As a freshman at Wheaton College, I’d heard about this church that was doing creative things to reach lost people. We attended…The service opened with a Beatles song… I don’t know of a pastor or leader in America that has not in some way been shaped by the ministry of Willow Creek. Dave Dummitt (1: Smietana)
Three years before Dave Dummitt arrived to replace Bill Hybels, he commented on his missional style megachurch in Michigan: It’s part of a populist religious movement afoot in America. “People have an unmistakable desire to worship without the barriers of rules and regulations that many traditional religions and churches have,” says lead pastor Dave Dummitt.(5; Eiler)
The Beatles songs dominated the music of the 60’s and through their lyrics they promoted Eastern mysticism–cosmic humanism, also called the New Age Movement. It is an evolutionary belief system which opposes historic Christianity. It believes that all forms of life are believed to be evolving to higher states of consciousness where there exists absolute unity. It combines humanism and Eastern mysticism as it calls all religions and creeds and people to unite in a new world order that will end all wars and revive the environment (2; Foster, Ball; 90, Fairchild).
The first line of John Lennon’s song, “I Am the Walrus” describes this belief in the unity of all things: “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.” Lennon believed that the only worthwhile revolution had to come about from spiritual change and not violence. “You say you want a revolution, well you know, we all want to change the world.” (2; Fairchild).
My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought (and here’s the word, circle it) to complete unity. Ed Ollie
As part of his teaching on John 17:21 at Willow Creek, Ed Ollie said to circle the word ‘unity.’ This teaching was part of the series NEXT which laid out Willow’s latest vision to become “a church of small groups that will change the world.”
Through carefully worded topics, the megachurch has been responsible for a move towards religious experience without the restriction of such doctrines as original sin, and the necessity of a blood atonement. Through double-speak and new Bible translations which change meanings and words to suit New Age thought it is often difficult to decipher what is being taught at Willow Creek Community Church.
On the back of his 2003 book A Glimpse of Jesus: A stranger to Self-Hatred, both Bill Hybels and John Ortberg praise Brennan Manning. Bill Hybels comments, “I attempt to read everything Manning writes.” Former Catholic priest/present Catholic mystic, Brennan Manning combines Eastern mysticism, psychology, the New Age movement, liberation theology, Catholicism and Protestantism. Manning regularly meditates (centering prayer) and reports having many visions and encounters with God. According to Manning everyone is saved and we need to overcome our psychological fog and realize it. To the contemplative, the biblical view that all are lost and that only when a person trusts Jesus Christ as Savior he passes from death to life (John 5:24) does not apply. Crucial biblical truths, such as sin and forgiveness, are reinterpreted in light of therapy (46; Caddock).
Whereas the historical view of unity in John 17:21 is based on salvation and truth and separation from the world, Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, has stated from its beginnings that it would be a church for the “unchurched” which put a whole new spin on the definition of Protestant and what the reformers of Christianity had intended.
Ephesians 4:11-13 tells us that the Church was for the edification of the believers; for the perfecting of the saints. The Greek word “ecclesia,” translated church, means a “called out company.” The Christian believes that the Bible is literally God’s Word and inerrant, embracing and standing true to its fundamentals.
We ought to be seeking out ways that we can constantly be, you know, rubbing shoulders with people in our community. Meeting them where they are. When we’re left to our own devices, we tend to drift towards those who look like us, or believe like us and we’re going to have to be intentional, you know, mixing things up to be with people who are different than we are. Dave Dummitt NEXT
Scott L. Thumma, a megachurch researcher at Hartford Institute for Religion Research revealed, “Most churches call themselves evangelical, which typically refers to Christians who believe the Bible is the literal Word of God… You can’t be a fundamentalist megachurch because the fundamentalist’s idea is to keep people out and the megachurch leaders goal is to bring people in… the church crowds tend to be more diverse” (60; Sosnik, Dowd, & Fournier, p. 98).
Rather than a “called out company,” Willow has always been, and remains to be, a church of all faiths. Rightfully, and to be more crystal clear on their stand, “Protestant” has been dropped from the original description of the church as Dave Dummitt takes over Bill Hybel’s mantle in his opening series titled NEXT.
- Complete Unity
- Wheaton College and the Theosophical Society
- The NEXT Society
- God is a Community
- Summer Notes
- The Crystal Cathedral’s Influence
- YMCA of the Rockies and the Peter Drucker Summit
- The Chicago Bears
- Humanity is ONE
The heartbeat of Willow has always been to do anything we can to reach people who are far from God. We’ve got a rich history of being people who break down barriers, innovate, think forward to meet people where they are so they can experience God’s love in practical ways. Dave Dummitt NEXT
Wheaton College and the Theosophical Society
Willow Creek’s teaching, at a closer look, appears to be line up more with Theosophy’s belief in unity rather than historical Christianity. Ironically, the headquarters for the Theosophical Society in America is walking distance from Wheaton College. Theosophy was the first organization to be founded upon the idea that there is truth in all religions.
To the esoterists, Christianity is anathema and Christians must be converted to accept all religious expressions. Through aberrant teachings, they comprise a networking system of individuals and groups that plan to blend science and religion to create a universal brotherhood of man under a one-world state. They plan to unite mankind to ensure the survival of the human race and eliminate the fear of war, poverty, sickness, and all the elements that comprise God’s curse upon mankind. (80; Fairchild).
Author Bradley Berg who follows the writing of the Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul through his amanuensis, Alice A. Bailey, explains: His (Jesus) statement that he was heading towards the Father’s house symbolized the evolutionary journey of the soul to higher levels of consciousness. When he said “I and the Father are one,” he meant that he had attuned with the next higher level of consciousness for him, not that he is the Father, as so many millions have believed. He was humble, referring to himself as the Son of Man (8; Berg).
The New Group of World Servers is the vanguard of the kingdom of God, the living proof of the existence of the world of spiritual Oneness. The New Group of World Servers by Alice A. Bailey can be found on Lucis Trust.org. Theosophist Alice Bailey was responsible for popularizing the terms “New Age” and the “Age of Aquarius.” She believed in karma and reincarnation as well as some aspects of Christianity. She, and psychic Edgar Cayce, set the standard for New Age channelers and described a world populated by disincarnate spirits, spirit guides, devas, and angels.
Dave Dummitt, a graduate of Wheaton College, became Willow Creek’s lead pastor in 2020, two years after Bill Hybels resigned. Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College said Dummitt is the right person to lead Willow: David… seeks to be on mission for its community… is known as a “networker with a kingdom mentality. He loves people and loves connecting people for missional purposes (1; Smietana).
In Stetzer’s book Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community an interdenominational and ecumenical outlook is described for churches as diverse as Willow Creek, Anglican, and Charismatic(14; Stetzer & Putman). Ecumenism is a movement that began as an attempt to bring about unity within the denominations and groups that call themselves Christian. In the mid-20th century the goal of ecumenism expanded to include all religions which is neither biblical nor possible.
All paths do not lead to the “same God.” Followers of Judaism worship a God who calls the Jews His “chosen people”; Muslims worship Allah, who hates Jews. Hindus worship 330-million personal gods. The supreme deity of Buddhism is an impersonal Force that is in everything. Most Jews consider the material world as the epitome of life, while Hindus regard the material world as maya, an illusion. Muslims strive to get to paradise by doing good works in their lifetime which includes killing infidels, called jihad. Hindus and Buddhists strive to reach nirvana or moksha, a state of perfect happiness, through an endless cycle of deaths and rebirths.
Billy Graham, who was an anthropology graduate of Wheaton College, began his ministry as a student through both on-campus ministries and other outreaches. He was a member of the Foreign Missions Fellowship group and served as President of the Christian Council. In 1949, when he first began preaching nightly under a tent in Los Angeles his revival was small and underattended until he received a phone call from a popular entertainer who had a radio program, Stuart Hamblen. Soon Graham’s tent was flooded with reporters and photographers. Later, it was learned that William Randolph Hearst, the great publishing giant, had issued an edict to all the editors in his newspaper chain: “Puff Graham.” Hearst had disguised himself and attended the revival with his mistress Marion Davies. As the attendance swelled, Graham was turned into a national figure (21; Luo).
Graham got a star on the Hollywood walk of Fame for his media-savvy use of radio, television and films to supplement his mass crusades (20; Dart). He claimed that he wanted to use ecumenism to get the gospel to more people, that the liberals and Roman Catholics needed the Gospel. After a few decades, he changed entirely and was saying that the liberals and Roman Catholics are fine like they are. In a May 30, 1997, interview with David Frost, Graham said: “I feel I belong to all the churches. I’m equally at home in an Anglican or Baptist or Brethren Assembly or a Roman Catholic Church. … And the bishops and archbishops and the Pope are our friends” (18; Frost). It is Graham who has been converted by the dialogue process. He admitted, “The ecumenical movement has broadened my viewpoint” (19; Mitchell).
Harold Ockenga, pastor of the Congregationalist Park Street Church, in Boston, and Carl F.H. Henry, a theologian of Fuller Theological Seminary, outside Los Angeles, had become increasingly critical of fundamentalism’s push to separate believers from society. They sought to unite Protestant conservatives in a broader movement, New Evangelicalism, which they hoped would maintain a commitment to historic Christian tenets while actively engaging with the prevailing culture. Billy Graham would become the leading figure in this movement, which went on to eclipse mainline Protestantism as the dominant force in American religious life.(21; Luo).
Dr. Ockenga explains what this new social gospel was all about in the 1940s. He says that there are 6 components:
- The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) are going to articulate the movement.
- There is the World Evangelical Fellowship.
- There is new apostolic literature stating this point of view.
- There is Fuller Theological Seminary which was created just for this.
- There is the establishment of a magazine Christianity Today.
- There is the appearance of an evangelist, Billy Graham, who on the mass level is the spokesperson on the convictions and their ideals of the New Evangelicalism. Billy Graham was the first mouthpiece. He helped popularize others like Robert Schuller and his Hour of Power. Graham also helped found Christianity Today. (95; Pinalto)
Christianity Today has always been the mouthpiece for the Ecumenical Movement. The first Lausanne Congress, also called the First International Congress on World Evangelization, sponsored by Christianity Today and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, gathered for 10 days in 1974 where John Stott declared that evangelism had taken on a new meaning—the Gospel message of salvation now would include social and political action. Rather than evangelize people, the Great Commission has changed to “evangelization.” Evangelization calls for a renewed mission to the world with a more holistic approach to evangelism where Christians are encouraged to commit themselves to the course of social justice, with a special interest in the needs of the poor and oppressed. With this reconstructionist agenda, a multiplied sociological “people movement” was set after rather than the Bible’s plan for redemption in saving the lost. It is not about a revival in the hearts of people which causes them to be born again, but a movement that changes communities, cultures, and large segments of society.
