Creative Life is a spiritual community in suburban Houston, Texas, teaching and living the Science of Mind, a transformational path first articulated by American philosopher Ernest Shurtleff Holmes (1887-1960).  Biography

Creative Life's Affiliation

We are a member of the Centers for Spiritual Living (formerly known as the United Church of Religious Science), a New Thought spiritual organization founded by Ernest Holmes. Our teaching is called the "Science of Mind", also the title of Holmes's textbook on the subject, and of the monthly magazine published continuously by our organization since 1927.

Our Ministers

Our Beginning

Creative Life began as a study group around a kitchen table. We count our birthdays from the date of our chartering as a church, on October 15, 1985. From three people meeting on Wednesdays, we're now a whole campus of activity, all of it -- then as now -- based in the truth that there is a Power in the Universe greater than we are, yet right where we are, which we can realize and use. Thank you for making the dream a reality for each other and the next new person to walk through our doors.

Our History

In late 1983, two Religious Science practitioners-in-training from Houston's First Church of Religious Science, Jesse Jennings, then age 27, and Jerry Martin, made the decision to start a Science of Mind study group on Houston's north side. After a short time there were a handful in attendance. What began as a book study around the kitchen table in a friends home, expanded into Sunday Services in their living room. Our spiritual base soon outgrew our meeting place and we relocated to a larger venue. By October 1985 we numbered 50 members, and at that time we chartered as The Church of Religious Science: North Houston. It was then that Jesse Jennings made the decision to become a minister. After commuting to Los Angeles for his studies, he received his novitiate license in late 1985 and graduated from Holmes College (now the Holmes Institute) in June, 1986.

That same month we located a permanent home for the Center, where we are still located. Relying on affirmative prayer, and in the early days a kind and patient landlord, we grew and flourished. First, we rented a 4,000-square-foot second floor in an office building, then the whole building, then an adjacent warehouse where we built our Great Hall. In 2007 we purchased all seven acres of the property, and we have grand plans for future conscious, green development. Our physical location presently consists of three buildings comprising about 20,000 square feet, plus parking for about 200 cars. Our Great Hall (where Sunday and Wednesday celebrations are held) and adjoining Builders' Hall were completed in late 2001. A gala opening honoring the volunteers who spent four years building and preparing the facilities, as well as our new youth wing, was held in January, 2002.

Jesse, our founding minister, plus staff minister Marsha Lehman, some other credentialed ministers who call us home, and twenty-four licensed Religious Science practitioners serve over 400 adult members and 115 children who are registered into our Sunday youth programs. In the mid-90's we took on the new name, Creative Life Spiritual Center, to more accurately portray what we teach and how we teach it.

The intent of Creative Life since its inception has been to provide a warm, casual, and authentic environment for people to discover and play in the light of their own God-given spiritual natures, within the context of our Science of Mind teaching. Our Center today comprises Sunday and Wednesday celebration services; a series of Science of Mind classes; dozens of other available classes, workshops and groups; outstanding children's and teen programs; a well-stocked bookstore; and an increasingly larger and more beneficial presence in the community we serve. In 1988 Creative Life was the first Religious Science church outside of California, and one of the first houses of worship of any denomination in Houston, to form a care team specifically for service to people with HIV/AIDS.

Our vision for the future is to keep doing what we do, only deeper, guided by the Indwelling Spirit, and achieved in excellence; to offer inspiring and life-improving activities actually or virtually every hour of the night and day; and to appropriately and effectively tend to the spiritual needs of every person who chooses to widen our circle.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Spiritual Living, with whom we are affiliated, has a rich history all its own, dating back to 1927. For more on this, visit their website at Centers for Spiritual Living.