(529) EMERGING TRENDS IN THE CHURCH TODAY –

KEN SHIGEMATSU – A Christian & Missionary Alliance pastor of Tenth Church in Vancouver, British Columbia being interviewed for Charisma Magazine –

This is his promotion of Contemplative Prayer. Briefly stated, this involves many issues of concern for Christians today. First off, it sounds innocent, new, fun, good, peaceful, religious…etc. – in many respects, one may ask – who wouldn’t want to participate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvWT05dnyVg

For many, these characteristics seem innocent enough to try as one attempts to get closer to God, to participate in what works for them (whatever that may mean)….etc. For some reason, these aspects of contemplative prayer usually means bypassing any discernment. It is not that Christians don’t believe we should be discerning – but rather in this case, these activities are said to draw us closer, make us feel peaceful, encourages us to listen to God,….etc. What is not the like?

First, any spiritual activity that we engage in, should activate a level of discernment. After all, we are not talking about playing in a sporting event, working at a factory, cleaning your house,…etc. We are talking about a spiritual activity. What more basic reason do you have in applying Scripture’s call to discern the truth of the activity before participating in it?

Most Christians would probably agree with the observations of Christianity today that include – Christians seemingly know less about the Bible – they are more ignorant of not only His word but what follows is application of His word which is becoming even less frequent. It is also probably no surprise that Christians are less discerning of biblical truth. We are not just talking about differences between denomination where two different denominations may differ in their understanding of doctrine – yet both may be approaching their reasons based on what they interpret the Bible as saying (and they add in their Church history on top of that). Instead today, we are seeing Christians know less of the Bible and are apt to fill in that void with ideas, practices, doctrine that emanates from outside philosophies – even from other religions outside of Christianity.

Most don’t even realize that. But that may not be an accident when you see how ignorant many are of biblical truth. So-called Christian books are not always filled with biblical truth. Pastors graduate from Bible college or seminary being exposed to teachings and practices that likewise don’t come from the Bible.

It may be hard to believe but these practices have swept into Evangelicalism – which once stood for depending directly on the Bible to justify spiritual practices. Today we see a growing popularity to these “new” practices which then causes additional authors to write more books (to sell more books) on these latest trends, to attract more students – Bible college provide classes on related subjects that they have never taught at their school before……etc. Popularity, new, fun,…activities that are all said to increase one’s intimacy with God, draws one closer to God, allows one to focus on God….etc. What could be wrong with that?

But, Scripture can’t be ignored on this subject. Most books of the Bible deal with some type of error in doctrine or warns us to avoid practices from other religions. Jesus, the Apostle Paul,…etc. condemns those who are “teach another gospel”. The NT writers warn us of error “creeping” into the church through the back door. A sign of the end times is an increasing trend towards false doctrine even within the church. It strikes both the leadership and the layperson alike. Scripture describes Satan as roaming around deceiving Christians with lies. Christians are even encouraged to seek after activities that take one away from the Bible – after all, if we are not studying the Bible, how else could we be more susceptible to error? Instead of thinking about Scripture, we are encouraged to focus on activities, feelings, experiences,…etc. and minimize thinking about Scripture. The more that Christians can take their eyes off of truth, the easier it becomes to mislead and be deceived.

In today’s postmodern society, that is what we see – even in the church. People are just not as interested in truth. Working hard to understand truth is becoming a rare occurrence by Christians today. Instead, emphasis is placed on feelings and experience.

Instead of studying the Bible, emphasis is place on reading about those who lived in the past and their experience that many try to bring back into our society today. They read books about ancient Roman Catholic saints practicing mysticism. Christians are generally ignorant of Church history but yet, they are increasingly becoming more knowledgeable in ancient past mystical practices that have invaded the church today. What are some of these new(old) practices?

– CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER. Not that one is encouraged to contemplate or think. Rather one is encouraged to do the opposite. Emptying your mind, getting rid of distractions so that you can hear from God.

– MANTRAs – repeating a word often enough that it numbs your senses and you become more focused and receptive in hearing or sensing something from whatever can influence someone spiritually. Is it God or is it not from God? That is the discerning question.

