http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7tHB2PdQnc

Mark Driscoll: Is He Qualified To Lead?
Read this article for specific examples of controversial issues with this pastor.

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YOUTH SPECIALITIES - Do NOT participate in this organization.
Postmodern Youth Ministry
***WE DO NOT RECOMMEND PARTICIPATION IN THE ACTIVITIES BELOW***

Digging Deeper for the Heart of God
This is a supplement to the Youth Specialties book Postmodern Youth Ministry: Exploring Cultural Shift, Creating Holistic Connections, Creating Authentic Christianity by Tony Jones.

Here you'll find brief outlines for services and spiritual exercises—the kind of ancient-yet-modern expressions of faith that Tony discusses in Postmodern Youth Ministry. The sessions included are:

•Living Stations of the Cross
•The Easter Vigil
•Reaffirmation of Baptism
•Lectio Divina
•The Pilgrimage


STATIONS OF THE CROSS (document)

DISCERNMENT OF SOME FALSE TEACHERS


SOME QUOTES OF ROB BELL

Mark Driscoll at Crystal Cathedral – FAILURE
August 23, 2009 by The Desert Pastor

First, I recognize that there are those who will read this that will immediately judge my statements while at the same time stating, “JUDGE NOT!” Second, I know that Driscollites will probably show up en masse to defend their champion while deliberately overlooking Biblical commands to point out error.

Sadly, there are few opportunities for those who claim to be ministers of the gospel to make a stand that will impact millions. This is because the gospel OFFENDS and the listener to the Word of God will be brought under conviction of the Holy Spirit. The conviction will bring a conviction of sin and then it will bring transformation from an old creature to a new creation in Christ Jesus.

Recently, one man was given that opportunity to give a clear explanation of the gospel and the consequences of not believing the truth as proclaimed in the Word of God. That man was Mark Driscoll AND HE FAILED MISERABLY!

(The video can be viewed by clicking here.)


Let’s consider a few thoughts from this man who by his own admission has 20 (something) services a week and has over 10,000 members per week on average.

The venue was Crystal Cathedral where . . .

CONTINUE ARTICLE AT http://defendingcontending.com/2009/08/23/driscoll-at-crystal-cathedral-failure/

The Altered State of Silence - Promoted by Both New Agers and Christian Leaders

Different than finding a quiet place away from noise and distractions, the silence is referring to a stillness of the mind.


Ray Yungen, author of A Time of Departing, says it is like putting the mind in neutral. Contemplatives say it is like tuning into another frequency. New Agers call it different things like a thin place, sacred space, ecstasy; whatever it is called, both New Agers and Christian leaders are telling us we must practice silence and stillness if we really want to know God. Here is a sampling:


"What you need is stillness and silence so that the sediment can settle and the water can become clear." —Ruth Haley Barton, "Beyond Words"

"The basic method promoted in The Cloud is to move beyond thinking into a place of utter stillness with the Lord ... the believer must first achieve a state of silence and contemplation, and then God works in the believer’s heart."—Tony Jones, The Sacred Way, p. 15.

"Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence.... It is this recreating silence to which we are called in Contemplative Prayer.—Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (NY: HarperCollins, 1992), p. 155

"It is through silence that you find your inner being."—Vijay Eswaran, In the Sphere of Silence, excerpt from website.

"This book [In the Sphere of Silence] is a wonderful guide on how to enter the realm of silence and draw closer to God."—New Age sympathizer, Ken Blanchard

"[G]o into the silence for guidance"—New Ager, Wayne Dyer, ATOD p. 18 (from AM Northwest Morning Talk Show, KATU Channel 2, Portland, OR, Interview with Wayne Dyer, March 27, 1997)


"While we are all equally precious in the eyes of God, we are not all equally ready to listen to 'God's speech in his wondrous, terrible, gentle, loving, all embracing silence.'"—Richard Foster, Prayer, Finding the Heart's True Home, p. 156.

"When one enters the deeper layers of contemplative prayer one sooner or later experiences the void, the emptiness, the nothingness ... the profound mystical silence ... an absence of thought." —Thomas Merton biographer, William Johnston, William Johnston, Letters to Contemplatives, (Orbus Books, 1992), p. 13.


"In the silence is a dynamic presence. And that’s God, and we become attuned to that."—Interspiritualist, Wayne Teasdale, Michael Tobias, A Parliament of Souls in Search of a Global Spirituality (KQED Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1995), p. 148.


"I do not believe anyone can ever become a deep person [intimate with God] without stillness and silence." —Charles Swindoll, So You Want To Be Like Christ? (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, a div. of Thomas Nelson, 2005), p. 65

"The most important human activity in the life of any believer is spending time with God in meditation," referring to his 3 part series, Meditation: The Power of Silence.—http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/thesilence.

"One of the great things silence does, it gives us a new concept of God."—Calvin Miller, from Be Still DVD

"God's Word is so clear that if we are not still before Him, we will never truly know, to the depths of the marrow in our bones, that He is God. There has got to be a stillness. We’ve got to have a time to sit before Him and just know that He is. We live in such an attention-deficit culture, and we're so entirely over stimulated, so much coming at us at once, one image after another, that if we are not careful, we are going to lose the art of meditation." —Beth Moore, from Be Still DVD, "Contemplative Prayer: The Divine Romance Between God and Man"

"Kierkegaard, probably the greatest Protestant Christian mind of all time, said ... "If I could prescribe only one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence." Peter Kreeft , from Be Still DVD

"To be still means not only that you make a time to sit with God, but a time for your mind and your heart to be still also. Then God can meet you and fill you with His presence and His Word."-- Henry Cloud (CCN), "Being Still: Helpful Hints with Dr. Henry Cloud"

"What does stillness really mean? Is stillness just something physical? Or is it mental? Is it spiritual? Is it emotional? There’s so many levels of stillness that we need to practice. And know. Be still and know. Know what? You know, there’s something that comes with the assurance of being still. You’re no longer practicing or exerting effort." Michelle McKinney Hammond, from Be Still DVD, "Contemplative Prayer: The Divine Romance Between God and Man"

"Suppose they [churches] practice silence in some of their meetings. That would actually give a place for God to break in. And who knows, He might have something to say even to a committee meeting, if they would be silent long enough." Dallas Willard, Be Still DVD, "Contemplative Prayer: The Divine Romance Between God and Man"

"First, you must remember that when you go into solitude and silence, your basic goal is to do nothing. Yes, nothing!"--J.P. Moreland, "How Spiritual Disciplines Work: Solitude and Silence as Spiritual Disciplines"

"It is to this silence [contemplative prayer] that we all are called."--Henri Nouwen, Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart, p. 66.

