"Bhakti Tirtha Swami lectured and wrote extensively on topics ranging from mysticism and bhakti-yoga to leadership for the modern age. Ken Shelton, editor of the professional journal Executive Excellence said of Swami, his 'work on leadership sets a new standard, expressly because it explores the spiritual dimension in ways that popular gurus like Stephen R. Covey, [New Age/ Mormon] Kevin Cashman [New Ager], and Ken Blanchard have not done." The Honorable Pierre Admossama, retired Director of the International Labor Organization for the United Nations, called Swami "an example in the truest sense of global principle-centered leadership.'"First African-American Vaishnava Hindu Guru Passes Away

New Age sympathizer Ken Blanchard is including David Jeremiah in this year's Lead Like Jesus conference. Blanchard, a proclaimed Christian since the mid-eighties, has a twenty-year history of endorsing and promoting staunch New Agers and Buddhists. You may look at these endorsements and promotions more closely on our web site.

As for David Jeremiah, anyone who knows him or has a way of getting in touch with him, should let him know that this is one conference he doesn't want to attend.

"Does Buddha have anything to offer non-Buddhists in the workplace? My answer is a wholehearted, 'Yes.'-Ken Blanchard, co-author of the One Minute Manager, from the foreword and front cover of What Would Buddha Do at Work?

Write to David Jeremiah:
PO Box 3838
San Diego, CA 92163
info@turning pointradio.org

At the recent Emergent Convention, in which Brian McLaren (emerging church leader) was one of the speakers, he used a PowerPoint presentation. He now carries the presentation on his web site. If you really want to know what the emerging church and Brian McLaren are all about, check this out. Below are a few quotes from that presentation.

• "We embrace historic spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation, contemplation, study, solitude, silence."
• "We are committed to honor and serve the church in all its forms - Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal.
• "What if the dominant method [of]knowing truth is being replaced by a new methodology ...
• ""Fundamental" Beliefs are established by research (doubt). They must be "incorrigible" and universal - which means non-subjective, and absolute."
• "We name the disease: Excessive confidence ... Universal systems ... Totalizing metanarratives ... Absolutism"
• "ABSOLUTISM: Upholding the conviction (a) that one single explanatory system or view of reality can account for all the phenomena of life and (b) that conceptions of truth and moral values are universal and timeless, not relative to the persons or groups holding them.

The PowerPoint Presentation Continues:
ABSOLUTISM AS CANCER --
RELATIVISM AS CHEMOTHERAPY: "IS THE GOSPEL AN ABSOLUTIST (TOTALITARIAN) METANARRATIVE OR A PRIVATE PERSONAL TRUE-FOR-ME RELATIVIST NARRATIVE Or ... An embracing mega-narrative this is beyond both absolutism and relativism?"

Brian McLaren attempts to take us beyond absolutism (the belief that there are absolutes and definite truths) and beyond relativism (the belief that each person has his own valid truth). According to McLaren, what is beyond those two? Only one thing - - Interspirituality!

More From His Presentation:

"Accept the coexistence of different faiths ... willingly, not begrudgingly. Christian mission must be dialogical."

"The seven formative factors in theology ... experience, revelation, Scripture, tradition, culture, reason ... (Macquarrie, 1977) and dialogue with other religions."

"We realize that each religion is its own world, requiring very different responses from Christians."

"The "old, old story" may not have been the "true, true story," and so we must continually rediscover the gospel."

The History of the Navigators

Their Various Ministries

NavPress - A Far Cry From the Original Navigators:
Today, NavPress has become a leading publisher for contemplative spirituality books. Here are just a few titles:

• When the Soul Listens by Jan Johnson, Dallas Willard
• Soul Guide by Dr. Bruce Demarest/Henri Nouwen
  
• Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard
  Endorsed by Dan Kimball
  
• The Message "bible"by Eugene Peterson
  
• Meditative Prayer: Entering God's Presence by Richard Peace
  
• Abba's Child by Brennan Manning

The following are quotes from an issue of the NavPress kids magazine, Pray Kids. (Loads a bit slow.)

"Going to the next level with Jesus in contemplative prayer really can be more exciting than your favorite video game. Why not take a God-break right now and discover what's at the next level?"

"Contemplate: Be still before God. Get a picture of a sunset in your mind . . . or something else He has made that amazes you. Wait quietly to let Him tell you about Himself. Now contemplate God the Father, or Jesus, using Lectio Divina with these passages: Exodus 15:11; Psalm 145:13; Ephesians 1:18-23."

