Dear Reader,
This small Calvary Chapel Update webpage is not meant to be any form of a diatribe against Calvary Chapels. If it comes across this way please let us know, this is not our intention.
Rather, this page consists of brief summaries, references to published artilces and books, and links to well written webpages - all of which are meant to be useful resources for all pastors, including Calvary Chapel pastors and church leaders.
Much of what has been posted below has been included here in order to help clarify and clear up the confusion that has been created due to a number of problematic situations that leaders have gotten themselves into, either knowingly, or ignorantly.
This SRN webpage has been created in order to graciously and effectively help pastors and church leaders understand the dangers and problematic teachings that the huge Emerging Church Movement is leavening the Body of Christ with. This is no small movement or simple passing fad, we believe it will be mentioned in the Church history books, if the Lord tarries.
Another reason for creating this page is to show how Emergent Leaders are bringing forth false teachings and unbiblical influences into the Body of Christ - namely, through gaining a following through their publications and by being "Guest Speakers" at large Christian events/venues.
This page also serves the purpose of helping many people who are attending Calvary Chapels [and other fellowships], who have been concerned about the influx of Emerging Church influences within the Body of Christ in general, and into some Calvary Chapels circles as well. Perhaps even your own church has been affected.
If you are personally concerned about unbiblical Emerging Church teachings and influences within your church or 'movement', we want to encourage you to speak directly to your pastor and church leaders, and to be well informed on the issues before you do so. If you are not, you may possibly be labeled immediately as divisive. Perhaps the Lord is graciously using you to help your church leaders be more equipped on the issues. Please keep in mind that many pastors are overloaded and simply do not have time to do in-depth research on the many things confronting the church.
Our goal here is not to create unnecessary division within the Body of Christ. Our goal is to be unified in Christ Jesus our Lord, to be continually abiding in sound doctrine, to express Christ's love to one another in deed and in truth, and by all means - for God's glory, for the sanctification of the saints, and for the salvation of the lost, to "contend earnestly for the faith once for all entrusted to the saints (Jude 3).
We welcome comments from any all, and we would love to hear from fellow Calvary Chapel pastors and leaders as well.
Remembering Paul the Apostle's pastoral heart and desire,
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. (Eph 4:14-16)
Chris Lawson, SRN President
- Please also see our May 24, 2010 entry.
June 18, 2010
Dear Pastor Brian Broderson,
Thank you for writing the five part article series exposing the Emerging Church Movement, its problematic teachings, and its deviation from Holy Scripture.
On behalf of the SRN Board of Directors, and I think as well many people who have contacted the Spiritual Research Network ministry with concerns about the Emerging Church issues, we want to say "Thank You!".
Your article is helping Christians see more clearly regarding these problematic issues and it is also helping Calvary Chapel leaders, here and across the globe, understand more clearly where Calvary Chapel stands as a movement.
Sincerely in Christ,
Christopher Lawson
President, SRN
June 15, 2010
The following is a note from Sandy Simpson, DITC e-Newsletter, Volume 28, Issue 7
Emerging or Submerging?
by Brian Brodersen, Calvary Chapel Magazine, Issue 44, Summer 2010
Finally a good response from a Calvary Chapel pastor to the influx of Emergent teachings into Calvary Chapels. The only statement I disagree with in this article is that Brodersen says: "I believe time will tell that this new movement will turn out to be nothing more than a passing fancy of a few disenchanted men." We know from long experience that heresy begets heresy and does not really ever go away till Christ comes back which is why we must reject it. However this article does call EC teachings what they are ... heresy.
Thanks for this article Brian. - Sandy Simpson
Click here to read this article!
May 24, 2010
Dear Reader [from SRN] ,
This letter is not meant to be one of caustic harshness, but rather, one that is rooted in Christ's love, in obedience to Christ's commands, from a pastors heart, and one that seeks to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
Although it pains me to post this information here, I have chosen to do so because many Christians, including many sincere believers that attend Calvary Chapel fellowships, have been confused as to what is going on regarding events [and possible speaking venues] that have included Rick Warren and possibly Leonard Sweet [and others] as guest speakers.
NOTE: PLEASE scroll down this webpage and read Moriel Ministries Update from May 24, 2010. Jacob Prasch clarifies a few things including the fact that Leonard Sweet is no longer scheduled to speak at event.
As an ordained Calvary Chapel pastor and missionary, my heart breaks for many believers in Christ who have experienced confusion and heartache over what they are seeing regarding this issue. I am speaking primarily of pastors [of any movement or denomination] who have shared [or are possibly scheduled to share] speaking platforms/venues with preachers/teachers who have been known to teach and publish aberrant and/or false doctrine. In light of the fact that Calvary Chapel has an international reputation as a solid bible teaching movement, confusion has arisen because of certain affiliations with those in the Emerging Church movement.
