| This is Not the Church of Your Grandfather |
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| Brother John, Rev. Kohlenberger 2015 |
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This i's not My Grandfather's Church!
My name is John M. Kohlenberger. I am the only local living founder of this Mystical Spiritualist Church from California oin Arizona. It is certainly not anything like my grandfather's church! And, he was the Pastor of a couple of churches in central and southern California. This church, currently in Prescott and Prescott Valley Arizona, is not like your grandfather's church either.
In my case, "Not my Grandfather's church" is not just a figure of speech! At an early age, my grandfather, John W. Kohlenberger, left a Catholic monastery (in Germany) where he had hoped to become a priest. As a boy, he had tripped, while carrying a water jar from the town well to the monastery and the jar broke. After receiving a severe reprimand, including a beating for tripping, he said to himself, "My God doesn't treat people so brutally for a simple accident." So he left the Catholic church in search of something better. Eventually, being from the old country (as most Americans were in those days) he became a German Methodist minister and immigrated to the USA.
Grandfather John's first church was in Santa Cruz, CA. You can see a picture of his 1890s church below.
NOTE: My grandfather, the minister, is the little guy on the right, in front of the fence.
“There’s no one higher and there is also no one lower than you, as we are each in a Divine Progression in the evolution of our own soul so that not only are others valuable in your life, but you are also valuable in theirs.” – an Old Chinese Sage
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| Grandfather's Santa Cruz church and its members at the turn of the last century. |
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WHAT IS THE MYSTICAL SPIRIUALIST CHURCH?
By Rev. John M. Kohlenberger. principle founder
Jesus did not come to this earth to be deified and worshiped. Jesus came as a messiah, messenger, and teacher, to uplift humanity. He came be an example of how to deal with life and other people in more loving ways to show us what is possible for humanity. He showed us that as we live more lovingly with each other new possibilities open up. As a human being, he lived and taught the ways, whys and wherefores of living and dealing with life in unconditional love to the best of his abilities. Though he was born as a human, as we all are, he became Christed as a divinely inspired human vessel of love as he lived his life of loving all God’s Creation in light, love, honor, compassion, inspiration and truth.
In this church, all you need to believe in is that you are a child or emanation of the loving God, the spiritual father of all creation and enlightened beings of this earth such as, but not limited to, Jesus. In this universe based on love all is as it should be including you. The Loving Father that Jesus talked about loves all his creation, which includes all of humanity. (Not just Born-Again Christians) This loving God excludes no one and throws no one out, so we are all “saved” by the absolute love of Creation and Creator. We are each a part of the whole, holy one, which is the loving energy of what we call God, Allah, Jehovah, or Yahweh, in a way similar to the rose which by any other name is still a rose
Indeed, life, light and love unfold like the petals of that rose, lotus or whatever flower you choose one lovely petal at a time. This is why Jesus often used nature and natural phenomena as his examples. Through our fears we can magically make everything seem disconnected, confusing, and overwhelming.
We create our own realities by our perceptions, by the choice of lens that we choose to look at life with. So, as we practice the love of Jesus and the many enlightened masters that have walked this earth, everything becomes connected through the loving energy that created it.\
Rather than building this church around a man, such as Jesus, this church is centered on you, helping you to find upliftment, as Jesus did for those in his day and time.
JMK - 2021-10-24
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| Rev. J.W. Kohlenberger- 1893 |
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In about 1907, Rev. John W. Kohlenberger moved to Anaheim CA., near the rest of his family. There, he was the pastor in the church that, until the 1970s, sat in the triangle of land between Los Angeles Bl, Lemon St and La Palma Bl, next to La Palma park.
Progress has since eliminated both the little church and the triangle of land that it sat on.
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| J.W.s old church building |
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The Santa Cruz church building was still in existence a few years ago, being used more recently as a Yoga Studio. This picture was taken by my nephew, Bob, who lives nearby in the Santa Cruz mountains.
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WHAT ARE WE ABOUT?
People come to churches to be inspired, to see and light candles. In this church we help you to be inspired to learn to light your own (inner) candle ... in your ever-loving heart.
We are not about worshiping a God that is out there somewhere, like traditional churches do. We know the God of All Creation to be in His/Her/It's place, everywhere and every when, with no limits or exclusions. God-Goddess is Alive within each one of us! ,,, throughout this and other worlds, and Multiverses.
Our universe is expanding and growing . Creation did not happen "once upon a time" like in s fairy tale. It is on-going! As part of All-That IS, we are changing, growing, and expanding too! It’s always going to be a time to lean in closer to love and a learning and testing of your faith in living in love whether here on this earth or elsewhere.
Humanity is now (2020 forward) being pushed into a class of Refinement upon the earth where you really have to delve into your heart and understand that the Christ Light dwells within you. You can get in touch with that light of love, compassion, and joy in every moment of every day! That, in and of itself, is important upon the earth!