"If you've picked a topic for your time with Jesus, find something to hold that will remind you of it. For instance, if you are contemplating His many thoughts about you, hold a cup of sand (Psalm 139:17-18, New Living Translation). If you are thinking about His tender care, hold a strand of your hair (Matthew 10:30)."

"We're rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life."-- Rob Bell, Teaching Pastor, Mars Hill Bible Church from "The Emergent Mystique," Christianity Today, November 2004

"I hardly think that the statement you quote is sufficient reason not to discuss the great body of powerful and spiritual nourishing works that he (Henri Nouwen) leaves as his legacy. Is there any author with whom we can agree on every possibly point and is such complete agreement necessary.
--From a professor at Trinity International University when asked about Henri Nouwen's following quote: "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, Henry Nouwen)

"Everyone is born a mystic and a lover who experiences the unity of things and all are called to keep this mystic or lover of life alive." -- Matthew Fox

Buddha points to the path and invites us to begin our journey to enlightenment. I ... invite you to begin your journey to enlightened work."-Ken Blanchard, foreword What Would Buddha Do at Work?

"And in neighborhoods people who are Catholic and Presbyterian and Lutheran are praying together. They go to Bible studies together. And an amalgam of all kinds of religious ideas has taken hold of the grass roots. Whereas denominational leaders are increasingly saying, "Well, we've got to stand for our distinctives." ... Well, those denominational leaders are going down the wrong path! "-Leith Anderson, pastor of Wooddale Church, Minneapolis, MN Interview

An increasing number of well-known Christians have been endorsing the writings and ministries of New Agers, false teachers and cult members.

For the most part, such involvements have caught the attention of very few Christian leaders. What would have been considered incredulous and practically unheard of twenty years ago has now become common place, no big deal, and is now thought of as positive steps in dialogue and unity. Below we have listed a few of these endorsements:

Kay Warren endorses Henri Nouwen's book, In the Name of Jesus:
Kay Warren - "[I]t hits at the heart of the minister ... I highlighted almost every word."
Henri Nouwen - "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" (In the Name of Jesus, p. 6,31-32).

Craig Hazen, professor Biola University and Vice President EMNR ( Evangelical Ministries to New Religions) endorses the recently released book (by Mormon author, Robert Millet), A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter Day Saints:
Craig Hazen - "Robert L. Millet has done us all a great service with this book. He communicates contemporary Latter-day Saints thinking on Christology with remarkable clarity and charity. His years of open, bold, and authentic dialogue with traditional Protestants of all stripes have certainly given him a special vantage point. This work sets the stage for a whole new level of robust dialogue between the LDS and evangelical Christian communities" [click HERE for source].

Brian McLaren, a leader in the emerging church movement endorses Alan Jones' book, Reimagining Christianity. Alan Jones is a member of the Living Spiritual Teachers Project along with Marianne Williamson and other New Agers. Brian McLaren says of the book: "Alan Jones is a pioneer in reimagining a Christian faith that emerges from authentic spirituality. His work stimulates and encourages me deeply."
Alan Jones: "The goal of the converted life is to find God in all things and is based on the conviction of the unity of reality. Everything is connected." p. 200 "Jesus and Buddha have this in common with all great spiritual teachers-- to make human beings more conscious of themselves" (p. 194).

See more on this topic.

Does Rick Warren support and endorse the emerging church movement and its leaders, including Brian McLaren? According to his pastors.com website, the answer would have to be yes. The following emerging church leaders are written about, endorsed and promoted on the web site:

Sally Morgenthaler
(Mentioned 5 times on pastors.com)
Interview with Sally Morgenthaler
by Spencer Burke and David Trotter of The Ooze
pastors.com (10/2002)
Quote from that interview on The Ooze web site:
"I don't want to just say communicate the Gospel. I'm so tired of hearing that, because in the evangelical world we believe that the Word is the printed word. It is not. Jesus never said that this printed word is the Way, Truth, and Life. John 1 does not say that what we read about in this book is the Word. The Gutenberg press was not even invented yet. Jesus is the Word, but we have such a hard time with that."

