Protestant No More: Willow Creek Is Infiltrated by a Mystic Quaker Movement Called Renovare

Our first child's dedication 1987.

I went back to Willow Creek earlier this year only to discover my plans to be serving in the women’s ministry as a "Biblical Titus 2 woman" were, in actuality, going to be “serving as a New Age spirit guide." Mystic ways of praying (repeating and meditating) were being taught along with frequent references to Quakers and Catholics. New Age authors like the mystic Quaker Parker Palmer and Renovare founder Richard Foster were quoted frequently along with terms like "Lectio Divina" and "Covenant Groups."

(click image to read)They gave out FREE books to us in the women’s mentor training class in January ("Sacred Companions" by David G. Benner, and "Spiritual Mentoring" by Keith Anderson & Andy Reese)and one class included a clip from the movie "The Matrix." This movie was recommended and had keen insight for us. We were encouraged to "avail ourselves to the classics" of Roman Catholic mystics and we did detailed timelines on our lives.

My husband and I attended Willow Creek in the mid-80’s and had moved to a smaller Bible church after we had our first house built. Willow Creek was known as a model for church growth and now its 2,200 member Willow Creek Association is influential throughout the world. Known as the second largest "Protestant church" in North America I am now confused. Webster’s dictionary defines a Protestant this way: a member of any of several church denominations denying the universal authority of the pope and affirming the Reformation principles of justification of faith alone, the priesthood of all believers, and the primace of the Bible as the only source of revealed truth: a Christian not of a Catholic or Eastern Church. The fruits of compromise have taken root and error has led this church away from the truth. As the Reformers pointed out, "just one bad thread will spoil the whole fabric." The church must remain pure and adhere to the truth in God’s Word alone.

Protestants are in disagreement with the beliefs and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church and Catholic thought as expressed in literature and culture. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches of Christianity, although they agree with Protestants to the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments, go beyond the Bible for their source of authority. The written Word of God gives Christians order and direction in living and worshiping together. God defines "truth" with His Word and it is objective, authoritative, and sufficient.


"I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book." Revelation 22:18,19


"I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." Galatians 1:1,12


"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Galatians 1:10
At Willow Creek’s Wednesday night service a "spiritual formation leader" Mindy Caliguire, was introduced. This was a special night of prayer for those who had concerns about our situation in Iraq. This guide led the body in ways best described as the New Age. We were instructed to relax our arms and put our palms up and be silent and meditate for a few minutes. Bill Hybels praised her for how deeply she had just been praying for her young sons and he introduced her as someone who is not seen much but was very active behind the scenes with the elders in the area of spiritual formation.

The 1995 membership book, p. 41, claims that Willow Creek is now "interdenominational." This confused me because they were considered nondenominational in my days. Nondenominational churches reject all man-made doctrines and strive to follow only what the Bible teaches. Interdenominational churches, on the other hand, accept all beliefs like ecumenical evangelism which advocates infiltration of liberal denominations and organizations rather than separation from liberal unbelief and error. The Bible calls for separation from unbelief and worldliness. In Revelation 3:16 God reveals his disgust with those who compromise when He says, "I will spit you out of my mouth." The lukewarm church will cease to be God’s witness on earth and the church will only continue until the end of the church age. At the end of the church age true born again believers will be raptured into heaven, marking its end, after which, follows the seven-year Tribulation period.

(Click image to read)The teaching of the return to rituals to acquire peace or favor with God is not Scriptural. We need to look to Christ for guidance about our lives, and let him lead others in their own details. The apostle Paul wrote about those who might live in vain. He said only one gospel saves and that gospel is according to the Scriptures, not tradition. Believing in vain is to trust someone or something other than Jesus Christ, or to believe another gospel according to the traditions of men. We must stay close to Christ and resist the subtle ways of those who attempt adding to or subtracting from our salvation.


Spirituality is not Christianity. One night in the mentor training class the leader, Sibyl Towner, was speaking to the woman next to me. She was all excited about a spiritual exercise she had just done with a three-year-old relative. She said she had used it 66 times and offered it to the woman if she wanted to try it. In this game she was excited because she felt the child "was ready" because she liked being "found by the great shepherd."


