Some great quotes I read today...

"Judge not the future advancement of Christian Science by the steps already taken, lest you yourself be condemned for failing to take the first step." -- Mary Baker Eddy (S&H 458)

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"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."  Lewis Caroll - Alice in Wonderland.

How I Experience Church Services - expanded

When I walk into a CS service I come prepared to be healed, maybe to heal others, or maybe just to learn more about healing. I love seeing all the people because I know each one is here to learn and become better healers. I appreciate the effort it took for them to get there. I also like to see the church alive and active. I enjoy this time before the service to pray and love others.
1. When the service starts the first thing that happens is two people walk stiffly out onto the podium. One of them stands up stiffly and reads a welcome to me. At this point it would be nice to know who this person is, what they're doing there. It's a wonderful time to show real love to the congregation. Look at the people, give them a moment to see that you love them. The relationship between the reader and the congregation is extremely important. The only thing impersonal in the service should be the absolute Truth of Christian Science. And that’s already done. The people must not be impersonal. That’s gross. People are an efficient means for God to communicate his love for his children. The reader has the perfect opportunity to show us that love. When someone loves you they don’t show it by reading to you, unless it’s a mother reading to her child at bed time. So think of the reader as God’s way of reading his story to His children. They can express this by looking in your eyes, listening to you, touching you gently, being your friend. A reader must not be more obedient to following the traditional service structure than to touching the hearts and minds of the congregation.
2. Before any introduction this “leader” reads a 100 year old poem (assume it's Mrs. Eddy's hymn). I like to read the hymns at home on my own time, but in the church service something clearer and not so complex might help get my thought on the right spiritual track. Then we sing the same thing that was read. This seems silly, and all this reading is turning my ears off. Why is this done, and only one verse, no one does that. Don’t read the hymns. The Mother Church eliminated this. We can read the hymns on our own time.
While I love to sing, I don't understand the symbolism or the flowery language of many of the hymns. Sometimes it can be nice to sing an older song, but that’s all there is, nothing new. It’s like being in a time warp. I don't mind the old fashioned music too much, but I’d love to sing to some modern music too.
The sound of the organ grates on my nerves. I feel that instrument is sucking all the joy and spirit right out of the songs. Why such an irritating instrument? An organ can’t do justice to most music. It’s intended for religious music and has strict rules about how music should be played. I don’t personally know anyone who would choose to listen to an organ over any other instrument. An organ once in a while might be a fun change of pace, but there are no other options. The music is definitely turning people away, for me it doesn’t help.
NOTE: Mrs. Eddy’s hymns can be sung at least once a month, but every week is overkill. It’s based on a letter she wrote over 100 years ago and it’s in Misc. not the manual.
3. Then “I shall now read scriptural selections”. No one talks that way. I don't even know what the topic of the lesson is. The leader of the service hasn't addressed the congregation in any way. Who is this person, they care a lot about making sure they communicate the reverence for the formality of the Bible. The readings are often confusing, and done in a stiff, long winded and pious way. So, right off the bat, I'm feeling uncared for and left out.
Let the scriptural selection be one or two passages that give an introduction to the service. It should set tone for the sermon. We’ve got the lesson coming up and that’s a lot of reading. Less reading will help keep people’s attention. It must also be very clear, from a modern translation, and done with Joy and in the spirit of love and communication. The Bible is a gift from God that should always touch our hearts and minds, not put a wall up between the reader and the congregation.
4. The Lord’s prayer. It’s familiar to everyone. It’s a gift from Jesus to us. However think about how this must look to a newcomer. She starts saying the prayer and all of a sudden everyone stops and the leader reads something they call the spiritual interpretation. She didn’t even know it was coming. She might even find herself embarrassed to continue praying when everyone else pauses. Why do Christian Scientists chop it up? Again a notice from Mrs. Eddy in Misc., not in the Manual.  It could be made clearer and simpler by just reading Mrs. Eddy’s Spiritual sense after we all finish the Lord’s prayer. It makes so much more sense. And is much less confusing. That way the Lord’s prayer is intact and Mrs. Eddy’s interpretation can be heard as a complete prayer.
5. So when they get to the "announcements" section I think finally someone is talking to me and will show me some love. But no, the leader reads how glad they are that I'm there, they inform me of the time of the Wednesday service, let me know that children are in the Sunday School right now, and the address of the store where I can buy literature. Some weeks they let me know when a lecture is coming up, and it's such a relief, because I know they're reading something fresh and relevant.