To note, we are not speaking on behalf of Calvary Chapel, nor are we trying to create unnecessary confusion or controversy within the Body of Christ. We cannot speak for Calvary Chapel and we are by no means attempting to speak evil of anyone. Scripture clearly warns against speaking evil of people. Scripture is very clear about exposing evil and separating from heresy and those who teach error. To warn Christians about problematic teachings that run contrary to Christ's teachings is not unloving. In fact, it is the duty of every faithful pastor, to feed God's flock and also to warn God's flock. We are grateful that many Calvary Chapel pastors do just this - feed God's flock and warn God's flock.
We are simply concerned that too much freedom has been given to preachers/teachers who ought to be rebuked for their unsound teachings, i.e. Rick Warren and Leonard Sweet. Rick Warren's appearance at Greg Laurie's Harvest Crusade surprised many Calvary Chapel attendees to no end. So too, Leonard Sweet being scheduled to speak at the 2010 National Worship Leaders Conference is doing just the same. This is confusing many Christians even outside of the Calvary movement. Leonard Sweet is no longer speaking at the Southwest Conference which is being held at Calvary of Albuquerque. However, Dr. Leonard Sweet is still scheduled to speak at the NWLC East Regional Conference, October 5-7, 2010, Lancaster, PA. [This Eastern conference IS NOT at all a Calvary Chapel affiliated event.]
Rather than joining with Dr. Leonard Sweet [and Rick Warren] at events for the Body of Christ, these men ought to be formally called to account and disciplined for their false teachings. They ought to remove their false teachings from book stores and churches and issue public apologies for their erroneous doctrines. They should not be put into pulpits and given the opportunity to spread false teachings and further confuse the Church.
Rick Warren and Leonard Sweet have both had ample time over the years to repent from their false teachings - yet neither one of them has! This ought to be extremely alarming to any pastor and church leader and to anyone who desires to remain faithful to Jesus Christ and His Word.
Many people have contacted SRN [and other ministries] directly about this confusion as have a number of fellow Calvary Chapel leaders. It is our prayer and desire that Calvary Chapel leadership as a whole would make a Scriptural, balanced, and solid stand against sharing speaking platforms with anyone who has taught things contrary to sound doctrine. This would help clarify where Calvary Chapel stands as a movement and of course where the individual Calvary Chapel pastor can stand as being a part of the movement.
The article links below have been posted on this SRN website in order to help people, including those attending Calvary Chapel fellowships, filter through the frustration of seeing some of these compromises in the church.
Lastly, we have waited several years in hopes that Calvary Chapel as a movement would make a bolder stand regarding these types of situations. We commend Calvary Chapel for making a firm stand regarding a number of issues in the past, and we support all pastors, including our fellow Calvary Chapel pastors, who will continue to make a stand for God's truth without compromise.
May we as men and as pastors emulate the words of Paul the Apostle as he shared his loving concern for fellow Christians in the early Church,
17Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
18For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
19For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. (Romans 16:17-19)
May God in His abundant grace give wisdom and strength to those who are at the helm of the Calvary movement. May they stand firm on Christ's truth and communicate effectively in order to help others avoid the treachery of seen and unseen false teachers. May all Calvary Chapel leaders do their part in order to help people avoid shipwreck and may they do their best to clean up unnecessary confusion within the Body of Christ.
On behalf of the SRN ministry and its Board of Directors,
Chris Lawson, President
For thorough documentation on Dr. Leonard Sweet's problematic teachings, please see Ray Yungen's insightful book A Time of Departing, Warren Smith's book A “Wonderful” Deception, and Sandy Simpson’s extensive expose' entitled Leonard Sweet Quotes.
Dr. Leonard Sweet quotes:
Mysticism, once cast to the sidelines of the Christian tradition, is now situated in postmodernist culture near the center.… In the words of one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, Jesuit philosopher of religion/dogmatist Karl Rahner, “The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, one who has experienced something, or he will be nothing.” [Mysticism] is metaphysics arrived at through mindbody experiences. Mysticism begins in experience; it ends in theology.
(From p. 160, A Time of Departing, quoting Sweet from Quantum Spirituality, p. 76)
See also: Leonard Sweet Quotes ; New Light Leaders ; Leonard Sweet: Futurist, Author, Emerging Church leader & Saddleback Church speaker
Leonard Sweet: Quantum Spirituality and a Christ Consciousness! ; Small Groups and the Dialectic Process ; Biblical vs. Post-Modern Thinking
May 25, 2010 - Lighthouse Trails Cannot Remove Articles
This past week, Lighthouse Trails was asked if we would remove our articles on Leonard Sweet's speaking engagement at Calvary Chapel Albuquerque for the National Worship Leader Conference now that he has been asked not to speak at the Calvary Chapel church. After thoughtful deliberation, we issue this reply.