"God's first language is silence." Thomas Keating, Intimacy with God, p. 153.

ANTHONY DEMELLO EXPLAINS HOW TO GO INTO THIS SILENCE THAT SO MANY TALK ABOUT--WITH THE MANTRA:

To silence the mind is an extremely difficult task. How hard it is to keep the mind from thinking, thinking, thinking, forever thinking, forever producing thoughts in a never ending stream. Our Hindu masters in India have a saying: one thorn is removed by another. By this they mean that you will be wise to use one thought to rid yourself of all the other thoughts that crowd into your mind. One thought, one image, one phrase or sentence or word that your mind can be made to fasten on. Anthony de Mello, Sadhana: A Way to God (St. Louis, the Institute of Jesuit Resources, 1978), p. 28.

Many of these quotes can be found in Ray Yungen's book, A Time of Departing.

This article is from http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/thesilence.htm

"The meditation most of us are familiar with involves a deep, continuous thinking about something. But New Age meditation does just the opposite. It involves ridding oneself of all thoughts in order to still the mind by putting it in the equivalent of pause or neutral. A comparison would be that of turning a fast-moving stream into a still pond. When meditation is employed by damming the free flow of thinking, it holds back active thought and causes a shift in consciousness. This condition is not to be confused with daydreaming, where the mind dwells on a subject. New Age meditation works as a holding mechanism until the mind becomes thoughtless, empty and silent.

The two most common methods used to induce this thoughtless state are breathing exercises, where attention is focused on the breath, and a mantra, which is a repeated word or phrase. The basic process is to focus and maintain concentration without thinking about what you are focusing on. Repetition on the focused object is what triggers the blank mind.

Since mantras are central to New Age meditation, it is important to understand a proper definition of the word. The translation from Sanskrit is man, meaning to think and tra, meaning to be liberated from. Thus, the word literally means to escape from thought. By repeating the mantra, either out loud or silently, the word or phrase begins to lose any meaning it once had. The conscious thinking process is gradually tuned out until an altered state of consciousness is achieved. But this silence is not the final objective; its attainment is only a means to an end. What that end entails was aptly described by English artist Vanora Goodhart after she embarked on the practice of zen meditation. She recounted:

[A] light began seeping through my closed eyelids, bright and gentle at first, but growing more and more intense … there was a great power and strength in this Light … I felt I was being drawn upwards and in a great and wonderful rush of power that rose eventually to a crescendo and bathed me through and through with glorious,
burning, embracing Light.

Such dynamic experiences as this are what New Age mysticism is really all about … not just believing in some doctrine or a faith that is supported by some creed but rather a close personal contact with a powerful Presence. The renowned occultist Dion Fortune acknowledged: 'shifting the consciousness is the key to all occult training.' In other words, meditation is the gateway to the 'light' Goodhart experienced. The ultimate objective of the meditation effort lies in the concept called the higher self. This is thought to be the part of the individual linked to the divine essence of the Universe, the God part of man. The goal is to become attuned with the higher self, thus facilitating the higher self's emergence into the physical realm bringing the practitioner under the guidance and direction of God. This connection is referred to in New Age circles as: awakening, transformation, enlightenment, self-realization, cosmic consciousness and superconsciousness. This is also why an interchangeable term for New Age is metaphysics. Metaphysics means that which is beyond the physical realm (the unseen realm) and being intimately connected to those powers not perceived by the normal five senses."
—Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing

December 21st, 2009 | Author: Lighthouse Trails Editors

Mark Driscoll is a name that has grown in popularity among evangelicals especially over the past few years. Somewhat known for his vulgar and crass language in public, he has been invited to speak at conferences by a wide assortment of Christian leaders–John Piper and Robert Schuller to name two. Driscoll also shared a platform this year at the Gospel Coalition National Conference with a number of respected Christian evangelical figures such as D.A. Carson, Erwin Lutzer, and Joshua Harris. Coming up in 2010, Driscoll has been invited by Rick Warren to speak at the Radicalis conference.

Although Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Fellowship in Seattle Washington, is said to have denounced certain aspects of the emergent church, Driscoll is a proponent of the main element behind the emerging church – contemplative prayer.

Presently, on Driscoll’s website, The Resurgence (see whois info) is an article titled “How to Practice Meditative Prayer.” The article is written by an Acts 29 (Driscoll’s network of churches) pastor, Winfield Bevins. A nearly identical article on Driscoll’s site, also by Bevins, is titled Meditative Prayer: Filling the Mind. Both articles show a drawing of a human brain. In this latter article, Bevins recognizes contemplative mystic pioneer Richard Foster:

What do we mean by meditative prayer? Is there such a thing as Christian meditation? Isn’t meditation non-Christian? According to Richard Foster, “Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind. Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind” (Celebration of Discipline). Rather than emptying the mind we fill it with God’s word. We must not neglect a vital part of our Judeo-Christian heritage simply because other traditions use a form of meditation.

Bevins has got this very wrong, as does Richard Foster. Contemplative proponents say that, while the method practiced by Christian contemplatives and eastern-religion mystics may be similar (repeating a word or phrase over and over in order to eliminate distractions and a wandering mind), the Christian variety is ok because the mind isn’t being emptied but rather filled. But in essence, both are emptying the mind (i.e., stopping the normal thought process). That is where the contemplatives say making a space for God to fill.

The Bevins’ reference to Richard Foster is not the only contemplative marker on Mark Driscoll’s site . In an article written by Driscoll himself, ironically titled Obedience, Driscoll tells readers to turn to Richard Foster and contemplative Gary Thomas. Driscoll states:

If you would like to study the spiritual disciplines in greater detail … helpful are Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster, and Sacred Pathways, by Gary Thomas.

In Celebration of Discipline (1978 ed., p. 13), Richard Foster says that “we should all without shame enroll in the school of contemplative prayer.” To understand Foster’s meaning of “contemplative prayer,” he has written a number of books that clearly show his propensity toward the mystics (such as John Main and Thomas Merton). Devotional Classics, Spiritual Classics, Meditative Prayer, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home are a few. His founding organization, Renovare, has a vast number of resources, articles, etc. that further substantiate our claims that Foster is a contemplative proponent.