– SILENCE / STILLNESS – practices that are common place in Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism.

– CENTERING PRAYER, CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER, IMAGINATIVE PRAYER – all geared on applying activities that are not given to us by the Bible but all said to “transform” our walk by getting us closer to God, being more intimate with God, having a DEEPER relationship with God, making us FEEL closer, FEEL at peace,….etc.

– MONASTERY – encouraging Evangelicals to visit a monastery, sit in the SILENCE, STILLNESS surrounded by Roman Catholic monks, sharing MEDITATION activities,…all to be alone to hear what God has to say to you.

– BREATHING EXERCISES – breathing in and then breathing out…..physical and spiritual exercises to again make one feel good, focus on God, combined with the use of mantras as one exhales and repeating a word as one inhales…etc. again practices that don’t come from the Bible, descriptive phrases make these appealing to many – “to stay fresh with God, be at peace, be relaxed, be open”…etc.

– PURGING – an aspect of mysticism. This was developed by the most dedicated of the Mystics: the sixteenth-century writers Teresa of Avila (The Interior Castle) and St. John of the Cross (The Dark Night of the Soul). The phrase used often – the “mystical way” describes a three-fold path to UNITE with the divine. It consists of AWAKENING, PURGATION, and ILLUMINATION.

Trying to unite with God is a serious issue because the Bible is clear that God is distinct from His creation – so how can one be united with God? This is a major drawback with the objectives of mystics who say the opposite and encourage people to work diligently to unite oneself with God. The thought of the works oriented Roman Catholic mystics and their routines and duties come to mind as they try to work their way close to God. These mystics talk about the need to go through the further state of the dark night of the soul to achieve unification with God. Purging comes from self-discipline and mortification (the misdeeds of the flesh must be put to death. After sinful desires are purged, you are able to see divine reality in a new light. This is associated with visions, reports of ecstasy, delight….etc. Many mystics stop at this point, but some work on for unification with God. “Success is achieved by the ineffable presence of God.”

Part of this purgation process is to rid oneself of one’s thoughts that could be supplying distracting information that could prevent this end result of a divine encounter. This is an important difference because while the Bible talks about filling our hearts and our minds with the great and precious promises of the Word of God (2 Peter 1:4), meditating on His Word day and night (Joshua 1:8), so much so that it is compared to our daily sustaining bread (Matthew 4:4). The mystic is not seeking these aspects but instead seeking to purge themself of all that is sinful, all that is encumbering and even those things that distract such as delights in the character and presence of God. But this draining of one’s brain goes against what Scripture tells us to do. Scripture encourages us to be thinking, to meditate on God’s word, to use you intellect and not try to suppress thinking.

=> All of these share some common perspectives.

(1) First, they are not taught in Scripture.

(2) Second, they are taught in other religions (Eastern Mysticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen, New Age…etc.)

(3) They encourage the experience, feeling, & emotions over the intellect. They discourage thinking – thinking about Scripture.

(4) The all sound appealing. Those who criticized are compared to Pharisees, they are said to be judgmental, they just don’t understand, dont’ realize how this makes me feel,….etc.

(5) The focus is on the inward instead of more objective aspects of reading the Bible. The inward focus attempts to draw one closer to God intimately – which can mean many different things to many different people.

Activities are thrown in to make one work to achieve these states of peace, stillness,….with a goal of hearing from God and becoming one with God. This video will only skim the surface of these issues – which is another problem with this movement.

When you go back and read their books, you get even more teaching from these mystical perspectives and aside from a few Scriptures thrown in here and there, one is taken further away from what the Bible teaches is. Very deceptive but today, very effective.

Listen to this 3 minute video interview again. See how many of the above characteristics that you can pick out yourself from the interview.

