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It has become apparent to many
now that contemplative spirituality
has made its way into the church
and in a big way. It has entered
through many avenues: Purpose Driven,
the emerging church, the church
growth and seeker friendly movements
and through Christian educational
institutions and Christian bookstores.
One Christian leader after the other
is endorsing and promoting this
spirituality - a spirituality that
contradicts biblical Christianity
and the gospel message. Some of
these leaders have indicated that
they should not be challenged or
questioned on what they teach and
what they promote. While we, as
believers, desire to show respect
to pastors and Christian leaders,
we also know we cannot be silent
when error and deception are being
condoned. The Bible makes it clear
that each one of us is responsible
to study the Word and defend the
faith.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is
good." I Thessalonians 5:21
"These were more noble than those
in Thessalonica, in that they received
the word with all readiness of mind,
and searched the scriptures daily,
whether those things were so. Therefore
many of them believed..."
Acts 17: 11, 12 |
John Piper Conference
Includes Contemplative Promoting Speaker
The Desiring
God 2006 National Conference,
to be held on September 29th, will
be addressing "the Supremacy of Christ
in a postmodern world." According
to John
Piper, founder of the Desiring God ministries,
speakers for the national conference
are "eager to speak on behalf of the
risen Lord of the universe, Jesus
Christ." However, one of the speakers
is Mark Driscoll (of Mars Hill Church),
who is considered to be one of the
emerging church leaders. While Driscoll
has recently stated that he has distanced
himself from certain
Emergent leaders (McLaren, Jones,
etc.), in a recent Lighthouse
Trails article, documentation
shows that Driscoll is promoting contemplative
spirituality. There should be, therefore,
great concern that John Piper is including
Driscoll in a conference that is addressing
post-modernism in a critical light.
Contemplative spirituality (i.e.,
New Age mysticism) is the vehicle
that the postmodern world is using
to reach their objectives. Including
a pro-contemplative speaker at this
conference will confuse participants
at best and dangerously mislead them
spiritually at worst. Rather than
bringing Mark Driscoll in as a speaker,
his spiritual sympathies towards contemplative
should be exposed, and people should
be warned.
According
to the Acts 29 Network (Driscoll's
ministry) recommended reading list
of "worthy literature" Mark Driscoll
recommends books by Richard Foster,
Dallas Willard, and a book called The
Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
Other books on the list include those
by panentheist St. John of the Cross,
and a collection of books about Celtic
Spirituality (i.e., contemplative
spirituality) as well as books by
Thomas Merton, Teresa of Avila, Eugene
Peterson, and Larry Crabb (AACC).
Act 29's recommendation of Thomas
Merton (who said he was impregnated
with Sufism: Islamic mysticism) is
perhaps the most telling of all. One
of the books Driscoll recommends by
Merton is Wisdom
of the Desert (referring
to the desert fathers). Lighthouse
Trails Research has contacted Acts
29 in the recent past and told them
about these recommended resources
and their dangers. As we stated in
our previous article:
For
Driscoll to say he has distanced
himself from some aspects of the
emerging church (or the Emergent
leaders) but then advocate Merton
and this line up of other avid mystics
is an oxymoron.
The point is, Mark Driscoll is promoting
contemplative spirituality, and
for someone to say they don't promote
the emerging church but then promote
contemplative is faulty thinking
because the latter is so much worse
- it is contemplative spirituality
that makes the emerging church so
heretical. Remember, the premise
of contemplative is that all paths
lead to God and God is within all
creation.
We
hope and pray that Mark Driscoll will
remove these contemplative recommendations
from his website and make a public
statement saying that contemplative
spirituality is an anti-biblical belief
system that he rejects. Otherwise,
we pray that John Piper will find
someone else to speak at his upcoming
conference.