As for Gary Thomas, in his book Sacred Pathways (the one Driscoll recommends), Thomas tells readers to repeat a word for 20 minutes in order to still the mind. This is the basic principle in all Eastern and occultic methods. This is not an idle charge. Anglican mystic Richard Kirby astutely observes in his book The Mission of Mysticism that with this spirituality the method differs little than that of occultism:

“The meditation of advanced occultists is identical with the prayer of advanced mystics; it is no accident that both traditions use the same word for the highest reaches of their respective activities: contemplation (samadhi in yoga).”

Driscoll is just one of many Christian figures whose contemplative propensities is being completely ignored or overlooked. For the sake of the Gospel, which contemplative spirituality negates by its very nature, we pray that believers will not look to those who follow and promote this spiritual deception.

Further Information:

Richard Foster’s Legacy Endures – Christian Leaders Help to Make it So

Some Say the Emerging Church is Dead – the Truth Behind the Story

This is a list of informative videos that will be updated regularly.
~~Check back often.

Disclaimer: We're just sharing resources. If you disagree, that's fine. Take what you need and leave the rest. (*Feel free to "mute" any audio you dislike.*)

(#1) DOES GOD APPROVE OF YOGA? Pastor John MacArthur and Pastor Doug Pagitt
(#2) Can Believers in Jesus Christ Do Yoga and SWG? (3 of 3) -- see youtube for parts 1 and 2
(#3) Universal Spirituality: Changing the Face of Spirituality by Ray Yungen
(#4) The New Age Movement 1-11 (the other 10 are also on youtube)
(#5) How People Accept False Teachers
(#6) Examples of Blasphemous Teaching in Churches Today
(#7) Heresy, False Teaching, & Occultic Practices by So-Called Believers
(#8) The Church of Oprah Exposed!
(#9) New Age Oprah
(#10) Debate with Oprah
(#11) Christianity or Eckhart Tolle?
(#12) Labyrinths, Oh My!
(#13) A Hindu prior to converting to Christianity - Caryl Matrisciana on YOGA! (This is a 30+ minute CrossTalk audio file. Begin around minute 8 or 8.5 and you'll get the yoga portion. This is worth your time!)
(#14) Can Believers in Jesus Christ Do Yoga and SWG? (3of3)
See youtube.com for parts 1 and 2
(#15) Do yourself a favor and view this DVD http://www.carylmatrisciana.com/shop/catalog/Yoga-Uncoiled-p-16188.html
(#16) Alice Bailey, New World Order (by Brannon Howse)
(#17) The Cult of Liberal Theology, by Walter Martin

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Going to church this Sunday? Look around.

The chances are that one in five of the people there find "spiritual energy" in mountains or trees, and one in six believe in the "evil eye," that certain people can cast curses with a look — beliefs your Christian pastor doesn't preach.

In a Catholic church? Chances are that one in five members believe in reincarnation in a way never taught in catechism class — that you'll be reborn in this world again and again.

Elements of Eastern faiths and New Age thinking have been widely adopted by 65% of U.S. adults, including many who call themselves Protestants and Catholics, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released Wednesday.

Syncretism — mashing up contradictory beliefs like Catholic rocker Madonna's devotion to a Kabbalah-light version of Jewish mysticism — appears on the rise.

And, according to the survey's other major finding, devotion to one clear faith is fading.

Of the 72% of Americans who attend religious services at least once a year (excluding holidays, weddings and funerals), 35% say they attend in multiple places, often hop-scotching across denominations.

They are like President Obama, who currently has no home church. He has worshiped at a Baptist church, an Episcopal one, and the non-denominational chapel at Camp David.

"Mixing and matching practices and beliefs is as much the norm as it is the exception," Pew's Alan Cooperman says. "Are they grazing, sampling, just curious? We really don't know."

Even so, says Pew researcher Greg Smith, "these findings all point toward a spiritual and religious openness — not necessarily a lack of seriousness."

Among the findings:

•26% of those who attend religious services say they do so at more than one place occasionally, and an additional 9% roam regularly from their home church for services.

•28% of people who attend church at least weekly say they visit multiple churches outside their own tradition.

•59% of less frequent church attendees say they attend worship at multiple places.

The survey of 2,003 adults Aug. 11-27 has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. It measures Protestants, Catholics and the unaffiliated; there were not enough people of other faiths surveyed for analysis.

"For an extremely long time, most of us thought belonging or membership or home church was monogamous, even if it was serial monogamy, because we all know about church-switching," says sociologist of religion Scott Thumma, a professor at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Hartford, Conn. "Today, the individual rarely finds all their spiritual needs met in one congregation or one religion."

'Rampant confusion'

In the 1980s, Albert Mohler and Julia Jarvis were in graduate school together at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville.

Today, Mohler is president of the seminary and a leading voice for Baptist orthodoxy. He sees a "rampant confusion" about faith revealed in the Pew findings.

"This is a failure of the pulpit as much as of the pew to be clear about what is and is not compatible with Christianity and belief in salvation only through Christ," Mohler says.

Pew says two in three adults believe in or cite an experience with at least one supernatural phenomenon, including:

•26% find "spiritual energy" in physical things.

•25% believe in astrology.

•24% say people will be reborn in this world again and again.

•23% say yoga is a "spiritual practice."

Mohler calls these "the au courant confusions," attachments to the latest fashionable free-floating beliefs.

"One hundred years ago, it would have been 'spiritualism.' They wouldn't have known what yoga was but might have been attracted to the 'New Thought' of the time," Mohler says.

His former classmate giggles at that. She's an ordained minister in the progressive United Church of Christ and leads the Interfaith Family Project, which meets for weekly worship at a Silver Spring, Md., high school.

Jarvis, of Takoma Park, Md., also studies with Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh and finds a spiritual dimension in yoga.

"I don't do astrology, but my mother, who grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and was a staunch Baptist all her life, looked at her horoscope daily and totally believed it," Jarvis says.

Jarvis says her late mother, like 49% of adults in the Pew survey, also had a moment of "religious or spiritual awakening."

"My mother feared for years that I was no longer saved, but just two days before she died, she had an epiphany," Jarvis says. "She said she was 'told' in a spiritual experience to put aside all religious and political differences and just love each other. That was her blessing to me, and that's what I'm doing."

Regina Roman of Alexandria, Va., calls herself "a very grounded Episcopalian" who's active in her church. But, she says, "I'm also stretching the boundaries of how we are to be here and now in this day, age and culture."

She leads pilgrimages to Egypt, New Mexico and Ireland to help travelers discover the truths and visions in Coptic, Native American and Celtic traditions. Roman celebrated the winter solstice with a home ceremony for guests to delight in the sun's gifts.

"We are all in relationship with the cosmos. We need to honor that," says Roman, who doesn't see herself crossing barriers but rather "coming full circle" with ancient ideas.

"People have always mixed religions, either in ignorance or willfully," says Stephen Prothero, director of the Graduate Division of Religious and Theological Studies at Boston University.

Despite the late Pope John Paul II's warnings to explicitly avoid Buddhist and Hindu practices, Prothero says, "American Catholics are so used to not caring what the official church tells them on birth control, divorce, premarital sex and other points that they don't think they are un-Catholic when they believe and do what they please."

Combating syncretism has troubled popes for centuries, says the Rev. Dan Pattee, chairman of the theology department at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.

The problem with borrowing spiritual ideas is that "the life-giving truth becomes compromised as we understand it as Catholics," Pattee says.

The growth of mixing

Prothero sees a similar trend among Protestants, a "resistance to being told what to think."

"Even people who call themselves by denominational tags don't really feel the identity attachment to them as they once did," he says. "And without that identity marker, what's to prevent you from checking out some other church? Nothing much."

Cooperman notes that the new survey is measuring a phenomenon that may have been going on for decades. Also, it does not clearly establish how much is due to interfaith relationships.

A new study from InterfaithFamily.com, which encourages Jewish-Christian couples to raise their children as Jews, looks specifically at the Christmas/Hanukkah season. The findings are not scientific but give an indication that in intermarried couples rearing their children as Jews, most will celebrate Hanukkah — which begins on Friday night this year — at home. Less than 48% will celebrate Christmas, and largely in a secular fashion.

Pew specifically excludes the major holidays and life-cycle events to focus on ordinary worship practices. Its report says the findings on interfaith couples are "complex," in part because people in mixed marriages attend worship less frequently than those with a same-faith spouse.

The faith-mixing trend has been building; other surveys in the past two years have touched on the swirling, unbounded paths of believers:

•Forty-seven percent to 59% of Americans have changed religions at least once, a Pew survey in April found. The top reasons for most: Their spiritual needs weren't being met, or they liked another faith more or changed religious or moral beliefs.

•The percentage of people who call themselves Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation, and so many people declined any religious label that the "Nones," now 15% of the USA, are the third-largest "religious" group after Catholics and Baptists, according to the American Religious Identification Survey last March.

•Despite Americans' overwhelming allegiance to someone they call God (92%), in Pew's 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, 70% said "many religions can lead to eternal life," and 68% said "there's more than one true way to interpret the teachings of my religion."

•Most (55%) say a guardian angel has protected them from harm, and 52% believe in prophetic dreams, according to surveys by Baylor University released in 2006 and 2008.

In short, we believe our own experiences are authentic, and no "authority" can say otherwise.

That's a very "Eastern" notion, says Jim Todhunter of Bethesda, Md. Retired after three decades leading United Church of Christ congregations, he has studied in a Hindu ashram in India and practices Zen meditation and Christian contemplative prayer.

"In the Western religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — the focus is: 'What do you believe?' There is always a tremendous focus on doctrine and teachings," he says. "In the East, Buddhism and Hinduism in particular, the leading question is, 'Do you know God?' It's much more experience-based."

http://www.worldviewtimes.com/article.php/articleid-5595/Brannon-Howse/Jan-Markell

Brannon Howse speaking on Alice Bailey and the occultic nature of the rise of the New World Order. Alice Baily is one of the radicals Brannon exposes in his new book, Grave Influence: 21 Radicals and Their Worldviews That Rule America From The Grave.

http://www.worldviewtube.com/video.php/videoid-4367/Brannon-Howse/Brannon-Howse

Amazing Quotes by Contemplatives
- The Outcome of Practicing Contemplative Prayer--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rick Warren
"With practice, you can develop the habit of praying silent 'breath prayers'"
Rick Warren, from his book (p. 299)

"[U]se 'breath prayers' throughout the day, as many Christians have done for centuries. You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in one breath."—Rick Warren, Purpose-Driven Life, p. 89.

Ken Blanchard

"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 in the Workplace?

Bruce Wilkinson

"We have promoted an unbiblical message that becoming born-again is the answer to everything. It's not. It changes your eternity, but it doesn't change your sexual behavior, for instance. The gospel does not always have the answer for modern-day dilemmas."

From Youth Specialties
"I built myself a prayer room—a tiny sanctuary in a basement closet filled with books on spiritual disciplines, contemplative prayer, and Christian mysticism. In that space I lit candles, burned incense, hung rosaries, and listened to tapes of Benedictine monks. I meditated for hours on words, images, and sounds. I reached the point of being able to achieve alpha brain patterns..."—Mike Perschon, Youth Specialties Magazine,
December 2004
"Choose a sacred word or phrase. Consistently use the same word throughout the prayer. Begin silently to repeat your sacred word or phrase"
Mark Yaconelli, Youth Specialties National Pastor's Convention

"Spiritual ecstasy. The third phase of contemplative prayer ... a supernatural trance state ..."
Charisma magazine, Oct. 2004

"Contemplative prayer is nothing other than coming into consciousness of what is already there."
Brennan Manning, Signature of Jesus

"Brennan (Manning) is my friend, walking ahead of me on the path toward home. As I watch him from behind, I am drawn to more closely follow on the path..."
Larry Crabb, endorsement of Abba's Child

"I began practicing meditation, specifically breath prayer, once again. I integrated the use of Tai Chi and yoga"
John Michael Talbot,
Interview with Christianity Today 10/22/2001

"Its [visualization] effect is to dissolve our internal barriers to natural harmony and self realization"
Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization

"[Y]ou and I may have strong opinions on double predestination, supralapsarianism, and biblical inerrancy, but these should not be considered evangelical essentials."
Richard Foster

"We need to become aware of the Cosmic Christ, which means recognizing that every being has within it the light of Christ."
Matthew Fox

What works for me is a combination of disciplines: I do yoga, tai chi which is a Chinese martial art and three kinds of meditation—vipasana, transcendental and mantra (sound) meditation.
Jack Canfield,
Chicken Soup for the Soul

This quote sums it up—
"The contemplative life is often miserable. One must act more, think less, and not watch oneself live." Chamfort[1700s]

"When we go to the center of our being and pass through that center into the very center of God we get in immediate touch with this divine creating energy ... that the divine energy may have the freedom to forward the evolution of consciousness in us and through us, as a part of the whole, in the whole of the creation." —M. Basil Pennington

"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

For more on these topics, continue reading at http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/amazingquotes.htm

The New Missiology - You Can Keep Your Own Religion - Just Add Jesus

The New Missiology Says Three Things:

1. You can keep your own religion — Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism, etc. — you just need to add Jesus to the equation. Then you become complete. You become a Buddhist with Jesus, a Hindu with Jesus, a Muslim with Jesus and so on.