The classics we were encouraged to "avail ourselves to" were mystical writings and spiritual exercises from the forth to fifteenth century. The mystics taught how to empty the mind and remove any rational thought so that it is passive. This is to open them up for the "Presence of God." THIS IS A FORM OF ZEN MEDITATION. The Holy Spirit indwells us when we accept Jesus Christ and the occult meaning behind the "God within", "light within", or "Christ within" has a different meaning. Renovare is the organization behind this ecumenical movement out of the traditions of Quakers. (The Mystical Bible )


In the Friday morning women’s study, "Practicing Our Faith" by Dorothy C. Bass, the acceptance of traditions of other faiths is being taught through the month of May. Meditation techniques and traditions from the Jesuits, Quakers, Catholics, and the Black church are being mixed with Scripture and New Age ideas. A video of Mother Theresa was shown one morning where she vividly prayed to "Mary" for a cease-fire and the next day there was one. The leaders did not discuss this at all. It was merely an example of compassion. One leader, Lynn Siewert, while reading Hebrews 12:1-2, pointed out that one of the words in the verse, "hinders," means "encumbers," and that’s a Quaker word. She described how she had a break down one day as a busy young mom. She then started reading the book we were studying for class to encourage her. One day she took two words "be and still" and meditated on them for a few hours. This really helped her to slow down and say no to other things in her life.

"Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Galatians 3:3
My 4th child's dedication at Willow Creek (1992) just before we left for a smaller church in Bartlett near our new home. Also, just before Ruth Barton and John Ortberg began to teach spiritual formation.
(Click image to enlarge and read) I called the old leader of the women’s ministries that I knew years ago, Kathy Dice. She had been let go after 911. She had been moved from her position to work on writing Bible studies and then was told they could not support her anymore. She was busy with her family and had not been involved at Willow for awhile. She shared her concern for spiritual formation if it led to someone directing you in prayer in anyway.

I affirmed that the promoted books in the classes and similar ones in the church bookstore did just that. She shared with me that Mindy Caliguire and her husband had been interns from Boston and that John Ortberg and Ruth Barton started up spiritual formation with a book they co-authored back in 1995. Ortbergs Teach Mystic Techniques(centering, rule of life) ; Training Pastors to "Heed the Call"


When I got my call about becoming a mentor I was told I wasn’t going to be interviewed like they had planned. They are understaffed and as long as I attended the class that was good enough. I told her I wasn’t even a member either. It didn’t appear to matter. Then I shared my concerns about the references in the classes being made to Catholics, Quakers, and the Jesuits. She told me she was just reading a book about Quakers. I told her I was concerned that the church was no longer Protestant because of all of the influences of other religions. She said, “We must avail ourselves to the classics.” I also let her know that I disagreed with the "breath prayers" and "lectio divinia." She shared that the leader, Sybil, had been encouraging the liturgical influences. I warned her that this meditation could open people up to the wrong spirit and they could start to hear voices like the occult(10) Wheaton Illinois: Theosophical Society Headquarters . She replied, somewhat defensively, that in the Old Testament God did speak to people. I shared with her that God doesn’t relate to us that way today because we have the Bible and the Holy Spirit now. I referred her to Matthew 6:7-13 from the King James Bible about how to pray.


“New Age Dominican priest Matthew Fox calls Eckhart his favorite mystic and claims to actually communicate with this dead monk. Fox wrote a book called ‘Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book’ for all those daring to make the mystical, spiritual journey...Fox quotes Eckhart as saying there is a four-fold path to God, the last being something ‘DEEP’ called ‘breakthrough,’ WHERE ONE BEGINS TO HEAR VOICES” (10).


"But when ye pray use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be ye not therefore like unto them: for your Father knowth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be they name. Thy kingdom come. They will be do in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” ( Matthew 6:7-13; KJB).

It is not surprising to find the new Bible versions which are copywrited to make money and can keep changing, as they certainly are, to have a mystical version that will fit the New Age to come. Eugene Peterson’s THE MESSAGE says this verse in an occultic way: “Set the world right; do what is best – AS ABOVE, SO BELOW” (Matthew 6:10).

“The mystical belief of the secret societies were, and indeed are, based on the Hermetic maxim ‘As above – so below’ which teaches the natural world is a material reflection of the spiritual. It forms the esoteric basis for the ancient Egyptian Mysteries, Gnosticism, Esoteric Christianity, the Cabala, the Hermetic Tradition, Alchemy and societies such as the Templars, Freemasons and Rosicrucians” (8).


