The Organic Church: House2House
- and the
NAR & Contemplative Way
By John Beardsley -
September 5, 2011
The Organic Church together with the Emergent Church Movement: Part One January 2011
The Way of The Organic Church: Part Two March 2011
Appendix to Part 2: Birds of the Feather Gathering Together- The Starlings of The Jesus Manifesto August 2011
The Organic Church –
Doctrines of Demons and of Men: Part Three
August 2011
The Organic
Church: In Typical Christian Na’vi Blue - The message comes forth! "Epic
Jesus: The Christ You Never Knew" give at Momentum Conference
– by Frank Viola
9/4/11 reviewed by John Beardsley 9/7/11 September 2011
I ran across a link to a House2House conference the weekend following the series being posted on BDM, I felt would be valuable to our readers and warn those seriously seeking to follow scriptures:
- Daily Keynote Sessions from house church pioneers Neil Cole, Frank Viola, and Wolfgang Simson will provide the latest information on the organic church movement
- Handout materials from ALL breakout session workshops will be available for electronic download.
- Birds of a Feather sessions have been added to enable you to schedule a meeting on the topic of your choice. Share your story or bring your questions to discuss with other conference attendees.
Aside from the usuals of Neil Cole and Frank Viola add Wolfgang Simson known for interpreting dreams, extrabiblical revelations, winning Muslims by dreams:
"Heavens TV. When God speaks to
you in dreams. How we learn to stop missing the real night show; practical
introduction to interpreting dreams humans have from God – and how we in
turn can become what God dreams of us (Starfish Edition, 2010)" - on his
site:
http://www.simsonwolfgang.de/
- Simson one of the key speakers is advocating interpretation of dreams to convert Muslims to Jesus, that they are having visions of a literal Jesus:
"Many Muslims, for example, report a vivid dream that had this message: A white person appearing to them in a dream, saying: “I am the way, the truth and life. No one comes to the father except through me.” Then they would wake up, wondering what this meant, and start out on a quest. A colleague of mine in Indonesia has been asking many thousands of Muslims a simple question: “Have you recently seen a white man?” Some would shrug, others would get excited and say: “Yes, indeed,” and he would go on to explain who that person in white clothes might be, and that he probably wants the very same thing from the human he gave a personal visit to than he had wanted from everyone else he met: to get up, follow him and become his disciple. This way, thousands of Muslims have been led to Christ." Starfish Manifesto, page 511
- More Simson from his homepage showing he is on the same talking points as Neil Cole and Frank Viola teaching a Dominionist NAR theology:
" All the
signs of the times indicate one thing: Jesus, the King of his Kingdom, is
preparing his Bride for his return. In order for this to happen, Jesus has
to do some intense housecleaning. Centuries of ill management, defunct
teaching and blatant religious consumerism has created self-serving systems
to cater for the spiritual needs of its members while they basically pursue
a Babylonian concept of life: work and earn, pay taxes and burn! Gods word
speaks of house churches – we built church-houses."
http://www.simsonwolfgang.de/
This is very comparable to Viola and Sweet's statement in the Jesus Manifesto:
" page 141 presents a different line of thought, “Jesus Christ cannot be separated from His church. While Jesus is distinct from His Bride, He is not separate from her. She is, in fact, His very own body in the earth.” [bold emphasis mine] Then on page 143 following some discussion on 1 Co 12:1-3 how “the church is Jesus Christ in corporate expression” The Jesus Manifesto continues quoting the non-Christian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who said regarding the church, [is] “Christ existing as community.” Later The Jesus Manifesto says, “Practically, this means that we know Jesus Christ through one another, not just by ourselves. We see Him, hear Him, touch Him, taste and smell Him through our sisters and brothers within whom He dwells."
and
"The Jesus Manifesto states, “The earth awaits a body of Christians in every city who will receive Jesus utterly and completely. A body who will esteem Him above everything else, giving Him His rightful place of supremacy” (pages 158-159). More information in summation below but this sounds like dangerous Dominionist teaching not found in scriptures! The other two references by Frank Viola to Bill Freeman and T. Austin Sparks..." from The Way of The Organic Church: Part 2
- Next a nice wholesome breakout Session with a Contemplative Spirituality and Mysticism teacher - If you don't get enough remember they have smaller sessions after available??!!
Dr. Michael G. Bischof
Holistic Spiritual Formation
http://www.cvent.com/events/
He is the Founder and Executive Director of SOULeader Resources
http://www.souleader.org/
-
While this guy says he is talking about a Biblical
things his links contradict that notion!
