Who is Leading you into all Truth? Part 7- Leaving church and finding Jesus

Rev 3:2"2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God."

About 3 years ago after playing in many Word Faith churches I decided that we really have a corrupt system at work here in America and around the globe.
So I decided that I would not ever again sign up officially as a member of any certain church or fellowship.
No covenant agreements.
No pledges.
My yes would be yes and my no would be no.
Besides Im already a member of the Body of Christ and thats the only official member I care to be of.

I would like to give a warning to all who read this blog.
American Christianity needs to get back on track-yesterday.
Something new is on the horizon.
Something very dangerous thats being target marketed to our children.
It is coming under many names.
Lectio Divina.
Contemplative prayer.
Centering prayer.
Emergent church. (Even though you may not be a Emergent church many ancient rituals and disciplines that Emergents incorporate are being marketed toward your kids).
This is the reason I left my last church.
Here is the story in a short version.
I used to go to First Baptist Church here in Modesto. The preaching in this church was very good and the preachers who spoke to the main congregation twice on Sundays rightly divided the Word of God. Yes there were the occasional Warranisms but even good preachers can get sucked into popular Christian fads.
The church has also been more than kind to me in times of need and for that I am grateful.
Plus there are many fine folk who occupy the seats in that church, as well as many fine musicians who I had the pleasure to play alongside of.

Then came the other stuff.
I noticed that the junior high pastor was promoting something called Sanctum. A red flag kinda went off in my spirit so I decided to check into it and see it for myself.
At Sanctum the ritual Lectio Divina was being taught to kids both saved and unsaved alike. Prayer stations were also used.
I wrote a letter to the pastor of the church. I also posted a article about this on the blog.
I was rather quickly contacted by one of the church leaders and asked to attend a meeting.
At the meeting was the worship leader I served with in that church and the leader who called me on the phone.
They stated to me that when the pastor had received my letter he immediately went to have a face to face chat with the junior high youth pastor.
And the issue was somehow resolved, and that Lectio would not be taught at First Baptist Church.
I let them know if they wanted to go down the Emergent road that was fine I just wasn't going with them.
They assured me they were not going down this path.
I pulled my original post from the blog based on the comments and assurance I received in that meeting.
I did not however pull the article because I thought I had done anything wrong except point out error.
I guess somehow I misunderstood what happened at our meeting.
This is from the junior high website I just now pulled it from the website.

Interactive Discovery-
We desire to create an atmosphere of interactive, participatory and multi-sensory discovery of God that is both ancient in its roots and using the technology of today. We desire to encounter God in a real and authentic way.

Life Transforming Teaching
We desire to rediscover the grand story of God revealed in the Bible, find our place in the story in order to fill both mind and heart for life transformation. We desire to center the teaching on both the Scripture narrative and these seven most necessary life principles: authentic faith, vintage spiritual disciplines, moral boundaries, healthy friendships, making wise choices, being others first and understanding Gods ultimate authority.
This was all here as of the date of this posting.


here is the link go check this out for yourselves
http://www.fbcmodesto.com/sections/juniorhigh

Here is the problem I have with those statements.
This is still in the Emergent groove which I was assured they were not going down.
Read that first paragraph.
The two sentences contradict each other.
"We desire to create an atmosphere..
Notice where the emphasize is placed on a human creating some kind of experience. And then to state that they desire to encounter God in a real and authentic way.
No you don't.
If you did you would not have to create an atmosphere or multi sensory anything.
During Sanctum the dvd Digital Glass was played and the way this was set up was this.
The youth pastor stated and I quote "Now we are going to watch a video to get our minds ready".
Here is a link to Digital Glass go and check this out and come to your own conclusions.
I have already come to mine.
http://www.emergingchurch.info/stories/sallymorgenthaler/digitalglass.htm

