the blog of Lighthouse Trails Publishing

The Lighthouse Trails Forum has currently been suspended until further notice. We will send out an update when it is back up and running. Various reasons have brought about this decision to shut it down – primarily our current work load does not allow us enough time to adequately operate and moderate the forum and meet the needs of all the members. We hope to restructure the format and be back online sometime in the future. In the meantime, the Lighthouse Trails blogs, research site, publishing and store site, and newsletter  continue strongly.

Thank you and God bless.

Yesterday, after we announced Lighthouse Trails’ new division, The Shepherd’s Garden, we received an email from a Lighthouse Trails reader asking why we were “getting into the tea business.” The reader said he was very concerned that we were going to become too commercialized  and thought perhaps we had sold so many books that we had more or less struck it rich and that we saw the tea business as a lucrative business venture.  He said that perhaps we have become too “popular and famous.” We thought there may be other LT readers who share his concerns. Thus, we would like to clarify our reasons for incorporating this new idea.

At Lighthouse Trails, we have paid a high price for continuing on in this ministry. Part of that difficulty has been financial challenges.  We have given away countless books in a missionary/evangelism sense to skeptics and critics, which erodes profits; in addition, publishing in general is expensive. We began the publishing company knowing absolutely nothing about publishing, but we met Ray Yungen, who had been carrying around an unpublished manuscript for two years (A Time of Departing). After we read it, God removed a veil from our eyes, and we knew that book had to be published. We came to learn that most Christian publishers would not publish material exposing the dangers of contemplative spirituality, thus we began Lighthouse Trails. Soon after, we came under a very intense attack from the enemy. It seemed that as soon as we started Lighthouse Trails, life changed for us dramatically. I remember thinking early on, if this is what life is going to be like from now on because of LT, I don’t want to do this. But my husband, Dave, and Ray Yungen, in their leadership and guidance, assured me that this is what we were supposed to be doing. In time, we came to understand that what we were suffering was minor compared to what martyrs in the past have suffered, and we, like all Christian believers, should count it a privilege to serve Him.

We want to assure Lighthouse Trails readers that we are not becoming commercialized, in the negative sense of the word. The idea of the tea came to us several months ago, and after much thought and prayer, we felt that perhaps God had given us this idea as a way to sustain ourselves and also help sustain Lighthouse Trails. We do not depend on the income from Lighthouse Trails for our personal lives. We have never wanted to be dependent on it so that we would never be tempted to compromise just to make a living. But that means we have had to work in other capacities.  And this means very long hours, definitely no vacations, etc. etc. But we have believed so much that we are supposed to be doing this ministry that we have gone to any lengths we can to keep it going.  In the past, we made enough from book sales to put money back into the company so we could do new books and DVDs, which we felt were urgently needed. Now with the economy in its present crisis, Lighthouse Trails is not holding its own, and we must have other ways to help support it.  The tea is a pragmatic idea and also points people to the Word of God in a small way. It will also be a blessing and encouragement to those who enjoy it. We believe it does fit in with the Lighthouse Trails mission.  The typical thing for ministries to do when in financial stress is to send out pleas for donations. But because we are not a non-profit ministry, we generally do not seek out donations, and thereby see the necessity for being “tent makers.” We believe this little tea company, while blessing others, will also help assure that Lighthouse Trails can remain active for years to come.

Deborah Dombrowski
Editor at Lighthouse Trails Publishing

You might also want to read our statement on “Why Lighthouse Trails is not a non-profit ministry.”

First, we would like to remind our readers about our new contact information. Our new mailing address is: P.O. Box 908, Eureka, Montana 59917. Our new phone numbers are as follows:

Main Office: 406/297-7756
Fax: 406/297-7993
Toll Free Order Line (US & Canada): 866/876-3910
Other International Ordering: 406/297-7756

While we had hoped to make the relocation transition as smooth as possible, there were some phone glitches for several days, which resulted in some callers not being able to reach us. We apologize for this inconvenience. All phone lines are working well now.

