Apprising Ministries has told you that Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren featured contemplative guru Peter Scazzero at Radicalis this past February at Saddleback Church. You might remember that in an email promoting that conference, Chat Live with Radicalis Speaker, Pete Scazzero, Wednesday, December 9 at 11 am pst, Warren told us:

Pete, along with his wife, Geri, are co-founders of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, a groundbreaking ministry that integrates emotional health and contemplative spirituality to pastors, leaders and local churches. (On file at AM, emphasis mine)

Here I’ll give you some more information concerning Scazzero’s pushing corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) ala Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster—and his spiritual twin Dallas Willard—within the mainstream of evangelicalism. I’ve said before that this spurious CSM under the quise of Spiritual Formation, with it’s main vehicle of Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP)—meditation in an altered state of consciousness—was a core doctrine of the sinfully ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church, which is a neo-liberal cult now pushing its new form of postmodern Progressive Christianity as Emergence Christianity.

Scazzero heads up a group called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (EHS), who tell us:

We are excited to announce our partnership with the Willow Creek Association! Starting Sept. 15, WCA will begin to distribute the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Church-wide study, which includes the kit, the EHS book, the EHS Group workbook, the teaching DVD, and The Daily Office. (Online source)

The above alone puts EHS, along with its teaching “The Daily Office” of Ignatius of Loyola, a champion of apostate Roman Catholicism and the founder of the militantly pro-Roman Catholic Church spiritual Gestapo Unit known as the Jesuits, squarely in the mainstream of the visible professing Protestant community. Then in the About section EHS shares its “Mission”; and among their objectives is indeed, the advance of this unbiblical CSM:

Our mission is to apply emotional health to biblical spirituality in order to transform leaders, relationships, churches and organizations.

Our objectives are to:

Pioneer and research the integration of emotional health and contemplative spirituality to discipleship and spiritual formation… (Online source, emphasis mine)

Pete Scazzero is “the founder and senior pastor of New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, New York City” and the Bio page at EHS also informs us that Scazzero:

is author of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (Nelson, 2006), a groundbreaking work on the integration of emotional health and contemplative spirituality. He has also authored The Emotionally Healthy Church (Zondervan, 2003), winner of the Gold Medallion Award for 2003, Begin the Journey with the Daily Office (2008) (Online source)

He also has the emotionallyhealthyblog: a conversation with pastor pete where Scazzero did a series not long ago called Four Days with the Trappists lavishing praise upon this order of monks in the apostate Roman Catholic Church:

Last Monday I arrived at the St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer Massachusetts for my annual weekly retreat with the 70+ monks living there… The Prior, Father Dominic, suggested that I look at Antony’s rhythm’s of moving deeper into the desert during his life to be in solitude with God as His public ministry expanded. He suggested I might find in this a model or some insights around God direction for me… (Online source)

Perhaps someone should refresh pastor Pete’s memory about a little thing called the Reformation. And if you didn’t know, the Trappists produced Thomas Merton—a veritable Golden Buddha in the whacked world of CSM—but as you can see in Thomas Merton And The Buddhas, the truth is that his devotion to the practice of CSM made Merton more like the Buddha than the Christ. In closing this for now, and after prayerful meditation upon the rhythm of Jesus and upon God’s Word, I now tell you in the Lord that Scazzero’s spiritual skubalon does not belong anywhere in Christ’s church. In fact, he even appears to be heading out of the church himself now anyway with his latest tweet:

(Online source)

The link takes us to:

(Online source)

Uh-huh, “Protestant” pastor Pete has just sent his flock over to “The Online Resource For John Paul II’s ‘Theology Of The Body.'” This is more result of the mush-headedness of mysticism; did you catch the bottom of the above:

“Brace yourself! If we take in what the Holy Father is saying in his Theology of the Body, we will never view ourselves, view others, view the Church, the Sacraments, grace, God, heaven, marriage, the celibate vocation…we will never view the world the same way again.” – Christopher West (Online source)

Wha? Scazzero had a “wonderful day” as he was “praying through” the toxic theology of a late apostate who dared to blaspheme by allowing himself to be referred to as Holy Father, and usurped the place of God the Holy Spirit claiming to the Vicar of Christ. But such is the sorry state of the visible church.

See also:

RICK WARREN AND PETER SCAZZERO WITH MESSED-UP MONK-EE BIZNESS

STAFF OF SADDLEBACK CHURCH RECOMMEND MYSTIC HENRI NOUWEN

TIM KELLER ALSO PROMOTING MYSTIC GURU PETER SCAZZERO?

TIM KELLER AND CONTEMPLATIVE PASTRIX ADELE CALHOUN

NEW CALVINISM’S MARK DRISCOLL ENCOURAGES CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES?

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

DONALD WHITNEY AND EVANGELICAL CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM