Is This Thing in Your Church Bulletin?

Would you be concerned if your church was promoting interfaith spirituality? Oh, they would never do that. Would they? Well, think again. For example, check your church bulletin to see if a seemingly benign little thing has slipped in unnoticed. Like, the announcement of a summer leadership summit with a link under the promotion that looks like this...

www.growingleadership.com

If so, your church could be a member of the Willow Creek Association, and your leaders are being encouraged to attend a teaching seminar (via satellite) to hear about the interfaith plans of Mr. Blair and Mr. Bono (see here).

If you live in Canada, check this map and see where this thing is going to be beamed via satellite to your church leaders:

www.growingleadership.com/2009/sitesmap.asp

If your church is promoting this, you might want to ask your leadership why they are supporters of Willow Creek’s acceptance and promotion of Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation, with is all about peace and co-existence with other religions:

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is dedicated to achieving understanding, action and reconciliation between the different faiths for the common good. It is not about the faith that looks inward; but the faith that resolutely turns us towards each other.
-Tony Blair, The Globalization of Tolerance
newsweek.washingtonpost.com

That is the obvious red flag about this whole thing, but you might ALSO want to ask your church leadership if they are aware of the summer recommended reading list on that Growing Leadership (Willow Creek) website they are directing their members to. For example, if you click on their summer reading link, here are just a few of the books that the Willow Creek Canada Leadership Centre website recommends for summer reading:

First of all, they recommend, not one, but two books by Ruth Haley Barton called Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership (foreword is written by the contemplative Leighton Ford) and Sacred Rhythms, a book about the spiritual disciplines. Ruth Haley Barton is a spiritual director who studied contemplative spirituality at the ecumenical Shalem Institute and is the founder of The Transforming Center. (thetransformingcenter.org)

Also recommended is a book called Forgotten Ways: Reactivate Missional Church (foreword written by Leonard Sweet) by Alan Hirsch, who wrote this book because he is "convinced that the inherited formulas for growing the Body of Christ do not work anymore."

Also on the summer reading list is a book called UnChristian by David Kinnaman. (The Willow Creek website does not mention that it is co-authored by Gabe Lyons, founder of the Fermi Project (fermiproject.com), which is "a broad collective of innovators, social entrepreneurs, and church and society leaders working together to make positive contributions to culture.") The Youtube promotional clip for UnChristian says this book has contributions by Chuck Colson, Andy Stanley, religious left leader Jim Wallis, Rick Warren, Brian McLaren, and Chris Seay (founder of The Voice), to name a few. The promo also says that this book is filled with research that will help Christians know what non-Christians are thinking when they see us at work and when they come to our churches. With this book, so they say, 20-30 years from now the world will see Christians in a whole new light. But...is that true? Do we even need such a book, when Jesus has already told us what the world will think of us if we are truly His disciples? (“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. John 15:18..."I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. John 17:14)

Another recommended book for summer reading is Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson.
The Willow Creek description says:

Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit An Geadh-Glas, or the Wild Goose. The name hints at mystery. Like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. Elements of danger and an air of unpredictability surround Him. Powerful and Practical!

Here’s another explanation of why the Celtics used a wild goose to symbolize the Holy Spirit…

In the Celtic tradition the Holy Spirit is represented as a bird, but not the peaceful and serene dove landing on Jesus at his baptism. For their symbol of the Holy Spirit, the Celtic church people chose the Wild Gose, ( An Geadh-Glas) This has become, the logo and name for the worship branch of the Iona Community.

Why did the Wild Goose speak to those ancient Celtic Christians? To begin with, wild geese aren’t controllable. You can’t restrain a wild goose and bend it to your will. They’re raucous and loud. Unlike the sweet and calming cooing of a dove, a goose’s honk is strong, challenging, strident and unnerving – and just a bit scary.

In much the same way the Spirit of God can be, demanding and unsettling.

Source (www.thisischurch.com)

Note: Some say this is just a legend and that there is no documented proof that the Celtics did use this as a symbol. Never the less, acknowledging and teaching this comparison appears to be a contradiction to the portrayal of the Holy Spirit in the Bible as a gentle dove, and as our Comforter and Helper, Who always points to Jesus.

For those who want to research this book more, there is a book review of Wild Goose Chase here (favorable) and some very interesting insights here for those who are interested in reading through them here. And here is a video of Mark Batterson promoting his book, where he equates the cages in a zoo to what the church does to Christians, and hopes his book 'uncages' bored confused Christians and releases them to be dangerous Christians. He also hopes his book will have a relaxing effect spiritually knowing that God is sovereign and in control. (A good goal, perhaps, but I am always amazed at the fact that Christians think they need to buy a new book to learn that, when the fact is that the only book that will truly "release" us and have a lasting effect on us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is the Bible... “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12)

So there you have just a few of the recommended books on the Willow Creek site. It is interesting to note that the common theme in many of the books on their list is returning to the spiritual rhythms of the "early" church (aka desert fathers and mystics) via contemplative spirituality.

The point of this post is this. It’s not just hearsay, finger pointing, negativity, or someone’s wild imagination that many churches, by linking themselves with the Willow Creek Association and promoting their summits (and recommended books), are unknowingly promoting a spirituality that is leading many unwary Christians to an unbiblical spirituality. It’s happening, it’s everywhere, and it’s spreading faster than you know.