Every week, we receive emails and phone calls from many believers who are grieved because of the apostasy they see taking place. They share their stories and often say they cannot find a church that still preaches the Word of God. Many of these who call or write are heartbroken because grown children or their grandchildren have been pulled into deception.

The apostle Paul exhorted the leaders of the church to watch over their flocks that God had given them, warning that savage wolves would come in. May those pastors, elders and leaders of the body of Christ who have turned away from the truth of the Word of God return and start watching over their flocks again, and may those who have remained faithful be comforted and encouraged in Him.

"Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I [Paul] know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears." Acts 20:28-31

Dear LifeWay:
I am a member of the Hispanic Evangelical Missionary Church in Brooklyn, NY. We are currently studying from a series of discipleship books from your ministry. I was on your website and was shocked to see that you carry books from New Age sympathizers such as, Thomas Keating, Ken Blanchard, Leonard Sweet, & Henri Nouwen. I didn't look for others for I think this was enough. It certainly casts a shadow of doubt on your leadership's discernment. There are a few articles on www.LightHouseTrailsResearch.com having to do with these above mentioned authors which I think you'll find interesting and hopefully alarming. Many "Christian" bookstores are selling New Age books without considering the impact it will have on new or ignorant believers. Sadly, very few are willing to pull these books from their shelves. Please do take this seriously for the Lord our God will judge us.

In Christ, Arcangel

Dear Arcangel,
Thank you for your email of September 27, expressing your concern that we list books by Thomas Keating, Ken Blanchard, Leonard Sweet, and Henri Nouwen on our web site, www.lifewaystores.com. I am pleased to respond. Our vision statement at LifeWay Christian Stores is, "As God works through us, we will help people and churches know Jesus Christ and seek His Kingdom by providing biblical solutions that spiritually transform individuals and cultures." We have product standards and will not knowingly carry a book containing unbiblical material. We have not carried many Christian Booksellers Association best-sellers because they contained unsound doctrines. We want our customers to be able to trust every product we list to be biblically-based and theologically sound, so we screen the products that are listed on our web site and exclude ones that do not conform to our standards. As I am sure you are aware, the Internet contains countless sites, full of information on virtually any subject. However, much of the information is opinion. One can find a full range of subjective evaluations of popular Christian authors on various sites. Obviously, they cannot all be accurate because they sometimes contradict each other. We use sites like the one you mentioned in our research, but we do not agree with all their assessments. To address your specific concerns, I will comment on each author you mentioned:
Thomas Keating--He has written books on contemplative prayer, but this does not make him a New Age sympathizer. Meditation is a biblical concept. See Psalm 19:14, Psalm 104:34, Psalm 1:2, and Psalm 119:15. Should Christians abandon this biblical practice just because New Agers have adopted it?
Ken Blanchard--He became a Christian late in life after he established a reputation as one of the best authorities on leadership in America. He is now using his writing and speaking opportunities to develop Christian leaders. His critics have used the "guilt by association" charge which, in many cases, is not valid. He has admitted endorsing some books that are clearly inconsistent with Evangelical Christian theology, and he regrets that. However, in our opinion, that does not invalidate his positive work for the cause of Christ including his recent books on Christian leadership.
Leonard Sweet--He has been associated with the emergent church. Some believe that invalidates his ability to write books acceptable to Evangelical Christians. However, should we exclude books that equip pastors and other Christians [to] learn about trends in theology and culture in order to be equipped to deal with these issues in their churches or other organizations? You mentioned discernment. We do not want to decide for these Christian leaders by excluding books that may be extremely helpful to them and their congregations. We trust their ability to discern how best to use the material they find in these resources.
Henri Nouwen--He was a deeply spiritual and gifted writer about the Christian faith, but he was not a New Age sympathizer. My pastor has quoted him from the pulpit, and our church is definitely not New Age.

Thank you for visiting our web site, for studying discipleship books provided by our ministry, and for taking the time to write to express your concerns about these vitally important issues. I hope you can see that we work very hard to ensure that the products we list are in harmony with our vision statement and product standards. As such, they are biblically-based and theologically sound. With some 100,000 books in our database, our customers could not expect to agree with every thought in every book, but they should not encounter material that is inconsistent with basic tenets of the Christian faith. I hope this information is helpful and encouraging to you. Blessings,
Jim Shull
LifeWay Christian Stores
615-251-5885
jim.shull@lifeway.com
http://www.lifewaystores.com

