Roll Over Menno

If you were looking through the Mennonite Church Canada resource pages to find a book about spiritual practices for youth, you might come accross this one:

Prayer and Meditation for Middle School Kids
Over 100 Practical and Exciting Prayer Exercises
Paulist Press
by John B. Hesch
-http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/resourcecentre/ResourceView/2/3357

Perhaps you wouldn’t even notice it, but let’s take a quick look. According to the National Study of Youth and Religion, John B. Hesch (a Roman Catholic priest) was part of a program in the 80’s that taught contemplative prayer to teens:

Hesch, John Beaman. 1984. “A Program for Teaching Prayer to Junior High Students.” Thesis, Catholic University Of America.
Abstract: Helping students learn more about praying and to practice a variety of forms of prayer was the goal of this project. A theoretical basis derived from Erickson’s theory of ego development and the spiritual theologies of Nouwen and Macquarrie were used to critique and design a program for junior high students. Breakaway, a program of prayer and meditation (by Mark Link) was adapted and implemented with a group of sixty-one junior highs over a period of twenty-eight weeks. -http://www.youthandreligion.org/resources/ref_socialization.html(¾ of the way down)

The book written by Hesch in 1985 for middle school kids may be a small obscure item in a mountain of new resources to be found on the Mennonite Church Canada spirituality section. But the question must be asked…why is it there?

Another similar book offered right under this one (see here) is a newer book called Soul Shaper - Exploring Spirituality and Contemplative Practices in Youth Ministry by Tony Jones, but this book is not about anything new. As you can see from the description here, this book is about exploring ancient spirituality and contemplative practices or disciplines such as: Sacred Reading (Lectio Divina), The Jesus Prayer, Stations of the Cross, The Labyrinth, Fasting and many more.

It looks like what Hesch began 20 years ago, teaching teenagers the spiritual theories of Nouwen and Macquarrie, has blossomed into a soul shaping industry.

If you continue down the same Mennonite Church Canada resource page and click on the various books you will notice many more that teach Catholic practices and “Holy habits”, or “guided meditations” with relaxation exercises. It is really quite shocking to examine these and see how much Catholic contemplative spirituality is being promoted and taught to the Mennonite youth.

Are these resources that are recommended by the Mennonite Church Canada evidence that Catholicism is changing the evangelical church? Read what Tony Jones shares regarding Catholics joining the emerging church here:
Emerging Catholicism
http://watcherslamp.blogspot.com/2007/09/emerging-catholicism.html

Meanwhile, as the fog of mysticism rolls in, Roll Over Menno has some very different recommended reading suggestions for today’s Mennonites. For example:

New Spiritual Disciplines From Ancient Roman Catholic Sources
By Roger Oakland
http://www.understandthetimes.org/commentary/c59.shtml

Or read how contemplative prayer is the heart of mysticism in Mysticism - Part 3
http://www.svchapel.org/Resources/Articles/read_articles.asp?ID=108

ROM Index: HIGH

On this fall’s Shelf Life, a recommended reading list of the Mennonite Brethren Seminary is a book called The Godbearing Life. While this book makes some very good points regarding today’s issues in youth ministry, it cannot be denied that its solution includes opening the door to the ancient practices of contemplative spiritual disciplines.

The Godbearing Life is written by Kenda Creasy Dean of Princeton Theological Seminary, which has a very contemplative youth ministry that is linked with the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project, another contemplative organization. Creasy was even a speaker at the 2006 National Youth Worker’s Convention, a Youth Specialties event.

The Godbearing Life is an Upper Room book (another organization devoted to contemplative spiritual formation).

This book has been promoted and recommended by the following Mennonite organizations:

Direction Journal (here), Kindred Productions of the Mennonite Brethren Churches in North America (here), the MB Conference (here and here), and by Mennonite Church Canada (here), where resources on contemplative spiritual disciplines are already heavily promoted (here).

The same book was also on the reading list of the Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, and has been used in numerous youth spiritual formation courses at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary. It was even suggested by MB Conference staff as an aid to learn the ancient art of Lectio Divina here (bottom of page).

Even so, that is not even as concerning as the next suggestion for leaders. Also recommended on the MB Seminary’s Shelf Life list is another book on leadership called Summoned to Lead, by Leonard Sweet. This could be enough to make Menno roll over in his grave, as Sweet has been known to say that he is grateful to ‘Luciferian’ David Spangler for his help in formulating his “new cell” understanding of New Light leadership,” and that, along with Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslims, ‘we all are believers in the same thing’.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Mennonites are still sweet on Leonard Sweet.