2. You can throw out the term Christianity and still be a follower of Jesus.

3. In fact, you can throw out the term Christian too. In some countries you could be persecuted for calling yourself a Christian, and there is no need for that. Just ask Jesus into your heart, you don't have to identify yourself as a Christian.

Listen to some Popular "Postmodernists."

"For me, the beginning of sharing my faith with people began by throwing out Christianity and embracing Christian spirituality, a nonpolitical mysterious system that can be experienced but not explained."—Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, p. 115

"I must add, though, that I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts."—Brian McLaren (leader of the Emerging Church movement),author of A Generous Orthodoxy

"I'm not talking about a religion this morning. You may be Catholic or Protestant or Buddhist or Baptist or Muslim or Mormon or Jewish ... or you may have no religion at all. I'm not interested in your religious background. Ok? Because God did not create the universe for us to have religion."—Rick Warren, September 2005, United Nations, Interfaith Prayer Breakfast to 100 World Delegates

The Shack: Helpful or Heretical?
A Critical Review by Norman L. Geisler and Bill Roach

The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity by William P. Young (Wind Blown Media, 2007, 264 pp) is a New York Times best seller with well over a million copies in print. Literally hundreds of thousands have been blessed by its message, but its message is precisely what calls for scrutiny. Responses to The Shack range from eulogy to heresy. Eugene Peterson, author of The Message predicted that The Shack “has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!” Emmy Award Winning Producer of ABC Patrick M. Roddy declares that “it is a one of a kind invitation to journey to the very heart of God. Through my tears and cheers, I have been indeed transformed by the tender mercy with which William Paul Young opened the veil that too often separated me from God and from myself.” (http://theshackbook.com/endorsements.html). People from all walks of life are raving about this book by unknown author “Willie” Young, son of a pastor/missionary, and born in Canada. He is a graduate of Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon.

The Background of the Book
The Shack is Christian fiction, a fast-growing genre in the contemporary Christian culture. It communicates a message in a casual, easy-to-read, non-abrasive manner. From his personal experience, Young attempts to answer some of life’s biggest questions: Who is God? Who is Jesus? What is the Trinity? What is salvation? Is Jesus the only way to Heaven? If God, then why evil? What happens after I die?
In the final section of the book titled “The Story behind THE SHACK,” he reveals that the motivation for this story comes from his own struggle to answer many of the difficult questions of life. He claims that his seminary training just did not provide answers to many of his pressing questions. Then one day in 2005, he felt God whisper in his ear that this year was going to be his year of Jubilee and restoration. Out of that experience he felt lead to write The Shack. According to Young, much of the book was formed around personal conversations he had with God, family, and friends (258-259). He tells the readers that the main character “Mack” is not a real person, but a fictional character used to communicate the message in the book. However, he admits that his children would “recognize that Mack is mostly me, that Nan is a lot like Kim, that Missy and Kate and the other characters often resemble our family members and friends” (259).
Continue the article here.

Author Accuses Christian Publisher of Dabbling in 'New Age' Spirituality
Publisher Sponsor of Three-City Annual Youth Workers Conference
By Jim Brown
September 29, 2005

(AgapePress) - A leading Christian publisher of youth ministry material is being accused of introducing young people to practices rooted in New Age Eastern spirituality.

Today, the 2005 National Youth Workers Conference kicks off in Sacramento, California, but not without criticism. The conference is sponsored by Youth Specialties, a group that one Christian author says introduces students to labyrinth walks, yoga, and contemplative prayer practices. For that reason, Cathy Mickels -- co-author of the book Spiritual Junkfood: The Dumbing Down of Christian Youth -- is advising youth workers and parents to distance themselves from the conference and Youth Specialties.

"One of their goals, they say, is to know God first-hand as a living reality. That's why they're putting kids into contemplative prayer-type situations," she explains. "How do we know God first-hand as a living reality? We read the Word of God because it is God-breathed and it is God-inspired. [What Youth Specialties is doing] is an undermining of God's Word; this is an undermining of the Christian faith."

Mickels also claims Youth Specialties teaches youth pastors to introduce students to ancient eastern spiritual practices.

"Nowhere in God's Word does it say that you take kids on labyrinth walks, [or] that you introduce students to yoga or to contemplative prayer practices where you say a word over and over again to put yourself into what Youth Specialties says is a 'semi-conscious state,'" she states. "None of these practices are in God's Word."

She says parents and youth workers need to be aware that those who approve of putting Christian youth into this semi-conscious state "are the same people sponsoring this Youth Workers' conference."

Mickels, who is former president of Eagle Forum in the state of Washington, contends that Youth Specialties and other evangelical leaders are "blurring the lines" between Eastern religions and the Christian faith. "It's hard to believe that while Christian parents have been fighting against the introduction of yoga and Eastern practices into the public schools, those in charge of training our Christian youth are introducing the same principles into the church."

Among the featured speakers at the Sacramento conference are Mark Yaconelli, who is the director of the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project, and Doug Fields, the youth pastor at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California. Musicians featured include the Chris Tomlin Band, the David Crowder Band, and Jars of Clay.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
© 2005 AgapePress all rights reserved

Chuck Swindoll - Insight for Living
Chuck Swindoll Goes After the Silence and the Solitude

Writes New Book on the Spiritual Disciplines

So, You Want to Be Like Christ?
Eight Essentials to Get You There
by Charles Swindoll of Insight for Living

A Book on the Solitude and Silence of
Contemplative Prayer

This book should have been subtitled:
"The Eight Spiritual Disciplines of Richard Foster"
Swindoll favorably quotes and describes the spirituality of Richard Foster, who is a disciple of Thomas Merton.

Another Christian leader who has succumbed to the new spirituality that is permeating the church.

