The whole church needs to stop complaining about the hostile atmosphere of today, when so many people are anti-religion. The church of all stripes: Catholic, Evangelical and Mainline Protestant—must own up to its share in what has gone wrong. We could paraphrase Nietzsche and say, “the church is dying and we have […]

41, 000 Christian denominations and organizations in the world!! That figure is from The Center for the Study of Global Christianity. When I looked this figure up two years ago, the number was 37,000. Clearly the church has splintered off and again and again, way beyond what the Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century might […]

Every church, every denomination has a set of beliefs about God and Jesus Christ that informs its worship and practices. What is amazing about the variety and breadth of these beliefs is that they all are so different, yet they all come from one source, the Holy Bible. Together all the churches are the body […]

Reminder: Tuesdays thru Fridays I post additional comments and questions on Monday’s blog on FB. Use this link: www.facebook.com/pages/By-the-waters/146585815373488 Today I am putting together a test for all of us to use in evaluating ourselves on our ability to incorporate the main contributions of four major  denominations in the whole body of Christ. Since writing […]

There is a glass ceiling in the church that limits how far we will go in loving God and following Christ. Every sect and denomination has confined the relationship with God into a box of beliefs with which it feels comfortable. If Catholics hold to the practice of the veneration of Mary and the saints […]

In the documentary, ”Face to Face with Carl Jung” Part 1,[1] the pioneering Swiss psychiatrist, was asked if he believed in God. Then eighty-four he answered, “That is difficult to answer…I know… I don’t need to believe.” How many of us can say that I know God? I would guess that many would say we […]

When I was growing up in the forties and fifties, in the Christian church things were pretty much set in concrete. One was a Presbyterian(like my family) or Catholic or Methodist or Baptist or Episcopalian. We didn’t entertain other beliefs, we didn’t visit other churches, and certainly if we were Protestant, we would never enter […]

I am still thinking about repentance and religion, but this week I am seeing it from a different angle.  To see God at work in this world, we have to look for higher consciousness and love at work, but to do that we have see the world in a totally new way. Instead of seeing […]

The words, repentance and religion, have been turning over in my mind this week, since our Bible study, Bible Workbench, focused on a reading from Isaiah 1. He called the Israelites, and now us, to change our ways. What were they talking about?  Repent means to deeply regret what we’ve done, but it does not […]

This morning I’m singing the “What’s it all about, Alfie?” song. What does it mean that we come together as a church? Is this all there is? I want something more dynamic and alive, more connected and contemporary. I am looking for the people with the most depth and capacity for love. I’m looking for […]