Posted on 10/19/2013 8:50:26 PM PDT by jodyel
Lighthouse Trails has watched in dismay over the past few years as Charles Stanley’s In Touch magazine has made the decision to promote contemplative/emergent names. When our editors picked up a copy of the August 2013 issue and saw a feature article written by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, we decided to call In Touch Ministries to find out who was responsible for the content in the magazine. Sadly, the response we received from the editorial department at In Touch left us with a sinking feeling that the evangelical church has been seduced and there was no turning back.
We’ll talk about the phone call in a minute but first a look at Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.
In June of 2011, Lighthouse Trails free lance writer Mike Stanwood wrote “Contemplative Spirituality Lands on Charles Stanley’s In Touch Magazine . . . Again.” In this article, it was revealed that in the January 2011 In Touch magazine issue, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove was featured in an article written by In Touch Managing Editor Cameron Lawrence. That article, titled “The Craft of Stability: Discovering the Ancient Art of Staying Put,” highlighted the “ intentional Christian community” at the Rutba House (Wilson-Hartgrove’s home) and their “daily prayer routine.” The In Touch article stated that Rutba House is an evangelical community rooted in the Protestant tradition and that Wilson-Hartgrove is an ordained Baptist minister, yet it also reported that Rutba’s community principles are borrowed from Benedictine monks and that all of their efforts are based on St. Benedict’s “rule of life.”
In Stanwood’s article, he points out that Wilson-Hartgrove is part of the “New Monasticism” movement within the emerging church. To help you understand just how serious this situation is with Charles Stanley and his ministry, read this following section of Stanwood’s article:
Wilson-Hartgrove is most recently known for co-authoring Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals with new monastic activist Shane Claiborne. Other books he has authored may also fall into the emerging/contemplative category. For example, one such book called New Monasticism: What It Has to Say to Today’s Church (1) has been endorsed by mystic proponents Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, Tony Campolo, and Catholic priest and centering prayer advocate Richard Rohr. The mystics resonate with the “new monasticism” – this is plain to see.
On the surface, the new monasticism may look OK with its many good works of helping the poor and the needy. But the underlying belief system does not line up with biblical doctrine; rather it is about establishing an all-inclusive kingdom of God on earth now where individual salvation is replaced with a community salvation for the whole world. Atonement has less emphasis on Jesus Christ as the only atonement for man’s sins and instead becomes an at-one-ment where all of creation is “being” saved by coming together as one (and yes, seeing the divinity of man). This is the kind of “atonement” that McLaren, Tickle, and Rohr would resonate with.
It is important to see that they don’t just resonate with the good works coming out of the new monasticism; born-again Christians have been performing good works by helping the poor and needy for centuries and continue to do so. While this new monasticism supposedly distinguishes itself by its good works, in reality it is mysticism and the foundational beliefs of mysticism (i.e., panentheism, kingdom now, etc) that distinguish it. And it is that element that Tickle, McLaren, and Rohr embrace.
Additional resources on Wilson-Hartgrove’s website include a DVD called Discovering Christian Classics: 5 Sessions in the Ancient Faith of Our Future, a five-week study with contemplative advocate Lauren F. Winner (Girl Meets God) for high school or adult “formation.” A description of this DVD states:
“You will discover the meaning of conversion and prayer from the Desert Fathers and Mothers; how to love from the sermons of St. John Chrysostom; St. Benedict’s Rule of Life and how it became one of the foundations of Western Christian spirituality; how to have an intimate relationship with God according to The Cloud of Unknowing; and what it means to ‘pick up your cross” in the Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis.’”
Another book Wilson-Hartgrove has authored, called The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture, refers readers to the wisdom of Lao-tzu, the desert monastics, Thomas Merton, Benedictine spirituality, panentheist and interspiritualist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Benedictine nun Joan Chittister.
In a Beliefnet interview one year ago, Wilson-Hartgrove shared how “we need the wisdom of those who’ve gone before us.” This wisdom he is referring to comes not from the Bible, but from the contemplative “Benedictines (who) taught us to start the day with common prayer.”1
After seeing what is at the core of Wilson-Hartgrove’s spiritual wisdom, it is not surprising to learn that he recently made an appearance at the [very emergent] Wild Goose Festival .2 According to an article in the Christian Post, the Wild Goose Festival was a “four-day revival camp in North Carolina featuring music, yoga, liberal talk and embracing of gays and lesbians.”
The fact is, anyone who is drawn to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, as Wilson-Hartgrove is, has got to be following a different spirit and another gospel or at the very least greatly deceived. Chardin, who is attributed to the term “cosmic Christ,” did not hide the fact in his writings that he believed, not in the Christ of the Bible, but a christ consciousness in every human being.