Secondly, we posted a new book review on Thursday by Larry DeBruyn. The review is on a book titled REJESUS: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Churchwritten by two emerging church authors, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. DeBruyn’s review is a worthwhile read to better understand how the New Spirituality entering the church is presenting “another gospel” and “another Jesus” (II Corinthians 11:4).

Thirdly, the second issue of our new print newsletter will be out in mid-May. We were planning to have it ready in April but our relocation this month has caused a delay. If you did not receive the first issue, which came out two months ago, and you would like to start receiving the print newsletter, please e-mail us at newsletter@lighthousetrails.comor write to us at the address above. This is a free newsletter that will be issued 4-6 times per year. You may view a pdf of the first edition here.

SPECIAL APPRECIATION OFFER

Finally, to show our appreciation for our Lighthouse Trails readers, we are giving a special 10-day offer on our webstore. It is a two-part offer: Alll orders, both U.S and international, of two or more items will receive a Shipping Discount of $5.00. This will be applied to your order at check-out. Also, for orders of $29 or more, if you enter the Code MT77 in the ORDER NOTES section at check-out when you place your order, we will send you a free Lighthouse Trails book with your order. If you choose one of the books from this list, we will send you the book of your choice. Otherwise we will choose one for you. Just type in the code and the title in the ORDER NOTES on the “Customer Information” page at check-out.

Editors at Lighthouse Trails

In the year 2000, we learned that a mantra-style meditation coupled with a mystical spirituality had been introduced to the evangelical, Christian church and was infiltrating youth groups, churches, seminaries, and Bible studies at an alarming rate.

Thus, in the spring of 2002, we began Lighthouse Trails Publishing with the hope of exposing this dangerous and pervasive mystical paradigm—six months later we published our first release, A Time of Departing by Ray Yungen.

As we learned more about contemplative spirituality (also known as the spiritual formation movement), we came to realize it had entered the church through a number of avenues—Willow Creek, Purpose Driven, and the emerging church just to name a few of the more prominent ones.

Because the premise of this spirituality is both pantheistic (God is all things) and panentheistic (God is in all things), thus refuting the gospel message of the Cross, we are compelled to address this issue—Lighthouse Trails Publishing and our research ministry, Lighthouse Trails Research Project, are here as a service to the body of Christ.

Since publishing A Time of Departing, we have been able to publish several other books, including some biographies that we consider exceptionally compelling, challenging, and faith-building. For instance, one of them, Trapped in Hitler’s Hell, is the true story of a Jewish teen who became a Christian and lived through the Holocaust in Germany. She is still alive today, and her story is so powerful and inspirational that we believe every Christian family should read it. The lessons we can learn from that time in history are vital and should not be forgotten.

Each of the books and DVDs we publish and/or distribute has been prayerfully chosen … and we believe the message in each one will help equip Christian families and loved ones with biblical truth and inspiration to stand in courage and strength as you defend the faith and walk with Jesus Christ. We join you in that effort, knowing that it is only by His grace we are able to do so.

OUR BELIEFS

Note: Lighthouse Trails is an industry-standard LLC publishing company, registered in the state of Oregon. We are not a vanity press (i.e., we do not take money from authors to publish their books). We have legal contracts with each author, and we pay them royalties for book and DVD sales per those contracts.

Note: Lighthouse Trails is a Christian publishing company. While we hope you will read the books we have published, we provide extensive research, documentation and news on our Research site,blog and newsletter at no cost with the hope they are a blessing to the body of Christ and a witness to those who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

We are not a non-profit organization. While we accept donations and are grateful for them, they are not tax deductible. We encourage you to consider ordering books we publish – this is a great way to support us and at the same time get the warning out to more people and help defend the precious faith. We believe you will find each of our books to be well-written, properly documented, and essential for the times in which we live.