Dan Kimball (author of The Emerging Church)
(Mentioned 4 times on pastors.com)
Example: "Rick Warren says, 'This book is a wonderful detailed example of what a Purpose-Driven church can look like in a postmodern world. My friend, Dan Kimball, writes passionately from his heart, with a deep desire to reach emerging generations and culture.'" The Emerging Church on pastors.com

Brian McLaren: Endorses Alan Jones book, Reimagining Christianity
(Mentioned 7 times on pastors.com)
Example:"Brian is a prominent voice on postmodern thinking and church growth. He is also the author of several books including The Church on the Other Side and the revolutionary book, A New Kind of Christian." pastors.com 8/2003

Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis
- Mentioned 2 times on pastors.com

The Emerging Church is mentioned over a dozen times on pastors.com. Example

For More Information on Rick Warren and the Emerging Church

The Aspen Institute is a globalist, new thought think tank that is "dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue" and seeks common ground between all peoples."(See more)

On July 5th - 10th this year, the Institute will hold the Aspen's Ideas Festival. Speakers include New Agers, contemplatives,Buddhists,, homosexuals and well-knowns such as Jane Goodall and Colin Powell and Arthur Schleissinger. Joining this open dialogue of ideas is Rick Warren.

Rick Warren will be speaking and sharing the platform one morning with another speaker--Rev. Peter Gomes. the two men will be talking about the American Experience: The Problem of Evil.

Peter Gomes is the out-of-the-closet homosexual minister for Memorial Church at Harvard University. Gomes endorses Alan Jones book, Reimagining Christianity as does Brian McLaren.

Kjos Ministries is an excellent resource, providing news and updates on issues such as the New Age, Purpose Driven, the emerging church movement, Harry Potter, mysticism, interspirituality and much more. There are also over a dozen charts that are definitely worth looking at such as the "Three Cultural Paradigm" chart.

In Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren makes several favorable references to well-known Catholics: page. 88 (Brother Lawrence, a Catholic mystic), pg. 108 when he mentions Catholic priest, Henri Nouwen and also St. John of the Cross, and twice he mentions Mother Theresa, p. 125 and 231.

While the above references certainly would not be evidence that Rick Warren plans to help bridge the gap between Catholicism and Evangelicalism, the Purpose Driven Catholics program on the Purpose Driven web certainly does.

One can only wonder if Purpose Driven Mormons, Purpose Driven Hindus and Purpose Driven Buddhists are awaiting the Purpose Driven Kingdom.

Brian McLaren to Speak at Willow Creek Small Groups Conference.

Connections:
Rick Warren -- Bill Hybels - -Ken Blanchard -- Brian McLaren

The C. S. Lewis Summer Institute, will be held in England this summer. Both Rick Warren and contemplative Richard Foster will be guests. Contemplative prayer will be one of the topics discussed at the Institute.

Nearly two years ago, Lighthouse Trails Publishing contacted the C. S. Lewis Institute after learning that they were featuring Richard Foster on their web site. They agreed to receive a complimentary copy of A Time of Departing by Ray Yungen, which we sent to them at that time.

A look at the Institute's Recommended Books list explains why Richard Foster and Rick Warren are on the speaker list this summer. Authors on this book list include:

• Dallas Willard
• Brother Lawrence
• Richard Foster
• Gary Thomas

One can only hope that the board of directors at the C. S. Lewis Institute will read A Time of Departing and finally understand our concerns.

Note: John Caddock wrote this article long before most of us had ever heard of contemplative prayer. The message Mr. Caddock gives is as important now as it was then. If you know very little about contemplative spirituality, the article is an eye opener. If you are quite familiar with this belief system, the article will confirm to you and remind you of why contemplative prayer negates the message of the Cross:

"Little did I know when I began to read The Signature of Jesus the time and effort that would be involved in understanding it. I am not a theologian by training. My background is in technical management in electronic component manufacturing. However, I stumbled onto something that I became convinced was very dangerous and little understood.

One reading was not enough for me to understand The Signature of Jesus. I found that it was like reading a book in a foreign language. I read many new expressions like contemplative prayer, centering prayer, centering down, paschal spirituality, the discipline of the secret, contemplative spirituality, celebrating the darkness, mineralization, the Mineral Man, practicing the presence, the interior life, intimacy with Abba, the uncloistered contemplative life, inner integration, yielding to the Center, the bridge of faith, notional knowledge, contemporary spiritual masters, masters of the interior life, shadow self, false self, mysterium tremendum, existential experience, and the Abba experience.

I also encountered many writers I have never read before, including Kasemann, Burghardt, Merton, Van Breeman, Brueggemann, Moltmann, Nouwen, Küng, Steindl-Rast, Rahner, Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, and Camus.

I had to read the book three separate times before I was confident that I understood what Manning was saying. I even read it a fourth time for good measure.