While we do not challenge Wilson-Hartgrove’s sincerity or concern for the poor and needy, we must challenge his consistent promotion of contemplative mystics and emergent leaders, and he certainly does not seem like a proper fit with In Touch Ministries, that is unless In Touch is going emerging. The reason we say this about Wilson-Hartgrove’s sincerity has to do with the phone call we had with two editors of the editorial staff of In Touch magazine on July 24, 2013. One of the editors we spoke with was Cameron Lawrence, the Editor in Chief (and also the one who wrote the 2011 In Touch article featuring Wilson-Hartgrove). Lawrence asked us if we had ever spoken with Wilson-Hartgrove personally, suggesting that he was a sincere man who lived out the Gospel by helping the needy. We answered him by stating that the issue at hand was not a private matter but rather a public issue because Wilson-Hartgrove is a public figure (books, conferences, articles, etc). We said that it did not matter what he might say in a private conversation, but it did matter what he was teaching others. And it mattered greatly that In Touch was promoting him.
When we spoke with Cameron Lawrence, we told him we wanted to know who was responsible for putting the article by Wilson-Hartgrove in the magazine to which he told us “the entire editorial staff” made the decision. We asked him if he would be interested in seeing some of our documentation to which he answered, “I have been on the Lighthouse Trails website, and I didn’t find it helpful.” The other editor we spoke with, who wished to remain anonymous, said it sounded like we were on a “witch hunt” to which we responded, “No, we are part of a Gospel-protection effort.”
At times like this, it is difficult not to become discouraged by the lack of interest in Christian intelligentsia and leadership regarding the contemplative/emerging issue. What more can we say to show them what seems so obvious to ourselves and many other Bible believing contenders of the faith? A number of years ago, when the Be Still DVD (a contemplative infomercial) came out and we saw Charles Stanley’s name in the credits as someone who supported the DVD, we contacted his ministry and spoke with a personal assistant. He accepted our offer for a free copy of A Time of Departing but said that Charles Stanley would be too busy to read it.
If the mystics whom Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove gravitates to are right, then Jesus’ words that He is the only Way to the Father are wrong. You can’t have it both ways. The opposite view – the contemplative – is that God is in all things, including all people. This is what all mystics believe, across the board. And if that were true, then the need for a Savior would vanish, and there wouldn’t be any need for ”one way” to God because man is already indwelled with God and a part of God.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6
Endnotes: 1. New Monasticism & The Emergent Church: FS Talks with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove: http://blog.beliefnet.com/flunkingsainthood/2010/06/new-monasticism-the-emergent-church-fs-talks-with-jonathan-wilson-hartgrove.html.
2. Learn more about the Wild Goose Festival here: Left-Leaning ‘Wild Goose’ Festival Draws Ire of Evangelicals
I like the ESV.
It’s easy to read and written above an 8th grade level.
Well, there is a lot of divorce under man's legal system going on these days. Getting married as a trial experiment, without everlasting commitment to the marriage vow on the part of both parties is a great sin.
There has been a lot of pressure for acceptance of remarriage adultery, and much of that is going on under falsified doctrine. Remarrying one or both already married divorcers is an even greater sin, and the downfall of a whole denomination can hinge on this one consideration.
Charles Stanley's marriage foundered, and he is no longer in a Scriptural position to continue as a teaching elder or pastor anywhere, or underwrite any religious publications. Sadly, anyone who continues as a disciple of his speaking and writing is a spiritual fool.
I grew up reading the King James Version....and to this day, any memory work I have retained flows from those verses.
The ESV.... English Standard Version... is an excellent source and my husband recommends it, so I'm sure you will enjoy it.
I learned sometime ago, not to trust any man standing behind a pulpit, or any book written by man...Trust God’s Word, for the wisdom of man is foolishness.
2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
1Co 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
1Co 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
1Co 1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
No it's not surprising, we were well warned this would not only happen but increase.
It's ALL part of positioning the churches for unity in the faiths of all religions.
Common Christian vocabulary is “borrowed” and used to entice the uninformed......”Spirituality” the new buzz word from New Agers to even satanism. All which is promoted to “sell” the latest “evolving” religion where all will accept all manner hocus pocus..
Times and people really have not changed.
The emerging church movement is far from monolithic, and while it contains both good and bad things, yet its general characteristic is that is lacks an anchor, being contrary to basic historical hermeneutics and ethos of sola scriptura (regardless of RCA charges), and drifts into liberalism, doctrinal minimization, and imbalance.
It reacts against a church which sometimes lack adaptive means of interacting and reaching the culture, it becomes more liker the culture in minimizing the centrality of Scripture and doctrine. Thus, while not being like church in which doctrine is not clothed with flesh, as Christ was, it seems to overall tend to be becoming too much a body that is more warm flesh.