The fourth floor at Billy Graham Hall houses the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center (WCBGC). The WCBGC is an academic center which exists to develop and mobilize Jesus-followers for individual and communal witness. The WCBGC offers master’s-level studies in evangelism and leadership and missional church movements through the Graduate School. Alan Hirsch is co-founder and adjunct faculty for the M.A. in Missional Church Movements at Wheaton College and Mike Breen, Dave Ferguson and his brother Jon are adjunct faculty at the A. Duane Litfin School of Mission, Ministry, and Leadership of Wheaton College.
In their Defend and Confirm podcast Episode 66 (1/26/2022), Russel Berger and Sean Demars hosted Brooks Buser who is the President of Radius International in order to biblically critique the Multiplying Movements which are a paradigm in missions. They warned that one of the most challenging things in the movement methodology is that everyone uses the same terms but they don’t mean the same thing. They will use words but it’s not the way the Bible uses that word.
They have found that a lot of movement practitioners will speak of Pentecost and they’ll speak of some of the events around the book of Acts, but mass conversion is not even the norm in the book of Acts. The norm was rejection and persecution. For a missionary today, you should be looking for a conversion not a process. There is a point when people are saved and the process idea generally minimalizes that. The idea that if we go quickly puts a lot of emphasis on ourselves rather than letting God work in His ways and time. The Great Commission is not two dimensional. It’s not a map where we march outward and as soon as we reach the edge of that map Christ returns.
Missional is the idea that Jesus was incarnated into the culture of this world and the Christian is commissioned to do the same thing. Redemption and reconciliation, according to the Missional Movement is not about the redemption of a sinner’s soul through faith in the blood of Christ but rather a social justice-environmental gospel of the redemption of society and creation.
Jim Wallis defines “born again” as: “Jesus proclaimed, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand …” He is saying that a whole new order is about to enter history, and if you want to be a part of it, you will need a change so fundamental that the Gospel of John would later refer to it as a ‘new birth.’ Being born again was not meant to be a private religious experience that is hard to communicate … but rather the prerequisite for joining a new and very public movement – the Jesus and kingdom of God movement” (10; Wallis).
Jesus comes and says, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” He doesn’t say it’s a future reality. He says it is at hand. I think what He’s saying there is: ‘Guess what? You can change because of Jesus.’ That’s why there’s a hopeful message. Even though we kind of sometimes associate ‘repent’ as this sort of judgmental, condemnation kind of word, Jesus is saying, you know what? You can be different. Things can be different because the kingdom is here. I think that’s what we’re spotting all over Willow is that even though there have been challenges, the kingdom is still a present reality here in the midst of the chaos. Dave Dummitt (9; Miller)
In John 18:36, Jesus told Pontius Pilot that His kingdom was not of this world. His first coming was through his incarnation which included his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. The second time he will come to judge the world and establish his kingdom on earth.
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. John 18:36
17th century Bible commentator Matthew Henry notes in Matthew 2: “The slavery of sin is foolishly preferred by many to the glorious liberty of the children of God, only because they apprehend some present difficulties that necessary revolution of the government in the soul. To Herod and Jerusalem, the kingdom of the Messiah would clash and interfere with the secular powers. To the wise men, however, the star that proclaimed Him king plainly intimated that His kingdom was heavenly, and not of this lower world.”
Bill Hybels endorsed Jim Wallis’ book The Great Awakening and Lynne Hybels writes for Wallis’ magazine and website Sojourners which received funding from George Soros. George Soros is a known supporter of progressive and liberal political causes, to which he dispenses donations through his foundation, the Open Society Foundations. When interviewed by Marvin Olasky of World Magazine, Wallis denied the funding until evidence to the contrary surfaced–tens and thousands of dollars had been given to Sojourners from Soros (World Magazine; August 2010).
Jim Wallis says his mission “…is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church and the world.” ..He stated that “private charity to help the poor was insufficient, and…true social justice could be achieved only by an omnipotent central government empowered to redistribute wealth”(82; Harris).
Wallis and his Sojourners community of fellow-travelers believe Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua and the other revolutionary forces “restructuring socialist societies” are the communist paradises the United States needs to emulate in order to establish “social justice.” Writing in the November 1983 issue of Sojourners, Jacob Laksin notes, “Jim Wallis and Jim Rice drafted what would become the charter of leftist activists committed to the proliferation of communist revolutions in Central America” (83; Laksin).
In 2000, the Untied Nations Millennium Peace Summit called for organized religions to support the United Nations’ world peace aims. Six years later, the Evangelical Climate Initiative coalition was formed and between 2006 to 2008 Creation Care seemed poised to transform evangelical politics. The original signers included Jim Wallis(Sojourners), Rick Warren(Purpose Driven), Leith Anderson(NAE), Rich Stearns (World Vision), Todd Bassett (Salvation Army), David Neff (Christianity Today), Timothy George (Christianity Today), Duane Litfin (Wheaton College), Rob Bell, Bill Hybels, Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, Richard Mouw (Fuller). According to the New York Times the group was being funded by organizations like the Rockefeller Brother’s Fund and the Hewlett Foundation. Rockefeller Brother’s Fund, which has given grants to Greenpeace, supports many anti-Christian ideals and organizations including the United Nations Millennium Peace Summit (86; Howse).
In 2007, perhaps riding on the momentum of Creation Care, John Stott, Bill Hybels, Robert Schuller, and Rick Warren were among the signers of “A Common Word Between Us and You.” This document says that Muslims and Christians worship the same God and claims that “the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.” The statement says, “…we must engage in interfaith dialogue as those who seek each other’s good, for the one God unceasingly seeks our good” (15).
Communitarian Peter Drucker had a great influence on Bill Hybels. Drucker was an Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. He found that non-profit organizations (churches) play a critical role in creating community(60; Sosnik, Dowd, & Fournier, page 119). Drucker declares that “the ‘product’ of a church is a churchgoer whose life is being changed. The task of social-sector organizations is to create human health and well being”(55; Drucker). His brand of “well being” is communitarianism whereby the individual is subsumed by the greater good of the community as man evolves(84; Leslie, Leslie, & Conway).
He (Peter Drucker) suggested to evangelical pastors that they create a more customer-friendly environment (hold back on the overt religious symbolism and provide plenty of facilities). Bill Hybels…has a quotation from Mr. Drucker hanging outside his office: “What is our business? Who is our customer? What does the customer consider value? (6; Maciariello)
Drucker was not just passionate about the business side of things: “Society needs a return to spiritual values–not to offset the material but to make it fully productive. …The economist is concerned with reality; an abundance is still far from being reality. But it is not premature to think seriously about the philosophy and metaphysics of abundance; for philosophy and metaphysics deal with the vision of what can and should be. Mankind needs to return to the spiritual values, for it needs compassion. It needs the deep experience that the Thou and I are one, which all higher religions share. Peter F. Drucker, 1959 (7; Drucker).
Three years before his death, Peter Drucker published “Managing in the Next Society” It is a collection of his articles which cover critical issues facing business and society as our world rapidly transforms into what he calls The Next Society (17; Drucker).
The NEXT Society
The Willow Creek Association, now the Global Leadership Network, had begun in 1992 as an official offshoot of Willow Creek Community Church. At a later date, secular business leaders came on board as speakers and advisors and the group has become global in scope (101; Zavada). Jim Fletcher shares, “Bill Hybels recently hosted his “Global Leadership Summit,” which included Steven Furtick as a speaker. Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a young Emergent leader… Hybels is cleverly and strategically including up and comers like Furtick, as he extends his sweep to blanket the American church with liberal theology(85; Fletcher).
Through the coordinated efforts of Bob Buford’s Leadership Network, Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Network, and the Global Leadership Network, innovations have been introduced into the church which changed congregations from a pastoral leadership model to a CEO/Innovative Change Agent leadership model. Change agents and facilitators of transformation guide the thoughts and actions of people into conflict that leads to a predetermined solution. This is known as the Hegelian Dialectic (51; Fairchild).
The mission of Bob Buford’s Leadership Network was to “accelerate the emergence of the 21st. century church.” The paradigm of this church was not centered on theology, but its focus was on structure, organization, and the transition from an institutionally based church to a mission-driven church (60; Sosnki, Dowd & Fournier).
The acronym NEXT was used in 2021 by Dave Dummitt and his staff to roll out the “vision” for Willow Creek Community Church as he began his first year. Click on the links below for a pdf version as well as a link to the YouTube videos of the NEXT teachings.
- N= New Public Spaces; Albert Tate (Pdf../YouTube); Dave Dummitt (Pdf./YouTube): investing in digital experiences and reimagine using physical buildings to serve our communities,
- E= Everyone in a Group; Every Group on Mission; Megan Marshman(Pdf./YouTube): a church “of” small groups where we grow and are pushed,
- X=X-Factor Multiplication; Dave Ferguson(Pdf./YouTube): multiply at every level and independent church plants locally and globally,
- T=together, One Church; Ed Ollie & Shawn Williams(Pdf./YouTube): multiethnic, multigenerational, and multi-campus in unity pursuing racial justice in the world.
Dave Ferguson taught the X-Factor during the vision series NEXT at Willow Creek:
One of my apprentices, um, wow, 17-18 years ago was a guy by the name of Dave Dummitt. I remember meeting Dave for the very first time. He showed up at one of our locations at Community, the church I pastor. He wanted to learn more about church planting because Dave and a bunch of his friends had started this college ministry and it’d just taken off growing really fast and they were trying to figure out, okay what’s next. Dave Ferguson, NEXT
The New Age hopes to cover the globe with a myriad of “networks,” interconnecting ideas, people, services and organizations in order to implement world transformation(p. 32). They see themselves on the vanguard of planetary transformation, as part of a new emerging culture. The western world is forced with a new order, a new world view, a New Age–the next society (16; Groothuis).
I really like this term apprentice. I got this from Dallas Willard who probably knows more about spiritual formation than anyone else in our lifetime. Dave Ferguson, NEXT
Dallas Willard and Richard Foster associated with and endorsed Thomas Keating, who was one of the 3 founders of the modern Contemplative Prayer movement. In The Divine Conspiracy, Willard rejects the infallible inspiration of Scripture, saying, “Jesus and his words have never belonged to the categories of dogma or law, and to read them as if they did is simply to miss them” (3; Willard).