In this way you serve self and the world. This is your “Service to God” as you bring about more love within this world. (This is your Purpose upon/within this school called Planet Earth.) It happens first within you and then it will be revealed in others.
P.S. Humanity will be changing over the next few decades so there is more self-acceptance and accepting of others, so we won’t need to force ourselves or others to fit the world as we've been told it "should" be. For a while there will be small wars everywhere. We will be finding that we don’t like war and discord and will change the way we think, feel, and educate our young, towards acceptance of the many points of view, bringing more love, peace and beauty into our lives. That is the point and purpose of this church!
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BELOW - is a picture of our ordained ministers as of the Fall of 2012 in Prescott Arizona.
Another way that this is "not my Grandfather's Church" is that he used a Bible as the basis of his teachings, while we are of the "Charismata" school; using our hearts for divine inspiration, teachings, healings, prophecy and more, such as Paul mentioned in I Corinthians 12 and 13. Yes, we have psychics, energy healers and even mediums who actively participate and support our services and activities, much like many of the early churches before Rome took over church rule, which lead to General Constantine organized the "Orthodox" church with affirmations, doctrines, creeds and liturgies.
This church rents space in public buildings, similar to what Constantine did, early on. However, in our case, it helps to remember that a church is not only based on what is in our hearts, rather than a book, but also that it is about the people and not a building or finery/ We believe that our treasures are (as Jesus said) in our hearts. And, in the tradition of some of the early churches that still honored God-Goddess in nature, we usually have a pot luck at the change of the seasons.
On Epiphany (January 6th) of 2013, Rev. Martine Kohlenberger, shown in the middle of the above picture, began her process of moving on or "Graduating" beyond our self imposed restrictions of expressing only through a human form. Then, on January 30th she graduated into the Greater Light of Unconditional Love, Living and Light. Martine is now my (and our) angel helping not only with this church, but with one or more channels here on earth in Arizona, to speak in French - her native language. So, these mediums and channels or spirit communicators will be "speaking in tongs", as you can read about in 1st Corinthians.
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| 2012 Ordination of Rev. Debby Taylor, by Revs John & Martine Kohlenberger |
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2017 Update
Throughout 2016, this church has been trending towards being less structured. The gatherings around Jesus were often spur of the moment. Early Christians met in homes and valued different books. Christianity was not well organized before the 4th century, when Constantine and others brought structure to what had before them been very free and unstructured. We continue in the traditions of the early Charismatic churches, but modernized.
Over the lifetime of this church, our speakers have increasingly been sharing ("Witnessing" in Christian terminology) the work of spirit as it has exhibited in their lives. So in 2017 the people that are drawn to our activities, many themselves, have strong mediumistic talents and skills, as Jesus and many in the "holy" family (all were Essenes) did.
So, we will be demonstrating, first among ourselves then in the community, the benefits of not just Bible reading or prayers, but what true spiritual attunement can bring to humanity ... regardless of race, sexual orientation, religious affiliation (or none), political party, or any other man-made separation from the rest of humanity and the family of God-Goddess. We're all one family!
Let's look for what unites us (love is the greatest uniter) reduce the borders, boundaries and barriers and come together (as a UNITED States) so we can and will love one another like the Spiritual Family we all are a part of!
Loving one another is NOT a "Mission Impossible"!
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A Few Added Notes
by Rev. John M. Kohlenberger
In some ways, we resemble the early churches, as they were formed by Jesus' brother James, Paul and others right after the crucifixion. We are charismatic (being inspired by the living spirit instead of reading words from some musty old book). And, like the early churches, we have periodic potlucks. Though many of the early churches had communal feasts once a week, we normally do this quarterly with the change of the seasons.
Though we don't always call each other "brother" and "sister" or kiss upon meeting, as many of the people in the early churches did, you may receive, or share, greetings and hugs at our gatherings. After all, we're all "family", for we're all made of the same stuff, breathe the same air and drink the same (recycled) water. As has been said of old, "In God We Are One" and when you know yourself in spirit, you'll know our oneness ... without loosing your individuality.
Life Is Forever and ever changing, growing in Love!
While our focus is on Inspiration and healing, we see God as being alive within every person, as many of the early church leaders did. Thus, I like to think of this church as something like The First Unorthodox Church of Prescott.
LIFE IS LOVE LIVED!
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| Not deceased, as she still lives in our hearts. |
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Find out more about life, our angel, Martine ... and spirit manifestations, spirit communication, signs of our lived ones and everlasting life as she has been experiencing it at:
http://www.spiritualhealingarts.net/ontheotherside.html
http://www.spiritualhealingarts.net/ontheotherside/themagicbegins.html
http://www.spiritualhealingarts.net/ontheotherside/goinghome.html
http://www.spiritualhealingarts.net/ontheotherside/abovebeyond.html
http://www.spiritualhealingarts.net/ontheotherside/intothelight.html
NOTE: If clicking on these links does not work, you can copy/paste the web addresses into your web browser.
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