“The whole universe is the great world, the macrocosm; its parts are small universes in themselves, microcosms. Such a microcosm is man, who is in himself an image of the universe and a perfect being. But the great universe is likewise a man, and as is ‘god,’ God has a human form” (9).


When Sibyl Towner called me back to address my concerns I shared my concern with her for misleading innocent women with her meditation prayers which may open them up to evil spirits since that is how the occult prays. She said she got her basis for meditating from Psalm 1:2 and that John Ortberg was responsible for starting up this spiritual formation movement. I found no basis in the Psalm for choosing one or two words to repeat over and over for hours and even parts of a day as they were beginning to teach. God wants us to read the Bible so we can get to know Him and understand His will for our lives. Jesus always prayed and served according to the will of His Father.

(click image to read) I later found Sibyl Towner on the HUNGRY SOULS Web Site with Karen Mains which is steeped in mysticism and New Age thought.

At the end of the class “Practicing Our Faith” we were referred to the Hungry Souls site as “the next steps for practicing our faith.” Karen Mains "Hungry Souls" Ministry



RICHARD FOSTER is definitely not a Christian influence yet he is being promoted in thought and books at Willow Creek. He teaches quietism, mantras, centering, Buddhism, yoga, TM, spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola, Eastern religion and other non-Christian techniques. He is a mystic Quaker and a psychologist at Fuller Seminary. Along with William L. Vasivig, Foster directs the Renovare movement. In his book, "Celebration of Discipline," instruction is offered using guided imagery in occult practices of visualizaion, meditation, and astral travel. In the forward to the book, "Power Healing" by John Wimber, Foster endorses Wimber’s apostolic role and claims that the author speaks with confidence as one who is living out of the divine center. The Eastern mysticism term, "divine center," means God is a universal consciousness, residing within everyone, guiding them on the path to evolutionary perfection. In a similar manner Quaker Quietists believe "God is within." Renovare is an ecumenical movement that disregards doctrine.


TILDEN EDWARDS was also supported and his name was referred to in the books used in the women’s classes. He is an Episcopal priest and founder and director of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. I purchased his book in Willow Creek’s bookstore. Edwards describes in his book, "Spiritual Friend," Paulist Press, 1980, pp. 210-212, a time of grouping together of the Catholics and Protestants. He calls this grouping a reconstellated understanding of direction in which no one is thoroughly confident and that it is a humble sense of equality. He writes of a dimension of charisma that can only be attended as an unfolding process and how the program can provide launching, sensitising, and securing platforms, yet they are only puny in comparisn to the spirit's (Satan) movement in the person when the time has come. Future "spiritual friends" were to be selected mainly from those who have a B.A. or equivalent and express commitment to Truth through a particular major religious tradition and at the same time are open to learning from other traditions. In 1978 they had about 50 people apply for their first program. He was disappointed with having no black applicants. They chose a group of almost equal numbers of men and women and of Roman Catholics and Protestants, and a good mix of parish clergy, religious community members, chaplains, seminary faculty, advanced students, formation directors, and laity working in various church and community situations. He claimed it was unfortuante that they had no apprenticeship to a master because we still live in a masterless time and trainees at least need to be with someone who is thier director, who can help them attend to the master of loving Truth within(demons). He described the training as a mid-wife, attending the birth of deeper spiritual sight through cleansing, aligning, and resting. (emphasis mine)

PARKER PALMER is also enthusiastically endorsed and quoted by Sybil in her mentoring classes. Parker is also a Quaker. He believes that a life illuminated by spirit and infused with soul will transform education.

(click images to read) His talk follows the Dalai Lama at a recent conference:  At this five-day conference he describes how we must think about the soul. He describes it like a wild animal that is also extremely shy. He felt HOURS NEEDED TO BE SPENT TO WAIT TO CATCH A GLIMPSE OF THIS WILD AND PRECIOUS SOUL. He opened in a Quaker prayer holding the conference "in the light "and prayed that they would all be in the right spirit as they would speak the truth gently and simply as THEY ARE ALL GROUND IN THE SAME EXPERIENCE THAT THEY DO NOT EVEN CLAIM YET (similar to Tilden Edwards beliefs). He promoted compassion towards those who do not understand and he planned to promote a transformation in education that will involve the soul.