Acts
29 is also recommending various emerging/contemplative
organizations, networks and churches
that should also be removed from his
site if Driscoll is to be considered
as someone who is against the emerging
church and contemplative spirituality. |
Evangelical Leaders Endorse
Contemplative-Promoting Book
Erwin Lutzer, Jerry
Falwell and James Kennedy Endorsement
Sends Wrong Message
Trusted
Christian leaders, ones many would
never suspect, have endorsed a book
by contemplative proponent Larry
Crabb, a "spiritual director"
for the American Association of Christian
Counselors (AACC)
and a popular Christian author. Three
pages of endorsements inside the book
have several obvious names: Brian
McLaren, Tony Campolo, Brennan Manning,
Bob Buford, Chuck Smith Jr. and John
Ortberg. This is like a who's who
of evangelical contemplative proponents.
But then there are names that would
be the last ones you would expect
to see in a book that comes right
out and condones centering and contemplative
prayer: Dr. James Kennedy, Erwin Lutzer
and Dr. Jerry Falwell.
The
new book that these leaders have endorsed
promises to teach readers a revolutionary
way to pray. The book, The
Papa Prayer (Integrity
Publishers, 2006), boasts that this
new kind of prayer will "shatter your
view of prayer as it used to be" (back
cover). The author, a board member
of the Spiritual
Formation Forum, does not
hesitate to let readers know that
he currently practices both contemplative
prayer and centering prayer (which
are really one and the same):
I've
practiced centering prayer. I've
contemplatively prayed. I've prayed
liturgically....I've benefited from
each, and I still do. In ways you'll
see, elements of each style are
still with me (The Papa Prayer,
p.9).
And
then on page 22, Crabb says, "Other
forms of relating to God that have
unique value in connecting us to Him
include contemplative prayer and centering
prayer." Read
the rest of this article, click here.
|
Spiritual Direction - Started
by Mystics, Promoted by Christians
Spiritual
Directors International (SDI) is
an interspiritual "learning community
committed to advancing spiritual direction
around the world" with a membership
that "consists of people from many
nations and many faiths." According
to SDI, spiritual direction is "the
contemplative practice of helping
another person or group to awaken
to the mystery called God in all of
life," and they respond "to this call
by tending the holy around the world
and across traditions. Ray Yungen
discusses SDI in A
Time of Departing:
To
underscore the scope and reach of
the contemplative prayer movement
let's look at the numbers put out
by an organization called Spiritual
Directors International (SDI). On
their website this group gives ample
evidence of what their practices
are. In one national conference,
the following was presented: This
workshop offers an opportunity to
study and experience the director's
role in a person's move into the
beginning and early stages of contemplative
prayer, silence, and openness to
new sorts of praying. One of the
objectives of SDI is "Tending the
holy around the world and across
traditions."
While
it is evident that SDI believes outside
of the scope that salvation can only
be found through Jesus Christ according
to the Bible, it is interesting to
note the wide variety of Christian
denominations that are represented
by SDI:
A
2005 membership list showed 531
Episcopalians, 223 Presbyterians,
201 United Methodists, 154 Lutherans,
and a whopping 2,355 Roman Catholics;
counting another forty or so "traditions,"
the total was nearly 5000. To show
the nature of just what they mean
by "across traditions" the list
included Buddhist, Gnostic Christian,
Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Siddha Yoga,and
even Pagan/Wiccan (A Time of
Departing, 2nd ed. p.41).
A
2003 Christianity
Today article, Got
Your Spiritual Director Yet?,
confirms two things, one that spiritual
direction is contemplative, and two
that it is becoming a part of evangelical
Christendom. The article explains
that popular Christian author Larry
Crabb is changing his views. Once
a believer in psychology he is switching
to spiritual direction. The article
credits contemplatives (mystics) such
as John Cassian and Ignatius of Loyola
for getting spiritual direction into
the church and suggests that we can
learn more about it from Richard Foster,
Eugene Peterson, and Dallas Willard
- with this we completely agree. As
Rick Warren stated in his book, Purpose
Driven Church, Foster and
Willard are key players in the Spiritual
Formation movement, but while Warren
says that this movement is a vital
wake up call for the church, we say
it is a terrible seduction for the
church. |
At the Cost of Truth, Christian
Media Builds a Superstar
If you've ever taken a journalism
class in college, you were probably
told that the media has a very powerful
influence. You may have been told
that the media can even start and
stop wars. Well in the world of evangelicalism,
the same seems to be true. A number
of Christian media sources have taken
Rick Warren and helped to turn him
into a superstar, tracking his every
move, reporting on his every deed.
