic contemplative spirituality. Contemplative mystic Henri Nouwen stated: "to empty out our crowded interior life and create the quiet space where we can dwell with God" (Nouwen, The Way of the Heart)

P. 85: [W]e would see many of the techniques [from the Contemplative-Model] of teaching as valuable tools for learning ... the ideas of repetition and routine ... are important; and we affirm them.

Our Comment - If the Awana writers in this book are trying to persuade readers that they do not promote contemplative spirituality, they have done a terrible job in expressing this. On the contrary, they have given minor cautions and major affirmations. They conclude with: "Given this framework, the Contemplative-Reflective Model becomes, at best, an important tool in helping provide a balanced development of the Christian spiritual life" (p. 87). While Carson and Crupper point out some of the flaws in the Contemplative-Reflective Model, they make it clear that there is much good in it. Their response to contemplative spirituality leaves one message to readers: contemplative has some problems but if incorporated with other spiritual traditions, it has great value. And it is this attitude that is going to take Awana down a slippery slope of deception, unless they truly come to understand the underlying dangers of contemplative and then make every effort to rid Awana of its influence.

Carlson and Crupper say they "appreciate the Contemplative-Reflective Model's commitment to the development of the child's spiritual life. We are not in disagreement about the necessity of this. Nor would we disagree with the validity of the model to build upon the foundation that is laid by knowing Scriptures. Further, we would acknowledge that the commitments that drive this model provide a necessary balance within the larger scheme of things" (p. 88). Perhaps Carlson and Crupper do not realize that the "commitments that drive" the contemplative model are based on the spirituality of Thomas Merton as the book points out and they are aligned with panentheism that states all humans have God within. If that is the case, we hope that Carlson and Crupper will research the evidence. Lighthouse Trails will send a complimentary copy of A Time of Departing, which carefully examines and documents the contemplative prayer movement, to any Awana leader who contact us and wishes to read Mr. Yungen's book.

At Lighthouse Trails we care about children, and we are gravely concerned over the influences that contemplative spirituality is having on countless children attending church services and youth organizations. It is an influence that caused mystic Henri Nouwen to say:

Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God. (Sabbatical Journey, page 51, 1998 Hardcover Edition)

And Thomas Merton to say: "I'm deeply impregnated with Sufism [Islamic mysticism]" (The Springs of Contemplation, p. 266) and Karl Rahner (who is also discussed in the Awana book) to say: "The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic ... or he will be nothing." It is the spirituality of Rahner, Merton, and Nouwen that Perspectives on Children's Spiritual Formation is talking about and affirming, and we contend that in such spirituality there is nothing valid, significant, necessary, or important for Christian training and evangelizing.

Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) Adds Spiritual Formation and Promotes Contemplative Authors

The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) is a major resource association for Christian schools around the world. According to its website, ACSI serves over 5,300 member schools in approximately 100 countries with an enrollment of nearly 1.2 million students. It claims to strive to "enable and equip Christian educators and schools worldwide to effectively educate children and young people with the mind of Christ."

Unfortunately, ACSI may be heading into the troubled waters of contemplative spirituality. A letter sent out last month by ACSI stated the following:

Next month, each head of school of an ACSI member school will receive a complimentary copy of the book Letters by a Modern Mystic by Frank C. Laubach. This is being sent to you to encourage you to order copies for your teachers at a discounted rate. Dr. Ken Smitherman, ACSI President, is making this a priority because he believes that this book will lead you and your teachers to a deeper level of discipleship and thus impact students (Luke 6:40).

This letter was sent to Lighthouse Trails by a concerned principal from a Christian school in the United States.

The Laubach book is one of three books listed under the ACSI "Spiritual Formation" section (link removed by ACSI): Laubach's Letters by a Modern Mystic, Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart, and Cultivating Christian Character by Michael Zigarelli. It is the third book (by Zigarelli) on which this article will focus.

