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As the world watches on in fear and anxiousness
over what is currently taking place
in the Middle East, let us pray
that the body of Christ throughout
the world will continue to share
the gospel of Jesus Christ with
those who are spiritually lost.
Perhaps more now than any time in
history, the purity of that gospel
message is being attacked and challenged,
and yet it is in that very message
that salvation can be found. Jesus
made that clear when he said, "I
am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except
through Me."
Contemplative/emerging spirituality
began in the Garden of Eden when
the serpent (Satan) said to Eve, You will be like God, and
later in Isaiah 14 when he said, I will be like the most High
God. This is actually the premise
of the New Age in that all paths
lead to God as well as all humanity
has Divinity within. Because contemplative/emerging spirituality
is now influencing most well-known
Christian leaders and countless
ministries, churches and organizations,
we as believers must continue to
speak up and warn about this belief
system which ultimately rejects
the gospel and prohibits it from
being preached.
"And He commanded us to preach to the
people, and to testify that it
is He who was ordained by God
to be Judge of the living and
the dead. To Him all the prophets
witness that through His name,
whoever believes in Him will receive
remission of sins." (Acts 10:42-43)
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"50 Most Influential Churches"
- Many Promoting Contemplative
This
month The Church
Report (both an online and hard
copy magazine) posted a "50 Most Influential
Churches" list. The list was compiled
from a 2006 survey of over 2000 non-Catholic
leaders. The number one spot fell
to Willow Creek (Bill Hybels) with
Saddleback (Rick Warren) following
at number two. This means that the
two most influential churches (according
to this survey) are promoters of contemplative
spirituality.
Many
others of the 50 named also fall within
this category. Some of those include:
#3
North Point Community Church (Pastor
Andy Stanley, son of Charles Stanley)
#4 Fellowship Church (Pastor Ed
Young, Jr.)
#7 Life Church (Pastor Craig Groeschel)
#12 Mosaic Church (Pastor Erwin
McManus)
#17 Mars Hill Bible Church (Pastor
Rob Bell)
#18 Capo Beach Calvary (Pastor Chuck
Smith, Jr.)
#22 Mars Hill Church (Pastor Mark
Driscoll)
#40 Calvary Church Fort Lauderdale
(Pastor Bob Coy)
#45 Menlo Park Park Presbyterian
(Pastor John Ortberg)
#46 Oak Hills Church (Pastor Max
Lucado)
#48 Wooddale Church (Pastor Leith
Anderson)
Through
our research, we have discovered
that many, not all, of the other
pastors and churches on this list
also promote contemplative and/or
emerging spirituality. Many of the
50 are part of and participating
in the "new evangelicalism" that
approaches Christianity from a business
viewpoint with strong New Age affinities.
If indeed this list by The Church
Report is an accurate estimation
of influential churches, it is a
valid statement to say that Christendom
is now in some very troubled waters,
both in North America and around
the world.
Lighthouse
Trails believes that real godly
influence should be attributed to
the many unrecognized Christian
pastors throughout the world who
have stayed true to the Word of
God and faithfully preached the
gospel of Jesus Christ. These shepherds
of the body of Christ do not compromise
truth with church-growth, seeker-friendly,
Purpose-Driven and New Age practices.
These are the pastors (and their
churches who support them) who should
be honored. They are the ones who
will stand against the seducing
spirits and doctrines of demons
that will usher in that false
"coming one" who opposes and
hates Jesus Christ - the only name
in which salvation lies.
Note:
Regarding The Church Report, please
read the following - On the
staff page of the website, there
is an array of staff members, editors
and writers. The list is lengthy
and includes Ken
Blanchard, Robert Schuller,
Dr. Phil, Beverly LaHaye, Chuck
Colson, Paul Crouch, Mark Driscoll, Brian McLaren, and
Luis Palau. Because of the New Age
and contemplative persuasions of
some of the writers, we hope readers
will use much discernment when reading
this monthly church report. The
magazine was mentioned and linked
to in
a recent Rick Warren pastors.com
newsletter. |
Popular Bible Website Begins
Spiritual Formation Project
Bible.org is a popular and well-visited website
that began in 1995 to "leverage the
Internet as a powerful new force in
Christian ministry." According to
the website, Bible.org "has grown
to serve millions of individuals around
the world through providing thousands
of trustworthy resources for Bible
study." However, the ministry's newly
launched Spiritual Formation project
has concerned many who use the site
to find resources. The new project's
motto is "Journeying together along
a path of spiritual transformation,"
and is currently featuring the materials
of Bill Hull.