(528) EMERGING TRENDS IN THE CHURCH TODAY: The Future of the Christian Faith – Practice of Spiritual Direction – Ruth Haley Barton

RUTH HALEY BARTON – One of my first encounters with her teaching came indirectly from my participation in the Christian & Missionary Alliance Leadership Development Program (it may have been called by a different name several years ago when I participated). I thought overall, it was a great way for people in the church to get educated for ministry – one could go on to church leadership. Others could participate just to advance their knowledge and understanding of basic fundamentals of our faith. It was usually taught by local pastors/instructors. I thought the courses provided a good basic overview of these fundamentals including understanding the Bible, understanding the mission of the Church, basic theology, how lead the church, Alliance history….etc.

That said, my view came crashing down as the graduation of several participants of the local cohort that I was a part of involved a graduation ceremony with a guest speaker – RUTH HALEY BARTON. I thought – oh my goodness, how can a function designed to educate the next leaders in the denomination who have spent upwards of 3 years in this educational program culminate their experience with the advice, thoughts, teachings of RUTH HALEY BARTON? It made no sense and it contradicted much of what the purpose of this program – in my opinion.

If you are not familiar with Barton, let’s look at her recent email distribution to get a better understanding of her background and her views on many aspects of our Christian faith. You don’t have to read far into it before she sets the tone early with terminology and references that should pop up warning flags.

=> Keep in mind that there are several topics in this post that are further explained in previous posting on this site. I won’t go through all of these in this posting but a simple search on this site will reveal more information on the subject matter.

She opens up her latest newsletter on the subject of Spiritual Direction with a quote from Thomas Merton –

• “A spiritual director is one who helps another recognize and follow the inspirations of grace in his life, in order to arrive at the end to which God is leading him.”– Thomas Merton

In a blog (#516) post about one year ago, we looked at Thomas Merton –

• a Roman Catholic Trappist Monk, has a long history of combining Eastern Mysticism in with Christian practices. From the books he wrote, the articles he wrote, speeches he gave and the lifestyle he lived, his promotion of Eastern religions has caused many Christians to at least include non-biblical practices which doesn’t worship or serve the one true God.  

It is no accident that she uses a quote by Thomas Merton. Her turning to a Spiritual Director has more to do with some of these early Roman Catholic practices which find similarities with Eastern Mysticism.

Barton repeats the story of her feeling stuck in her spiritual life and seeking new experiences for what she calls a “deeper levels of transformation”

• “In my previous post on the future of Christian spirituality, I described getting to a place in my spiritual life where I felt stuck in terms of my longing to experience deeper levels of transformation. I needed help opening to a reality beyond myself and I needed guidance for beginning to rearrange my life for what I most deeply wanted. Help came through a spiritual director—someone more experienced in the ways of the soul than I was, more practiced at recognizing God’s invitations in the life of another, and willing to offer support in making a faithful response.”

Several items stand out – first is her desire to “experience deeper levels of transformation”. It may not be a coincident that she seeks after experience which is a constant theme in approach. She adds words to experience such as feelings and she describes her spiritual experience using variations of the word – “deep”. I don’t know what this level of “deep experience” actually means but she feels that it was transformative in her life. I am always a bit cautious when someone uses the descriptive “deep” in describing their experience because when I was young in the faith – the word “deep” was usually associated with the level of study of the Bible – e.g. we looked at the meanings in the original languages. That is what deep meant to me. Today, “deep” is commonly used by folks looking to experience something different, something that can be unique to them, not necessarily found in Scripture….etc. Without making a definitive judgement on what Barton means on these unique experiences to her, I would just say that some warning signs begin to emerge as hear from someone who professes to be a teacher of God’s wisdom but exploring other avenues of finding guidance other than God and His word.

In line with this, it should be noted that with Barton’s dissatisfaction with her own spirituality at this point in her life, where does she turn for guidance? God’s word?……..Nope => instead, she turns to a spiritual director. Not just any person, but a psychologist with whom she was seeking therapy.

• “Our paths first crossed because she was a psychologist. I sought her out for therapy because I assumed that my “problems” were psychological in nature and could be “fixed” on that level. Psychological insight and process were indeed valuable.  Invaluable, really. Looking back, I don’t think I could have taken the spiritual journey God was inviting me into without taking some basic steps toward psychological health and wholeness—things like differentiation from my pastor family’s beliefs about God and learning to hear God for myself, wrestling with the deforming discrimination I had experienced as a woman in the church, and working through the anger, sadness, and disillusionment I was carrying because of what I had witnessed as a pastor’s kid.”