IGNATIOUS LOYOLA AND THE JESUITS: Loyola was responsible for torturing and killing Protestants in the Counter Reformation. He was the first general of the Jesuit army. He wrote spiritual exercises and, with the Jesuits, they would meditate and put themselves into a trance and levitate. The JESUITS WERE KNOWN FOR BEING THE MOST CRUEL ORDER OF PRIESTS in what became what was known as the bloodiest time in the history of mankind. The Catholic Church was convinced that it was the kingdom of God on earth and saw the Protestant Reformation as a threat. It determined to regain what it had lost and to put the whole world under its religious domination once and for all. After spending time healing a broken leg and reading about pious Roman saints, Loyola felt inadequate. He confessed his sins for three days at a shrine of the Virgin Mary. His conscience troubled him yet he choose to earn his salvation by obedient service to the pope rather than except Christ’s free offer of salvation.


The Jesuits believed that to kill or torture is justifiable if it is done for the cause of the church. AROUND 1550 THE JESUITS BEGAN INFILTRATING EVERY RELIGION AND DENOMINATION TO DESTROY THEM FOR THE MOTHER CHURCH. Later they started their own schools, colleges, and universities. They saw education as a way to serve the church by strengthening people who were already members and reclaiming those who had become Protestants. This agenda is sounding very familiar lately.


Pronounced by the Roman Catholic Councils of Trent and Vatican II, A CHRISTIAN IS CONDEMNED BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Today there are over 100 anathemas against anyone who holds to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ which is “faith alone” (9). But it is the Catholic Church that is truly condemned by the Word of God: “There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day,” John 12:48.


“If we, or an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” Galatians 1:9

GEORGE FOX WAS THE FOUNDER OF QUAKERISM. He was described as an inward and serious child. He was kept away from playing with other children since he was different and quite withdrawn. His mother encouraged him to spend many hours of solitary meditating and Bible reading. When his mother died he continued on in his "religious struggles" with great loss. AFTER SEEKING A PILGIMAGE FOR ANYONE WHO COULD ANSWER HIS SPIRITUAL YEARNINGS HE HAD A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE WHERE HE HEARD A VOICE SAY: "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition." Fox concluded that Jesus Christ was the "Light within" that EVERYONE HAD THE POTENTIAL TO EXPERIENCE. He believed that there was "that of God " in all men and that WE ARE ALL A HOLY COMMUNITY where no one has dominance over another and where there is no reason for war (ditto for Willow Creek ).


The Quakers sought equality for women from the start. Women who where "called by the light within" where known to abandon their families, some quite large, to travel as circuit preachers. In some of their travel they appeared to enjoy arguing with young theologians and they even went to extremes as walking through the streets naked to oppose hypocrisy. Their acts where considered to be under the direct leading of the Holy Spirit. SOME OF THEIR EXPERIENCES WERE DESCRIBED AS RESPONSE TO FALLING DEEPLY IN LOVE AND THEY WOULD FOLLOW WHATEVER THE SPIRIT WANTED.


The nickname "Quaker" came from the shaking aroused by inner struggles of the individuals facing their inner motives "under the light" in the Quaker meetings. They believe they have revived true Christianity and all other religions are false. In 1648 Fox stood up and opposed a meeting of Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and Anglicans when a woman was silenced and not allowed to speak in the church. Fox said that because the church is a spiritual household in which Christ is the head that women may be allowed to prophecy and speak. In 1656 he wrote a tract where he explained that he thought that people respond "to a certain measure" of their attained Light of the teaching of Christ in their heart. He taught that 1 and 2 Timothy, where Paul writes that women are to keep silent in churches, is only Paul’s "attained level of knowledge on the subject." In actuality, FOX NEEDED TO ATTAIN THE TRUTH FOUND IN 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." And "EVERY WORD OF GOD IS FLAWLESS; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. DO NOT ADD TO HIS WORDS, OR HE WILL REBUKE YOU AND PROVE YOU A LIAR." Proverbs 30:5,6

In his second tract he believed Paul was merely speaking to a particular group of unsaved women who had not been raised to that "certain level of understanding" so he didn’t actually condemn the preaching of all women. Fox continued to write and defend women and stated that the Holy Spirit is available to everyone and no one had the right to stop it. (sounds like Bill Hybels in his membership book p. 119 where he states divisions and hierarchies will not be tolerated). As his followers turned to him for advice and counsel (instead of the Scriptures), Fox was compelled to bring others to the liberating experience he knew and to also confound false teachings.


