Rick Warren's Pastors.com Promotes Centering Prayer

It's now time for your New Age Meditation update. Complete with Christian language, designed to make it look like it's biblical when it's not. Of course, this is a ministry of Saddleback Church. Ahem.

This music is making me sleepy. Don't go into the light! Ah, wait, wait. Kill the music. By the way, just so y 'all... If you just want to know, that was the New Age Merlins, the magic chakra meditation music, Heart of Riki.

Riki is right, Riki of New Agey. Anyway, the headline here from pastors .com. This would be the pastoral resource website put together by Saddleback Church and Rick Warren. The name of the headline reads, Centering Prayer Trusts Jesus Brings Transformation.

Centering Prayer Trusts that Jesus Brings Transformation. Now, this doesn't sound like anything to do with Christian prayer at all. It doesn't sound like anything to do with the way Jesus taught us to pray.

For instance, the disciples, when they came to Jesus and they said, Lord, teach us to pray. Notice that Jesus didn't say, all right, now what I want you to do is to get yourself into the lotus position.

Clear your mind, repeat these words or anything like that. He said, no, no, no. When you pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Notice that your mind and your heart are both engaged, right?

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And you're asking God for specific things. Your brain is engaged. Well, listen to this. Okay, so this is a resource made available by Rick Warren. So, Centering Prayer Trusts Jesus Brings Transformation.

The Article’s Wellness Language and Community Emphasis

A healthy spiritual life is an important part of overall wellness. Wellness? Wellness. Hmm, sounds like one of those new age things. Anyway, an active and healthy faith life means that we are concerned with something larger than ourselves.

Okay. It also means most often that we are part of a community of people with similar beliefs and priority to ours. That's weird. You know, all the work I've been doing on fascism. It's just weird here because, you know, the fascists are obsessed with community.

And by the way, you know, Peter Drucker, he didn't believe that individuals existed in at least time and space here. Only the community existed. Isn't that weird? Anyway, so here we got the Centering Prayer thing begins with kind of something that has to do with irrational philosophy.

Has something to do with the individual not mattering, but the community mattering. Weird, isn't that? And so, I mean, let's see if this thing really is biblical here. But anyway, all right. So it also means most often that we are part of a community of people with similar beliefs and priorities to ours.

But we sometimes become bored with our normal spiritual routine. One way to add something different to our faith life is to try a practice called Centering Prayer. Centering Prayer is an ancient form of prayer that is a combination of prayer and meditation.

The practice was revived in the 1960s and 70s by three Cistercian monks. By the way, I'm reading from pastors .com. This is a resource made available by Rick Warren. Did I mention that this was a resource made available by Rick Warren?

So they're basically, I'm reading from the page here on their website. Centering Prayer is an ancient form of prayer that is a combination of prayer and meditation. The practice was revived in the 1960s and 70s by three Cistercian monks.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, but wouldn't a Cistercian monk be part of one of the orders of Roman Catholicism? Why is a Protestant evangelical flagship church like, well, Rick Warren's church and his resources that he makes available to pastors, why are they recommending an ancient Roman Catholic form of prayer developed by Roman Catholic Cistercian monks?

Hmm? Anyway, we continue. So the practice of Centering Prayer allows for the recognition of thoughts and gently releases them into the hands of God. Okay, so apparently you can gently release thoughts.

Here God, I'm going to gently release this thought to you. Here we go. There, see, I just released it gently to you, Lord. Anyway, this form of prayer relies on the awareness that the Holy Spirit resides in the one who prays, connecting them heart to heart with God.

You got any Bible passages that say this? Anyway, so how do you begin the practice of Centering Prayer? Again, I'm still reading from pastors .com. First, set aside a minimum of 15 minutes. Increase the time as you can.

Set a timer, if that helps, to be less concerned about when to stop. Settle into a comfortable position. Maybe the lotus position, you know? Anyway, intentionally, now this is the fun part, intentionally place yourself in the presence of God in the center of His love.

What does that sentence mean? Place yourself in the presence of God in the center of His love. Well, where is the center of His love? How do I place myself into that? Do I just imagine it inside of my head?

Go, okay, I'm going to imagine myself in the magical land of Centering Prayer. And in the magical land of Centering Prayer, there's ponies and unicorns and rainbows. And somewhere off in the distance, I see a lake, and it's very calm.

And look, right next to the lake, there's a big bullseye with a heart in the middle of it. And so I'm going to gently float myself over there. And I'm going to place myself in the center of the heart target.

And voila, now I know I'm in the center of God's love. What is this? I mean, seriously. Intentionally, this is what it says. Intentionally place yourself in the presence of God in the center of His love.

You know what? Hang on a second here. You know, I realize I'm doing this wrong. I apologize here, folks. If we're going to be doing Centering Prayer, we might need to add the New Age Merlin's Magic Chakra Meditation Music Heart of Reiki.