Richard Foster, founder of the Renovare Movement, promotes and endorses The Message Bible by Eugene Peterson. Through the use of paraphrase The Message was ‘crafted’ to present the doctrines of mysticism to the Christian church in order to seduce believers into the occult and the New Age Movement. Peterson is “Consulting editor, New Testament” of Foster’s Renovare Bible where he reduces much of Paul’s vital treatment of the gospel in Romans to metaphor, which he says is the “opposite [of] precise use of language.” (104, 105; Hunt, 4; Fairchild).
The first thing that will happen is that everyone is going to have an apprentice. …Starting now every small group leader needs to have an apprentice leader. Every person who works in Promiseland (children’s ministry) or Student Impact you need to have an apprentice. Every artist that takes one of the stages…you have an apprentice. This happens everywhere wherever you serve. Dave Ferguson, NEXT
In 2003 I returned to Willow Creek after my pastor had retired. As I began to investigate the many changes I was witnessing, I began to uncover a purposeful plan for the unbiblical blending of the faiths. When I purchased Tilden Edwards’ book “Spiritual Friend: Reclaiming the Gift of Spiritual Direction” as recommended in my class with Sybil Towner, I found the author (pp. 210-212) describing a time of grouping together of the Catholics and Protestants. He wrote of a dimension of charisma that can only be attended as an unfolding process and how the program can provide launching, sensitizing, and securing platforms, yet they are only puny in comparison to the spirit’s movement in the person when the time has come. Future “spiritual friends” were to be selected mainly from those who have a B.A. or equivalent and express commitment to Truth through a particular major religious tradition and at the same time are open to learning from other traditions. … He claimed it was unfortunate that they had no apprenticeship to a master because we still live in a masterless time and trainees at least need to be with someone who is their director, who can help them attend to the master of loving Truth within. He described the training as a mid-wife, attending the birth of deeper spiritual sight through cleansing, aligning, and resting.
An apprenticeship to a master? Attend to the loving Truth within? This is not historical Christianity. This is better described as the New Age Movement. Tilden Edwards is the founder and director of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. He trained Ruth Barton in spiritual direction. Barton came to teach spiritual formation with John Ortberg at Willow Creek with a book they co-authored in ’95 (4; Fairchild).
Dave Ferguson shared that the late Bob Buford of Leadership Network, who had apprenticed him, would keep notecards in his pocket of the younger emerging leaders he was investing in financially and relationally and he had a saying that explained what he was doing: I would love to hear you repeat this over and over again and make it a part of your culture. Here’s what he used to say, ‘My fruit grows on other people’s trees…. Your ambition is not to be the hero of this unfolding story that we’re a part of, but be a hero maker. Jesus was a hero maker. When you look at how he interacted and apprenticed the 12, with them he was a hero maker…. Hero makers, they create platforms and then they invite other people to stand on it. Dave Ferguson, NEXT
- “Now Bob(Buford) had a saying for just how this X Factor works…and I’d love for you to just say it over and over again–make it a part of your culture, ‘My fruit grows on other people’s trees. Dave Ferguson(NEXT: X-Factor Multiplication Video, 2/28/21).
- Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat For Humanity, had the same advice: “Millard Fuller explained to me his strategy, ‘I have to find a way to apprentice every day people who follow Jesus to volunteer and swing a hammer and build these homes. And then I have to make heroes out of those volunteer homebuilders…Your ambition is not to be the hero, but be a hero maker… If you look very closely at the relationship with Jesus with his apprentices (disciples)…Jesus was not trying to be the hero…he was the hero maker. Dave Ferguson (NEXT: X- Factor Multiplication Video, 2/28/21.)
- Abraham Maslow had similar advice: “The more influence and power you give to someone else in the team situation the more you have yourself (28; Petzinger).
In Scott Peck’s book “The Different Drum,” he wrote of a process whereby the world can allegedly experience peace, and it is the Hegelian dialectic at work. It requires creating New Age communities all over the world in which differences can be resolved and the world transformed. In these communities there is no leader but all are leaders, decisions are reached by consensus, there are no “sides” and everyone is respected and heard. In these communities the individual is allowed to express any belief or doubt and to act out in his own individual way, to live as he pleases(53; Peck, pp. 71, 72).
In his book Axiom, Bill Hybels quoted Scott Peck on page 101 in the chapter “The Tunnel of Chaos.” Hybels laid out Peck’s teaching on the four stages that a group of people go through in order to get to true community. Peck, an American psychiatrist and author, was known for his 1978 book ‘The Road Less Traveled.’ Peck taught that God is an undefined Intelligence underlying the universe, God is a vague reality that lies beyond all religious definitions and is definitely not the God of the Bible. He describes God as “this powerful force originating outside of human consciousness” (54; Peck, p. 249).
Peck believed that Jesus was just another spiritually evolved person. “Buddha and Christ were not different men. The suffering of Christ letting go on the cross and the joy of Buddha letting go under the bo tree are one” (54; Peck, p. 64). He believed that the world evolved. “The process of evolution has been a development of organisms from lower to higher and higher states of complexity, differentiation and organization” (54; Peck, p. 252).
One of the things Willow did was come out and say, ‘you know what, we’re going to try and think outside the box to reach people that are far from God…We recognize that the weekend service or anyplace online, those are the most public environments that we have. We’re going to get a lot of guests showing up many times. That’s the first place that we’re going to see them. So we want to do the best we can to communicate in a language and a culture that they’ll understand. Dave Dummitt (49; McFarlan Miller)
Introducing an exhaustive course on the X-Factor did not quite fit “communicating in a language guests will understand.” Dave Ferguson, during week 3 of the NEXT series exclaims, “I have a lot to cover and not a lot of time so just lean in and repeat the word ‘diatribo’…you know how it works… you spend enough time together and you start acting like each other.”
Instructing small groups to be on mission, Megan Marshman describes how she had once been annoyed by the Christians in her study group with whom she purposefully planned to mix with unbelievers to learn from:
We were putting together small groups around the Book of Mark… but we didn’t want the group’s purpose to be just for us.. It has to be purposeful. It has to be on mission….Everyone from the church, there was going to be about 7 of us,.. each of us were tasked with bringing someone into the group that maybe didn’t attend our church or church at all. The whole point was to be purposeful with us gathering and we wanted to read the Book of Mark and see who Jesus was, but learn from people with maybe varying beliefs about Jesus.. There’s the problem, all of my Christian friends brought Christian friends…and all these friends were brilliant bringing these brilliant insights from brilliant past sermons they had heard and brilliant points and everyone’s impressing everyone and… I can’t really relate to “know-it-alls” because I don’t know it all.. and everyone’s making sense of everything that’s happening until suddenly Colin (her non-Christian invite) speaks up with a, “What the (bleep)!” And the whole community stopped and looked over. I think someone even dropped their Bible (snicker/laugh;14:08). Megan Marshman
This is an illustration of the New Age concept designed to bring about “unity in diversity.” Scripture does not instruct believers to bring false belief systems together for understanding. The message of Christ is not understood in any context but the Word of God. The full message of God will not be understood in different contexts unless you believe that the Gospel is found in all world’s religions as well as atheism.
We discover our identity in Christ by hearing and studying His Word, but here we see there is a dialectic synthesis of “truth” in the small groups. The Hegelian dialectic works best in a diverse group: a “committed Christian,” a “seeker or maybe a marginal member of the truth,” and a third person brought in by the seeker or marginal member (50; Tieman, Born, Marable).
A change process is created by mixing unbelievers with believers in the church. This diverse group is subjected to facilitated meetings and Bible studies to achieve predetermined outcomes. In this setting, peer pressure(belonging) achieves the goal which is for everybody to get along so that we may attain world peace all on our own. The process is a subtle one. Believers are moved away from their original position of “moral absolutism,” in order to “continue to get along with the group in relationship” (51; Fairchild).
He gifts us with purpose, verse 28–God blessed them… You’re blessed, now live like it’s true. Not obey me to receive the blessing. No, no, no. See the gospel, the power of Jesus in our lives is not that we obey in order to be blessed. It’s we are blessed because of Jesus’ sacrifice therefore obey because it makes sense to live like it’s true that we’re already blessed. Wow! So he blesses us and he commands us fill the earth with his good, with his image. We are created on purpose with purpose to fill the earth with knowledge of him as we walk around. Why? Because we’re his image bearers–we were created for it. …He begins with blessing and He begins with these types of words ‘good, very good.’ If we’re going to be the type of community that God intends we need to fill ourselves with the good truth of how we were created. We were created in community. We were created on purpose and we were created on purpose with purpose… let me tell you where it begins–find the good, you’ll find God there. Megan Marshman, NEXT
Marshman’s teaching omits why we are not very good since the Fall of Man, which is also described in Genesis. If she is addressing the unchurched and unbelievers listening in on this weekend service they need to know they are not “very good” due to our inherited sin nature from Adam. She needs to share how we need to be reconciled to God and accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior not just be filled automatically by God somehow. What is missing is how sin fits into this and what Jesus’ sacrifice was and did.
Psychiatrist and author Scott Peck, who believed that Jesus was just another evolved person, wrote that Jesus is present wherever people come together to practice “community” and “… any group of people (no matter what their religious persuasion or whether the word ‘Jesus’ is ever spoken) who are willing to practice the love, discipline, and sacrifice that are required for the spirit of community, that Jesus extolled and exemplified, will be gathered together in his name and he will be there”(53; Peck).
God is a Community
Marshman went on to teach that “God is a community.” This incites a communal rather than individual view of salvation which not only humanizes God, but deemphasizes the vast gulf between who we are(sinful) and who God is(holy).
..Community is God’s best and I think we all know this to be true… but I wonder if you’ll hear it today as an invitation for you to maybe look at community different. How important do you think community is to God? Well, God is a community in and of Himself and then created us according to His kind. He built us for community. …When God created you He says yes that’s precisely how I want you… I know you live in a world that says you lack. Hear the Word of your Father–you lack nothing you need to honor and glorify me with your life. When you live as He intended, and He created us in community… in fact He said it is not good for man to be alone. …He created us in community. But not just in community–He created us on purpose... Megan Marshman
Robert Klenck, an orthopedic surgeon who once attended Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church shares, “The Church Growth teaches that God, this plurality of beings (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) comes to consensus to create humans in their image. They create in their collective image. God defined and understood is community. The problem here is that although the godhead has three unique personalities, they are not separate beings, they are one being. They cannot come together as a thesis and antithesis (23; Klenck).
