Emotionally Healthy Church: Is this Biblical?

Here are some other influential Christian organizations that are now promoting and spreading Peter Scazzero's books and things:

*Steve Brown radio:
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality - Pete Scazzero on SBE
September 11th, 2009
http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/steve-brown-etc/emotionally-healthy-spirituality-pete-scazzero-on-sbe/

*Willow Creek:
Emotional Healthy Spirituality and Willow Creek Partner to Spread Contemplative Spirituality
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=1148

Focus on the Family (Canada) now promotes Scazzero’s Roman Catholic mysticism:
Focus on the Family Canada and Contemplative Spirituality
http://morebooksandthings.blogspot.com/2009/09/focus-on-family-canada-and.html

Rick Warren (Saddleback Church Conference):
Rick Warren leads the way over the bridge to Rome
http://muddystreams.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/rick-warren-leads-the-way-over-the-bridge-to-rome/


A lot of my research was from http://morebooksandthings.blogspot.com but there I a few sites that have given helpful information on the teachings of Peter Scazzero:
http://apprising.org/2009/12/11/peter-scazzero-promoted-by-rick-warren/
http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/blog/?p=486
http://www.9marks.org/CC/article/0,,PTID314526_CHID598026_CIID1880196,00.html
http://muddystreams.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/do-christian-leaders-understand-the-contemplative-prayer-movement/
http://www.erwm.com/NewAge.htm
In the foreword of The Emotionally Healthy Church is states:

“Late one cold winter evening our phone rang. A young pastor I had known and admired for some years was unexpectedly calling. His voice was tense as he poured out the story of the crises he was facing...I listened, gave some words of encouragement and counsel, and prayed with him....
That young pastor was Peter Scazzero...”
Leighton Ford



WHO IS LEIGHTON FORD?
Ford heads Leighton Ford Ministries, which seeks to help young leaders worldwide to lead more like Jesus and more to Jesus. For many years, Ford communicated Christ around the globe through speaking, writing and media outreach. He is the 70 year old brother-in-law of Billy Graham.


Quotes From THE CALVARY CONTENDER VOL. XVII NO. 20 Oct. 15, 2000:

Leighton Ford's New Ministry akin to New Age Mysticism
LEIGHTON FORD'S NEW MINISTRY-Leighton Ford, Billy Graham's brother-in-law, served 31 years with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and is Honorary Life Chairman of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. But the 10/2 Christianity Today says his new ministry is "spiritual direction," mentoring, etc., which seems dangerously akin to New Age mysticism. In 1993, he heard Princeton Seminary's Diogenes Allen speak about the Benedictine discipline of lectio divina, a very ancient Catholic art which involves "a slow contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible to become a means of union with God." Ford is now said to be "simply walking in people's souls" and finding out what God is doing there... He recently said individuals "should preach the gospel," but they shouldn't "be so negative as to refuse to endorse or work with those who belong to a group that proclaims a different gospel."


Quotes From the article (back in October of 2000) in Christianity Today :

