There are now thousands of Protestant Christian denominations, and I can imagine that most of them started with the same dream, which goes something like this:

This church (or denomination) will finally be the true Church that God intended. We have learned from the mistakes of the earlier denominations, and we are doing such and such to make sure that we don’t fall into the same problem. We have a unique characteristic that will enable us to bring the real truth to the world.

This has been going on for 500 years, and most of the denominations have had something special that allowed them to make an impact for a certain period of time, but they all seem to drift away from the original vision and energy, and settle into something less than ideal. Then out of them comes a new leader, who has a vision and starts a new denomination, and the cycle goes on again. It all started when the first Reformers were unable to stay in the Catholic Church, and so they left and started new churches. Many of them believed that the Catholic Church was so diseased that it was incurable, and on its death bed. However, now 500 years later, many of the problems that the original Protestants had with the Catholic Church have been corrected, and she is still very much alive.

There are still problems in the Catholic Church, as there always have been, but I am now of the strong conviction that the solution is not one of starting a new denomination. So I’ve decided to come back to the mother Church, find my place of ministry there, and do my part to make her stronger and healthier, and a source of life to the world.