Bradley Berg writes, “Seek Ye first the Kingdom:” The one thing to do above all others, is to seek out that place where all awakened souls are already together, our true home. This injunction is related to the first of the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord Thy God, thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” On an exoteric level, the meaning is about monotheism, yet from an esoteric perspective, ‘I am’ refers to the Self (our inner spark of Divinity) and having ‘no other Gods before me’ essentially means the same as ‘seek ye first the Kingdom’ (8; Berg).
I Am Conference: Megan Marshman joined Suzanne Stabile and Marilyn Williams at the I AM triennial gathering for women by women in Minneapolis in July of 2019. Suzanne Stabile brought her treasured Enneagram instruction(link here) and her thoughts on how our souls recognize each other.
Adelle Calhoun was at the I Am Conference. I recognized her name from 2003, when I returned to Willow Creek and attended a women’s study and found she was teaching New Age thought alongside Sybil Towner and Linda Richardson. Adele Calhoun, who has been teaching the Enneagram for 17 years with her husband writes, “When working with Christian organizations we endeavor to teach the Enneagram in a way that invites people into deep transformation through Spiritual Rhythms that make space for God in their lives”(11).
Amy Spreeman reports, “Where does this idea of “unforced rhythms of grace” come from? Only one place: The Message, quoted extensively by Niequist: Matthew 11:28-30 The Message (MSG).”
- Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message): “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
- Matthew 11:28-30 (King James Bible): “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Spreeman continues, “A Catholic priest and a New Ager walk into Willow Creek… No, it’s not a joke waiting for a punchline. It’s an experiment called The Practice, and it’s the brainchild of Pastor Bill Hybels’ son-in-law, Aaron Niequist. Niequist is also the Worship Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, and he calls a Jesuit priest his spiritual director” (24; Spreeman, 25; Niequist, Carter).
Keith Meyer’s book Spiritual Rhythms in Community: Being Together in the Presence in the Presence of God was promoted in 2021 through Sacred Journey classes at Willow Creek. Keith Meyer writes, “Jesus’ rhythm can be yours with this participatory guide to growth in God and mission in the context of community. “We learn from Jesus’ example,” Keith Meyer writes, “that spiritual disciplines are best done in some degree or expression of community where they are experienced and reflected on together. . . . We [also] learn from Jesus that the disciplines are to work as a baseline for a life rhythm of formation and community and result in a powerful mission that begins to sweep others into the ever growing number of those in the dance of the trinitarian life.”
Marilyn Williams, is an ordained minister, who became the first director of Women’s Initiatives at the Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago. Their vision is to support missional churches of the Covenant congregation. On October 16, 2019, Marilyn quoted from the Contemporary English Version(CEV) Bible as she taught “We Get to be People of the Word.” Michael Marlow explains some problems with this translation: The CEV is very careful to steer readers away from the “sexist” interpretations found in all English Bibles prior to their generation. Besides the regular use of the new gender-neutral language (e.g. avoiding translation of “man” and “he” in thousands of places), it features many dubious renderings that obscure the teachings of the Bible concerning the role of women in the family(12; Marlow).
Nancy Seifer and Martin Vieweg write: Learning to live as souls, collectively, is the evolutionary goal for humanity… The Kingdom of Heaven will arrive on earth when there are enough of us living as souls that we may, en masse, rise to and merge with the level above us, where the Masters of Wisdom can be found. ..The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of souls, born into conscious awareness of the spiritual realities of life. It was written that ‘Jesus was a high priest in the order of Melchizedek,’ which infers that he is part of a Group, often referred to in the Ageless Wisdom teachings as the planetary Spiritual Hierarchy or the Kingdom of God. All of us can become part of this Group if we aspire, strive, and succeed on the ultimate spiritual journey—the one that takes us Home(13; Seifer, Vieweg).
We are God in disguise. Only ignorance keeps us from realizing our divine reality…We’ve forgotten our true identity–we are ignorant. Western Culture has shaped our consciousness, trimming our experience and taming our metaphysics. We need to be enlightened. (16; pp.21,22; Groothuis)
Willow Creek teaching pastors Megan Marshman, Nancy Ortberg, and Albert Tate have all spoken at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, which is Marshman’s alma mater. Marshman states on her author page at Tru with David C. Cook that she created “TruIdentity” for teaching young people because she thinks that they can’t learn what true Christianity is today as it is taught.
Albert Tate serves on the Board of Counsel for the Fuller Youth Institute. The Fuller Youth Institute (a branch of Fuller Seminary) is an innovative branch of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA, FYI research which has pioneered a new era of youth ministry practice and intergenerational discipleship, partnering with faculty from all three of Fuller’s schools to create tools which will change the way the world sees young people.
45 minutes south of Willow Creek, Dave Dummitt had been a leadership resident through Dave Ferguson’s Community Christian Church where he co-founded the church planting movement New Thing. Dummitt was the North American director of New-Thing, Haley Bodine, who is Dummitt’s current Executive Director, was North American Relationship director (2016-20) and Alan Hirsh was the movement leader.
I’ve been apprenticing leaders like Dave(Dummitt) and so is he now for the last 20 some years. As a result myself, Dave and a few others we started a church planting movement called New Thing. Dave Ferguson, NEXT
Dave and a few others we started a church planting movement called New Thing.
Last year, by God’s grace and his goodness and applying this X-Factor, 982 brand new churches were
started. We can both remember, we look back like man remember when there was only 3 churches and
now there’s 6,000 plus multiplying churches around the world in 40 countries. How did that happen? Because we have a very kind God and, what we learned from Jesus(John 3:22), this X-Factor. And the first thing is this, the X-Factor requires everyone to have an apprentice. Dave Ferguson, NEXT
The “missional” and “holistic” view that is taught is all about saving society and creation rather than saving the soul. You are to put your faith in “the way of Jesus–the Kingdom of God” rather than in the person and work of Jesus.
Jesus was not trying to be the hero, but instead in his relationship with them(his disciples) he was the hero maker… You’re going to have a far greater impact in your lifetime than I will during my three-year ministry. Jesus was a hero maker… Now some people will say well hold, hold, hold on, hold on isn’t Jesus our hero? Yes, yeah he stretched out his arms and he died on the cross but when you look at how he interacted and apprenticed the 12, with them, he was a hero maker. Dave Ferguson, NEXT
Jesus is just a picture of what we can be. He is a moral example for us to follow. If you don’t have a divine Jesus and there is no real sin then the cross isn’t anything that saves you. The cross becomes just a good example of a good person. People aren’t really that bad. We’re all good people at the core and therefore really do have an opportunity to be even better.
Dave Dummitt has also been a speaker at Dave Ferguson’s Exponential Conference along with Rick Warren, Albert Tate, Nancy Ortberg, Tim Keller, Bob Roberts, Alan Hirsch, and Keri Ladouceur. Ladouceur is currently a pastor at Ferguson’s Community Christian Church. When Alan Hirsch, led the 2008 Exponential Breakout Session 4 with Dave Ferguson, and Dave Dummitt teamed up with Dave’s brother Jon in Session 3, the class outlines read: “Winning is no longer seen as just larger size, reproduction is now seen winning.” Some of the other marketing notes included: 1. Using the word ‘campus’ in the name communicates that there will be more; 2. We need a permission giving culture; 3. Look for opportunities to start a second service; 4. Allow small groups to grow larger to create urgency for reproduction within those within the group. Bob Roberts‘ outline from Dave Ferguson’s Exponential training included “The grid for God’s operation is not the church, but the society. If we’re going to plant churches, we need to transform the society not the church.” Tim Keller‘s outline is at this link.
In the Leadership Journal’s Spring 2008 edition Tim Keller wrote an article titled The Gospel in All its Forms. Dr. Paul Elliot, founder and president of Teaching the Word Ministries and speaker on The Scripture-Driven Church Broadcast, detailed 5 part series on why Tim Keller’s message which was meant to make his “gospel” palatable to the pagan world is un-Biblical. Rather than deliverance from “self-condemnation,” which Keller believed was man’s problem, Elliot cautiously reminds us that man’s problem is God’s condemnation because of his unbelief (John 3:18-20). Sadly, Keller’s false gospel merely refers to a “gospel” as something we can all “agree on” in our generation or culture(2 Timothy 3:13) (94; Elliot).
Tim Keller was a keynote speaker at Lausanne III in Cape Town in 2010. Created by Billy Graham and John Stott (1921- 2011) , it’s ecumenical agenda became obvious as the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches addressed the Congress. The movement was for the “evangelization of the world and for the sake of unity in love, doctrinal differences were set aside. John Stott was an English Anglican cleric and theologian who was noted as a leader of the worldwide evangelical movement. He was one of the principal authors of the ecumenical Lausanne Covenant in 1974. In 2005, Time magazine ranked Stott among the 100 most influential people in the world (92, 93; Graham).
Having already felt that the contemporary church growth had failed, Dave Ferguson and Alan Hirsch detailed a new kind of church in their 2011 book, On the Verge: A Journey Into the Apostolic Future of the Church—an apostolic, reproducing movement where every person would be living a mission-sent life.
Mike Breen wrote the following forward in Hirsch and Ferguson’s book The Verge: If we can maximize the potential of the twentieth-century church that found its final flower in the megachurch and multisite movements, we will offer a great service to the church of the new millennium. This will be achieved as the church shapes itself to respond to the missional impulse. Attractional churches that become missional begin to look like movements… What Alan and Dave are offering is the possibility that the twenty-first century church might be …reconnecting the forces of attraction and mission…He(Jesus) was the most attractive man who ever walked the planet, and his life was a constant expression of God’s mission to the world. Mike Breen(23; Breen)
Maximize the potential of the church? Reconnect the forces of attraction? The law of attraction, considered a pseudo science, is a philosophy suggesting that positive thoughts bring positive results into a person’s life, while negative thoughts bring negative outcomes. It is based on the belief that thoughts are a form of energy and that positive energy attracts success in all areas of life, including health, finances, and relationships.
