Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, Richard Foster – Are We Wrong in Calling Them Emergent/Contemplative?

CRN agrees with Lighthouse Trails (LHT) that there is no question that these men are Emergent/Contemplatives who are known for engaging in a set of disciplines known as Spiritual Formation. Pastor Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries spent a great deal of his … Continue reading 

Remembering the enticing appeal of Richard Foster and Beth Moore’s Be Still film

Lighthouse Trails does not want us to forget how certain esteemed Christian leaders introduced the evangelical community to contemplative prayer (CP), also referred to as centering prayer, breath prayer, meditation and listening prayer.  Why is this important to remember?  For the reason … Continue reading 

Who are the Emergent Church leaders? Where are they now?

By Marsha West Some of you may recall that in the late 1990s Evangelicalism was introduced to a movement that was “rethinking Christianity against the backdrop of postmodernism” (skepticism, subjectivism, moral relativism).  America’s younger generation of professing Christians who thought … Continue reading 

Caution! Some beloved Christian VIPs navigate the sheep down the primrose path that can lead to a life of sin

By Marsha West – Christian Research Network Here I go again reporting on high-profile Christians who have shown a stunning lack of biblical discernment. I’ll begin by defining spiritual discernment and then I’ll name names. According to Got Questions discernment … Continue reading 

Exposing Charismatic False Teacher, Jack Hayford

Jack Hayford is a major co-conspirator with Rick Warren of the first order. And because of this Scripture (and many more), I am compelled to both mark him and expose him before the whole church: 2 John 1:10: If there come any … Continue reading 

Research: Emergent Church

Emergent Church…aka Emerging and sometimes Emergence Religious leadership must end its intellectual and imaginative failure to think through what it is doing in the light of the new emerging cosmology, which is hospitable to spirit-matter theories and mindbody experiences. ~ … Continue reading 

The Low-Information Evangelical Part 1 (Reprise)

By Marsha West Reposted from 2014 We are told throughout the New Testament to judge, to test, to discern, to assess, to rebuke, to hold one another to account, to make moral distinctions, and to pronounce judgment when and where … Continue reading 

Mysticism in the Church: 10 Things to Watch For

An integral part of “spiritual formation” disciplines, contemplative prayer (aka centering prayer, abiding prayer, breath prayer, Jesus prayer) is described by Richard Foster as: wordless (no content), not for the novice (exclusive), unmediated, and dangerous. Thomas Merton gives the dangers: … Continue reading 

A Whole lotta ‘Christian’ bestsellers are unfit for Christian consumption

(Marsha West – Christian Research Network)  Sadly, “Christian” book sellers line their shelves with books that are clearly unbiblical. Books that put a positive spin on New Age spirituality, Eastern mysticism, LGBTQ+ issues and so forth are available through online … Continue reading 

Rosaria Butterfield Promotes Sam Allberry’s Theology, Catholic Priest Who Says God is Gay and Occultic Scholar

“Rosaria Butterfield’s hospitality theology, many of her themes and mantras, the framework for the entire SSA celibate queer movement as well as many of the talking points over at Living Out and Russell Moore’s ERLC SSA panels are regurgitations of … Continue reading 

Research: Spiritual Formation

Spiritual formation is the process of apparent spiritual development through engaging in a set of behaviors, termed disciplines. Advocates believe these disciplines help shape the character of the practitioner into the likeness of Christ. Though superficially similar to discipleship, spiritual formation … Continue reading 

Research: Contemplative Prayer

Definition of Contemplative Prayer:  A form of Christian mysticism that allegedly brings about a mystical union with God. The mystical “spirituality” that is so popular in evangelical and charismatic circles today is a yearning for an experiential relationship with God … Continue reading 

Christians Mystically Encountering God (Reprise)

FLASHBACK FRIDAY This article by CRN managing editor Marsha West was published 4/16/2013. For a couple of decades there has been a big push by numerous evangelical leaders to incorporate pagan practices into the visible Church.  These unbiblical practices have … Continue reading 

Biola University – Going . . . Going . . . Gone As President Takes Sabbatical At Catholic Contemplative Monastery

(Lighthouse Trails) For many years, Lighthouse Trails has written about the slide that Biola University in Southern California has taken into contemplative spirituality. Our first indication that the school was heading that way was in February of 2006 when we … Continue reading