To whom it may concern: In this particular request, to remove our report regarding Leonard Sweet and Calvary Chapel, we struggle. Please let us explain why: Those who have studied the teachings of Rick Warren carefully and weighed them against Scripture know that Rick Warren’s spirituality very much resonates with Leonard Sweet’s. This can be shown to be so in a number of areas, including both men’s promotion of what we call contemplative spirituality (basically New Age mysticism). With that said, Skip Heitzig’s new film, Riptide, features Rick Warren as well as contemplative proponent Mark Driscoll. To feature Rick Warren but cancel Leonard Sweet will send out the message that one is ok and one isn’t, when in reality the spirituality of both men is dangerous.
For those who may question as to whether Rick Warren and Leonard Sweet support and embrace each other’s work, please consider the following articles: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=1842http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=976 Rick Warren resonates strongly with Leonard Sweet, and this has been evident for at least 15 years (since their Tides of Change audio series).
A few years ago, Lighthouse Trails documented that Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel, made a public denouncement of the Purpose Driven movement as well as the emerging church and contemplative spirituality. For CC to now embrace Rick Warren but reject Leonard Sweet may actually cause more harm because now the message sent out will be that Leonard Sweet's spirituality is not good, but Rick Warren's is acceptable.
Incidentally, the line up of speakers at the Albuquerque location for Chuck Fromm’s Worship Conference is filled with Purpose Driven, Robert Schuller, and Willow Creek teachers. Thus, the conference should not be taking place at a Calvary Chapel church at all.
With this in mind, we cannot remove the articles we have written about this situation. Please bear in mind that Rick Warren and Willow Creek DO resonate with Leonard Sweet and other emerging/new spirituality leaders thus putting them in the same ”theological” disposition as Sweet – therefore, removing Leonard Sweet has not removed a very serious situation, and we believe readers need to be kept abreast of this ongoing spiritual decline by many of today’s evangelical churches, includingsome of Calvary Chapel’s more prominent churches.
May 24, 2010
Dear Reader [from SRN],
Please consider this recent post below by Jacob Prasch of Moriel Ministries. This is a succinct and kind update on the current situation regarding Leonard Sweet's canceled speaking engagement where he was scheduled as a speaker at the 2010 Worship Leaders Conference being held at Calvary Albuerque.
Leonard Sweet and Calvary Chapel, Albuquerque Cancellation
May 24, 2010
A number of websites reacted unfavorably to an advertised conference scheduled to take place at the Calvary Chapel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA where Skip Heitzig is pastor. Moriel also posted these reports after being contacted by various Calvary Chapel pastors and people, mainly in the USA. Mr. Sweet is by no scriptural standard a Christian, but by every reasonable standard a New Age mystic and a pure Gnostic. It was therefore with some delight we are informed from the USA that the event has been cancelled.
We believe pastor Heitzig made the correct decision. It may be that he and his staff were not fully informed about the nature of Mr. Sweet’s heretical beliefs at the time he agreed to host the conference. We are aware that multiple Calvary Chapel pastors contacted Pastor Heitzig expressing their own concerns, but in this regard we cannot comment further. Plainly however, it was not Skip Heitzig who was the villain. Mr. Sweet on the other hand propounds views nothing short of apostate which many would hold to be of demonic inspiration. Our own fear of course is that such an event featuring Mr. Sweet would have damaged the reputation of Calvary Chapel.
In light of these events we have removed our own report and we urge the various other ministries and websites to remove their own as well. None of us are immune from mistakes and in today’s world they can be very easy to make. We applaud Skip Heitzig’s actions and salute the godly integrity of his decision to cancel the event. We trust other websites and electronic newsletters will drop the matter quickly and consider it a closed affair.
Jacob Prasch
Moriel Ministries
May 18, 2010
From Lighthouse Trails Research Project Online Newsletter
On March 26, 2010, Lighthouse Trails posted the article, "New Age Sympathizer Leonard Sweet To Speak at Pastor Skip Heitzig’s Calvary Chapel Church" on our website. As of May 13th, Leonard Sweet’s name has been removed from the speaker list on Calvary Chapel Albuquerque's website as well as the National Worship Leader Conference's website speaker list for the Albuquerque conference.
[Emphasis ours - SRN's]
May 11, 2010
Calvary Chapel Albuquerque States: Leonard Sweet Will Not Be Speaking at Conference – Lighthouse Trails Calls For Answers
May 1, 2010
Questions Arise: Is New Age Sympathizer Leonard Sweet Speaking at Calvary Chapel Albuquerque or Not?
April 26, 2010
Moriel and Way of Life Ministries Report on Concerns Over Calvary Chapel Embracing of New Age Sympathizer Leonard Sweet
April 25, 2010
A Leading New Age and Emergent Church Leader is to be Featured at a Calvary Chapel, Albuquerque Event
Moriel has received a number of inquiries and comments regarding the invitation by Skip Heitzig extended to Leonard Sweet, the New Age Christian mystic usually identified with the “Emergent Church”, a movement against which senior Calvary pastor and founder Pastor Chuck Smith publicly opposed.