In 1654 pairs of those who "had received the calling from the Quaker light" set out to reach all parts of England. At a gathering at a rented hall in a tavern in London and at an orchard in Bristol: John Audland, who very much trembled, stood up, full of dread and shining brightness on his countenance, lifted up his voice as a trumpet, and said, "I proclaim spiritual war with the inhabitants of the earth who are in separation from God." Some fell on the ground, others crying out under the sense of the opening of their spiritual states.


In 1669 when Fox married a convert he was determined to exemplify marriage as a union of equals. Their marriage was considered a spiritual partnership and neither hindered the other’s leading of the spirit. Margaret Fell, wife of George Fox instructed, "let the Eternal Light search you for this will rise you up and lay you open naked and bare before the Lord. Keep down your minds that question and stumble at the power of God." They challenged the Puritan values and reverence for order and the Scriptural role of the man as the sole authority of his household (5).


PURE CHRISTIANITY: Christianity is not compatible with cults, occult, non-Christian religions, or secular religions. Historic Christian doctrine must remain pure.


"See to it that no one takes you captive through HOLLOW AND DECEPTIVE PHILOSOPHY which depends on HUMAN TRADITION AND THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THIS WORLD RATHER THAN CHRIST." Colossians 2:18 ROMAN CATHOLIC: Accepts the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God along with the APOCRYPHA as being inspired by God. IN ADDITION TO THAT, THEY CONSIDER CHURCH TRADITION just as authoritative as the Scriptures. The sacraments replace the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.


EASTERN ORTHODOX: Accepts the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God. They also ADD THIER CHURCH TRADITION as equally authoritative.


PROTESTANT: Scripture alone is the final authority on all matters of faith and practice.(4)


CULTS: A group of people polarized around someone’s interpretation of the Bible and is characterized by major deviations from Orthodox Christianity relative to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, particularly the fact that God became man in Jesus Christ. (Walter Martin, "Rise of the Cults", p. 12)


We all have a basic desire to know and serve God. People who are experiencing an identity crisis or an emotional struggle as well as the uninformed are all prey to the cults. We all desire to be loved, feel needed, and to sense our lives have direction and meaning. Take time to examine your sources of wisdom.


GOD’S WISDOM: By reading God’s Word and constantly learning from it, we will gain the wisdom to perceive God’s direction for our lives.


DEMONIC WISDOM: Be sure you have not opened your life to any wisdom produced by demons (charms, crystals, horoscopes, or games and practices of the occult).


MYSTICISM: the doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding, or of a direct, intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation and love (Random House College Dictionary).


MYSTIC: of occult or mysterious character, power, or significance; a person initiated into mysteries; a person who attains, or believes in the possibility of attaining insight into mysteries transcending ordinary human knowledge, as by immediate intuition in a state of spiritual ecstasy (Random House College Dictionary). The Beatles and the Cosmic Consciousness Movement: Peter Jones, John Ortberg, Maharishi


MAN’S WISDOM: Moral standards set forth in books, on TV, in magazines, and by other people.


"The untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction." 2 Peter 3:16"The Bible contains the faith once and for all delivered to the saints." Jude 3


"But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by and act of human will. But men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." 2 Peter 1:20,21

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WORKS CITED
1. Grendon, Mike. "Preparing Catholics for Eternity."
2. "History of the World" by A Beka Book, 1995, Pensacola Christian Collage, p. 221
3. "Church History and the Things to Come" by A Beka Book, 1993, Pensacola Christian Collage, p. 50.
4. Josh McDowell & Don Stewart, "Handbook of Today’s Religions."
5. Bacon, Margaret Hope. “The Story of Quaker Women in America." Harper & Row Publishers, 1986.
6. Rev. H. J. Schroeder, O.P. “Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent.” 1978; Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., Rockford, IL 61105. 7. Hunt, Dave. “Occult Invasion.” Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR 97402.
8. Howard, Michael. “Occult Conspiracy,” p. 170-1. Destiny Books, 1981.
9. Fox, “Art and Artist,” p. 114-15 quote of Otto Rank.
10. Smith, Samantha and Brenda Scott. “Trojan Horse.” Huntinghouse Publishers, 1993.
11. Watch Unto Prayer. “The Mystical Bible: The Message of Mysticism.”