Quotes the following:
Richard Foster
Henri Nouwen
Dallas Willard
Eugene Peterson (the Message)
Philip Yancey

QUOTES FROM THE BOOK:

"So you want to be like Christ? Me too. But that kind of godliness won't just happen ... Disciplining ourselves will require the same kind of focused thinking and living that our Master modeled." Introduction

"Let's commit ourselves to these eight spiritual disciplines." Introduction

"Henri Nouwen ... longed to get away from all those words ... So how do we pull it off? How, in a world bent on distracting us from growing deeper? ... How do you and I become more godly? ... The word is discipline. The secret lies in our returning to the spiritual disciplines." p. 9, 10.

"I have sensed a genuine need—in my own life —for the cultivation of intimacy with the Almighty.... God requires spiritual disciplines ... essential in our pursuit of godliness. ... I came across Dallas Willard's excellent work The Spirit of the Disciplines." p. 12

"Richard Foster's meaningful work
Celebration of Discipline ..." p. 15

"Discipline. This is the means for having intimacy with God. ... Discipline is control gained by enforced obedience. It is the deliberate cultivation of inner order. So how are intimacy and discipline connected? ... Discipline is the means to that end." p. 21

The Chapter on Silence and Solitude
Journey into Silence
The Ministry of Silence
Quoting Henri Nouwen's book The Way of the Heart.

Note: In September 2005, we were informed that Chuck Swindoll was favorably quoting Henri Nouwen and Richard Foster on his Insight For Living program. We contacted Insight for Living and spoke with Pastor Graham Lyons. We shared our concerns, then later sent A Time of Departing to him and also a copy to Chuck Swindoll.

In a letter dated 10/3/05 from Pastor Lyons, we were told, "With his schedule I doubt he will read it." We are sorry that Chuck Swindoll has time to read Henri Nouwen and Richard Foster but no time to read A Time of Departing, especially in light of the fact that thousands of people will read Chuck Swindoll's book, listen to his broadcasts and now believe that the contemplative authors are acceptable and good.

Incidentally, Swindoll quoted these men, not just a few times, but many times throughout the book.

David Jeremiah Speaks Favorably of Contemplatives and New Agers

David Jeremiah's 2003 book, Life Wide Open, has a subtitle of "Unleashing the Power of a Passionate Life." In the introduction of the book, Jeremiah tells readers that "A Small handful among us have discovered what the rest of us would pay dearly to know:How can we bring real, living excitement into this life?" Jeremiah goes on to tell readers that "This book is a map to the life of passion and purpose, the life wide open..."

Who are these small handful of people who have discovered the secret? Well according to David Jeremiah's book, his list includes Rick Warren of the Purpose Driven Life, contemplative, feminine spiritualist Sue Monk Kidd ( When the Heart Waits See Monk Kidd quote below), contemplative Calvin Miller (Into the Depths of God), Buddhist sympathizer Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), emerging church leader, Erwin McManus, contemplative Michael Card, Brother Lawrence (Practicing the Presence of God), and mystic Jim Collins.

When we found out a couple months ago that Dr. Jeremiah would be sharing a platform this fall with New Age sympathizer Ken Blanchard, we thought Jeremiah was naive when it came to Blanchard's New Age leanings. We tried to warn him. But if his 2003 book, Life Wide Open, is any indication, Jeremiah has been dabbling with contemplative spirituality for quite some time.
Note: On September 15th, we emailed Dr. Jeremiah to ask him to comment on his book. We never received a response.

Quote from Sue Monk Kidd: "Divine immanence [God in everything], on the other hand, is divinity here, near and now, inherent in the material stuff of life....It will also be here, right now, in me, in the earth, in this river and this rock, in excrement and roses alike." Sue Monk Kidd, Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 160.

Related Information:


Jeremiah Endorses Back Cover on emerging leader, Erwin McManus' book, Seizing the Divine

Dr. Jeremiah Writes "Public" Letter to Lighthouse Trails

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletternovember05.htm

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=1555&c=1

Book Review on Castles in the Sandby C. Pack(Used with permission)"Spiritual Formation is Dangerous.... And Here's Why"

As a former New Ager, I have become increasingly alarmed at the New Age/New Spirituality practices and beliefs that I have seen flowing into the church. I was saved in a conservative, evangelical church that boldly proclaimed the gospel: Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life, and no-one comes to the Father but by Him. Yet, within 2 years time, this same precious church began to preach sermons on past mystics (St. John of the Cross), began offering yoga classes, and began to adopt practices that eerily reminded me of my New Age days... all of which are an assault on the true gospel.

In my spiritual immaturity, I just assumed that there was a type of mysticism that was okay within the framework of Christendom. I even participated in "setting the stage" for these new practices to come into our church: I helped hang blackout curtains to set the right "atmosphere," I set up candles, I carefully placed incense stations so they were out of reach of small children, etc.However, after doing a little research (just to put my mind at ease), I came to the startling realization that these "Christianized" practices (yoga, contemplative prayer, Lectio Divina, etc.) were identical to what I (and my New Age friends) had done, way back in the 80s and 90s...they just had new names.

This book by Carolyn Greene unmasks the demonic nature of these practices and shows how our Christian children are being exposed to them. The heroine of this novel, Teresa, goes off to a Christian college that has always had a reputation for being doctrinally solid. Unbeknownst to her (and her foster grandparents, who themselves attended the school), the college has just begun implementing new classes in Spiritual Formation, Ancient Future, Lectio Divina, and Contemplative Prayer, among others. Not only that, but they've bulldozed the boring old soccer field to make way for a Labyrinth.... The story cuts back and forth between the experiences of the young student Teresa and another Teresa set in the 16th century - St. Teresa of Avila, a well-known mystic. As the student Teresa is unwittingly sucked deeper and deeper into a vortex of unbiblical practices and demonic deception, she becomes the star pupil of the college's glamorous new teacher, Dr. Jasmine Winters, who is introducing these enthralled young students to new - yet unbiblical - ways to "experience" God.

On a sidenote, let me state that as parents, we have been "trained" by our church leadership to turn over the spiritual discipling of our children to the leadership, whether at church or school.....but how sure are we that the youth group or private school or "Christian" college our kids are attending are, in fact, discipling them in solid Biblical truths?

