KELSO, Mo. -- In the era of megachurches that cater to congregations of thousands, a handful of people gather here in a small office on Sunday mornings to talk with each other about God.

Seeking purity they study a Bible translated from Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. They read from "A Course in Miracles," a book which purports to have been dictated by Jesus and has received Oprah Winfrey's imprimatur.

They say they are looking for something more than whatever they've already been told about God and Christ. "We're after enlightenment," said the Rev. Tim Morgan.

Morgan, a hypnotherapist who also tunes pianos, calls this converted house Soul-Esteem Center II. He doesn't call it a church and doesn't take an offering because he has not applied for not-for-profit status.

Most of Kelso's 526 souls attend St. Augustine Catholic Church. Sunday, four people from Cape Girardeau attended a service at Soul-Esteem Center II, which included readings and discussions, a meditation and a concluding prayer. The group included Terra Wiggins' 7-year-old daughter Allisa, who soon fell asleep in her chair.

"A Course in Miracles" is being taught at the Soul-Esteem Center II in Kelso, Mo.

Wiggins, a medical assistant who recently relocated, tried another church before deciding to come here a month ago. "I started asking questions real soon, and they didn't like it," Wiggins said. "... I want to hear what I feel is the truth."

Morgan delights in wowing listeners with esoteric knowledge. He teaches about the Nag Hammadi library, also known as the Gnostic Gospels, a collection of third- and fourth-century writings found by Egyptian peasants in 1945 that include the only complete version of the Gospel of Thomas. These gospels assert that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.

He reads from the "Pistis Sophia," a Gnostic Gospel relating Jesus' teachings to his disciples in the 11 years after his ascension.

Morgan teaches the personality system called the Enneagram and has written an unpublished manuscript interpreting the character types expressed in The Lord's Prayer through "A Course in Miracles."

The center is associated with the St. Louis-based Soul-Esteem Center headed by the Rev. Phylis Clay Sparks. The spiritual community is an offshoot of the Church of Religious Science founded by Dr. Ernest Holmes, an adherent of the New Thought movement inspired by the Transcendentalists.

Terra Wiggins read a passage from "A Course in Miracles" with Coralie Robertson, center, and Carol Enderle on Sunday at the Soul-Esteem Center II in Kelso, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

"We're focused on the oneness of all life, the healing power of love and the co-creative relationship between God and the individual," Morgan said.

Soul-Esteem does not discount the Bible most people use. "I have no problem at all to say this is the inerrant, infallible written word of God," Morgan said. "Our problem as a man is to see through the allegories, to see through the references, understand the cultural values they bespeak. In Soul-Esteem we're after the spiritual content."

Judgments seemed on everyone's mind Sunday. Soul-Esteem teaches that everyone is connected through God, making judgments about others more difficult to make. "What you do to others you do to yourself," Wiggins said.

Retiree Carol Enderle thinks almost all churches are based on fear. This one is based on love, she said. "When you get away from fear you have more peace."

Directing the Soul-Esteem Center II and hypnotherapy dovetail, Morgan said. He thinks of himself doing the same healing work Jesus and the Oracles did. "I do not proselytize. I am waiting for people to come in to study New Thought. I am not about to buttonhole somebody like Socrates. I am too busy being a therapist."

The Rev. Tim Morgan read from "A Course in Miracles" with Coralie Robertson, left, and Carol Enderle on Sunday at the Soul-Esteem Center II in Kelso, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

Besides certification as a hypnotherapist, Morgan has a doctorate in religious counseling and a doctorate in biblical theology from Almeda University, a distance-learning institution in Boise, Idaho.

Coralie Robertson, a retired English and Spanish teacher, belongs to a mainstream Methodist church but has been exploring the ideas offered at Soul-Esteem Center II for the past year. "I'm not separating from the church but pursuing more," she said.

Soul-Esteem identifies itself as a metaphysical church in the sense that its explorations go beyond literal interpretations and boundaries. On Sunday Morgan quoted the Buddha who, when asked if he was God, said "No, I am awake."

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137