She credits the therapy as opening her up to this next spiritual journey she went on.

• “The psychological work we did actually made the spiritual journey more possible.”  

A Shift in Focus is how she describes this next stage in her life. She says –

• “Eventually, however, this wise guide observed that what I needed was spiritual direction.  She asked if I would be willing to shift the focus of our times together from therapeutic fixing and advice-giving to my relationship with God and the invitation to spiritual transformation contained within the questions that I was bringing. As a Protestant I had never heard of spiritual direction, given that spiritual direction is a gift that comes to us from the Catholic tradition, but I trusted her to know what was best and so we made the shift.”  

People tend to shrug off any comparisons made with mysticism when bring this topic up at church or with other Christians. But unless you close your eyes and bury your head in the sand, you can read directly from the source the influence of Roman Catholicism, Mysticism, Eastern Religions….etc. Barton clearly states that she is looking at direction from the Roman Catholic tradition. And indeed, much of the mysticism today in the Evangelical church comes from ancient Roman Catholic mysticism. Most of that history shows parallels to Eastern Mysticism – direct syncretism of practices found within Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism.

Barton claims that whatever she was doing before wasn’t working. And I’ve said this before, we all run into what may be described as “dry” periods in our lives. Some of which may be a result of our own “doings” or our own “undoings”. Other times may be a result of God showing us something or teaching us something. But these “doings” or “experiences” are not necessarily what we should base our spirituality on. We may need to learn from them but regardless of how we feel, God is still with us. That is part of the reason of why God gives us His word – which doesn’t change. No matter what we feel like, His word is the same. His word is truth and that is what He provides for us to follow Him (2 Timothy 3:16).

• When we entered spiritual direction, I had been working very hard at the spiritual disciplines my Protestant upbringing had offered—Bible study, prayer, and service—with a bent towards theology, statements of faith and intellectual assent.  I was sure I could “become a better person” if I just tried harder.  But part of my desperation was the fact that the practices and habits that people had told me were supposed to work in bringing about my transformation were no longer working, no matter how faithful I was to their program.  I was embarrassed and felt very defeated. 

• Surprisingly, my spiritual director encouraged me to stop doing what wasn’t working (!) and instead pay attention to what I was longing for.  It was the strangest and most wonderful feeling to let go of the Bible study and prayer methods I had practiced for so long, in faith that there might be something new for me! While I continued to function in the arenas where I had responsibilities, I now had a private place for letting go of what wasn’t working and trying some new things. This was all very hopeful. 

Transitions in the Life of Prayer

• Another helpful moment came when my director pointed out that I was in a transitional place in the life of prayer—not falling off the spiritual path—which I had been so afraid of.  She began to guide me into fresh (for me) disciplines that corresponded to my longings and desires, fostering new experiences with God. Her concrete guidance into practices like solitude and silence that were rooted in the broader Judeo Catholic Christian tradition, along with the confidence she conveyed, marked out a new path for me. 

• This space for reflecting—without judgment—on my spiritual practices was a great gift.  In this space, I was able to quiet my feelings of “ought” and “should” and instead pay attention to those practices that were no longer fruitful for me.  I found the freedom to let go of what wasn’t working and claim fresh disciplines that corresponded to my most authentic needs and desires.  The practices of mindfulness, paying attention to one’s breathing, building time into each day for silence and beyond-words communion with God, staying attuned to inner dynamics of consolation and desolation and allowing such awareness to shape my decision-making began to revitalize my parched and weary soul. 

• Her experience with a wide variety of spiritual disciplines opened a treasure trove of spiritual possibilities for me, and offered a world of hope that there was more to the spiritual life than I had yet experienced.  

Spiritual Direction as Opening to Mystery

• Even with the best psychological help, there comes a point when what most needs to be done in our lives only God can do—and so we need help in finding ways to open to the mystery of God and God’s transforming work in the human soul.