Hull's most recent book, Choosing
Life: Exploring a Faith That Embraces
Discipleship, has a foreword written
by Dallas Willard and a back cover
endorsement by Brian McLaren. In addition,
Hull tells readers to "study and practice
the Spiritual Disciplines, listing
Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster, Dallas
Willard, Soren Kierkegaard and Francis
de Sales as beneficial authors
to read. Hull instructs readers to
practice lectio divina and says to
"explore new vistas of the devotional
life that we as evangelical's have
missed (p. 218)." The book is filled
with quotes by and favorable references
to Henri Nouwen, Richard Foster, John
Ortberg and other contemplatives.
On Hull's
website, he says we must "redefine
what it means to be a Christian,"
quoting Brian McLaren as saying
we should "spend the next 15-20
years asking the question, 'what
is the gospel?'" Hull's two-year Choose
the Life program offers resources
which include Brian McLaren's, A
New Kind of Christian and Dallas
Willard's Spirit of the Disciplines.
In a Bible.org article, written
by Ken Boa and titled "An
Introduction to Sacred Reading,
Boa gives a detailed and lengthy
discourse in the use of lectio divina,
explaining that it was introduced John
Cassian. Boa says that while
the practice of lectio divina died
out over the centuries it was restored
by people like Thomas
Merton and Thomas
Keating. Boa refers favorably
to a number of mystics (i.e., contemplatives)
in his article and quotes Merton
as saying, "It is much better to
desire God without being able to
think clearly of Him, than to have
marvelous thoughts about Him without
desiring to enter into union with
His will." This is similar to Brennan
Manning, who exhorts readers
to stop thinking about God during
the time of prayer.
On Bible.org, Bill Hull states:
Something
is happening, there is a new movement
emerging in the land.... There
is a call going out, "Dive, Dive,
lets go deep with God." The academy
calls it spiritual
formation, others spiritual
direction, practitioners refer
to it as discipleship. Leaders
are traveling to and fro in order
to conduct summitry about it.
Unfortunately,
this "traveling to and fro" is resulting
in a complete New Age infiltration
of Christendom. It appears that
Bible.org has jumped on board and
is doing their part to help multitudes
of people "dive in."
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20 Million in the Emerging
Church?
Chicago: According
to a CBS report, there may be
as many as 20 million participants
in the emerging church. The report
says that Generations X and Y are
looking for a religion that is like
something out of the 60s. One pastor
quoted called it "a new reformation,"
while another said its "just finding
a new set of answers, a different
way of being Christians." What the
report failed to say however, is that
nearly all of the emerging church
leaders (those who have influence
with their books and teachings: Bell,
Pagitt, McLaren, Jones, etc.) promote
contemplative spirituality in a significant
manner.
But if the 20 million figure is even
close to right, this would make the
emerging church the largest single
denomination or religious movement
in the US, roughly comparable to the
Southern Baptist Convention. And if
those figures are true then the largest
and most dynamic movement within Christianity
is heading in a New Age direction
(labyrinths, centering prayer, etc.).
And with influential leaders like
Rick Warren and Bill Hybels promoting
and encouraging the emerging church,
many more millions may be added to
that number.
View the video or read the CBS
report on the Emerging Church. |
WARNING: West Coast Youth
Conference Will Promote Contemplative
Spirituality
Parents,
who are considering sending their
teens to the BNYC
(Brethren National Youth Conference),
should think twice about this. While
the conference will include speakers
like Ray
Comfort and Josh
McDowell, it will also offer
a variety of contemplative resources
and teachings to the teens. The
links below show some of the concerns.
1.
(Triple
Trax - group 2 is teaching the
spiritual disciplines) "The Climb
will encourage students in their
spiritual growth to adopt spiritual
disciplines."
2. offering
emerging teacher, Don Miller’s
book, Blue
Like Jazz "A remarkable
journey back to a culturally relevant,
infinitely loving God."
3. Youth
Workers Resources: (This list
includes Youth Specialties, Group
Publishing, and Relevant Mag, all
of which promote, endorse, and teach
contemplative, emerging and Eastern
style practices and beliefs. (See
our research on Youth
Specialties.)
This
event is being held at a university
(Biola) that partners
with Richard Foster and Larry
Crabb in the Spiritual
Formation Forum. In addition,
Biola’s Institute of Spiritual Formation
teaches contemplative spirituality.
See Biola,
What Ever Happened? The conference
is offering a resource to parents
called www.cpyu.org,
which has numerous connections to
contemplative and emerging.
Note: We received a phone call on Friday
from a concerned parent who told
us that during the Triple Trax session,
youth will be taken to both a Buddhist
temple and a Moslem mosque.
It
is our hope that Ray Comfort and
Josh McDowell will warn teens attending
the conference not to participate
in any of the contemplative sessions.
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Wesleyan Church Corporation
Offers
Contemplative Retreats
HolyNext is
a two-day spiritual formation retreat,
which is offered by the Wesleyan Church.