LTPC: LifeWay's comments about panentheist and New Age mystic, Thomas Keating, are most disturbing as are their comments about Ken Blanchard, Leonard Sweet and Henri Nouwen. Thomas Keating believes that divinity is within all humanity, and he openly teaches this type of spirituality. LifeWay's remarks about Ken Blanchard, suggesting he is a new believer, are simply untrue. Blanchard, who has been steadily endorsing and promoting Buddhist books for the last twenty years, by his own admission (in his autobiography, We Are the Beloved) became a professing Christian in the mid eighties - not "late in life" as LifeWay is saying. And while it is true that Blanchard made a statement of regret about his continuous endorsements of Buddhist and New Age books throughout that twenty year period, he has continued to endorse New Age books ( see example) after this statement was made, and he is still a board member of the Hoffman Institute (home of the Hoffman Quadrinity Process), with some of the most avid New Agers today. These connections Blanchard maintains show clearly his affinity to New Age spirituality, which is also the affinity of both Leonard Sweet and Henri Nouwen. Nouwen, in his book Sabbatical Journey, said he was uncomfortable with those who say Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and that he felt it was his calling to help people find their own path to God. Once again we ask, when are Christian leaders going to defend the faith and say no to spiritual deception and compromise?

"[T]he whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." I John 5:19- 20 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name [Jesus Christ] under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

"[W]e work very hard to ensure that the products we list are in harmony with our vision statement and product standards. As such, they are biblically-based and theologically sound. With some 100,000 books in our database, our customers could not expect to agree with every thought in every book, but they should not encounter material that is inconsistent with basic tenets of the Christian faith.

The question many may be asking right now is, "Now that this has been brought to LifeWay's attention, can they and will they once and for all stop calling the books in question "Christian" when they actually promote Eastern mysticism, panentheism and other New Age spiritualities?" While we believe that LifeWay may indeed remove some of the titles, as they did recently with 14 titles on Yoga and Buddhism, it will take more than removing books to break the ties with contemplative and the emerging church (both of which have New Age premises). What most people may not realize is that LifeWay Christian Resources (connected to LifeWay Stores) is an Alliance Partner with Leadership Network. This partnership is not something hundreds of ministries partake in - no, there are just nine organizations, and LifeWay is one of them. According to Leadership Network "Lifeway is excited about the message of Halftime and its impact on the church. Lifeway and Halftime are working together to create new products that will carry the 'Success to Significance' message."

Halftime is the book title of Leadership Network founder, Bob Buford. In the mid nineties, Leadership Network hired emerging church leader and yoga proponent Doug Pagitt, and later brought on Mark Driscoll, Brian McLaren and Tony Jones, thus the emergent movement was launched. The emerging church movement was not started by a bunch of disgruntled young people as many people think but was actually started by leaders like Buford, Rick Warren and Peter Drucker who have been instrumental in bringing about the success of the movement.

Leadership Network is a strong proponent of contemplative spirituality. If LifeWay is "excited about the message of Halftime" and is an alliance partner with Leadership Network, will they be able to or even want to make a clean break from contemplative and emerging? We fear the answer to this may be a resounding "No" and they, along with the Southern Baptist Convention, will continue taking the plunge into deception, pulling countless people with them.

For more information:

Leadership Network Started the Emergent Church  

This isn't the first time Lighthouse Trails has reported on children and meditation. Unfortunately, our other reports have also had to do with children in Christian settings. For instance, a June 2006 story, Sad News for Preschool Children: MOPS Heads Contemplative, shows how MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) is becoming more and more entrenched in contemplative spirituality and New Age influences:

MOPS is promoting (and selling) books that are pro-contemplative. The book that stands out among the others is Breathe. The author, Keri Wyatt Kent, is a writer for Willow Creek Community Church and often speaks on spiritual formation. Her upcoming book, Listen: Finding God in the Story of Your Life, teaches readers to "listen" to God through "spiritual practices," including the practice of silence. The author quotes extensively throughout the book both contemplatives and New Agers, including Henri Nouwen, M. Scott Peck, Sue Monk Kidd, Anne Lamott, Julia Cameron, Rick Warren, Richard Foster, Ruth Haley Barton, and Eugene Peterson... For those who might be saying right now, "OK, so MOPS likes one of Kent's books, Breathe - it isn't this one that is so blatantly contemplative and filled with New Age meditation concepts and quotes. But on the back cover of Listen: Finding God in the Story of Your Life sits an endorsement by Elisa Morgan, president of MOPS, which reads: "Keri offers insightful and practical help for all of us who are "hearing impaired" in our spirits. Ah ... what a relief!"

