Response to George Wood

Dear Brother Wood,

Thank you for your forthright and prompt reply.  These questions were compiled by listening to or reading the concerns of many individuals regarding Ruth Haley Barton.  Although you are confident in the individuals that chose her as a speaker, there is clear evidence of her association with the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, DC. In fact, she sought out a “spiritual director” to teach her about Contemplative Prayer.  A “spiritual director” is as an eastern guru that manages the spirituality of individuals.  The truth is that Barton did not receive her “ministry” from the Holy Spirit, but from people akin to shamans and gurus.  The Shalem Institute has a much different perspective of Contemplative Prayer than the one you shared with me.  Further, Spiritual Formation is an unscriptural movement that is providing a source and means by which contemplative prayer is invading Christianity.  If we are going to borrow all these terms and practices from the diabolical realm, and attempt to use them as Christian replicas, then what happens to distinctly Christian terms and practices that are far better, left alone?

You wrote that “Contemplative prayer is the current term for what is a very Biblical practice—getting along with God.”  Certainly, all of us that pray will wait, and even meditate on the Lord.  We may also be quiet before Him.  However, this has never been called Contemplative Prayer in the decades that I have been a Christian.  Actually, it is an old term that originated in eastern religions.  It is associated with paganism, false religions, and Roman Catholic mystics.  The practice is presently an essential part of the Emergent Church and New Age Movements.  In fact, it has been said by leaders of those movements that Contemplative Prayer will be the means by which all religions will be united.  However, why use a cult term to describe the act of prayer or spending time alone with God?  It would be just as improper to use the term “séance” to describe a group of Christians holding hands and calling on the Lord.  However, this is not a case of Satan stealing a Christian practice, but quite the opposite.  The overwhelming evidence points to Ruth Haley Barton borrowing a practice from the diabolical realm and is presenting it as a Christian practice. 

Therefore, when someone who has trained at the Shalem Institute, who was the associate director of spiritual formation at the notorious Willow Creek Community Church, decides to use the term Contemplative Prayer for her topic at the General Council, it raise serious concerns.  For one thing, the method of Contemplative Prayer that Ruth Barton uses is exactly as the method used by Roman Catholic mystics, pagans, and New Age adherents.  She takes on the role of a “spiritual director” when she teaches, “Ask for a simple prayer to express your willingness to meet God in the silence — a simple statement — such as “Here I am.” — Help yourself return to your original intent by repeating the prayer that you have chosen.”  On her web site she states that her goal is to help pastors, “to experience rhythms of solitude, prayer and community, and to deepen your understanding of leadership that flows from your transforming self.”  This is incredibly similar to New Age rhetoric.  Thus, her practices appear to be an attempt to “Christianize” the diabolical. 

My wife and I spend a great deal of time in prayer (In fact, I wrote your name in my prayer journal some time ago and pray for you daily).  We have never been prompted by the Holy Spirit to employ such methods.  I’ve never asked God for a simple prayer.  That would be like me asking my wife to give me a love note that I could chant to her as if it were from my heart.  After over 35 years of praying, I would have to go backward a very long distance, into the transcendental meditative, mystical realm of evil that God delivered me from, to accept Barton’s methods.  Barton wrote, “A few years ago, I began to recognize an inner chaos in my soul . . . No matter how much I prayed, read the Bible, and listened to good teaching, I could not calm the internal roar created by questions with no answers.”   My experience with prayer, reading the Bible, listening to good teaching, was quite the opposite.  I was filled with joy and peace, questions were answered, and faith was increased.  Barton’s sought out a diabolical individual and drank from the polluted fountain of the Shalem Institute.  Now she endeavors to indoctrinate seasoned ministers of the AoG.

With all due respect, you are either incredibly naive or one of those beautiful people that finds it impossible to see the bad in anyone.  In any case, and in my opinion, leadership in this great and final apostasy demands a “Paul” rather than a “Barnabas”.  However, I accept your challenge to read Ruth Haley Barton’s book (of which I have only read excerpts) if you will promise to read Roger Oakland’s book, “Faith Undone” or Ray Yungen’s book, “A Time of Departing”. 

Finally, comparing Rick Warren to Billy Graham is to me a bizarre comparison given what I know about the two.  However, out of respect for a family in mourning, I will not make further comments.  Thank you again for your time and willingness to be accessible in this matter.

In Christ,

C. H. Fisher