• Thomas Merton describes this well in his book Spiritual Direction and Meditation. He said, “The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a [person’s] life, to get behind the façade of conventional gestures and attitudes which he/she presents to the world, and to bring out his/her internal freedom, his/her inmost truth, which is what we call the likeness of Christ in his/her soul. This is entirely a supernatural thing…for this work belongs first and foremost to the Holy Spirit.  The spiritual director cannot do such a work by him/herself. The director’s function is to verify and to encourage what is truly spiritual in the soul.” (gender inclusive language mine) 

• Many psychologists are now acknowledging the limits of their discipline and are shifting at least part of their approach to incorporating elements of spiritual listening and spiritual practices into their work. It is not that we are throwing out psychology but that we are seeking to fully integrate it with spiritual direction for a more holistic approach to our spirituality. Speaking for myself, I needed a gifted and highly trained director who knew which aspect of the person needed attentionSs when and in what order.  At times she would even tell me that she was returning to a more therapeutic approach when that seemed to be what was needed.  But she would let me know that’s what she was doing and ask my permission, so the lines did not get blurred. 

Towards a More Integrated Approach

• Something else my spiritual director drew attention to that surprised me was the significance of attending to and caring for my body as part of my spiritual journey.  One of the first things she helped me become aware of (that I had not been aware of previously) was the false bifurcation I was living in; I was completely cut off from the awareness that I don’t just have a body, I am a body.  Because of the dualisms embedded in most religious training, she pointed me to the story of Elijah in Scripture (I Kings 19) so I could see that this great prophet’s journey into the presence of God began with rest and attending to his body. 

• All of this brings me to my second observation about the future of Christian spirituality—it will include greater acknowledgement and intentionality around the charism and practice of spiritual direction emerging as a special gift from the Catholic tradition.  Such directors will be trained to attend to all parts of the human person as a unified whole—body, mind and soul—helping directees become more integrated in their approach to their spiritual journey. We will foster this kind of integration in our training programs, rather than continuing to propagate approaches to spirituality that slice and dice the human person into parts and pieces.  

• Spiritual direction is a gift of our historic Christian faith that is fundamentally different in tone, spirit, and content from the discipleship, mentoring, and therapeutic models we have tended to rely on in our approach to transformation.  Because the spiritual life is, by definition, reliant on attentiveness to the human spirit becoming more and more responsive to the Holy Spirit of God within, relationships where individuals are supported in seeking greater attentiveness to that Spirit will be central to the future of Christian spirituality.

So, what do we conclude with Ruth Haley Barton’s advice on spiritual direction? From an Evangelical Church perspective, several issues jump out. Barton describes her disappointing experience in basic discipleship. She doesn’t seem excited in the basics – Bible study, prayer, church,….etc. Again, a simple reading of the Bible will see Scripture promoting the study of God’s word, prayer and fellowship with other Christians as we grow and are equipped to be used by God (i.e. basic discipleship). When disappointment is taken from reading God’s word, study of Scripture, prayer,….etc. it should make one wonder what religious faith is this person going to pursue? We are not talking rocket science or even signs and wonders. This is a basic walk in faith that is being questioned and somewhat discarded as Barton seeks other avenues to experience.

This is where the problems continue to build off of each other. Disappointment in prayer/Bible study, turns to looking for wisdom and experience from other places. The psychologist friend who considers herself as a Spiritual Director because to influence and educate Barton as they journeyed into the inclusion of other issues of faith such as silence, breathing exercise,….etc. Why doesn’t Barton rely on God and His word? Turning to His word during times like this is something we are encouraged to do. Seeking wisdom in man-made religions, philosophies, psychology,….is a recipe for disaster. Filling the gaps in your walk with other religious practices such as silence, breathing practices, emptying your thoughts out of your mind,…..etc. all contribute to moving further from the truth found in the Bible. The more one replaces experience and feelings over biblical truth, the further one gets from God. Blurring the lines between Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Christianity will deceive many today and again it moves one further away from God.