Although Breen claimed Jesus was the most attractive man who ever walked the planet, Scripture tells us that very few recognized and admired the God-likeness of Jesus of Nazareth. Instead, their innate sinfulness despised His purity. Of the vast majority, in fulfillment of prophecy (Psalm 35:19, 69:4, 119:161), Christ sadly declared, “They hated me without a cause” (John:15:25). The Creator of all (John:1:3) entered into His creation as one of its creatures, knowing everything He would suffer at the hands of those rebels that He had brought into existence through Adam and Eve. The hatred, misunderstanding, false accusations, abuse, rejection, mockery, and finally, the scourging and crucifixion that He would endure from those who owed their very existence to Him had long been foretold by Hebrew prophets under His inspiration.
Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson write in chapter 10 of their book On the Verge: A Journey Into the Apostolic Future of the Church: When we read about the incarnation in John 1:14–The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood (MSG)–the text is describing God moving from his own time and space continuum into ours.. God is still on the move today…Movement isn’t new. Movement is God at work. Movement is the way God has always worked. Movement is how Jesus’ mission will be accomplished(p. 278-279).The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. John 1:14 MSG.
The Message(MSG) Bible version is quoted to try to help explain what they are attempting to teach with movement. When you compare the The Message to the King James version you will see that the deity of Christ “begotten of the Father” is missing:
- The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. John 1:14 MSG(The Message)
- And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14 KJB(King James Bible)
In 2006, Bob Buford’s Leadership Network approached Mike Breen to lead an initiative into church planting (97; Breen & Absalom). Breen had been serving in Glendale, Arizona as a pastor of the Community Church of Joy and taught at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California(96; Breen & Kallestad). From 2008 to 2014, Breen lived at Pawleys Island, South Carolina, where he served as the leader for 3D Movements, an “organic movement of biblical discipleship and missional church”(98) helping established churches and church planters move into a discipling and missional way of being church(97; Breen).
In 2008, at the multi-thousand member North Heights Lutheran Church in Minnesota, 3D-Movements was invited by leadership staff, with the goal to increase the ability to live as disciples. In January 2014, however, when Breen spoke in a leadership event stating that his role was “Superior Guardian of The Order of the Mission” (TOM) and leader of 3DM, mounting concerns were raised along with some other grievances including compelling leaders to begin utilizing the language and teachings of 3DM which ended up draining finances, staff availability, and their sense of community. On April 8th, 2014 the council voted unanimously to remove 3DM. Full report: The April 8th letter pdf. here. 3DM decentralized in 2014, with Jo Saxton eventually becoming Chair of the Board as of June 2018. Here’s her bio on Verge Network.
2014-present, Wheaton College partnered with 3DM to offer interns, staff, paid affiliates and associates the opportunity to earn their graduate degree at a discounted rate.
Summer Notes
In the early 60s, Abraham Maslow(1908-1970) gave mimeographed copies of his journal titled “Summer Notes” to friends and fellow academics Peter Drucker(1909-2005) and Warren Bennis(1925-2014). The journal applied the concept of self-actualization to both the workplace and the marketplace. Drucker, who was close to Maslow, said that Summer Notes had an enormous impact on him and that it was Maslow’s best book. Drucker and Bennis both urged him to publish the journal commercially. Although Bennis believed it was very radical for its time, however, and thus it never caught on, the main reason was thought to be Maslow’s new title for the journal being “Eupsychian Management.” Both Bennis and Drucker tried to to dissuade him to change it (28; Petzinger).
After undergoing six years of psychoanalysis, Warren Bennis had turned his writing into “self-therapy.” He said he “talked to his soul” by looking for messages in his dreams. He was all about leadership and change. One year he invited the Dalai Lama to participate in a seminar, although that never happened, he sat in front of a huge projected image of planet Earth and told 250 executives about a Tibetan monk and modern technology. He said that the world was changing rapidly and that leaders needed to adjust(29: Rivenburg).
Maslow was best known for his self-actualization theory of psychology, which argued that the primary goal of psychotherapy should be the integration of the self. When he became president of the American Psychological Association in 1968 awareness of transpersonal psychology became widespread within psychology. In the United States, transpersonal psychology encouraged recognition for non-western psychologies, philosophies, and religions, and promoted understanding of “higher states of consciousness,” for instance through intense meditation. (30; Pegg).
In 1970, the New York Times reported that Abraham Maslow died at the age of 62 while jogging in Menlo Park, California, “Dr. Maslow had completed one year of a four-year writing and research grant awarded by the Laughlin Foundation…A former colleague said that some recent manifestations of Dr. Maslow’s school are Synanon, the drug addiction rehabilitation center, and the Esalen Institute… On his grant here he was investigating the nature of evil in man”(31; New York Times).
Synanon has been called one of the most dangerous and violent cults America has ever seen. It began as a drug rehabilitation program in 1958 in Santa Monica, California. Eventually it became an “alternative community” that centered on group truth-telling sessions, a form of attack therapy. In the 70s, it became the Church of Synanon. In 1991 it disbanded due to members being convicted of criminal activities and retroactive loss of its tax-free status due to financial misdeeds, destruction of evidence, and terrorism. It has been called one of the most dangerous and violent cults America had ever seen (32; Wikipedia) (33; Pizzano).
Geoffrey Hill, a social analyst who has studied many different movements and subcultures and has taught at Esalen said that many within the movement believed that perhaps Esalen and the movement at large could help usher in a major paradigm shift, which was called the Great Evolutionary Leap. Aldous Huxley referred to it in his Human Potentialities Lectures in the early days at Esalen. But sadly, we have never seen that leap.
In spite of the fact that most persons consider themselves intelligent, the reality of most social groups is that the majority is almost always allergic to the most intelligent thought. Those who are the most threatened by it, influence others to act against it. This is the history of the crowd in relation to legitimate thinkers. Once the crowd is converted to the ideology of anti-thought, there is a pernicious and wide-spread evangelism toward group thought, which, besides the fact that it is the disease of conformity, is also the disease of the most common thought, to which the majority are obliged to conform. Geoffry Hill (35; Hill)
Esalen became the center of practices and beliefs that make up the New Age Movement, from Eastern religions/philosophy, to alternative medicine and mind-body interventions, to Gestalt Practice.
The philosophy of Esalen lies in the idea that “the cosmos, the universe itself, the whole evolutionary unfoldment is what a lot of philosophers call slumbering spirit. The divine is incarnate in the world and is present in us and is trying to manifest.” Co-founder Michael Murphy lived for a year at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India. During his long involvement in the human potential movement, Murphy and his work have been profiled in the New Yorker and featured in many magazines and journals worldwide(35; Hill) (34; Wikipedia).
During the 70s the New Age Movement joined the culture and permeated it from within. It gave way to a more articulate and integrated view as it made its way into libraries, studies, and university classrooms. Instead of writing blatant books about quoting Buddha or Hindu Scripture, they began to write books and teach classes on Eastern perspectives(16; Groothuis, p.37, 44). During this time, family relationships, diet, fashion, and exercise were all areas in which “good” and “bad” were measured by their effects on “self-knowledge and personal growth.” They learned to “look within” for truth and wisdom through meditation, witchcraft covens, communal gatherings, Zen retreats, and new movements like Transcendental meditation and Krishna Consciousness(57; Pike).
Any philosophy that seeks liberation from within the self by discovering the secret of hidden wisdom, or gnosis is considered to be occult. Some of the ways this is achieved is through meditation, yoga, sensory deprivation, and spirit contact. In Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Atman is Brahman which is individual self as the universal Self. Classic occultism “as above, so below” is “God and humanity are one. New self-actualization psychologies claim that all power, knowledge, and truth are within and waiting to be unlocked. You are to look within and realize that you are God. Once this true knowledge (gnosis) of reality is realized, higher powers are activated within (16; Groothuis; p. 21-25)
American religious scholar J. Gordon Melton writes, “You may be told you are not being concerned about self, but this is the aim of self-actualization and the basis for the Human Potential Movement(HPM). Today’s New Age Movement has been re-organized under a variety of new names, names which many would argue actually better describe the community of transformed, spiritually-awakened, compassionate, earth-loving people the movement was structured to be”(58; Melton).
Shoji Boldt has been an elder at Willow Creek South Barrington. She has also been active at SOW that where they believe “you already have all the answers inside of you.” Boldt and her husband Ryan, have taught classes at Willow and Ryan was on the pastoral staff for 13 years. Shoji has also been the owner and Clinical Director of the Awakenings Counseling Center since 2006.
About–SOW that: To train, care and empower individuals on their personal and professional journeys so that freedom and lasting transformation can occur. We educate and cultivate authentic and transformative communities of faith, hope and love so that our collective freedom and abundance can heal and transform our world.
SOWthat was born out of our own stories of healing, growth and transformation through belonging to an intentional and well facilitated narrative group. We found that as we began to process and tell the whole truth of our stories, dreams and desires we found grace, acceptance, transformation and freedom. Within a sacred and facilitated community of care; authenticity, connection and redemption were born, as well as our calling to invite others on this journey….We believe you already have all the answers inside of you. They just need to be uncovered.
The Human Potential Movement(HPM) was strongly influenced by Maslow’s theory of self-actualization which rose out of the counterculture of the 60s. The movement formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people (59; Douglas).
In Applebee’s America, Adam Hamilton writes, “Megachurch pastors specialize in the mysterious art of word-of-mouth marketing and the use of Navigators. The key to any great church leader is his ability to speak to people’s hearts, not their heads. They use those lifestyle-driven tactics to build and maintain Gut Value Connections based on two virtues: community and purpose.” Adam Hamilton(60; Sosnik, Dowd, & Fournier, p. 95)
We all want purpose and people in our lives. Anybody who can deliver those things will succeed. Rick Warren (60; Sosnik, Dowd, & Fournier, p. 95)
The words of Jesus in the New Testament provide guidance about how our living soul can become manifest in the world and fulfill its purpose. Bradley Berg (8; Berg)
Megan Marshman: Are you isolated? It’s not good and I know I don’t need to convince you of that because you have experienced it so hear this invitation not just from me but hear if from our Lord–”It’s not good I have something better for you. I created you for it. “This “Everyone in a Group. Every Group on Mission” is God’s heart for us. And if we simply just sit back and remain isolated or comfortable I fear that we’ll miss the good that God intended. Community is God’s good for us. God created us in community because it’s good, but when you get into community it’s also good to be known there. It’s not good for man to be alone–alone with his thoughts. Alone with his life(9:33). See if no one really “knows you” they won’t know how to love you… “He created us in community. But not just in community. He created us on purpose. How do I know? Because verse 27, “So God created mankind.” We were created it’s a simple point–everything that was created was created on purpose. Everything…. Everything that was created on purpose. Everything that was created was created on purpose. Everything. That includes you. I don’t know when you stopped believing it. Yes you do have a purpose. Megan Marshman, NEXT
In “positive thinking” there is the assertion that we have a right to be happy because we are of infinite worth to God and should regard ourselves much higher than we do. But the Bible teaches us that we are worthy of eternal damnation and that we have forfeited all the blessings of God. Conceived and born in sin through Adam, we are children of wrath.
