Rotten Fruit/What Has Spiritual Formation Done for One Pastor?

In speaking with those who have left, I am consistently hearing that our former pastor was confrontational to anyone who spoke up. Now, those who left that I know well enough are all very kind people who think very carefully on their faith. They are either hurt or are trying hard to avoid bitterness because of how this pastor dealt with them. I am wondering if this will come out in the survey? If you are looking at the fruit in our former church, you will see a rotten temper with our former pastor, that is for sure. So, if you “go deeper” with spiritual formation, this is what you get? If it were just us, I’d say it’s possible we made some mistake and maybe we rubbed him the wrong way or we perceive his behavior wrongly. However, it’s MANY meek people who just had to speak up who are expressing a distaste for this former pastor’s attitude.

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Everyone is talking about Silence (Lighthouse trails research notes)

I just read an article on the Lighthouse Trails Research page (look at my blog roll and you can find a link to that page for interesting reading all around).  It mentions that everyone is talking about “the silence” or “be still.”  I’ve noted that the youth organization in our area has ignatius prayer links to teach meditative silent prayer (with breathing exercises and the like).  The article on the Lighthouse Trails site is so good, I’m encouraging people to read it and see how “Christian” authors are actually in parallel with New Age authors.  When groups line up so well, this shows a similar influence is possible…and in fact, because many of the “Christian” authors influencing our churches today quote some of the New Age authors, even some Buddist or Hindu authors…we can be sure the influence is the same.

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=1209&c=1

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Wishing I was wrong…

Anyone have this feeling?  I wish I was wrong.  I wish I didn’t know what I was talking about.  I am really getting frustrated thinking about how many churches are falling for this falsehood.  All this interconnection.  The Bible says you’ll know them by their fruits.  Wonder if it also applies that you’ll know them by their roots?  (I do not want to write something new into the Bible, so don’t take “know them by their roots” as a Biblical statement…).  Trace the fruit.  You hear your pastor say something about “just say a word while in prayer, say it over and over again but not at all in an eastern meditative way…” during a sermon.  So, you begin to wonder where this is coming from.  I mean, your church went through the 40 days series (is it three books now???) and religiously uses Hybels materials in small group.  Your women go to Beth Moore conferences, and you note your pastor mentions new names.  Campolo, Willard, Donald Miller…every week a new author.  Follow the vines. 

My old pastor positively quotes Donald Miller and in fact used his material for a recent sermon.  www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com has an article that shows what Donald Miller’s roots go down to.  I quote from their page…

“In Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller, in the Acknowledgements, Miller thanks New Age meditation proponent Daniel Goleman, who writes books about mantra meditation, Buddhism. He was the editor for Healing Emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health

“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 See The New Missiology”

Following to the root shows that the plant is not wheat but weeds.  Ugh.

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