I received a press release today from a publicity firm soliciting an interview. It demonstrates that the evolution of consciousness promoted by hardcore New Agers like Barbara Marx Hubbard, Marianne Williamson, Neale Donald Walsch and so many others is merging with the emerging church. First, read this quote from Barbara Marx Hubbard's Foundation for Conscious Evolution.
"Conscious Evolution is at the core a spiritually-motivated endeavor. Its precepts reside at the heart of every great faith, affirming that humans have the potential of being cocreators with Spirit, with the deeper patterns of nature and universal design.
The promise of Conscious Evolution is nothing less than the emergence of a universal humanity capable of its guiding its own evolution into a future of unimaginable cocreativity."
Now here's the press release from emerging church author, Bruce Sanguin.
Bruce Sanguin, author of the new book The Emerging Church: A Model for Change & a Map for Renewal, says that Christianity is being reborn through the integration of an evolutionary paradigm.
Sanguin goes beyond the neo-Darwinist theory of evolution. He sees evolution, rather, as a Spirit-infused process. This process is dynamically at work in our personal and our communal life – including in our faith communities.
"Emergence" is a term used by biologists and systems scientists to describe the process whereby life winds itself up in the direction of increased beauty, complexity, and consciousness. In The Emerging Church, Sanguin reflects on what an "emergent" culture within a congregation might look like, and how we might "get out of the way" of this expression of natural grace.
Sanguin offers more than just a ground-breaking theory of congregational culture-shifting: He provides a practical map that will help both clergy and lay people negotiate the tricky terrain of transformation.The book is a handbook for church renewal.
Tom Bandy, Director of Net Results Magazine, says of the book, "There is hope for the established church! Bruce's experience points to the attitude changes, organizational shifts, and leadership strategies that are necessary for a church to thrive in the emerging world. He models the hard work, spiritual life, and persistent mission demanded of Christ-followers today."
Bruce Sanguin, a United Church minister for over 20 years, currently serves Canadian Memorial Church & Centre for Peace in Vancouver, B.C. He has helped this previously traditional, post-war memorial church embrace the mission, vision, and values associated with an emergent model of Christianity. Sanguin is the author of the bestselling Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos: An Ecological Christianity, and Summoning the Whirlwind: Unconventional Sermons for a Relevant Christian Faith. Sanguin will be a presenter at the prestigious Chautauqua Institution, in Chautauqua, New York, August 2008.
The concept of spiritual evolution becoming the logical next step of physical evolution on earth is central to the teachings of New Spirituality. Those same concepts are being taught by emerging church authors and leaders. It is all becoming one.