The event is to be held at Calvary Chapel, Albuquerque along with the so-called music ministry of a Roman Catholic worship leader in what has been described as the first official New Age/Ecumenical event to take place at a Calvary Chapel. This despite the majority of Calvary Chapel pastors not subscribing to the event’s Ecumenical agenda who support the expressed position of Pastor Chuck Smith opposing tenets and practices of the Post-Modern mysticism defining the Emergent Church, seeking to prevent it from entering into Calvary Chapels. The announcement follows a public financial scandal reaching the secular press at the same church in 2008.
Moriel cannot speak for Skip Heitzig and we urge those contacting us to rather direct their comments and questions to him. Moriel and Jacob Prasch do dismiss Leonard Sweet as a dangerous deceiver, and although not opposed to Catholic people we reject Ecumenical union of any kind with Roman Catholicism. We also firmly endorse the position expressed by Pastor Chuck Smith in opposition to this “emergence” which was undertaken by him in a personally painful yet noble and necessary reaction to its attempted influx into a Calvary Chapel in California. Moriel and Jacob Prasch also sanction the caveats issued to Calvary Chapel pastors by former New Ager Warren Smith who was invited by Chuck Smith to address a major Calvary Chapel pastors conference regarding these faulty trends.
Moriel additionally views this episode as but another symptom of a much larger still brewing problem plaguing many mega-churches and threatening scriptural orthodoxy in the Body of Christ at large and its future. These concerns are addressed in our much more detailed article “Who Wants To Be Next?”
Below is one of the articles we have been forwarded concerning scheduled events in Albuquerque.
Jacob Prasch
Moriel Ministries
http://moriel.org/MorielArchive/index.php/news/usa/calvary-chapel-alert
May 25, 2009
“Death by Church” – Emergent New Paradigm Pastor to Speak at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa
April 4, 2010
Rick Warren Apologist: “Leonard Sweet is about as Christian as anyone can get.”
April 4, 2010
John Piper Invites Leonard Sweet Co-Worker Rick Warren to Speak at Desiring God Conference
April 2, 2010
NATIONAL WORSHIP LEADER CONFERENCE AND CALVARY CHAPEL HOST NEW AGE-EMERGENT MYSTIC
(Friday Church News Notes, April 2, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -
The upcoming National Worship Leader Conference at Calvary Chapel in Albuquerque will feature “New Age sympathizer and emerging church leader” Leonard Sweet (Lighthouse Trails, March 26, 2010). The conference is sponsored by Worship Leader magazine, the chief editor for which is Chuck Fromm, Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith, Sr.’s nephew. Leonard Sweet is a United Methodist clergyman, E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew University, and founder and president of SpiritVenture Ministries. He promotes a New Age universalist spirituality that he calls New Light and “the Christ consciousness.” He describes it in terms of “the union of the human with the divine” which is the “center feature of all the world’s religions” (Quantum Spirituality, p. 235). He says it was experienced by Mohammed, Moses, and Krishna. Some of the “New Light leaders” that have led him into this new thinking are Matthew Fox, M. Scott Peck, Willis Harman, and Ken Wilber, all of whom believe in the divinity of man, plus the Catholic-Buddhist monk Thomas Merton. Sweet says humanity needs to learn the truth of Merton’s words, “We are already one” (Quantum Spirituality, p. 13). Sweet defines the New Light as “a structure of human becoming, a channeling of Christ energies through mindbody experience” (p. 70). Contemplative mysticism has been permeating evangelicalism for decades and it is one of the foundational elements of the emerging church (See the titles “The Emerging Church” and “Contemplative Mysticism,” which are available from Way of Life Literature in print and e-book editions.) Contemporary Worship Music (CWM) is mystical in itself. It focuses on an emotional experience, which is why rock & roll is the preferred form of music. CWM’s leaders and participants are “hooked on a feeling.” They are intoxicated with pop music and are led more by their emotions than by God’s holy Word. (Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren has also promoted Leonard Sweet.)
http://www.wayoflife.org/fridaynewsnotes/index_files/archive-apr-2010.html
March 26, 2010
New Age Sympathizer Leonard Sweet To Speak at Pastor Skip Heitzig’s Calvary Chapel Church
August 9, 2009
2009 National Worship Conference Brings Contemplatives, Laurie, and Sweet Together
June 1, 2009
A Letter from Ray Yungen: Is Lighthouse Trails “Haters?” by Ray Yungen [Lighthouse Trails author]
October 5, 2006
Rick Warren and Leonard Sweet Riding the “Tides of Change” on the Heels of Mysticism