The emergent church movement, which heavily promotes Spiritual Formation and Contemplative practices, is a HUGE and very popular movement today. It prides itself with being able to "dialogue" with today's youth, with being culturally relevant to them. But as Christians, we know that our children's deepest spiritual need is NOT to be "engaged" by someone with hipness and cultural relevancy, but is rather to be given spiritual truth: that they are dead in their sins, depraved at their core, and in need of God's mercy and plan of salvation, through Christ's atoning death on the cross. The emergent church movement never gives this message, because at its core, emergent theology is a cross between New Age and Universalist thought (man's divine inner goodness + good works = salvation.

If the gospel is not clearly given to our youth, but instead we are giving them exciting, but unbiblical, "experiences" - which seem spiritual because they're wrapped in Christian terminology - then we've damned them. In our rush to do the next big thing, we are taking the edge off the blade, as it were, and giving our children just enough "Christianity" to "feel" spiritual and saved, without them coming to God on His terms: through the blood of Christ. These emergent experiences do not have the power to save, but instead are just "a form of godliness" without salvific power (2 Tim 3:5).

This book will be eye-opening for anyone who has heard the terms Ancient Future, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation, Contemplative Prayer, Lectio Divina, etc. and perhaps wondered what they were, and if they were biblical. They absolutely are not... and Carolyn Greene shows us why.

(Originally posted at Amazon.com, used with permission from C. Pack)Click here for more information on Castles in the Sand. (This article copied from LighthouseTrailsResearch.Com)

From http://deceptionbytes.com/LatterRainHeresies
Disclaimer: We do not agree with everything on this site. It just so happens, that this article is very good.)

The following ideas and beliefs are characteristic of Latter Rain movement also known as Manifest Sons of God, The Melchizedek Order, New Apostles, The Third Wave, Manchild Company, and other names. These ideas and beliefs are steeped in new age philosophies, mysticism, gnosticism, and outright occultism and are being propagated in the church as a whole.
The following ideas and beliefs are characteristic of Latter Rain movement also known as Manifest Sons of God, The Melchizedek Order, New Apostles, The Third Wave, Manchild Company, and other names. These ideas and beliefs are steeped in new age philosophies, mysticism, gnosticism, and outright occultism and are being propagated in the church as a whole.
The following was taken from the Book Strange Fire, The Rise of Gnosticism in the Church written by Travers and Jewel van der Merwe.

See whether you can identify any of the following heresies:
1. Have an "elitist mentality".
2. Consider themselves essentially Divine, equal to Christ.
3. Believe they are the Manifest Sons of God.
4. Believe their Divinity comes from within themselves.
5. Reject the literal Biblical view of the resurrection and the "rapture" of the church.
6. Are Overcomers and Conquerors of evil and the world.
7. Are in the process of becoming perfect and immortal in this age.
8. Claim to be members of the Melchizedek Order - High Priest with Christ.
9. Will purge the world of undesirables.
10. Will reign on the earth as gods.
11. Attribute their revelations to the Divine Gnosis (knowledge) located in them.
12. Share the same political ambition to establish the government of the "Sons of God" to the exclusion of the personal presence of Jesus Christ.
13. Insist the Bible should be interpreted allegorically, symbolically and spiritually.
14. Believe it is wrong to interpret the Bible literally.
15. Reject Israel as a chosen nation of God.
16. Are anti-Semitic.
17. Reject the written Holy Scriptures as the final, inerrant and infallible Voice of God above all other voices or experiences.
18. Stress love and unity with little or no regard for sound doctrine or a sound mind.
19. Reject the resurrection and redemption of the body.
20. Spiritualise the resurrection and redemption of the body.
21. Reject the personal coming of the anti-christ.
22. Look forward to the dawning of the New Age on earth, ushered in by a select group of Overcomers, the Sons of God.
23. Reject Orthodox Christianity.
24. Are always receiving "new deep truth" apart from Scripture.
25. Are essentially into "mysticism".
26. Believe in the attainment of perfection and immortality here on earth without a literal resurrection and Rapture.
27. Rejects redemption by the blood of Christ.

The spirit of man is the god-man. These heresies project the following picture: The New Wave "Mystery Babylon" (New Age Religion) riding on the back of orthodox Christianity fulfilling the age long dream of the "Church of Illumination" (Rosicrucian/Gnostic church) i.e., the uniting of the Church founded on "love" and "godhood" - Satan's fruit. THE CHURCH OF ILLUMINATION has been steadily at work with the idea that ultimately the various churches would merge for the benefit of all religions as well as of all mankind. THE CHURCH OF ILLUMINATION looks forward with confidence to a constantly increasing feeling of good will and religious tolerance among the various creeds, so that some day in the not too distant future the dream of unification can be realised and one all-embracing religion taught to all the peoples of all the earth. [The Church of Illumination by Rev. R. Swinburne Clymer, M.D., Quakertown, PA, USA.] This is the vision the Church, for the most part, is accepting and upholding, above the Scriptures. This is the "elitism" that fundamentalists, charismatics, pentecostals and evangelicals are now opening to. This is the mysticism that enshrines the new age form of "elitism" in the Church

Why Compromise in Christian Publishing Costs in the Long Run"Why compromise costs in the long runExclusive: Jim Fletcher argues publishers can't leave truth to pursue manna"
By Jim FletcherWorldNetDaily

With attendance down significantly at the Christian Booksellers' Association trade show last week, I want to examine some reasons for the decline in Christian retail---without focusing on the much bemoaned economy.
Discussing the real reasons for that decline, however, can't be done in polite company.
The production and sale of Christian books assumes that the publishers, trade organizations and sales channels pull in the same direction philosophically. That would mean, of course, that fundamentally, a person working in the Christian book industry would embrace the teachings of the Bible. The Christian Booksellers Association operated on this philosophy for many years.
In the 1990s, however, there was a shift in philosophy. Publishers, stores and distributors began to realize the vast potential for making money. As time went on, to appeal to the broadest possible audience, works began to creep in that were decidedly not aligned with the Bible.
I remember years ago walking onto the floor of a CBA convention and seeing Health Communications' booth. They were rolling out the first of the wildly successful "Chicken Soup" books. In the first volume, I remember reading an essay that discussed the "Golden Buddha" inside us.
I don't have a Golden Buddha inside me, and neither do orthodox Christians.
So I wrote to a CBA representative, saying basically, "Hey, you'll never guess who I saw at CBA. You are probably not aware of this."
They were aware of it. The representative sent me a letter, then his lawyer sent me a letter. Both explained they had to allow Health Communications to display. Click here to read this entire article.
Related Stories:
A list of Christian publishers publishing contemplative/emerging material
Baker Book publishing goes contemplative
Christian publishers that are NOT promoting contemplative/emerging spirituality