The articles are usually biased, sounding
more like political campaign ads than
news stories.
As an example of this off-balanced
journalism, take a look at the BP
(Baptist Press) News. The BP News
(a Southern Baptist Convention news
arm) has not been shy about its admiration
and promotion of Rick Warren. Articles
about Warren are
published on the average about
three weeks out of any given four
week period. Most of the articles
are glowing reports - few have any
hint of criticism.
An article written on Thursday, September
7th is a perfect example of this.
The BP article, titled " WSJ
Raises Criticisms About "Purpose-
Driven' Model," listed as a "news"
item, was BP News' response to the
recent Wall
Street Journal article about Purpose
Driven resisters. While the article
spoke in highly favorable terms of
Warren, it neglected to mention some
of the more significant facts of the
Wall Street Journal article, such
as tactics that have been used by
Purpose Driven leadership to stop
resisters (like making sure opponents
never get to serve in leadership in
any church in the community again).
While BP News promotes and exalts
Warren, Christianity Today does also. Warren is featured or/and
mentioned in hundreds of articles.
The
Christian Post, a newspaper
that says it "does not promote or
demote any denomination and/or Christian
congregations" publishes dozens of
glowing stories about Warren each
year as well as articles written by
him. In August alone, there were about
17 instances. That's more than four
a week.
And then there is Fox News, which focused
particularly on Warren last month.
Fox News is owned by the same corporation
that owns Warren's publisher.
Few would deny that Rick Warren has
become a superstar, but it hasn't
been done without a little help from
his friends. Do the countless readers
and viewers of these "friends" realize
that this superstar is promoting a
New Age spirituality (contemplative),
the emerging church movement and a
global unity that will further delude
a blind world? And do Christian readers
and viewers realize that such delusion
will steer the lost away from the
gospel message of Jesus Christ rather
than to it?
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly,
that in the latter times some shall
depart from the faith, giving heed
to seducing spirits, and doctrines
of devils..." I Timothy 4:1
For more on Rick Warren's promotion
of contemplative, read A
Time of Departing.
Also read:
Baptist
Press Responds to Wall Street Journal
article on Warren
|
Evangelical Covenant Church
- Denomination Gone Contemplative
The Evangelical
Covenant Church began in the late
1880s "in the biblical instruction
of the Lutheran State Church of Sweden,
and in the great spiritual awakenings
of the nineteenth century." The denomination
has ministries on five continents
and claims that it "values the Bible
as the Word of God." Therefore it
is with sadness to report that the
ECC has gone into contemplative, seeming
to have no reservations in doing so.
With several educational institutions,
including North
Park University, the ECC influences
many people, including many college
students.
>From labyrinths to centering
prayer groups and everything in
between, the ECC is promoting contemplative
spirituality to their members. Centering
prayer groups adhere to the teachings
of Basil
Pennington and Thomas
Keating, both of whom are panentheists
(God in all things). In addition,
ECC offers several opportunities for
its members to participate in Spiritual
Formation (an avenue through which
contemplative spirituality is introduced),
and a seminar called Habits of the Heart presents contemplative
practices such as lectio divina. A recommended
reading list for Christian Formation contains just about every contemplative teacher
one can imagine.
The denomination's university, North
Park University, is reflective of
the denomination and incorporates
many of the same contemplative practices
and persuasions as does North Park
Theological Seminary, which also has
a Center
for Spiritual Direction (spiritual
direction - another avenue through
which contemplative spirituality enters).
Many members of the Evangelical Covenant
Church will be heart-broken as they
are forced to leave their ECC churches
(some of whom have contacted Lighthouse
Trails) in search of ones that maintain
biblical integrity and defend the
gospel of Jesus Christ in truth and
courage. Contemplative spirituality,
in all its substance and form, can
never do this and will only cause
havoc and deception. |
Hymns - Why Do Contemplative-Promoting
Authors Dislike Them?