From the Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_church)
Marcus Borg says “The emerging paradigm has been visible for well over a hundred years. In the last twenty to thirty years, it has become a major grassroots movement among both laity and clergy in “mainline” or “old mainline” Protestant denominations.” He describes it as: “a way of seeing the Bible (and the Christian tradition as a whole) as historical, metaphorical, and sacramental, [and] a way of seeing the Christian life as relational and transformational.[15]
The emerging church movement contains a great diversity in beliefs and practices, although some have adopted a preoccupation with sacred rituals, good works, and political and social activism. Much of the Emerging Church movement has also adopted the approach to evangelism which stressed peer-to-peer dialogue rather than dogmatic proclamation and proselytizing.[35]
According to Stuart Murray, Christendom is the creation and maintenance of a Christian nation by ensuring a close relationship of power between the Christian Church and its host culture.[30] Today, churches may still attempt to use this power in mission and evangelism.[31] The emerging church considers this to be unhelpful.
Murray summarizes Christendom values as: a commitment to hierarchy and the status quo; the loss of lay involvement; institutional values rather than community focus; church at the centre of society rather than the margins; the use of political power to bring in the Kingdom; religious compulsion; punitive rather than restorative justice; marginalisation of women, the poor, and dissident movements; inattentiveness to the criticisms of those outraged by the historic association of Christianity with patriarchy, warfare, injustice and patronage; partiality for respectability and top-down mission; attractional evangelism; assuming the Christian story is known; and a preoccupation with the rich and powerful..[31]
The relationship between words and images has changed in contemporary culture. In a post-foundational world, it is the power of the image that takes us to the text. The bible is no longer a principal source of morality, functioning as a rulebook. The gradualism of postmodernity has transformed the text into a guide, a source of spirituality, in which the power of the story as a moral reference point has superseded the didactic. Thus the meaning of the Good Samaritan is more important than the Ten Commandments – even assuming that the latter could be remembered in any detail by anyone. Into this milieu the image speaks with power..[43]
International research suggests that some Emerging Churches are utilizing a Trinitarian basis to being church through what Avery Dulles calls ‘The Mystical Communion Model of Church’.[66]
Not an institution but a fraternity (or sorority).
Church as interpersonal community.
Church as a fellowship of persons – a fellowship of people with God and with one another in Christ.
Connects strongly with the mystical ‘body of Christ’ as a communion of the spiritual life of faith, hope and charity.
Resonates with Aquinas’ notion of the Church as the principle of unity that dwells in Christ and in us, binding us together and in him.
All the external means of grace, (sacraments, scripture, laws etc.) are secondary and subordinate; their role is simply to dispose people for an interior union with God effected by grace.[67]
Dulles sees the strength in this approach being acceptable to both Protestant and Catholic...
Forgot to add that any movement that has men such as Rob Bell as its leaders suffices to censure it.
Yes; I’d be interested to read any info about Andy Stanley. All I know is what I hear from my nephew and his wife. When they told my sister and me that M.O. was going to be a guest at their church, our jaws dropped. I think was just before, or soon after, the first election of Hussein. The kids voted for Hussein. I have a feeling, but don’t know, that it was supported from/by the pulpit.
Reducing Paul's words to being his own personal opinion is actually something more likely to be seen in the ECM.
On the other side, basically requiring all clergy to have that gift, contrary to what is written and exampled therein, is what is seen in Rome.
Instead, context is necessary. Have to go now so i cannot go into that.
The quote:
“Zacharias was asked in this January 2012 interview:
“If in your book, you wrote how Eastern mysticism is completely erroneous, why did you state in one of your speaking engagements that Henri Nouwen was one of the greatest saints who lived in our time, when Nouwen is known to have been influenced by Thomas Merton and others who practice Eastern mysticism? (source)
“Here is his answer:
“I regret having said that. At the time, I based my comment on Nouwen’s story of the prodigal son which I felt was on target. But later as I learned more about Nouwen and Merton, I found their writings to be very troubling. I believe that doctrinally, Nouwen lost his way.
“I used to read Malcolm Muggeridge too until I read his book, “Jesus Rediscovered”. Muggeridge was morally and culturally a good thinker, but he was not theologically sound. (source)”
http://apprising.org/2012/08/11/ravi-zacharias-clarifies-calling-henri-nouwen-great-saint/
Coincidence that Nouwen was a Catholic priest and Muggeridge converted to Catholicism?
Agreed. Jeremiah 17:5 says, "Cursed is the man who trusts in man."
“Coincidence ...?”
Dunno. Just posted the quote which reads to me that he (RZ) made a mistake. Had a faint feeling that perhaps I’d done the same thing at some point in my life.
Take a look at one
Megachurch=$$$$$.
It really points out the insane spiritual blindness among the anti-Catholic crowd. The only item of faith they appear to share is that the Catholic Church is evil and anti-Christ.
Beyond that, anything is open to YOPIOS - the day of Worship? Sunday, or is it Saturday or maybe Friday? Celebrating Easter? Maybe, or is it pagan? Ditto Christmas! Baptism by water? Or not. And on and on.
Not to rain on your parade or anything but non-Christians often say the same thing (or a close variation) about Catholics arguing with Protestants.
I’m just sayin’...
Not that I’m not guilty of that very thing myself.
Tagline
I think I remember a thread Jim closed last night based on comments like the one you posted.
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