From Evangelist to Soul Friend
Leighton Ford's new ministry is, in many ways, like his former calling—only more personal.
Better known for his revival evangelism, sweaty preaching, and making thousands of new converts in a single night, Ford has traded in the pulpit for a quieter one-on-one ministry. After a globetrotting lifetime of service wherever God—and brother-in-law Billy Graham—called him, the 70-year-old Ford now spends most of his time listening to God's still, small voice. He prays for hours. He cultivates intimate relationships. Mostly, he says, he is learning to be a spiritual friend...
...Ford needed a sabbatical by 1992. He headed to Vancouver, British Columbia...
In 1993, Ford heard Princeton Theological Seminary's Diogenes Allen speak at a Charlotte church about the Benedictine discipline of lectio divina...
—repeatedly reading a passage of Scripture prayerfully in order to hear God—and Ford began teaching it in his leadership course. The practice was not entirely new to Ford.
...The discipline of lectio divina
For Ford, that work is spiritual direction.
His library is now littered with dog-eared, marked-up copies of his favorite books on the subject—Keith R. Anderson and Randy D. Reese's Spiritual Mentoring, and William A. Barry and William J. Connolly's The Practice of Spiritual Direction. Ford provides focused spiritual direction to one person, and sees many other "spiritual friends" regularly. A note on a table in his study summarizes his purpose: "To deepen and energize emerging leaders on their journey with Christ, through significant interactions, strategic teaching, and spiritual friendships."
Ford realized by 1999 that if he was going to be a mentor, he needed to be mentored too.
He began to make a monthly trek to the Rock Hill Oratory, 30 miles south of Charlotte, to see his own spiritual director, Father David Valtiera.
...Ford is not the first evangelical Protestant to rediscover ancient spiritual disciplines that, until recently, were considered the domain of Catholics.
...The experience of Susie Stevens... "Spiritual direction has turned my life around," she says. "With my director's help I can now see not only where God is working in my life today, but lots of places Jesus was working before, only I was too busy trying to figure out the lotus position to notice."
After overhearing Ford's restaurant conversation, Stevens went to Amazon.com and ordered Luci Shaw and Madeline L'Engle's A Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends:
Then she called an Episcopal priest she knew from college and asked him to set her up with a spiritual director. Within months, she had exchanged her tapes of 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi, widely embraced by New Age adherents, for the music of Jars of Clay; started attending a Bible study; and attended an Ignatian retreat.
...Ford's ministry may seem humbler and quieter than it did in his days with Graham. But Ford's ministry has expanded, not shrunk, says Randy Reese, coauthor of Spiritual Mentoring and vice president for advancement at North American Baptist Seminary. Reese believes Ford's vocation recalls that of Catholic writer and spiritual guide Henri Nouwen.


Is it possible that the reason Peter Scazzero has gone contemplative because of the influence of
Leighton Ford and the monastery? It seems like the pull of the monks is very strong

Quotes from Chapter 1 of the Emotionally Healthy Church book that make me go “huh”?

Scazzero: “My spiritual foundation was finally being revealed for what it was: wood, hay, and stubble(1 Cor. 10-15).”
“The foundation of my own personal character and development could not sustain the church we were building. It was a shaky foundation, waiting to collapse.”
Huh? The foundation is Jesus Christ! He builds the church!

Scazzero: “The sad reality we discovered was that Jesus had penetrated only superficially into the depth of our persons-even though we had been Christians for almost twenty years.”
Huh? What about being a new creature in Christ?

On Juan and Marta, friends who pastored under them but were now exhausted and overwhelmed:
Scazzero: “I admitted later to Geri(wife) that a part of me was sad to have led them to Christ and to being pastors.”
Huh? How can you regret leading someone to the Lord and saving them from an eternity in hell?

Scazzero: Geri and I knew that something was missing. Our hearts were shrinking. Church leadership felt like a heavy burden. We were gaining the whole world by doing a great work for God while at the same time losing our souls(Mark 8:35)
Huh? Isn’t that talking about the love of the world and the things of this world? How can you lose your soul if you are a Christian?


Finally, at the end of the first lesson, Scazzero recommends to go deeper and “embrace the fullness of your humanity” and to start a “Feelings Journal.”

On page 165 Scazzero mentions "Leighton Ford, one of my mentors". Leighton Ford, as we discovered several weeks ago, could be the one who influenced Mr. Scazzero to start walking down this pathway. Not only are Mr. Scazzero and his wife now very much involved in contemplative spirituality, but his book is filled with quotes from contemplative authors and recommendations of other unbiblical sources.

Here is just a quick review of just a few of them:

Henri Nouwen, contemplative Roman Catholic priest who advises pastors to follow the way of the ‘desert fathers‘(contemplative monks)

Thomas Merton, a Trappist Monk and Catholic Mystic who before he died saw no contradiction between Zen and Christianity. He commended Hindu, Taoist, Buddhist, and Islamic mystics as "those who had experienced...union with the God of truth and love."

RICHARD FOSTER, a psychologist, Quaker, and founder and president of Renovaré. Dr. Foster maintains that this deeper spirituality can only be attained through the practice of spiritual disciplines, which are basically a form of "Christian" Zen--Buddhist meditation techniques mixed with Roman Catholic traditions. Also a big promoter of the teachings of Thomas Merton.