"[W]e made the strategic
decision to stop singing hymns in
our seeker services." Rick
Warren, Purpose Driven Church,
p. 285
It is interesting (and sad) to watch
the growing trend among those who
promote contemplative and/or emerging
and those in the seeker-friendly movement
to teach their followers that hymns
are outdated, irrelevant and un-useful.
In light of the fact that many of
the traditional hymns were birthed
out of suffering and hardship, the
rejection of them is even more difficult
to embrace. However, in the atmosphere
of today's Christendom, it is not
more difficult to understand. Much
of Christendom has made a direct bee
line for Catholicism, ignoring the
very fact that our past brothers and
sisters were martyred in their attempts
to leave the institution and its rituals
behind. We live today in such a spiritual
environment where so many are able
to run back to the very thing that
others died to leave; thus it is not
hard to understand why so many are
rejecting the hymns of those who suffered
for their defense of the faith.
In his first book, Purpose Driven
Church, Warren devotes several
pages to convincing readers that hymns
are outdated and need to go. David
Jeremiah, in his book Life Wide
Open, said: "Unfortunately, we
often encourage comfort zones in the
church." He then quotes contemplative
Calvin Miller, who said: "I was struck
one day by all the hymns that center
on faith as a protective refuge."
Examples he gave included "A Mighty
Fortress is Our God," "Rock of Ages,"
and "Haven of Rest." Jeremiah said
that such songs were "comfort music
for weak-kneed saints" (pp. 164-165).
Is it possible that many of today's
Christian leaders have become so alienated
from the very idea of suffering for
the defense of the faith, that the
notion of singing songs "that center
on faith as a protective refuge" is
ridiculous to them? And could it be
that Christians today are being trained,
not to be stand for truth, but rather
to bend with and mimic our culture?
A Mighty Fortress
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark
never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal
ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek
to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and,
armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God's own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus,
it is He;
Lord Sabbath, His Name, from age to
age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils
filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble
not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his
doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal
life also;
The body they may kill: God's truth
abideth still,
His kingdom is forever. |
Mark Driscoll and Acts 29
Network - Promoting Contemplative
Mark
Driscoll, the president of Acts 29
Network, became part of the original
Emergent team that Leadership
Network brought together. In a Criswell
Theological Seminary article,
Driscoll stated:
"In
the mid-1990s I was a young church
planter trying to establish a church
in the city of Seattle when I got
a call to speak at my first conference.
It was hosted by Leadership Network
and focused on the subject of Generation
X. ... Out of that conference a
small team was formed to continue
conversing about postmodernism ..."
This
original team included Brian McLaren,
Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, Tony Jones,
and Driscoll. However, in more recent
days, Driscoll has made public comments
that he has distanced himself from
some of these Emergent leaders and
aspects of the movement itself.
The question therefore has been
put to us, is Driscoll a promoter
of contemplative spirituality and
the emerging church movement? Perhaps
one of the best places to look for
this answer is Driscoll's ministry, Acts
29 Network (incidentally, there
is no Acts 29 in the Bible). Mark
Driscoll, pastor of Mars
Hill Church in Seattle, Washington,
is also founder and president of
Acts 29 Network, a "network of pastors
from around the nation and world
whose dream is to help qualified
leaders called by God plant new
churches and replant declining churches."
But in examining the Acts 29 Network,
there is no question that the "network
of pastors from around the nation
and world" who visit this website
are going to be introduced to a
spirituality that is contrary to
Scripture and one which negates
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Under
the "A29 Recommended Reading List"
is a selection of what is referred
to as "worthy literature." The list
includes books by Richard Foster,
Dallas Willard, and a book called The Spiritual Exercises of St.
Ignatius. Other books on the
list include those by panentheist
St. John of the Cross, and a collection
of books about Celtic Spirituality
(i.e., contemplative spirituality)
as well as books by Thomas Merton,
Teresa of Avila, Eugene Peterson,
and Larry Crabb (AACC). Act 29's
recommendation of Thomas Merton
(who said he was impregnated with
Sufism: Islamic mysticism)is perhaps
the most telling of all. One of
the books Driscoll recommends by
Merton is Wisdom of the Desert (referring to the desert fathers).