An informative article on Leonard Sweet can be read here:

Ding Dong Wake Up Leonard Sweet (from Deception in the Church).

Note: Apparently, both these books mentioned above (The God Bearing Life and Summoned to Lead) were also recommended on page 5 of the In Touch insert in this month’s well known Mennonite magazine called the MB Herald (the same issue that has Tony Campolo in it again, on page 18).

After a brief lull, the ROM Index has begun to rise again.

This blog has just come accross a bit of a commenting problem. Akismet has decided that the comments of the administrator of this blog are spam, and until it has decided to change it’s mind, replying to your comments appears to be a problem. It seems Akismet has an issue with putting more than one link in a comment. This will not affect anyone elses comments, however, you may not get a response.

Update: The problem has been temporarily fixed in a roundabout way. If anyone else on wordpress has had this issue, it would be nice to hear from you. For now, this blog adminsitrator can only comment under an alias name and e-mail, as Akismet still incorrectly believes I am spam. It’s rather insulting, but I’ll get over it.

Roll Over Menno has found an Emerging Mennonite Church that meets at Eastern Mennonite University:

It’s called The Table (http://www.thetablefellowship.net/).

And here is an emerging Mennonite question of the month that is being asked over at a Mennonite forum:

Is it OK for Christians to have tattoos?
http://www.mbforum.ca/topic/1645.html

What would Menno think? Perhaps he might say that the question is not worded right. This is how it should be worded:

Does the Bible give us any indication whether God desires Christians to voluntarily receive permanent tattoo marks on their bodies which are the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Or how about this…

Would Menno roll over in his grave if he knew that Mennonites were asking this question?

So what about “Christian” tattos? And what about Bible times, the Hebrews and tattoos? Is tattoing God’s name on your body something God wants us to do? See here for that answer.

ROM Index: rapidly rising

There a many spiritual people who do many good things, but that does not necessarily mean that theirs is a biblical spirituality.

Take for example Tom and Christine Sine who are involved in helping with the AIDS crisis. They had an AIDS conference at MB Biblical Seminary in 2002.

That same year, the Sines spoke about A stool with three legs at the Mennonite Brethren Convention.

More recently, in an MB Herald article adapted from the author’s book GodSpace, Christine Sine talks about our God being a God of rhythm in We’ve got rhythm – but is it the right kind? At the end of this article, which appeared in last September’s MB Herald, is a link to the website of the Sine’s Mustard Seed Associates, an ecumenical organization that that encourages people to become contemplative activists.

It would be interesting to know how many Mennonites found their way to the Sine’s spirituality resources where Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home are promoted, as well as the Labyrinth (to contemplate the deeper things of life).
Or their Celtic Spirituality page of links to various contemplative Celtic communities and Celtic books.

From their main website you can go to the Mustard Seed blog (http://mustardseedjourney.wordpress.com) and click on Divine Hours to get to Phyllis Tickle’s A Complete Guide to the Ancient Practice of Fixed-Hour Prayer, or you can click the link for the daily Catholic lectionary reading.

And that’s not all. If you were to continue browsing, you would see that the Sines also recently had the Thin Space: Celtic Christianity Learning Party at the Mustard Seed House, a neo-monastic intentional community in Seattle, Washington (mustardseedhouse.wordpress.com).

By the way, there’s a book called Schools for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism that has been endorsed by Brian McLaren and Tom Sine. (Update: read about it HERE at Christianity Today.)

Are the Mennonites knowingly promoting Celtic Spirituality through the Sines? Weren’t the Celtic peoples the ones who assimilated the practices and beliefs of various religions? It was a pagan blend of mythology, magic, goddesses, and druids. In fact, the foundation of Celtic Spirituality is said to come from the Goddess religions of Europe, and even today you can find websites that offer courses in Witchcraft and Celtic Spirituality, with labyrinths, sacred circles and stones, drumming, and solstice celebrations of the earth’s rhythms.

Meanwhile, the Sine’s seem to be very involved, not only with Celtic “Christian” spirituality and it’s rhythms, but also monastic communities, abbeys, contemplation, spiritual disciplines, social justice, images of Jesus, and Catholicism.

Perhaps this is why the Mennonites like them. It seems they have a common interest - walking the same bridge back to ancient spiritual practices, which eventually leads to Rome.

Rom Index: rising