John Bradshaw, the psychological "Guru" for the New Age in the early 1990’s, who uses the term, "I AMness" and says that "my I AMness is like God’s I AMness. When I truly AM, I am most like God." He urges you to discover this "I AMness," or "true self," "authentic self," "core godlikeness," "true meaning of perfection," "meditate on nothingness," on "just being." His New Age meditations are characteristic of Hindu pantheism rather than Christianity.

Daniel Goleman, who studies behaviour and brain psychology science, and mindfulness meditation with Buddhist monks to control emotional impulses. He was recently involved in a study where scientist and monks and the Dalai Lama merge meditation with emotions, combining ancient spirituality and science together, read about it here:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/meditation/

Dag Hammarskjold, the former UN secretary general, mystic, founder and designer of the eerie United Nations Meditation Room, ‘dedicated to the God whom man worships under many names and in many forms'.
Parker Palmer? Well , Scazzero extensively quotes from him and his book Let Your Life Speak. So who is he?

According to Publishers Weekly, Palmer took a year's sabbatical to live in a Quaker community in Pennsylvania and remained there for 10 years. In his book he openly discusses his burnout and depression, and suggests being authentic by following your natural talents and limitations. “Since hearing one's "calling" requires introspection and self-knowledge (a Quaker expression), Palmer encourages inner work such as journal-writing, meditation and prayer.”
(also at Quaker Books: http://www.quakerbooks.org/get/0-7879-4735-0 )

A interesting Parker Palmer phrase listed in 'The Desert House of Prayer' daily Centering Prayer exercise, under ‘Meditations’:
"The demons are our friends. To ride into the depth of our being with the demons that beset us can take away their power. (From "The Active Live," by Parker Palmer.) Do I have the courage the change "us" to "me/mine" in that sentence?"
[Incidentally, that book is about embracing “the monastic virtues of silence, solitude, and contemplation without becoming full-time contemplatives.”]
Now I don’t know if that quote is taken out of context or what, but I do know that Quakers hold some very different beliefs about the doctrine of the Trinity.
For instance, the Quakers and inner light:
At the very center of the Quaker faith lies the doctrine of the Inner Light, the principle that within every human soul there is implanted a certain element of God's own spirit and divine energy.

Another surprise in the Emotionally HealthyChurch book is that Peter Scazzero recommends that couples in his church have a GENOGRAM done as part of counselling and instructs them to "look beneath the surface".
“Given the time, we will probably sketch a family genogram with each of them to understand how their past family situation have impacted the present. “ (pg. 85)
Question: What is a genogram?

If you go onto a Jungian psychologists website that explained it as a psychological "family tree where we explore one's family of origin and the various roles that have been played out through the family drama.”
The genogram is basically a version of the Myers-Briggs enneagram which is a personality type questionaire and they are commonly available together.

There is a problem with this thing. Personality type tests have their root in ancient mythology and astrology. There are occult books on the ancient occult symbol, the Enneagram, and personality and character types. Most people don’t know about Jung and his philosophies and think they are all right. But that is not true. The Meyers-Briggs Personality Profiling was conceived from Carl Jung practicing Divination through a spirit-guide named Philemon, his advisor, who came to him out of the imaginal realm:
Jung states:
"Philemon and other figures of my fantasies brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life. Philemon represented a force which was not myself. In my fantasies I held conversations with him, and he said things which I had not consciously thought. For I observed clearly that it was he who spoke, not I. . . . Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight. He was a mysterious figure to me. At times he seemed to me quite real, as if he were a living personality. I went walking up and down the garden with him, and to me he was what the Indians call a guru." Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, op. cit., p. 183.

The Christian Research Institute Journal states that:
“The enneagram is particularly popular among Catholic groups, with parishes and retreat houses offering workshops across the country. Rarely are teachers or participants aware of its occultic origins, something that should be a source of real concern for the Christian church. Echoes of a false, Gnostic theology are heard in enneagram teachings, though its occult roots are masked.” (CRI Journal)

Unfortunately Carl Jung is greatly influencing our churches today, not to mention Christian universities. For example, Carl Jung and genogram courses are offered here at this Christian university.

After reading the facts, why would any church allowed this teaching to come in?