“For me, prayer is
not separate from daily life. It’s a way of being. It’s like
being with Linda for a weekend at the farm. We’re just there
with one another. We talk over lunch and dinner, but it doesn’t
particularly matter what we say. It’s more about who we are. It’s
about being together. Sharing lives together – with someone you love
and trust.
"Prayer is, for me, like that – a state of
being together with God. It’s not usually triggered by liturgy
or special needs. It’s more like what the Bible instructs us to do:
Pray without ceasing." -- Bob Buford
[emphasis added]
We suppose it was
inevitable, but it is sad when the pieces all fall together. Bob Buford
of Leadership Network, the premier training agency for "change agent"
pastors and Christian leaders, has just issued his regular
newsletter this month with a lead article entitled "Prayer as a
State of Being." In this article Buford quotes Henri Nouwen
favorably and recommends a book by "psychologist Larry Crabb": Inside
Out.
The significance of this pro-contemplative article is far-reaching.
Buford has trained an entire generation of pastors in Peter Drucker's
leadership model. He is credited with launching the emergent/emerging
church movement (search this blog for documentation on this point). He
has been a "significant other" in the life of Rick Warren and countless
other neo-evangelical leaders. Buford has been active in the same
circles as Rick Warren in such places as the
Aspen Institute, and most recently we've spotted him on the
2007
Purpose Prize Panel of Judges for the Templeton Prize.
Simply "Being"
Note the title of Bob Buford's article -- "Prayer as a State of Being."
The significance of this word "being" can best be explained by reading
the Chapter 5 Update to Warren Smith's book Reinventing Jesus Christ,
which is posted online at
www.reinventingjesuschrist.com. A brief excerpt follows, which
details Ken Blanchard's involvement in contemplative. Blanchard is
another man closely connected to both Bob Buford and Rick Warren, who
has trained thousands of pastors in the transformative (and esoteric)
models of leadership:
---------
In April 2005, it became known that Ken Blanchard was endorsing and
recommending New Age books that included Ballard’s book Mind Like
Water.(37) This news was shocking because as the co-founder of the
Lead Like Jesus organization,
Blanchard was already “working together” with Saddleback pastor Rick
Warren in implementing what the pastor was calling God’s “Global
P.E.A.C.E. Plan.”(38) Blanchard was to help Rick Warren train
countless numbers of people around the world to be “servant leaders” who
would “lead like Jesus.” With the news of Ken Blanchard’s
New Age affections there were now additional concerns regarding
Blanchard, Rick Warren and the whole Global P.E.A.C.E. Plan. The obvious
question suddenly became “What Jesus are we talking about here—the
Bible’s Jesus or the New Age Jesus?”
In his book The Servant Leader, Blanchard and his co-author Phil
Hodges placed great emphasis on the need for “solitude” and “silence” in
order to “quietly receive what God reveals to you.” Invoking the cross
and Psalm 46:10, they advised their readers to “Be still” and to move
into the same meditative state of mind I practiced in the New Age.
"If you are seated in a
comfortable position, place your hands on your knees in a down
position. If walking, visualize yourself in this position. In
harmony with the position of your hands, mentally put down
everything you are concerned about or expending energy in trying to
manage or control at the foot of the cross. Be specific—name each
burden as you put it down.
"When you have exhausted your list, take a couple of deep breaths
and turn your hands, physically and mentally, into an up position
and quietly receive what God reveals to you.
"Have no expectations or agenda for this time with God. Let it be
His to fill."(39)
In New Age leader Deepak
Chopra’s book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide
to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams—a book that also bears Blanchard’s
endorsement—Chopra emphatically declares that in order to know God one
must meditate. He underlines his New Age call to meditation by citing
Psalm 46:10 and putting predictable New Age meaning on the single word
“Be.” He writes:
"Practicing silence
means making a commitment to take a certain amount of time to simply
Be.(40)
I"n the Bible is the expression, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
This can only be accomplished through meditation."(41)
Blanchard’s 2005 book
Lead Like Jesus—endorsed by numerous Christian leaders including
Rick Warren—also cites Psalm 46:10 and urges readers to focus on the
single word “Be.” Like Chopra, Blanchard puts an obvious New Age
emphasis on this word “Be.” Blanchard writes:
"Before we send people
off for their period of solitude, we have them recite with us Psalm
46:10 in this way:
"Be still and know that I am God.
"Be still and know.
"Be still.
"Be." (42)
This idea of simply “being”
was at the heart of my New Age experience. But I came to realize that
just “being” can produce an overly relaxed, falsely confident, passive
state of mind where trusting souls do not think to “test the spirits.”
As a result many of us learned the hard way that much of what we thought
we heard and experienced and felt was not from God at all.
[Excerpt used with permission,
Warren Smith, Reinventing Jesus Christ]
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Rick Warren has also previously served as a judge for the
John Templeton
Foundation's Purpose Prize. For more information on the significance
of these connections to Templeton, see the Chapter 10 Update to
Warren Smith's
Reinventing Jesus Christ. Also see the Chapter 7 Update
on Templeton's "Humility Theology." For current information on the
contemplative movement see
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com.
The Truth:
"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;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be
turned unto fables." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
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