For Driscoll to say he has distanced
himself from some aspects of the
emerging church (or the Emergent
leaders) but then advocate Merton
and this line up of other avid mystics
is an oxymoron.
The
point is, Mark Driscoll is promoting
contemplative spirituality, and
for someone to say they don't promote
the emerging church but then promote
contemplative is faulty thinking
because the latter is so much worse
- it is contemplative spirituality
that makes the emerging church so
heretical. Remember, the premise
of contemplative is that all paths
lead to God and God is within all
creation. |
Another Christian Publisher
Embraces Contemplative/Emerging
Baker Books seemed to be
one of the few larger Christian publishing
houses that had not jumped with both
feet on the contemplative/emerging
bandwagon. That all may be changing
however. With their new release of
James Wakefield's book on lectio divina
and the Fall 2006 release of emerging
leader Robert Webber's new book, The
Divine Embrace, Baker Books is
joining the ranks of Christian publishers
who are capitalizing on the popularity
of mysticism in Christendom. On Baker's
website sits an endorsement for Webber's
new book:
Robert Webber's new book
places him in the good company of
Dallas Willard, Richard Foster,
and Eugene Peterson as one of our
most important thinkers about spiritual
formation for authentic Christian
living. It provides fresh, wise,
and challenging guidance that is
rooted in a career of Christian
leadership development. It draws
from decades of research in church
history and spirituality, and flows
from the mind of a scholar and the
heart of a practitioner. I am a
fan of all his work, but I think
this is his best and most important
book to date."--Brian McLaren,
author/speaker (brianmclaren.net)
Another Summer
2006 release by Baker Books is
contemplative Calvin Miller's book, Preaching. Miller is the author
of Into the Depths of God.
In taking a closer look at Baker Books,
we see that they have been dabbling
in the contemplative path for some
time now. In 1998, Baker published
contemplative author David Benner's
book, Care of Souls. But nothing
in their past can compare to their
plans for the future. What may be
the most alarming of all is Baker
Books upcoming Spring 2007 release, An
Emergent Manifesto of Hope by Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones, Brian
McLaren and Dan Kimball! |
The Shape of Things to Come
Biola University Embraces Contemplative
Spirituality
by
Ray Yungen
Biola
University, the traditional virtual
bedrock of conservative Christian
higher education, has opened itself
to influences that would have its
founders turning over in their graves.
This Fall, at Biola's
Christian Spirituality Soul Care series, contemporary Protestant
mystic Ruth
Haley Barton will be a featured
speaker. Ms. Barton is a
graduate of the Shalem
Institute, founded by Tilden
Edwards who believes Buddhist mysticism
can enliven the spiritual life of
the Christian. The Shalem Institute
is the embodiment of all the heresies
that Lighthouse Trails has been
warning about since its inception.
For Ms. Barton to successfully have
completed the course in Spiritual
Formation without any type of discomfort
or protest indicates that she sees
nothing wrong with Shalem's bent
towards Buddhist/Hindu spirituality.
This is apparent in her method of
reaching God and is the classic
modality that all world mystics
use to reach their respective divinities.
Ms.
Barton repeats the words "Here I
am" over and over again for a period
of time to induce a thoughtless
state. To have Ruth Haley Barton
speak with authority at an institution
of Biola's background and history
would be in essence no different
than having Tilden Edwards himself
speak there, a man who said that
contemplative prayer was the bridge
between Christianity and Far Eastern
spirituality. If this Soul Care
series is the shape of things to
come at Biola, it would not be beyond
the realm of possibilities that
one day Biola would resemble the
Shalem Institute!
Note: After her training at Shalem, Ms.
Barton became the Associate Director
for Spiritual Formation at Willow
Creek and helped to develop their
Spiritual Formation curriculum.
Since then she has started the Transforming
Center, where pastors and leaders
are trained in the art of contemplative
spirituality. Biola's Soul Care
series includes other speakers who
heartily promote contemplative prayer,
including Dallas Willard. |
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