"But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea." Mark 9:42 

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

Thomas Keating/Basil Pennington "For the centering prayer practitioner, regular practice of "contemplative" prayer sets in motion a dynamism of "divine psychotherapy, organically designed for each of us, to empty out our unconscious ... As this false self is dismantled, we come to see our true Self, the center of which, so say proponents, is God." (Keating) "[I]n centering prayer we go beyond thought and image, beyond the senses and the rational mind, to that center of our being where God is working a wonderful work, just sitting there, doing nothing. Not even thinking some worthwhile thoughts or making some good resolutions-just being." (Pennington)

Richard Foster "Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center" Chapter two -Quote by Thomas Kelly from Richard Foster's book, Streams of Living Water

Tony Jones "Emergent doesn't have a position on absolute truth, or on anything for that matter. Do you show up at a dinner party with your neighbors and ask, 'What's this dinner party's position on absolute truth?' No, you don't, because it's a non-sensical question." (Jones)

Dan Kimball "We have neglected so many of the disciplines of the historical church [e.g.,Desert Fathers], including weekly fasting, practicing silence, and lectio divina." (Kimball) The Emerging Church

Doug Pagitt "When people discover we are a church with a yoga class ... they sometimes assume that we're simply out to appeal to the cultural creatives and the neo-hippies." (Pagitt) Reimagining Spiritual Formation

Erwin McManus "The Barbarian Way was, in some sense, trying to create a volatile fuel to get people to step out and act. It's pretty hard to get a whole group of people moving together as individuals who are stepping into a more mystical, faith-oriented, dynamic kind of experience with Christ. So, I think Barbarian Way was my attempt to say, 'Look, underneath what looks like invention, innovation and creativity is really a core mysticism that hears from God, and what is fueling this is something really ancient.' That's what was really the core of The Barbarian Way. (McManus)

Brother Lawrence "It is said of Brother Lawrence that when something had taken his mind away from love's presence he would receive 'a reminder from God' that so moved his soul that he 'cried out, singing and dancing violently like a mad man.' You will note that the reminders came from God and were not his own doing." (quotes by Brother Lawrence, from The Practice of the Presence of God, 1977, Harper Collins )

Leonard Sweet "The power of small groups is in their ability to develop the discipline to get people 'in-phase' with the Christ consciousness and connected with one another." (Sweet)

Rick Warren "Who's the man of peace in any village - or it might be a woman of peace - who has the most respect, they're open and they're influential? They don't have to be a Christian. In fact, they could be a Muslim, but they're open and they're influential and you work with them to attack the five giants. And that's going to bring the second Reformation." (Warren)

Mark Yaconelli"1.Choose a sacred word or phrase 2. Consistently use the same word throughout the prayer. 3. Begin silently to repeat your sacred word or phrase." (Yaconelli)

Spencer Burke "I stopped reading from the approved evangelical reading list and began to distance myself from the evangelical agenda. I discovered new authors and new voices at the bookstore-Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen and St. Teresa of Avila. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. Contemplative spirituality seemed to open up a whole new way for me to understand and experience God. I was deeply moved by works like The Cloud of Unknowing, The Dark Night of the Soul and the Early Writings of the Desert Fathers." (Burke)

Other Authors on AFA:

Mike Yaconelli, Chuck Smith Jr., Jim Collins, Wayne Teasdale, Ken Wilber, Sue Monk Kidd, Liz Babbs, and many, many more...

All of the mentioned names above promote mystical meditation and contemplative spirituality. For citations, quotes and documentation on the quotes we listed, see Lighthouse Trails Research Project. Go to our search engine or Topic Index.

The camp philosophy and program depicted in the recently released Jesus Camp film, a documentary by Magnolia Pictures, are not truly representative of those in most Christian camps in the United States.

Unfortunately, both Spirituality & Practice and the CCCA have misunderstood what this film really conveys.

Spirituality & Practice got it wrong when they said this film exposes what conservative Christianity really is. What is taking place in this film is not indicative of biblical Christianity, which holds to the fundamentals of the faith, and is much different than the spirituality being taught to kids at the Kids on Fire camp. What S & P fails to understand, as does much of the secular media, is that there is a large segment of Christendom (Rick Warren falls in this camp) that believes the Church can and will change the entire culture, turning the world into a Christian world before Christ returns. Such beliefs fall within the parameters of Dominionism and Reconstructionism. So in actuality, when S& P says that the film exposes a "campaign to recruit the younger generation to fight for the very soul of America" that may be an accurate assessment. Unfortunately, most leaders who are Dominionists and/or Re constructionists are increasingly being drawn into mysticism and contemplative spirituality as a tool to implement their goals of changing the culture. And this film is further proof of this. Click here to read the rest of this article.