Some fundamental Christians dismiss this as “feel-good religion.” It’s definitely not a place you’re likely to hear a sermon like eighteenth-century Puritan Jonathon Edward’s scorcher, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” But aside from the positive tone, Edwards would find little to disagree with in 2/42’s doctrine. Dave Dummitt (5; Eiler)
The Crystal Cathedral’s Influence
Whether you admire or dislike his ministry techniques or possibility-thinking theology, probably no one has shaped the way pastors relate to the unchurched more than Robert Schuller… Schuller and his wife, Arvella, moved from Chicago to Southern California to start a church—and, unintentionally, a new way of doing church…. Schuller pioneered the use of marketing techniques to reach the nonchurched. It would not be overreaching to say that without Schuller and the Crystal Cathedral, there would likely be no Willow Creek Community Church.(61; Christianity Today)
The Crystal Cathedral, one of the nation’s best-known Protestant churches. Ronald Campbell, 2012
Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, opened in 1980 as the largest glass building in the world at that time. At its height, Schuller’s self-help message, which he called “possibility thinking,” drew thousands to services and tens of millions around the world to his “Hour of Power” television broadcasts. He began his TV broadcasts in 1970, beaming his silver hair, broad smile and fatherly, comforting homilies to what would eventually reach 184 countries, targeted specifically at those he called the “unchurched” (62; Johnson).
Norman Vincent Peale(1898-1993), known as the father of positive thinking, and Robert Schuller(1926-2015), known for his promotion of self esteem, took new ideas from the secular world and mixed them with Christian thought. Perhaps the greatest example has been the outright anti-Christian theories of psychology that were integrated into theology through Christian psychologists.
The Positive Mental Attitude (PMA )that is promoted in today’s New Age is based upon humanistic psychology’s first article of faith: “Human potential is infinite.” The real Christian is happy and positive in all circumstances because he believes that God, who alone is infinite, loves and cares for him. These two concepts — Christian and PMA — are mutually contradictory, in spite of the sincere people who believe they are the same thing expressed in different language. Those directly responsible for bringing PMA into the professing church are Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller.
Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone, the originators of the PMA concept, talk about “God” in their books, but their “God” is a metaphysical “Divine Power” that can be tapped into through mind-power techniques (from visualization to positive self-talk and other forms of self-hypnosis and self-image psychology). Hill and Stone don’t substitute PMA for faith, but promote that PMA and faith are one and the same, that believing in the power of the mind is somehow the same as believing in God; that the human mind is some kind of magic talisman that wields a metaphysical force with infinite potential because, somehow, it is part of what they call Infinite Intelligence. This is the “God” of the mind-science cults and of the New Age (63; Fairchild).
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were the founding fathers of human potential psychology or humanistic psychology. Rogers rejects the biblical view of man as fallen and sinful.. (p. 91; Rogers “On Becoming a Person”) Positive self-regard, “We achieve healthy Self-esteem by experiencing positive regard from others while we are growing up.” Unconditional positive regard is necessary to achieve self-actualization.
In the 60s and 70s his counseling techniques were introduced into schools. The consequences of Roger’s non-judgmental philosophy have been catastrophic for the moral education of children. Rather than teaching right from wrong, we were relying on an experiment in having children construct their own morality (64; Williams, p. 71).
William Kilpatrick writes in Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right from Wrong: And What You Can Do About It, “Built on the conceptual framework that was introduced in the 60s, there is an emphasis on spontaneity, self-expression, rejection of authority, and emotionalism. The quest for the inner self in Rogerian therapy was also the the heart of the 60s youth revolt.” Rogers believed that the true self is inherently good and trustworthy and just needs to be liberated. But if people are good just as they are then there is no need for moral improvement or self-betterment which does not promote responsible behavior (65; p. 41,42; Kilpatrick)
Megan Marshman teaches positive self-regard during the NEXT series at Willow Creek:
I once heard a TED talk about a teacher(17:5)..This teacher was working in an environment in which all the students were succeeding… but she kept feeling this heart tug to go teach in a community where the students weren’t thriving. And she thought “I want to contribute; I want to live on purpose here.” And so she makes a big leap and jumps into this new classroom and she hands out the initial math tests to see where these students are at ..(18:34) and after that first day she starts kind of grading these tests and realizes what she’s gotten herself into…. and she sits back from her desk and says, “Who decided.. who decided that it’s my job to tell these students how much they got wrong?” So instead she writes this, “+3/100 smiley face.” Half of the test scores had minus numbers the other half after the +3 all had plus signs. Next day hands back all the tests.(19:42) Bell rings, all the students go off and the one student with the +3 walks up and starts the conversation, “So, I think we both know I’m pretty bad at math.” And she kind of laughed and he says, “But why did you write a +3 and a smiley face?” She didn’t say anything profound, she said, “Because its better than +2.” He said okay and they continued on to the next day of which the next test score was +15. Then +37, +65, +84 … where did it begin? +3. She didn’t look at him and see everything that he lacked, she started with the good that she saw. .. but can I tell you where God begins? He begins with blessing and He (20:53) begins with these types of words “oo good, very good.” If we’re going to be the type of community that God intends we need to full ourselves with the good truth of how we were created. We were created in community. We were created on purpose and we were created on purpose with purpose. Megan Marshman
Positive thinking includes no Scriptural understanding of sin and grace. It preaches man’s self-worth and so denies the grace of God. Although the modern theologians may preach that there is something valuable in us for God to save us in His Son, the Bible tells us that there was and is no such value in us. Romans 5:8 tells us that we were sinners and enemies of God when Christ died for us. The problems of the world are all symptoms of sin.
- Dave Dummitt: “Dummitt said that 2/42, his church in Michigan, was aimed at imparting a happy and “joyful mental state” in people with positive ideas of how to go about their daily jobs and families”(51; Eiler).
- Bill Hybels: The preaching at Willow Creek Church pastored by Bill Hybels is described in this way: “There is no fire and brimstone here. No Bible-thumping. Just practical, witty messages.”(Christianity Today, Aug. 8, 1986).
- Robert Schuller, who had influenced many through his Church Growth Institutes, epitomized the New Evangelical positive-only philosophy. He said, “Essentially, if Christianity is to succeed in the next millennium, it must cease to be a negative religion and must become positive” (Schuller, Self-Esteem the New Reformation, p. 104).
- Megan Marshman: “If we want to see the people around us growing and becoming people who find the best in others, we need to seek and point out the best we find in them.” Marshman, Why Now is the Best Time to Stop Seeking Perfection; annvoskamp.com, 8/2020.
- Abraham Maslow stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a “bag of symptoms”(67; Wikipedia).
YMCA of the Rockies and the Peter Drucker Summit
I became a Christian during my time as college summer staff at the YMCA of the Rockies in 1980. I was encouraged by my roommate Joanne Schultz(we are 2nd row left 2nd and 3rd) to buy my first Bible and begin reading it at that camp. This was where my relationship with the Lord began. My life changed by reading the Word of God. I had already understood the history of the life of Jesus, but now understood my sin and I accepted His saving grace and I trusted Him as my Lord and Savior.
Christians know that they are saved by what God’s Word says and it testifies to your spirit. When you become a new creation you have a love for God that was never there before. He is your Father now and you sense that. You now have a love for the Word of God that was not there–the Bible becomes alive to you. Now you have a love for righteousness, you don’t want to live the way you used to live and you have love for Christians and a love for the lost. These values and character qualities begin to produce a life of good works. God in the person of the Holy Spirit dwells within the body of the believer in Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:19). We do not have to try to consciously think of God throughout the day; it is something that comes natural. The Holy Spirit brings to mind the things he would have us know(68; Mooberry).
In 1985, I began attending Willow Creek. In 1986, Bill Hybels attended the YMCA of the Rockies along with 32 others, including Bob Buford and Leith Anderson, for the Peter Drucker Summit Conference (69; Sutori):
Hybels was one of thirty-three attendees at the Peter Drucker Summit Conference held at the YMCA Camp of the Rockies, in Estes Park, Colorado, on August 19-22, 1986, for pastors and church leaders…. Because Hybels was inundated with requests from pastors of other churches who wanted to learn about the Willow Creek approach, he decided to set up a separate organization, the Willow Creek Association, devoted exclusively to teaching others. It is an example of what is called the “teaching church,” one devoted to the diffusion of innovation (70; Maciariello).
1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus are pastor epistles giving instruction to Timothy and Titus concerning the pastoral care of the churches. The recurring themes include: God the Savior (Titus 1:3); sound doctrine, faith, and teaching (Titus 1:9); and godliness (1 Timothy 2:2). The pastor is God’s spiritual example to the flock and the people of the community. The pastor is not only the head of the local church, he is an employee of the church and an elected servant of the people. The Lord has chosen the church as a means of spreading the message of salvation to the entire world. The pastor must be committed to feeding, organizing and leading a well-trained group of God’s people to fulfill his will.
Hybels of Willow Creek discovers through polling that one forth of worshippers were drawn by a role model–somebody they know whose life was fulfilled by religion. Rick Warren, Bill Hybels and others recognized the enormous potential in appealing to spiritual Americans who did not attend church (60; Sosnik, Dowd, & Fournier, p.119, 126.).
In 1977 Willow Creek purchased 90 acres of land in South Barrington and held its first service there in 1981. In ’85, my husband and I had been lured in by research which had been done and what was reported in the media.
I was raised Catholic and after I became a born-again Christian I sought a Protestant Bible church. What attracted me to Willow Creek was not only that it was advertised as Protestant, but its simplicity. We had not read anything about Robert Schuller’s connections at that time nor had any idea that polls were taken to lure us in. We wanted expository preaching and ways to be active in reaching out to others. When we heard outsiders complain that the church was watered-down we felt that they just didn’t understand how many of us had very good teaching along with our reserved Sundays for lighter messages.