The ministry website is owned by the
Wesleyan Church Corporation and was
created last year. Mottos such as
"Be Still" and "New Blessings from
Ancient Practices" flash across the
pages of the site, while spiritual
disciplines are offered as a way to
be "recharged in the presence of God."
Dr. Keith Drury (featured
on HolyNext and a professor at Indiana
Wesleyan University) writes "extensively
on spirituality." His newest book
is titled With Unveiled Faces ...
Experience Intimacy with God Through
Spiritual Disciplines. Drury also
wrote a book for a series called the
Lectio Divina Bible Studies.
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World Vision and Wycliffe
Bible Translators Sponsor Contemplative-Promoting
Festival
Cornerstone Festival
(July 2006) offers a labyrinth, contemplative
"prayer rhythms" and more.
On July 4th through 8th,
Cornerstone Festival (a ministry of
Jesus People USA) took place. Sponsors
of the event included World Vision
and Wycliffe Bible Translators. The
event offered a prayer labyrinth and
"contemplative journeys of prayer."
In addition, the festival offered
an Imaginarium titled Days
of the Dead. (Caution: Young children
should not view this link.)
The festival also presented The
Burning Bush Program, which offers
labyrinths and "Mystical Art Soup
... helping young people identify
and develop their gifts in the arts."
The question must be asked, what were
World Vision and Wycliffe Bible Translators
thinking when they agreed to sponsor
this event? With seminars on Celtic Monasticism, Kierkegaard's
Relevance to the Contemporary Church,
Martial Arts and Missions, and The
Revolutionary Way of Christ: Toward
a Postmodern Christology, it would
be difficult to mistake this for anything
other than a promotion for contemplative
and emerging spiritualities with overtones
in the occult.
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Willow Creek To Teach Breath
Prayer at
Saturday Workshops
The teacher helped
with a book by
contemplative Ruth Haley Barton.
A Willow Creek project called The
Practice ("gathering of those
interested in pursuing spiritual transformation")
will be presenting various workshops
starting this fall. The session called
Prayer (scheduled for March 2007)
"will be teaching on Breath Prayer,
an ancient and helpful form of prayer."
The teacher for this workshop is Darlene
Strieff. Streiff is listed in John
Ortberg and Ruth
Haley Barton's study guide, Ordinary
Day with Jesus, as a volunteer
who supported the development of the
book. Ortberg and Barton's book promotes
contemplative, and each session of
that book lists "Additional Resources."
If readers read some of these recommended
resources, they will get more than
a hearty helping of contemplative,
emerging and panentheistic writings.
Take for instance, the recommended
books for session one, "Living in
Jesus' Name": Three out of five resources
are from contemplative authors, including
Tilden Edwards, founder of the panentheistic Shalem
Institute. Session four, "Leadings,"
lists contemplative-promoting Dallas
Willard and Thomas Kelly (who
says that within all human beings
there is a "Divine Center"). The majority
of these "Additional Resources" are
books by contemplatives and include
Richard Foster, Eugene
Peterson, Brother
Lawrence and more of Nouwen and
Tilden Edwards.
For more information on breath
prayers:
Breath
Prayer - Not Biblical Prayer
Christians
Should Dump Contemplative Prayer
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ISRAEL IN THE NEWS TODAY
Green: Arab Countries;
Red: Israel
The following links are provided
to give you up to date news and
commentary on the current crisis
in Israel.
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BOOK NEWS ... From Lighthouse
Trails
"The rise of centering prayer
is causing many churches to become
agents of transformation. Those who
practice it tend to embrace this one-world-religion
idea." - Ray Yungen, 1991
New
Edition  As you may already know, Lighthouse
Trails Publishing has been carrying
Ray Yungen's first book, For
Many Shall Come in My Name,
since we became his publisher in 2002
and published his book, A
Time of Departing. For Many
Shall Come in My Name was published
in 1991, and when we met Ray, there
were about 3000 copies still in print.
Those copies are now gone, with the
exception of about 45 copies. This
year we signed a contract with Ray
and have become the new publisher
for the book. We are happy to announce
that we will be coming out with a
new, revised and expanded, edition
in March 2007.
I first read the book in 2001 when
I met Ray and found it astounding
back then. Recently I began reading
it again and in light of what I know
now about the contemplative prayer
movement, I am amazed at this book.
The very things Ray discussed 15 years
ago in the book about the New Age
movement, including the Ancient Wisdom,
have now entered Christendom full
force in the name of Spiritual Formation,
contemplative prayer, Purpose Driven
and the Emerging Church.
You may wish to read this excerpt to see why we think this book
is an important one in understanding
the New Age movement and new spirituality
that has entered the church.
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