In Zigarelli's book, he gives a hearty promotion for contemplative spirituality in the chapter titled "Become More God-Centered by Practicing the Spiritual Disciplines" through a recommended list of books and authors that includes several contemplative proponents: Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline), Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, Francis de Sales, St. John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, and St.Ignatius of Loyola. Zigarelli also lists many of these same names at the back of the book under "Helpful Resources for Cultivating Christian Character" (the theme of the book). This extended list also includes centering prayer advocate Larry Crabb, panentheist Thomas Merton, and one particular name that many of our readers may not be familiar with - David Steindl Rast. Those who are familiar with this name will undoubtedly find this extremely disturbing to know that Christian school teachers and students may be introduced to Steindl Rast through Zigarelli's book.

In Ray Yungen's book, A Time of Departing, he discusses Steindl Rast:

In the summer of 1996, Buddhist and Catholic monks met together to dialogue in what was billed the "Gethsemane Encounter." David Steindl-Rast, a Zen-Buddhist trained monk and close friend of Thomas Merton, facilitated this event.

During the encounter, presentations on Zen meditation and practice from the Theravedan Buddhist tradition were offered. One of the speakers discussed the "correlation of the Christian contemplative life with the lives of our Buddhist sisters and brothers. (Credence Communications Catalog)...

David Steindl-Rast once asked Thomas Merton what role Buddhism played in his going deeper into the spiritual life. Merton replied quite frankly: "I think I couldn't understand Christian teaching the way I do if it were not in the light of Buddhism" (The Dawn of the Mystical Age, Tuoti, p. 127).

Did Merton mean that in order to understand what Christianity really is, you have to change your consciousness? I believe that is exactly what he meant. Once he personally did that through contemplative prayer, Buddhism provided him with the explanation of what he experienced. But again the catalyst was changing his consciousness....

You don't have to change your consciousness to grab "aholt" of God. All you need is to be born-again. What Steindl-Rast and the other Gethsemane monks should have been telling the Buddhists is, "Behold! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). (ATOD, ch. 3)

Steindl Rast is described as "a successor to his mentor Thomas Merton, who shared with him the wonders of Eastern spiritual teachings." 1In Steindl Rast's book, The Ground We Share: Everyday Practice, Buddhist and Christian is an interspiritual dialogue promoting the idea that mysticism is the common ground in all religions. The basis of this idea is that the same "God" is reached during mystical experiences, no matter what religion the meditator is from. Of course, what this really means is that God is all things and all humans (i.e., man is divine).

Not only is ACSI pointing Christian schools to David Steindl Rast, but in an article (p. 5) written by ACSI president Smitherman, he speaks favorably of emerging leader Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis. Bell shows in that book his propensity toward the New Age by calling Ken Wilber's book, A Brief History of Everything, "mind blowing," telling readers to spend three months studying it (click here for more information on Bell).

ACSI represents 5300 Christian schools internationally. We pray and hope they will realize that spiritual formation (contemplative spirituality) is not the way "to enable and equip Christian educators and schools worldwide to effectively educate children and young people with the mind of Christ." David Steindl Rast, Thomas Merton, Ken Wilber, Rob Bell and other mystics cannot help with this, and in fact, following their teachings will do the opposite.

Sadly, the ACSI Early Education Conference on April 19, 2008 is telling attendees to read Henri Nouwen's book, In the Name of Jesus for preparation for the conference.(link removed by ACSI) It is in this book Nouwen says: "Through the discipline of contemplative prayer, Christian leaders have to learn to listen to the voice of love ... For Christian leadership to be truly fruitful in the future, a movement from the moral to the mystical is required." Nouwen identifies "mystical" when he states: "The quiet repetition of a single word can help us to descend with the mind into the heart ... This way of simple prayer ... opens us to God is active presence" (The Way of the Heart). And he shows the "fruit" of contemplative when he states: "Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God."
(Sabbatical Journey, page 51, 1998 Hardcover Edition)

When Zigarelli recommended David Steindl Rast, did he realize that Steindl Rast rejects the biblical gospel of atonement? Listen to what Steindl Rast states:

Unfortunately, over the course of the centuries, this [Christianity] has come to be presented in almost legal language, as if it were some sort of transaction, a deal with God; there was this gap between us and God, somebody had to make up for it--all that business. We can drop that. The legal metaphor seems to have helped other generations. Fine. Anything that helps is fine. But once it gets in the way, as it does today, we should drop it. (The Ground We Share, p. 45)

Is that really what ACSI wants for Christian schools - to drop the gospel of Jesus Christ? We hope and pray not.