Strange as it may seem, almost half the people at Willow Creek on any given weekend are former Roman Catholics…Willow Creek the second largest Protestant congregation in the United States…Weekends.. are designed to appeal to ‘unchurched Harry and Mary,’ Hybels’ term for the vast throng that is connected in no way with a religious institution. Robert McClory (71; Chicago Reader)
Chicago Bears Influence
In the 80s, Bill Hybels served as chaplain for the Chicago Bears, shepherding them through the Super Bowl Championship of 1986 (38; Brachear). Although he never attended Willow Creek, Walter Payton’s home, 34 Mundank Road, was only 2.3 miles from Willow Creek.
South Barrington is a wealthy suburb of Chicago featuring some of the largest homes in Illinois. It is the location of the famous megachurch Willow Creek Community Church. Famous residents of South Barrington have included Walter Payton, hall of fame running back for the Chicago Bears and Mike Singletary, hall of fame linebacker and coach for several NFL teams. Bob Goldsborough (73; Goldsborough)
They(the Payton family) then built the six-bedroom house, which has four fireplaces, maid’s quarters, a tennis court and an indoor gun range, according to listing information. Fittingly, the estate bears the address of Payton’s long-retired uniform number of the Bears, 34….Mike Singletary, also lives in South Barrington, having built his current, multimillion-dollar home in the village in 1998. Singletary, who owns a slew of other properties in the Barrington area, sold a former home in the village in late 1998 for $1.15 million” (74; Goldsborough).
When my husband I began attending Willow Creek the Chicago Bears where dancing their Super Bowl Shuffle. We were in a couples small group with Ken and Deb Gargula for two years. Our group memorized Scripture with the Navigators Scripture memory to hide God’s Word in our hearts, avoid sin, always be prepared to give an answer to others, and to be able to teach, rebuke, correct and train others in righteousness.
Singletary gets off Interstate 90 at the Barrington exit…, then it leads to Singletary’s church. Willow Creek Community Church… He’s been attending Willow Creek …since the church’s pastor, Bill Hybels, led prayer sessions for the Bears. …The church tries not to abuse his fame, but he does speak at a men’s breakfast and, once a year, to the Sports and Fitness Ministry. ‘I think our church had really responded maturely, giving Mike and Kim love, and not expecting him to be a celebrity,’ says Hybels (72; McClelland).
The size of the church and who was attending didn’t really have any bearing on why we attended at that time. I was active in the area with the Schaumburg Christian Women’s Club Bible studies, luncheon, and prayer breakfast. Although some of the events were in the wealthy neighborhoods of the very large homes of Walter Payton and Mike Singletary, the hearts of the women in these wealthy homes were just as large. We were regular attenders and with having 4 babies in 5 years I was in the nursery area or helping serve and I never saw Mike Singletary there nor sought him out, but I do remember he got a book published that was sold in the church bookstore (Singletary on Singletary).
Schuller and Hybels both sought time with world leaders and celebrities. Manya Brachear Pashman reports in the Chicago Tribune, “For 26 years, the Global Leadership Summit at Willow Creek Community Church has made headlines with celebrity guests like Bono, President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Started by Hybels in the mid-1990s, the summit has come to symbolize the iconic pastor’s provocative leadership style, sharp business acumen and international appeal. It has been fueled as much by his star power as that of celebrities he brought in” (75; Pashman).
Deepa Bhorath reports in the Orange County Register, “The Rev. Robert H. Schuller spent a lot of time in the company of celebrities, from actors to world leaders” (76; Bhorath)
Marion Goldman, University of Oregon professor emeritus claims it was because California was largely ‘unchurched’ in the early days which made the area particularly appealing to founders of new religious movements and international communities. .. If you want to steal even more money, … you’ll need stronger recruitment tactics–enter celebrities. USC media and religion professor Diane Winston explains, One of the best ways for a cult to advertise itself is by attracting high profile members.” (77; Borden).
Historically, if you wanted to sell something new to a bunch of rich people, you went to California due to the gold rush and Hollywood with its largely unchurched population. Jane Borden (77)
In 1992, we moved to a larger home and began attending a smaller Bible church after the dedication of our 4th baby. The new church we began attending, pastored by Jim Mooberry, was where my home school group as well as other women from Willow Creek met for the Kidnastics gymnastics classes. Mary Anne Cousins, wife of Willow Creek’s pastor Don Cousins, who also left Willow Creek in ’92, had brought their son Kirk there, too.
What all seemed so innocent began to rapidly emerge into something else in the 90s. The Willow Creek Association, now Global Leadership Network, began in ’92, and the head of women’s ministries, Kathy Dice, was let go supposedly due to budget cuts as a new staff of women filled her role and taught New Age thought. Nancy Ortberg began to preach and John Ortberg taught Spiritual Formation with Ruth Barton with a book they had co-authored.
Remember these words. They’ll know that we’re the real deal. Not by our doctrine articulation, not by our ability to defend what we believe. But they’ll know we are the real deal by our love—present salty love. We go there, we’re present and we love. Friends, I want to get back to church but I want to stay out of the salt shaker mentality and I want us to fulfill our mission. Albert Tate, NEXT
The New Age thinks of love as the fundamental nature of mankind. It is both the purpose and the essence of life. It must be noted that the advice to connect is not restricted to family, friends or potential lovers. It is not even restricted to concrete human interactions. Love is a mainly spiritual connection with all elements in the cosmos. Since love (by New Age definition) is spiritual, unconditional, and non-exclusive, it is at the same time somewhat impersonal (77; Berg).
Nancy Ortberg at Westmont College Commencement 2012, “Your generation has taken the word justice and blown the dust off of it… make it a lifestyle. …When Jesus came he mostly talked about the small things… people doing small things might be able to make a dent and put a crack in the cosmos”(91; Fairchild).
Humanity is ONE
Classic occultism “as above, so below” is “God and humanity are one.”
- The King James Bible, Matthew 6:10: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
- The Message Bible, Matthew 6:10: Set the world right; Do what’s best-as above, so below.
The mystical beliefs of the secret societies are based on the Hermetic maxim ‘As above – so below’ which teaches the natural world is a material reflection of the spiritual. It forms the esoteric basis for the ancient Egyptian Mysteries, Gnosticism, Esoteric Christianity, the Cabala, the Hermetic Tradition, Alchemy and societies such as the Templars, Freemason and Rosicrucian (102; Howard). They believe that the whole universe is the great world, the macrocosm; its parts are small universes in themselves, microcosms. Such a microcosm is man, who is in himself an image of the universe and a perfect being. But the great universe is likewise a man, and as is ‘god,’ God has a human form(36; Fox).
The success of the New Age Movement in the 80s is mostly attributed to its establishment of a broad world-affirming program for action. They responded to the needs of the world and a vision of global transformation was immediately particularized in an agenda focused on several social problems. Some of the early adherents to the emerging New Age Movement had also been active in the older peace movement. They were able to find ways for ordinary citizens to contribute to the cause of peace through contacts with people in countries with whom their own governments had failed relationships. Due to the influx of spiritual energy, they believed that their limited efforts would be multiplied and could create global change(42; Melton).
When a local church really starts working right and if it were to link arms across an ocean, across a culture, across a socioeconomic chasm, with another church on the other side of the world through that linkage partnership of one ‘Acts 2 church’ with another ‘Acts 2 church,’ one from a large resourced country and one from an under-resourced country, I think that is a dynamic through which God does miracles. Bill Hybels (45; Fairchild)
Mega church pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Church and The Purpose-Driven Life, took the social gospel world wide into the thinking and planning of world leaders and he credited Peter Drucker with the basic concept that he is executing. Drucker, who Warren claimed to mentor him for 20 years, believed that the social problems could be alleviated by the nonprofit sector of society, especially churches, with their hosts of volunteers in their community.
I was.. in a meeting with the founder of Habitat For Humanity, Millard Fuller…, ‘Now Dave, don’t you believe everyone deserves a decent place to live?’ .. I agreed…It was then that Fuller explained his strategy. It’s what I now call the X Factor… He said, “I have to find a way to apprentice every day people who follow Jesus to volunteer and swing a hammer.. and then I have to make heroes out of those volunteer builders.’ Dave Ferguson, NEXT
Poverty, starvation and their attendant evils are not economic problems. They are problems of governments that keep their subjects in poverty in order to justify their requests for foreign aid. That foreign aid is then used to further bolster the government’s power and keep the elite living a lavish lifestyle. These and all such problems with governments will not be solved until Jesus returns to establish His rule over them.
Redistributing our physical efforts, our money, and our methods to the unevangelized peoples is a socialist agenda. It is not up to any organization or movement to “redistribute” anything that belongs to someone else. We must each stand before the Lord to account for what we do with what He has given us. His Word forbids compulsion as an incentive for giving.
Bill Hybels read out loud, ” In Acts 2:47–the members of the early church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching… everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles and all the believers were together and had everything in common…they sold property and possessions.” Then he shared that no other passage in Scripture has touched him as deeply about the beauty, power, and potential of the local church as in this text.(45; Fairchild)
The European idea of social justice was a failure. Socialism has proven to be a failure in that it unjustly suppresses human creativity by excessively taxing away its rewards, and by foolishly giving economic reward to many who, even though mentally and physically able, fail to honor their Divine privilege and duty to work creatively. Long ago when the Communist Manifesto announced a proletarian revolution which would empower the poor by redistributing wealth all but the leaders became equally poor and all of the children were indoctrinated with an anti-Christian socialist philosophy.
Habitat For Humanity sends 10% of its money to the international group Habitat For Humanity International. They were present at the “Habitat 2” Conference at the United Nations in Istanbul. This is one of the goals of the United Nations which is “Shelter Equity” which means that they want to see everybody world-wide to have a home. The U.N. agenda is all basically global socialism and they want to completely lower the standard of living and make it even with a global standard of living(26; Klenck).
The actual problem lies in the corrupt governments. We have sent huge planeloads and truck loads of aid to various impoverished nations and it has ended up in the hands of the leaders who have either sold it or used it for their own gain. Habitat for Humanity is an ecumenical organization and they don’t necessarily allow proselytizing and, although most of the local levels are not aware of it, there is a bigger agenda that is being funded. When you have non-governmental organizations with status with the United Nations(NGOs) 10% of your donation back to the international fund. The main leadership is pushing for Worldwide equity which is a UN goal. There are rules to get this status and you have to apply for, sign and agree with and support the UN Charter. You also have to prove that you have a large information network and that you are able to reach a lot of people with pamphlets, flyers, etc. Once you are accepted you have to agree that you will promote pro-UN activities and feed that information back to the UN to prove that you are actually doing so.
