Following a tip from an Apprising Ministries reader we bring attention to Carmel Baptist Church (CBC) of Matthews, NC; an SBC church where Dr. Wayne Poplin is pastor, and which is affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina whom AM has discussed e.g. in Richard Foster Forming Protestant Southern Baptist Convention Spirituality.

We initially find cause for concern at CBC under the Young Adult ministry, which is where a lot of practices associated with Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) are so often tried out. Sure enough we find something called CharlotteOne Summer Season:

Carmel’s is proud to be a part of CharlotteONE, a unified movement of local churches that offers a mid-week worship and teaching for young adults and singles in Charlotte. On three Tuesday nights over the summer, hundreds will gather together as ONE to experience the life changing presence of God at First United Methodist Church Uptown. (Online source)

AM would certainly not recommend assocciating with churches in the UMC, which is growing more liberal and is already rife with centered on the self CSM. It turns out that CharlotteONE (CO) is listed as a company of a David Hickman at his My Space page, who is also its “Executive Director.” Hickman informs us that he has:

the privledge of overseeing a city-wide worship gathering for young adults and singles in Charlotte, NC called, CharlotteONE. It’s a unified effort of close to 30 local churches (and growing) that is quickly changing the spiritual landscape of our city. (Online source)

At CO’s Twitter account we’re told author/speaker Donald Miller, who’s a star in the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church—morphing into Emergence Christianity (EC)—is:

Coming to @CharlotteONE this fall: Donald Miller, David Crowder, Daraja Children’s Choir, Todd Phillips and SURPRISE Passion artist… (Online source)

This is not something an SBC pastor should be encouraging his young and largely unsuspecting sheep to be participating in, let alone announcing CBC is “proud” to be so. But returning our attention now to CBC itself, under ministries to Women we find a recent teaching program—which began Monday, May 4th and will supposedly end when they “finish Romans”:

Sitting at the Feet of the Master: Romans
The goal is to learn to hear the Master’s voice through His Word. You’ll learn several methods of self-studying the Bible (inductive, lectio divina, 5 W’s, etc.) as well as Contemplative/Centering Prayer…  The Holy Spirit will guide your learning! (Online source)

As we discussed in Disciplines To Deception In Southern Baptist Convention above we see the spurious spiritual practice of Lectio Divina (LD) that originated with the Benedictine monastic order of apostate Roman Catholicism. As if that dubious “discipline” isn’t bad enough, above we also find overt encouragement for Southern Baptists to engage in the practice of Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP).

Those of us familiar with LD know that CCP aka “Christian” meditation is the final phase in an LD session. So the question that ought to be on the minds of actual Bible-believing Christians within the Slowly Becoming Catholic is this: Why are practices repudiating Sola Scriptura now openly being taught within the largest Protestant denomination in the US?

You may recall that Pope Benedict Arnold XVI once hissed concerning LD:

“If this practice is promoted with efficacy, I am convinced that it will produce a new spiritual springtime in the church.” (Online source)

No; what it will do is to bring about the same spiritual bondage into which it once led people when LD initially held court in the visible church. It’s already begun around EC circles with LD practitioners like Eugene Peterson, author of that pillage of God’s Word called The Message; which you’ll see for yourself in Contemplative Eugene Peterson Discourages Reading The Bible.

See also:

BAPTIST STATE CONVENTION OF NORTH CAROLINA (SBC) POINTS US TO RENOVARE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

SOUTHERN BAPTIST PASTOR RICK WARREN AND SADDLEBACK CHURCH OPENLY RECOMMEND CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY

EVANGELICAL RIP VAN WINKLES EMPLOY QUAKER MYSTIC RICHARD FOSTER FOR BEDTIME FABLES 

MOVE OVER PASTORS FOR SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS/GURUS

BOB DEWAAY ON DONALD WHITNEY AND SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES AMIDST SPIRITUAL DECEPTION

THE NEW CHRISTIANS WITH CHRISTIANITY WORTH BELIEVING—NO SOLA SCRIPTURA: YES, WOMEN PASTORS AND QUEER CHRISTIANS