Within a source paper called Spiritual Disciplines: Pathway to Christian Maturity (SDPCM), from the Georgia Baptist Convention (SBC), we learn what is now considered consistent with a proper Protestant approach to spirituality for Christians in the Southern Baptist Convention. Continuing along the lines of Richard Foster Forming Protestant Southern Baptist Convention Spirituality here Apprising Ministries begins with the following from Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster in SDPCM. 

You can find SDPCM e.g. under Discipleship Resources of the State Board of Missions of the Alabama Baptist Convention (SBC) right here and it opens with a quote from Foster’s magnum opus of spurious spirituality, which Dr. Gary Gilley correctly called a virtual encyclopedia of theological error:

Thirty years ago, Richard Foster, in the beginning of his book, Celebration of Discipline wrote these words: “Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people. The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths.” (Online source)

Next in SDPCM we, in the Slowly Becoming Catholic, are then informed:

To become the spiritually mature people God intends us to be will require a disciplined life that will result in a lifestyle that will recognize and consistently respond favorably to God’s presence in our lives. Brother Lawrence in his insightful little book, The Practice of the Presence of God wrote of being so in tune to God’s presence in his life that whatever he did at anytime of the day, he would be keenly aware of God and do those things that pleased and honored him. (Online source)

SDPCM also tells members of the SBC:

Spiritual disciplines are not ends in themselves even though they are wonderful habits or practices for the Christian. Their purpose is to provide a means by which believers can grow into mature disciples of the Lord Jesus. Scripture does not contain a list of such activities as such, but various writers have classified such practices in a number of ways. Dallas Willard categorized them into Disciplines of Abstinence and Disciplines of Engagement. Richard Foster has labeled these habits as Inward Disciplines, Outward Disciplines, and Corporate Disciplines. (Online source)

And finally in SDPCM we in the SBC are introduced to the practice of Lectio Divina by, of all people, the heretical “gay affirming” Tony Jones. If you don’t know Jones is “theologian in residence” at the church of his equally heretical quasi-universalist pastor Doug Pagitt, and both are leading voices in the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church, which is a cult of postliberalism—now morphing into Emergence Christianity (EC).

Yet in SDPCM, produced by Georgia Baptist Convention—a state convention within the largest so-called Protestant denomination in the United States—we’re told:

There is a dimension of sacred reading from Scripture known as lectio divina that is reading, not for assignment, but for life. Tony Jones in his insightful book, The Sacred Way, describes the Bible reading experience of a friend:

He came to the Bible naked, so to speak, and let himself be clothed by God’s Word. He came neither as a Bible scholar nor a teacher getting ready for a lesson; he didn’t have to stop every two verses and answer questions in a study guide. No, he read the Bible as a sacred object, as a living, dynamic revelation of God to him.

This is lectio divina. It is reading from Scripture for the purpose of growing in intimacy with God, of discovering how the written Word can become the living Word in our lives. Such reading does not focus on the historical aspect of Scripture, but on the devotional component. From what is being read, how can one more fully practice God’s presence?

The practice of lectio divina can be traced back to St. Benedict around 500 years after the birth of Christ and has been a part of monastery life ever since. However, it must
be noted that this practice is not peculiar to the Catholic Church. (Online source)

The author is correct, it isn’t; sadly you’ll also find it—along with its counterpart Contemplative/Centering Prayer—in the mainline denominations who gave in to the Cult of Liberal Theology, embraced ecumenicism, and with it the Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism described above in SDPCM. These denominations are now in their death throws (at best) after their own rejection of Sola Scriptura.

And you’d best come to realize that their battles right now over the issue of homosexuality will also soon be happening within mainstream evangelicalism as well, because with the open embrace of this spurious spirituality rooted in the Counter Reformation, it has now placed itself upon the same dead end track courtesy of this de-formation coming to be known as Emerging/ent/ence Christianity.

See also:

DONALD WHITNEY AND EVANGELICAL CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM

THE TERMINOLOGY TRAP OF “SPIRITUAL FORMATION”

“INWARD JOURNEY” ESPOUSED BY RICHARD FOSTER IS A FORM OF DIVINATION

CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY OF RICHARD FOSTER ROOTED IN THE EASTERN DESERT AND THOMAS MERTON

CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY GROWING WITHIN MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM

CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM (CSM) OF SPIRITUAL FORMATION IS RECKLESS FAITH

MOVE OVER PASTORS FOR SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS/GURUS