Bischof openly promotes Contemplative Prayer -Centering Prayer, Ignation Meditation, Lectio Divina, Solitude, Spiritual Friendship and Direction, The Daily Office, and The Jesus Prayer are posted on his site!
Spiritual Formation
Contemplative Prayer
Spiritual Disciplines
… This is the primary focus of
Formative Spirituality (or the Science of Foundational Human Formation) as
developed by Adrian van Kaam. (http://metamorphablog.com/
Quotes to show the very strong Contemplative background of this teacher at the conference from Bischof's SOULeader site:
"It is clear that to Willard “each essential dimension of the human being” is important and all are involved in the process of spiritual transformation. Another example of a holistic cry comes through the writings of Richard Foster. In his book Streams of Living Water, Foster explores six great traditions of the Christian faith: contemplative, holiness, charismatic, social justice, evangelical, and incarnational. This moves in a direction of kingdom focus and away from the segregated traditions which typically characterize various denominations, tribes, and associations of churches."
Richard Foster is a modern day mystic! Link here to more on him
"In the area of emotional formation, a passion for holistic understanding can be seen in new approaches to counseling and inner healing. Professional therapists and psychologists used to corner the market in the realm of “soul work” and dealing with emotional issues. Today, there is strong movement into areas such as spiritual direction and the importance of relationships to emotional healing. One example is Christian psychologist Larry Crabb who has moved in a direction asserting that spiritual direction can replace standard therapeutic models and methods. In integrating the emotional with the spiritual, Crabb wants Christian counselors to recognize that “what lies at the root of a person’s non-organic struggles is the lack of experienced communion with God.” A movement away from symptomatic solutions toward more integrated systems approaches can be experienced in both personal and corporate areas dealing with emotional and relational formation."
No surprise here is a link to the heretical teachings of Crabb... he has been around on the BDM Site for his aberrant teachings for a long time!
Dallas Willard defines spiritual formation as “the process by which the human spirit or will is given a definite ‘form’ or character.” Eugene Peterson elaborates on the journey of spiritual formation: “Spirituality is the attention we give to our souls, to the invisible interior of our lives that is the core of our identity, these image-of-God souls that compose our uniqueness and glory. Spirituality is the concern we have for the invisibility that inheres in every visibility, for the interior that provides content to every exterior. It necessarily deals much with innerness, with silence, with solitude. It takes all matters of soul with utmost seriousness.”
While on the same site arguing against the very thing he is promoting with CSM! And Dallas Willard who is no stranger to the CSM scandal
… A widespread secularized concept of spirituality is also prevalent today. This form of “spirituality” is popularized by contemporary pop psychologists, self-help books, and television talk shows. It is characterized by spirituality as one’s relationship to whatever is most important in life, or even the process of becoming a positive, creative, and empowered person. This is not the type of spirituality or spiritual formation that is being dealt with here.
*** Contradictory Message Warning ***
“Spiritual formation has a distinct focus – the teachings of Jesus and the Bible.” “Therefore, this view of spiritual formation could be summarized as active and progressive involvement in focusing on Jesus, focusing on Scripture, and focusing on spiritual disciplines. These are the foci of Christian spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is a process, not an instantaneous experience, even though there may be such experiences as part of the process. It is difficult for many to accept this aspect of process since it goes against the grain of a culture which continually seeks instant gratification. People are conditioned to expect immediate returns on their investments, which is not necessarily the case with spiritual formation. For further reading, check out the Relational Formation section in the SOULeader Bookstore."
Bischof's links are distinctly
NOT of Jesus and the Bible
- but the Contemplative Spirituality and
Mysticism I have been warning you about!
The SOULeader bookstore is also complete with the mystics Henri Nouwen, Richard Foster and many more! The links they take you to pages on how to practice these things! The links are a how to do CSM!
|
Contemplative Prayer |
Tie this to the other material already exposed on The Organic Church puts it squarely in the same circles of the Emergent Church Movement. The Organic Church is just the House Church equivalent of Emergent!
I have not looked closer at the other sessions but may in the future... If you have landed on this page and not seen the rest of the material exposing what we are talking about here are the links again:
The Organic Church together with the Emergent Church Movement: Part One January 2011
The Way of The Organic Church: Part Two March 2011
Appendix to Part 2: Birds of the Feather Gathering Together- The Starlings of The Jesus Manifesto August 2011
The Organic Church – Doctrines of Demons and of Men:
Part Three
August 2011
The Organic
Church: In Typical Christian Na’vi Blue - The message comes forth! "Epic
Jesus: The Christ You Never Knew" give at Momentum Conference
– by Frank Viola
9/4/11 reviewed by John Beardsley 9/7/11 September 2011
Biblical Discernment Ministries - 9/2011
by John Beardsley