Reading this book led me to read a number of other books and articles by and about leading mystics/contemplatives. I learned about the heart of Manning's message, centering prayer." [John Caddock, Winchester, Oregon; Read entire article.]

On April 20th, Lighthouse Trails Publishing issued a press release showing the connection between Rick Warren and New Age/Buddhist sympathizer Ken Blanchard. One month after the press release went out we received an email from Rick Warren. Within hours of sending us the email, Rick Warren made the email public. Needless to say, it traveled wide and far. Two weeks later we made a public response and explained that while Rick Warren's email to us was full of erroneous and misleading statements there was virtually no explanation as to why his connection with Ken Blanchard was taking place and how such actions might affect the church.

Since then, we have received two phone calls and one email from men at Saddleback. We have also been sent numerous emails and statements that Saddleback Church and National Director of 40 Days of Purpose, Marty Cutrone, have issued to many people regarding our April 20th press release on Ken Blanchard. In no uncertain terms, the message to us from Rick Warren and Saddleback is clear--they want us to stop. In an email and a follow up phone call we received from Frank Cate, a Saddleback layman, we were told we were "damaging the kingdom." Mr. Cate said, "[A]s I read some of the crude statements you make regarding Saddleback, Rick Warren, PDL, etc., one is moved to ask to what end you are sitting up in beautiful Oregon lobbing grenades southward. Certainly the God you claim to believe in, cannot be pleased." Cate continued, "Let me say clearly to you-no one proclaims the Gospel more clearly than does Rick Warren and Saddleback. I feel sincerely that if you stopped lobbing dead cats over the wall from Oregon, and came down to see firsthand, you might well agree with that statement."

The reason we tell you these things is not to linger in the situation of these emails and phone calls but to let you know that since the day we released the information about Ken Blanchard there has been no public acknowledgment by Rick Warren or Saddleback that a New Age promoter should not be helping to train believers or those looking for truth. And to make matters worse, the evidence that Rick Warren is promoting and endorsing contemplative spirituality grows everyday.

As we have watched in wonder the assault on a small Christian publisher who has minimum impact compared to Rick Warren who continues to spread his views to literally millions of people around the world, we cannot help but wonder why such a reaction is taking place. With so much attention now placed on us many others have also become curious.

And yet, Ken Blanchard continues speaking to and training Christians at events around the world:

1.The Leadership Summit 2005 with Rick Warren, Bill Hybels and Ken Blanchard in 100 US cities and several other countries around the world. (Summer 2005)

2.Lead Like Jesus with Christian leaders such as David Jeremiah (2005).

3.Elevate 2005

With the recent endorsement by Ken Blanchard for a book called In the Sphere of Silence by Vijay Eswaran and with the continued working relationship between Rick Warren and Ken Blanchard, we believe these recent emails, phone calls and other Internet postings are a mere diversion to get the attention off the real matter.

While we realize that any continued efforts we put forth to expose the New Age infiltration into the church puts us at risk of many different scenarios, we are compelled by the Lord to press on. The gospel is worth defending because of I John 5:12, which says, "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." That Son John speaks of is Jesus Christ, and as believers, we have been commissioned to spread the Good News and to maintain its purity. But it is exclusive Good News. Life is only offered to those who have Jesus Christ. Buddha and the New Age cannot give that life. They can only give death. That is why, as we hear daily reports of apostasy entering the church, we have no choice, like you, our brothers and sisters, but to speak up and defend the words of our Lord, who so beautifully said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me" (John 14:9).

While we are sorry to see such discord among those who claim the name of Jesus, we also believe Scripture when it tells us that in latter times some will fall away from the faith and in fact, there will be great delusion coming upon the face of the Earth. As we watch in shock and dismay the falling of many Christian leaders to false teachings, we realize we too, because of our sinful nature like all of mankind, could fall and thus, by faith, we cling to the old rugged Cross and the Word that was given to us.

The apostle Paul made it very clear that even if he himself stopped preaching the gospel, he should be condemned. We too have that same responsibility and are compelled: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ" (Galatians 1: 9, 10).

Paul was eventually martyred for his faith. How can we, who have never lost blood for our faith, look at ourselves in the mirror if we are not willing to "count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus," and count them as rubbish in order that we might gain Christ and share this Good News with the world.

Editors
Lighthouse Trails Publishing

Past Newsletter Issues and Special News Alerts

Follow Up Information On Rick Warren and Saddleback Contact With LTPC

Our News Page

Eastern Regional Watch Ministries
with Steve Muse

Lighthouse Trails Publishing - A Light Shining in the Darkness

Index of our Research Topics