Change! New worlds, New ways, New minds, New gods ...

by Berit Kjos

CHANGE!  However hollow its promises, this common catchword does bring an illusion of unity. For even the most diverse politicians, pastors, managers and media masters across America seem to agree on this point: Change is essential to their own success.

"It's about change!" proclaims the Obama for Change website!

"It's not [just] about change," said pollster Frank Luntz. "

It's about a new beginning."[4]

"This is not yesterday's world; this world is now -- and now just changed,"[5] declares the "Rethink" website. Featuring speakers from diverse cultural arenas, it has joined Pastor Robert Schuller and Erwin McManus, former President George H.W. Bush, Larry King, Kay Warren, Rupert Murdoch and many others in collective dialogues that envision the future and propose the "needed" change.

"Do you need to change your life," asks Oprah Winfrey. "Do you feel STUCK? Are you UNHAPPY with your life?"[6]  Her fans answer "yes" -- and Oprah guides the way. One of her solutions is the occult bestseller, The Secret.

Since most people are dissatisfied with something -- war, finances, migration or globalization -- change sounds good. And if the masses are not yet dissatisfied enough to flow with the transformational agenda, today's change agents will soon find a new convenient crisis. Meanwhile, get ready. As The Aquarian Conspiracy warned us in back in 1980, a groundswell is rising:

"A leaderless but powerful network is working to bring about radical change in the United States.... Broader than reform, deeper than revolution, this benign conspiracy for a new human agenda has triggered the most rapid cultural realignment in history. The great shuddering, irrevocable shift overtaking us is not a new political, religious, or philosophical system. It is a new mind....

"There are legions of conspirators. They are in corporations, universities and hospitals, on the faculties of public schools, in factories and doctors' offices, in state and federal agencies, on city councils and the White House staff, in state legislatures, in volunteer organizations, in virtually all arenas of policy-making in the country...."[7]

But what does this change imply? Where are we headed? What are the social and personal costs? Click here to read this entire article.

Book on the Emerging Church Issues Warning Around the World

Falling Sparrow - Two true stories

Announcing 

Lighthouse Trails Publishing's Falling Sparrow series

  Two new books (both true stories) added to our Falling Sparrow collection:  

East Wind by Ruth Hunt:

Nine years in a Soviet prison camp would seem an eternity to most of us. For Maria, it was an investment in eternity. This is the true story of Maria Zeitner Linke-a story of survival and courage in the death camps of Stalin's Gulag after World War II. But more than that, it is the story of how one woman turned her sorrow into an opportunity for growth, ministry, and strengthened commitment to Jesus Christ. In nine years, Maria moved through six different camps, including the infamous Buchenwald, which the Soviets had taken over from the Nazis after the war. In the process, Maria touched the lives of many people and helped them turn their own mourning into dancing. This book, which will remind many readers of the works of Corrie ten Boom and Alexander Solzhenitsyn, offers encouragement and hope to anyone who has ever wondered, "How would I react if my faith were really put to the test?" It comes to terms with the true meaning of "practicing patience in tribulation."

Publishing News

Newsletter in Print - Coming Soon

If you would like to receive the Coming from the Lighthouse newsletter in print form by mail, please send an email to newsletter@lighthousetrails.com. Be sure and include your mailing address in the email. We will be issuing a printed newsletter several times a year for those who prefer that over the email edition or for some reason need both.

 Both email and printed editions will be free.

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