Celtic Christianity

Last updated on: November 6, 2017 at 11:49 am By Jim Meisner Jr.

I had a great conversation recently with John Philip Newell. John Philip is one of the world’s leading experts on Celtic Christianity. All Celtic Christian services I have attended have been similar: quietly contemplative, prayerfully pensive and filled with moving music. They reflect Presbyterian and Episcopal traditions while incorporating Celtic elements. Most mainstream Christians would be right at home in a Celtic service. But there’s much more to the Celtic Christian tradition… much that can appeal to people outside churches,... Read more

Resolutions

Last updated on: November 4, 2017 at 10:36 pm By Jim Meisner Jr.

In recognition of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, and Martin Luther nailing his 95 thesis to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, my church recorded our hopes and wishes for the future of the congregation and the overall Church. We wrote our ideas on 95 sticky notes, that we posted to the church door. Read more

Reformation

Last updated on: November 3, 2017 at 4:20 pm By Jim Meisner Jr.

When I was in seminary, I learned my theology was a product of the Protestant Reformation. When Martin Luther wrote his 95 complaints against the Catholic Church he was opposing the selling of “indulgences.” Indulgences allowed people to pre-pay their souls out of purgatory. In the following years his writings helped to usher in the Protestant Reformation and trigger a schism that’s resulted in tens of thousands of Christian denominations. The Protestant Reformation was a PROTEST against the Pope, fueled... Read more

Sometimes you will never know

Last updated on: October 28, 2017 at 1:53 pm By Jim Meisner Jr.

The crisis in the U.S. church

Last updated on: October 24, 2017 at 5:49 pm By Jim Meisner Jr.

“How can you be a Christian and support abortion?” “How can you be a Christian and support Trump?” Seemingly simple, the distance between the questions is massive, made wider by Christology, pneumatology, eschatology and Biblical hermeneutic. Simple questions are seldom simple. More than anything, nationalism has overpowered Christianity in many people and in many churches. Nationalism is where the symbols of religion and government intertwine and become more important than the philosophies behind them. Nationalism helps you value the country’s... Read more

A great video of a pastor talking about LGBT rights

Last updated on: October 19, 2017 at 10:22 pm By Jim Meisner Jr.

Here’s a great video of a pastor talking about LGBT rights. Here’s what the same minister wrote about the speech, five years later. Why my viral video about LGBTQ rights was wrong Read more

i thank You God for most this amazing

Last updated on: August 4, 2019 at 2:54 pm By Jim Meisner Jr.

by E.E. Cummings i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes (i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay great happening illimitably earth) how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any—lifted... Read more

Bapu

Last updated on: October 2, 2017 at 9:20 am By Jim Meisner Jr.

In a world growing more violent, filled with those who accept violence as the cost of living in the world, our thoughts should turn to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Better known as Mahatma. Great Soul. Born Oct. 2, 1869, he was assassinated at age 78, Jan. 30, 1948. He led a non-violent protest that freed India from British rule and inspired Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead a similar non-violent civil rights struggle in the United States. Non-violence brought Britain to... Read more

The light of Christ is for all people

Last updated on: September 20, 2017 at 12:32 pm By Jim Meisner Jr.

Finding God in the unexpected

Last updated on: September 17, 2017 at 12:54 pm By Jim Meisner Jr.

From Upper Room Daily Reflections Finding God in the Unexpected I FIND GOD in the unexpected, the unexpected places where I least expect to find the presence of the Living God. It is in these unlikely places that the undeniable sense of holy-overwhelming arrests my attention. I find God in the unexpected, the unexpected times when I would rather wallow around in the muddle of my mind and rehash old, unresolved issues. God pierces through the wall of my wailing... Read more