Here. Oh yeah, this is much better. How do you begin this practice of Centering Prayer? Again, I'm reading from the pastors .com website. Set aside a minimum of 15 minutes. Increase the time as you can.

Set a timer if that helps you to be less concerned about when to stop. Settle into a comfortable position. Then, intentionally place yourself in the presence of God in the center of His love. Choose a simple word or a phrase or a verse from Scripture that expresses your desire for God.

For example, you can use the words, Love. Grace. Jesus. Great Shepherd. Let this word guard your attention. Now, take time to be quiet. It's not unusual for the first minutes to be filled with many noisy thoughts.

Don't worry about them. Don't pay attention to them. Let them go. Gently return your attention to the center of God's presence and love by repeating the Scripture that you selected. Let the verse draw your attention back to Jesus.

Be with Jesus. Listen. Yeah, I think the music kind of makes the point. Where is any of this taught in Scripture? It isn't. This is literally Eastern meditation stripped of its Eastern words with Christian words thrown into it, but it's the same principle.

Clearing your mind, meditating, repeating the word over and over and over. That's mantra meditation. This has absolutely nothing to do with the type of prayer and meditation on Scripture that the Bible teaches.

Like, nothing to do at all. In fact, this is hostile to biblical Christianity and to true Christian prayer. Let me continue reading here. We're past the actual part where you practice the centering prayer.

So, the person then here goes on to explain more about this. Because centering prayer is a way of being with Jesus that doesn't cover prayer concerns, really, where in the Bible does it say you can do this and just be with Jesus?

When I'm with Jesus, I don't like to do it the New Age way. If I'm going to be with Jesus, we kick it on the couch while playing Xbox. I don't play Xbox, but I said that just to kind of point out the fact that this whole thing is ridiculous.

This is absolutely crazy. Because centering prayer is a way of being with Jesus that doesn't cover prayer concerns, some people wonder if it counts as real prayer. Furthermore, if it doesn't make you feel or experience something particular, what does it do?

It makes me feel something particular. It makes me feel angry that people are being fed this Eastern meditation as if it's Christianity when it's not. Sorry, that's what it makes me feel. It's never possible to judge the value of any prayer based on feeling or experience alone.

Experiences are not the point. In centering prayer, the goal is to so dwell in Christ that the fruit of this dwelling begins to show up in your life. Centering prayer may do nothing at the moment. You sense no rapture, no mystical bliss.

But later, as you move out into the business of life, you begin to notice that something has shifted. Your quiet center in Christ holds. Centering prayer trusts that being with Jesus brings transformation.

Centering prayer trusts that being with Jesus brings transformation. You got any passages in the Bible that say anything of the sort? In fact, you can't find a single passage that teaches anything like this.

This sounds like the same kind of stuff that the Buddhist monks do. And what's really funny, I was reading the sermons, the homilies of John Christostom. Oh man. Talk about sublime and brilliant. Absolutely.

I've been reading through his homilies on the Gospel of John. They are fantastic. If you have the means of getting a hold of the copy of the ancient church fathers and the sermons, the homilies of John Christostom, you've got to get them.

But I think it's in his sermon where he goes into John chapter 1. He takes a shot at the people who meditate like this, and he calls them dumb rocks. That's what he calls them. Dumb rocks. And seriously, this isn't prayer.

This turns you into just a dumb rock, sitting there in your comfortable position, imagining yourself in the land of fairies and ponies and unicorns. And somehow the care bearers come along and place you in the center of God's love.

And you just dwell there and be there and all this kind of stuff. And so it says, centering prayer, trust that being with Jesus actually brings transformation. Yeah, well, you can trust that all you want.

In fact, you can trust that the moon is made out of green cheese or blue cheese and would taste good on a salad. That doesn't mean that it would actually be the case. This is trust that is misplaced because God never, ever in His Word says that you can do anything like this.

This is strange fire. This is Eastern Buddhist meditation stripped of its Eastern Buddhistness and basically with Christian words and stuff thrown on top of it. This is not Christianity. This is not how the Bible teaches us to pray.

This is nowhere taught in scriptures. This is absolutely deadly. You're going to pray, do what Jesus said. Say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.

Amen. That's real Christian prayer. If you want to pray more, if you want to really learn how to pray, open up the Psalms and start praying the Psalms. They read like prayers, and they are prayers, and they teach you how to pray.

But not one Psalm will ever tell you to close your eyes, get comfortable, and put yourself in the land of carebears and ponies and unicorns, and put yourself in the presence of God. Nowhere does the Bible teach this.

This isn't Christianity that rickwarrenandpastors .com is promoting. We're up on our first break. If you'd like to email me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions of Fighting for the Faith, you can do so at my email address, talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com, or you can ask to be my friend on Facebook.

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