You can't argue with this man/his credentials. He's one of the best apologetics of our time. (hmmm many of your local churches admire this book)

The Shack: Helpful or Heretical?A Critical Review by Norman L. Geisler and Bill Roach
http://normangeisler.net/theshack.html

The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina will be sponsoring a conference this fall featuring yoga proponent and emerging church leader Doug Pagitt. The Wired2Grow event will take place on October 16th in Burlington, North Carolina....Pagitt is the pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minnesota where yoga classes are often held. In the December 3rd 2005 issue of the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, it stated: "Christian yoga has been gaining a devout following, and Twin Cities pastor Doug Pagitt has endorsed the practice in his new book, Body Prayer: The Posture of Intimacy with God." A PBS news story (see video) on the emerging church featured Doug Pagitt. The video also showed yoga classes taking place at the 2005 Emergent Convention in which Pagitt was a speaker. In one segment of the video (25 second mark), there was an Egyptian god symbol above a sanctuary stage (25 second mark) of a church. Currently, on the Solomon Church website is advertised the Women's Yoga and Prayer class...

Pagitt, like most emerging church leaders, resonates with mysticism (such as yoga and contemplative prayer) and is sympathetic towards Catholicism. In Roger Oakland's book, Faith Undone, he quotes Pagitt. Pagitt states: "During a recent Life Development Forum we offered a session on Christian practices. In one of the four weeks we introduced the act of making the sign of the cross on ourselves. This gesture has become a very powerful experience for me. It is rich with meaning and history and is such a simple way to proclaim and pray my faith with my body. I hold the fingers on my right hand in the shape of a cross, my index finger lying over the top of my outstretched thumb. I use the Eastern Orthodox pattern of touching first head, then heart, then right lung followed by left. Others in the group follow the Roman Catholic practice with left before right." (Faith Undone, p. 51) ....

While many Christians think that yoga is ok if it is just practiced as a physical exercise omitting the spiritual aspects, even Hindu yoga masters say that you cannot separate the two. In one article titled "There is No Christian Yoga" by Hindu Yogi Baba Prem, Vedavisharada, CYI, C.ay, C.va, he states: It was quite astonishing to see on the flyer 'Christian Yoga! This Thursday night....' I could feel the wheels spinning in my brain. 'Christian Yoga,' I thought. Now while Christians can practice yoga, I am not aware of any Christian teachings about yoga. Yoga is not a Judeo/Christian word! It is ... certainly not a part of protestant teachings. It is not found within the King James Version of the bible. It is a Hindu word, or more correctly a Sanskrit word from the Vedic civilization.

So how did we get 'Christian Yoga'? In an email Lighthouse Trails received from a professor at the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy, he stated: Is Yoga a religion that denies Jesus Christ? Yes. Just as Christianity denies the Hindu MahaDevas such as Siva, Vishnu, Durga and Krishna, to name a few, Hinduism and its many Yogas have nothing to do with God and Jesus (though we do respect that others believe in this way). As Hindus who live the Yogic lifestyle, we appreciate when others understand that all of Yoga is all about the Hindu religion. Modern so-called 'yoga' is dishonest to Hindus and to all non-Hindus such as the Christians.In a DVD titled Yoga Uncoiled by Caryl Productions, she explains that Yoga is not mere exercise.

The postures themselves are specifically designed to worship the gods of Hinduism. For anyone who thinks that Yoga exercises (postures) are valid and safe, please get a copy of Dave Hunt's book, Yoga and the Body of Christ and Caryl Matrisciana's DVD. You will not only have a deeper understanding of the true nature of Yoga, but you will also see how dangerous it is to the spiritual welfare of the believer.
Unfortunately, Pagitt's role in the North Carolina Baptist event is not the only indication that the North Carolina organization is heading into the contemplative/emergent camp.

In their Spiritual Formation department, they include Marjorie Thompson's book Soul Feast. In a recent book review, Thompson is quoted from her book as saying: Some Christians find that "mindfulness meditation," a traditional Buddhist practice, helps them live their Christian discipleship more faithfully.... The practice of contemplative prayer might give a Christian ground for constructive dialogue with a meditating Buddhist. (from Prologue of Soul Feast)...BSCNC is also advertising the North Carolina Five-Day Academy for Spiritual Formation. A look at the retreat's brochure reveals influence by Catholic priest and mystic Thomas Merton, who said he wanted to be the best Buddhist he could be and who compared dropping LSD to practicing contemplative prayer... (This article is from LighthouseTrailsResearch.com)

THIS IS JUST 3.5 MINUTES AND IS VERY BOLD ON PIPER'S PART - !

http://worldviewtimes.com/article.php/articleid-4518/Brannon-Howse/John-Piper

Defining a Cult...read from this link...

http://www.wfial.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=artGeneral.article_1

There are many individual powerful practices which characterize the methods of deception employed by false teachers, but the twisting of Scripture is universal among them.
Few, if any, people go into a cult or aberrant religious movement by reading the Bible alone, so they must have some help from false teachers. These false teachers must come to terms with the authority of Scripture. They deal deceptively with this issue in several ways.

Read more...

http://www.watchman.org/cults/cultwist.htm

Easy Read: http://bible-prophecy-today.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-recognize-false-prophet.html

BRIEF ARTICLE: http://www.worldviewtimes.com/article.php/articleid-4827/Brannon-Howse/Eric-Barger

QUOTES FROM EMERGENT CHURCH LEADERS

A watchman is someone who is committed to being alert and awake, ever ready to warn of approaching danger. He has clear eyes focused on the enemy's advances and stands at his post, poised to sound the alarm and warn the people he serves.

The 21st century has come! With its arrival, comes a general feeling that we, as the church, are in the final hours of history before the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we look out upon the vast ocean of humanity, we see a world largely lost in sin and in desperate need of this Savior we are (or should be) in such earnest expectation to see. Indeed, the world can be a savage place and we are eyewitnesses to this generation's increased ungodliness. False teachings and demonic wisdom abound within and without the church. Delusion and confusion are spreading far and wide. There's never been a more crucial time for working and moving in the ministry of the "watchman"!

ENTIRE ARTICLE: http://www.erwm.com/WatchmanArise1.htm