BROKEN CISTERNS: FROM THE CRACK HOUSE TO THE CHURCH HOUSE: THE SAME THIRST, THE SAME SAVIOR

by Mitchell Dean

Just as the human body can’t survive without water, the soul cannot survive without God. Deprive the body of water long enough, and it will die. The same is true of the soul that rejects the living water of Christ; it dies, not just physically, but also spiritually. In the Bible, God says through Jeremiah, “My people have committed two they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and dug out cisterns for themselves—broken cisterns that can hold no water.”


The broken cisterns we carve out for ourselves look different for each of us. For some, it’s success. For others, it’s religion. For some, it’s sex, drugs, or the next big thrill. You can be lost in a crack house or lost in a church house. The situations may differ, but the diagnosis is the empty hearts searching for satisfaction apart from Christ.


Broken Cisterns is an inspirational book that magnifies Christ as the only antidote for sin and the soul’s search for lasting satisfaction. In Him alone can the soul truly survive and be fulfilled. This book invites you on a journey—an experiential dive into the broken cisterns we so often pursue, and a deeper encounter with the bottomless, all-satisfying well of Jesus Christ.

80 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 8, 2025

About the author

Mitchell Dean is Professor of Public Governance and Head of the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at the Copenhagen Business School. He is author of the best-selling Governmentality, a title that has been cited in the first edition of Foucault’s lectures and the Oxford English Dictionary.