The next problem I had was this statement
"We desire to center the teaching on both the Scripture narrative and these seven most necessary life principles: authentic faith, vintage spiritual disciplines, moral boundaries, healthy friendships, making wise choices, being others first and understanding Gods ultimate authority. "
What do we need to teach besides the Scripture?
Nothing.
And the thing that grates me was I was assured at this meeting that they only wanted to teach the children scripture, Gods word.
This website statement states something else.
It includes vintage spiritual disciplines.
Are those taught in the Bible?
I would suggest you read this excellent article by Bob DeWaay before prodeding any further.
The Dangers of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Disciplines
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue91.htm
It is interesting to note that a couple people mentioned in this article, Dallas Willard, Henri Nouwen and Richard Foster the youth pastor told me were some of his influences including Henri Nouwens book "In the Name of Jesus" and Tony Jones book "The Sacred Way".
here is a link to The Sacred Ways table of context-I would encourage you to do a search for yourselves and come to your own conclusions.
From this link do a search for The Sacred Way and from there you will be able to check out the table of context for yourself.
http://shop2.gospelcom.net/epages/YouthSpecialties.storefront/43b9dc1001f12e82271d45579e7c06b6/Product/View/258103?toc#toc

Henri Nouwen quote
"Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God."From Sabbatical Journey, Henri Nouwen's last book page 51, 1998 Hardcover Edition
I read this quote at the meeting with the First Baptist leadership.
To read what one of the leading Emergent gurus think read this article.
http://pagitt.typepad.com/pagittblog/2005/12/bono_my_man.html
And here is a link to the original article Doug Pagitt refers to.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/pc_article.php?id=7089
Makes you want to stand in a circle and sing We Are The World doesnt it?
Sad-I guess Bono still hasn't found what he's looking for.


Some may say that perhaps the youth pastors junior high website was poorly worded. After the Lectio Divina event I would have thought that perhaps the leadership of the church would give the website a through going over.
And then again maybe they are in agreement with the youth pastor.

The whole Emergent movement and this marketing of ancient Catholic monks ritual could put your children in very real spiritual danger. The monks themselves struggled with very real demonic appearances when they tried to conjure up or shall we say create an atmosphere for a experience with God.
Very dangerous stuff and Im not going to be linked with any gathering of believers promoting this type of ritual masked as experience.
These are very dangerous occult rituals no matter how or what you choose to name them.
I had also on a earlier occassion asked the youth pastor if he had praticed the labyrinth.
To which he simply stated "I have not did that here."
Here is more on the labyrinth just for the record.
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/labyrinth.htm

And thats all I have to say about that.

So what to do now.
The past couple months I have spoken with many believers who have either been forced out of their churches by purpose driven takeovers or left the churches because of Emergent or other practices which are bringing the New Age Movement into the church.
First through purpose driven church we bring the world into the church.
And then through Emergent and other avenues we bring the New Age movement into the church.
So what do we do when the church is no longer the Body of Christ?
And I believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ no longer is in most of the buildings we occupy on Sundays.
He will not compete with the entertainment sermons on felt needs and seeker sensetive nonsense that takes the focus off of Him and puts it on man.
I would suggest you read this article if you are hung up on seeker sensitive
http://www.delightintheword.org/site/cpage.asp?cpage_id=4246&sec_id=755

Here is a interesting article to read.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/001/13.69.html
Though I would disagree with some of the conclusions something is going on here.
As for me I will continue now more than ever to read Gods word and hold tight to those truths that are eternal.
I will continue to fellowship with believers.
Whether that will be in a building or a home or both God only knows.
What I would hope for all churches is to starts teaching discernment once again in church.
Teach people to test the spirits to see if they are from God or not.
Here is a couple of good sermons from John MacArthur on the subject of discernment.
http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/52-32.HTM
http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/52-33.HTM

For a good article on Experiencing God go to this link
http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/52-33.HTM

And for more on the New Age movement invading the church and all things emergent as well as the cancer of the purpose driven movement go to the following links.
My friend and brother in the Lord- Steve Muse
http://www.erwm.com/TheNewSpiritualFormation.htm
And my friend and dear sis in the Lord- Deb Dombrowski.
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/whatsnew.htm
Also the following books are very good and very helpful.
http://www.lighthousetrails.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?

But most of all become less so Jesus can become more in your life.

Read your Bible and as you become less and put your own ambition and ego aside the Holy Spirit will continue to lead you into all Truth.