The Rockefellers donated the land and formed the United Nations. When America joined the UN just after WWII she surrendered her national sovereignty to international control. On December 5, 1980, the United Nations General Assembly formulated the Global Education Project. Based on the late UN assistant secretary-general Robert Muller’s World Core Curriculum, a model for global education for every nation was set up in Costa Rica called the University for Peace. Stressing “thinking skills” rather than academics, it is designed to instill non-competitive group consciousness, critical thinking, and global citizenship.
On December 5, 1980, the United Nations General Assembly formulated the Global Education Project. Based on UN assistant secretary-general Robert Muller’s World Core Curriculum, a model for global education for every nation was set up in Costa Rica called the University for Peace. Stressing “thinking skills” rather than academics, it is designed to instill non-competitive group consciousness, critical thinking, and global citizenship. Muller was an evolutionist who believed man was about to take a quantum leap toward becoming a new species. He believed that the earth was going to be transformed into the “planet of God.” To him God was the “planetary age” or the “age of Aquarius.” He agreed with the Hindus in calling the earth God.
The United Nations Organization is dedicated to bringing about a one-world government for a new coalesced mankind. “Network” is a New Age code word that refers to the thousands of groups around the world that are all working toward the realization of this “interconnectedness” of all life through the establishment of a world government. Many of these networks expect the United Nations one day to function as the “central nervous system” in the new world order. This new planetary consciousness has been shared by many leaders like the late Robert Muller (43; Hunt).
This is the foundation of our radical environmentalists today. They are striving for a spiritual at-one-ment with nature—a unified world system where the individual is subordinated into the whole. This World Core Curriculum promotes Eastern meditation techniques, including “guided fantasies into space,” which is also called “out-of-body travel” or “astral projection.” Muller’s concepts are taken from occultist Alice Bailey’s writings which were channeled the spirit guide Djwhal Kuhl, also known as the Tibetan. These channeled spirit guides are from an alleged group of evolutionary beings who have attained a high degree of evolutionary perfection which released them from bondage to the material world. This holistic view of life views the planet as interconnected, with no life form having any greater standing than any other life form. Imperfect while we are still man, our next stage is said to take us to a level that is psychologically, spiritually, and physically superior where we will be a true “planetary citizen” (44; Dager)
During the years 1919 to 1949 Alice Bailey and Djwhal Khul established a close telepathic contact. One of the results of their cooperation is the book series on Ageless Wisdom Teachings. Fundamental Teachings of Ageless Wisdom: Humanity is ‘ONE’
- The Kingdom of God, the Spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, can and does materialise on earth.
- There is a continuity of revelation down the ages in that God has revealed Himself from cycle to cycle to humanity.
- The God Transcendent is equally the God Immanent. The “Sons of God” have to express the three basic divine aspects, namely knowledge, love and will.
- There is only one divine Life, expressing itself through the multiplicity of forms in all the kingdoms of nature. Humanity is therefore ONE.
- Within each human being is a point of light, a spark of the one Flame, the soul, the second aspect of divinity, which St. Paul referred to as “Christ in you, the hope of glory”.
- An ultimate perfection (though relative in nature) is possible for the individual aspirant and for humanity as a whole through the action of the evolutionary process. This process is exemplified in the teachings in various ways, from the humblest atom up through the four recognized kingdoms of nature, on through the fifth kingdom, to those exalted spheres where the Lord of the World works out the divine Plan.
- There are certain immutable laws governing the universe; man becomes progressively aware of these as he evolves. These laws are expressions of the will of God.
- The basic law of our universe is to be seen in the manifestation of God as Love.
- There are necessarily many subsidiary factors presented in the teachings like the Law of Rebirth or Reincarnation, the cyclic nature of all manifestation, the nature and aim of the evolutionary process, the existence of the Spiritual Hierarchy, the existence of the Masters and Their work, the nature of consciousness with its various stages culminating in the Path of Initiation etc.
The holistic view of life views the planet as interconnected, with no life form having any greater standing than any other life form. Imperfect while we are still man, our next stage is said to take us to a level that is psychologically, spiritually, and physically superior where we will be a true “planetary citizen.” The late philosopher and theologian Francis Schaeffer wrote that authoritarianism is the only humanistic social option once America’s biblical base has been removed. He explains that, in the future this would be one man or an elite giving authoritative arbitrary absolutes. It would be a manipulative authoritarian elite where it would be chemical agents and genetic condition that would determine what kind of people should live in the future. Christian freedoms without Christian base bring about chaos. Authoritarianism is most easily accepted if it is brought in while seeming to keep the outward forms of constitutionality.
The World Will Never Be Won For Christ
Enter ye in the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7: 13-14
The world will never be won for Christ. The Scripture tells us of the events leading up to the Lord’s return where there is no hope for the vast majority of people. There is not going to be a revival that will bring the world to Christ. God has given Satan rulership of the world until He returns. Christians are to win others to be saved by preaching the Gospel.
There was only one way mankind could be redeemed from the penalty of eternal death. For a Holy, righteous God to justly forgive sinners, the full penalty for sin must be paid (Rom:3:9-28). A sinless man, undeserving of death, would have to die for the rest of mankind: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Rom:5:19).
Although the eternal Son of God, through the virgin birth, became fully man, He remained fully God. As sinless man, He could justly die for sinners. And only as infinite God could He pay the full penalty for the sins of all mankind. As God and man in one person, Christ took the full weight of God’s wrath upon sin for all mankind. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom:6:23). He tasted “death for every man” (Heb:2:9). That had to include “the second death,” which all who refuse to believe on Him who died for them will endure for eternity in the Lake of Fire (Rev:20:11-15).
Eternally, those in heaven will be sinners—saved by grace. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, except for one man. Scripture assures us: He “did no sin” (1 Pt 2:22); “who knew no sin” (2 Cor:5:21); and “in him is no sin” (1 Jn:3:5).
He left us “an example, that [we] should follow His steps” (1 Pt 2:21). But how can we follow the steps that lead to the Cross? If we are to be godly, the only godly One must live in us: “I travail in birth…until Christ be formed in you” (Gal:4:19). It must be “not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal:2:20).
Jesus says that the only thing that matters and can give you life is the Spirit and He does His work through the Word. “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).
Peter says that you owe your very existence to your new life. The very existence that comes in our life and makes us new born to the Word of God. That’s what does it, not anything else. When you share your testimony with someone you may be wetting their apatite… but when it comes right down to it they need to hear the Word of God because that’s what brings faith. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23).
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (1 Peter 1:3). We can do without anything else, but we cannot do without the Word of God. When we begin to move away from the Word of God as our soul ministry, our soul hope, by the degree that we move away from it, it is the degree that the church gets weakened and eventually falls (81; Mooberry)
Notes
- Smietana, Bob, “Willow Creek Announces New Senior Pastor,” Religious News Service, 4/15/2020.
- Foster, Marshall, and Ball, Ron. “Christian Home Learning Guides.” Dallas, TX: Zane Interactive Publishing, 1997. p. 234
- Willard, Dallas, The Divine Conspiracy, p. xiii; Harper, 3/24/98.
- Fairchild, Mary, “Protestant No More: Willow Creek is Infiltrated by a Mystic Quaker Movement Called Renovare,” 3/26/2003, mfairlady.com.
- Eiler, Larry, Making a Megachurch, Ann Arbor Observer, 12/2017.
- Maciarello 2014, 188;
- Drucker, Peter F., Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New ‘Post-Modern’ World; Transaction Publishers: New Brunswick, NJ, 1996; p. 264-65.
- Berg, Bradley, What did Jesus Mean?, 2/2014, whenthesoulawakens.org.
- Wallis, Jim, “The Great Awakening: Seven Ways to Change;” p. 60. Harper One; January 6, 2009.
- Miller, Emily McFarlan, “The Interview: Dave Dummitt, new senior pastor of Willow Creek;” Sight Magazine, 6/16/2020.
- IEA NinePoints Members; International Enneagram Association; retrieved 6/28/22.
- Marlow, Michael, The Contemporary English Version, Bible Researcher.com; September 2005.
- Seifer, Nancy and Martin Vieweg, Living as a Soul; whenthesoulawakens.org, June 2009.
- Putman, David, and Stezer, Ed, Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community; p. 67, B&H Academic, 5/1/06.
- A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word Between Us and You‘ Pdf.
- Groothuis, Douglas, “Unmasking the New Age;”p. 36, Intervarsity Press, 1/24/1986.
- Drucker, Peter, “Managing in the Next Society,” St. Martin’s Griffin, 9/1/2003.
- Frost, David, Billy Graham in Conversation with David Frost; pp. 68, 143, Lion Publishing, 4/3/98.
- Mitchell, Curtis, Billy Graham Saint or Sinner, p. 272; Old Tappan, N.J.; F.H. Revell Co., 1979.
- Dart, John, Billy Graham Recalls Help From Hearst; Los Angeles Times, 6/7/1997.
- Luo, Michael, “How Billy Graham’s Movement Lost Its Way; The New Yorker; 2/21/2018.
- Suttle, Tim, The Failure of the Megachurch; HuffPost, 9/13/11.
- Ferguson, Dave, & Hirsch, Alan, Exponential Series: On the Verge: A Journey Into the Apostolic Future of the Church—an apostolic, reproducing movement where every person would be living a mission-sent life; p. 11 (forward), Zondervan, 5/3/11.
- Spreeman, Amy, “Willow Creek’s “The Practice” Blends New Age and Catholic Mysticism;” The Aquila Report; 4/28/2016.
- Niequist, Aaron & Carter, Steve, A Holy Experiment; Christianity Today, 2014.
- Klenck, Robert, The Purpose-Driven Church Nighmare!, 6/30/01.
- Brown, Fleur, I Grew up in a cult and I can tell you why ‘normal’ people join them; Insider; 4/9/2019.
- Petzinger, Thomas Jr., “Leadership Guru’s Work Takes Thirty Years to Come to Flower,” Wall Street Journal; 4/25/1997.
- Rivenburg, Roy, “The Sunday Profile: An Invented Life: Fueled by the desire to be everything his family was not, Warren Bennis created a world full of power and prestige. But now the business guru is wrestling with thoughts of fun;” Los Angeles Times; 6/19/94.
- Pegg, Mike, “M is for Abraham Maslow: A Founder of Humanistic Psychology”. The Positive Encourager. 2014-12-19. Retrieved 9/16/2021.
- “Dr. Abraham Maslow, Founder Of Humanistic Psychology Dies,” New York Times; 6/10/1970.
- Synanon; Wikipedia. retrieved 8/22/21
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