Announcements should be a time for the reader to show they are a loving member of the community, like a facilitator or conductor. They should look up at the congregation and speak to them. They may reference some of the activity that’s gone on during the week. It’s not necessary to tell people every week that there are no children in the church service. Announcements are new information that everyone in the service, newcomer or other, should hear about. All other information about other church offerings can be referenced in the brochure. If they’re a newcomer they should be told in person about the Wed. meetings, the reading room, and the Sunday school after the church service. There might even be an invitation from the desk to join someone after the service for a newcomer lunch. We might hear about some of the amazing testimonies from Wed. night. Or a service project that some of the Sunday school students participated in. Welcome new members by name, let them stand up and be greeted. Or if there’s nothing new, don’t say anything, just sit down. The weekly repetition of irrelevant information is tedious and thoughtless. It seems unintelligent to me.
6. Then the soloist sings songs that I usually don’t particularly enjoy. But I really don’t enjoy them when accompanied by the irritating organ music. And I think what a waste. This would be the time to introduce some wonderful inspiring music, something that leads my thought to God. Music can do that. What a lost opportunity. There is so much great, inspiring music out there there’s no excuse for the music to be what it is in our churches in the 21st century. Why sing such antiquated poetry and music?
NOTE: At this point I don't understand why we did any of that, It doesn't uplift me, it sort of annoys me or bores me. Why so much reading? I came to the service to take home a healing idea, maybe even get an aha moment that heals. I just can't get past the lack of connection, the readers and the soloist have a wall up, they may smile, but they aren't smiling at me. I'm not fond of poetry or organs or ancient language and that's all that's happened so far in the first 20 minutes of the service. Nothing that I can relate to. It seems very religious and formal. I think that if they were thinking of my needs, it never would have occurred to them to do any of that the way that they did.
7. The next thing that happens is they say “friends” then make a long speech with lots of big words that are very foreboding and harsh…something about how these impersonal books are the divine authority of God. That’s not how I talk to my friends. I didn’t understand half the words, and it’s read every week. I just don’t get it and it turns me off. I don’t need a lecture about what I’m about to hear every week. It doesn’t make me feel the pastor is loving, it makes me feel like I’m in trouble. Canonical, corroborating, spiritual import and application... I don’t know what they’re talking about. This isn't in the Manual outside the "present order of service" in the appendix. Don’t read this. Maybe reference it, and invite everyone to read it in the front of the quarterly, or paraphrase it in modern language.
8. The readers finally introduce the subject, and then suddenly, without warning, everyone around me is reading every other passage. These passages aren't a conversation between the reader and the congregation, it's just that the people are sharing the reading responsibility. I focus so much on reading properly, I don't bother trying to figure out what's being read. It's distracting and strange and illogical and religious. I really don’t understand this activity. I would have the readers read the whole thing or have the congregation read the whole thing, but I don’t see the purpose of both switching on and off. This is done in other Christian churches and is a traditional religious activity.
9. The lesson is the part where we finally we hear Mrs. Eddy's explanation of Christian Science. No more ritual, but the juicy stuff. I don't read the King James Bible at home, I didn't major in English Lit in college, I don't follow the language at all. I have a hard time understanding why they don't read in the translation I use at home. It can make the message so clear, why put up the road block of difficult language. It comes across as thoughtless or selfish or closed minded. At home I read from a translation that makes the message so clear. Here, many of the passages don't make sense. I have to struggle to remember what the section was about so I can follow along. Why don't they want the message clear in the church service? Why be so stubborn and old fashioned. It seems like a fundamentalist thing to shun modern translations. Anyway I struggle to listen, but it's hard to focus because I don't want to work that hard. To be honest I'm always relieved when it's over, it's just too hard.
Obviously I’m saying the lesson should be read from the best translation to get the message across clearly. People are not accustomed to listening to reading for long periods of time, so it should be simple and clear, not poetic and flowery. This generally requires the use of more than one translation. So reading from a print-out or a computer screen would work here. Mrs. Eddy didn’t want her book read from a transcript (Manual by-law), but I think it would be ok to do this with the Bible. The Publishing Society doesn't even sell a Readers edition of the Bible and more.
10. I also think the first reader must stop interrupting the sermon (after the first section of the Bible) to announce again that they’re reading from Mrs. Eddy’s book. We get it. It’s distracting and unnecessary. It's another aspect of the present order of services in the Appendix.
11. The collection is fine, but I would like to introduce the idea of Tithing time. 10% of the service is 6 minutes. What about having 6 minutes of communion prayer for the world here, and take up collection as people leave the service. Or have the members pay dues, or get the money to keep the church going some other creative way.
12. I love the Scientific Statement of Being. I think every Christian Scientist should know it. I like the idea of everyone praying aloud together.
13. The correlative scripture had never made any sense to me until I heard it in the JB Phillips translation. The KJV really isn’t clear.
14. I enjoy the benediction. Some weeks it seems like it's one of the only times when there's an element of honest good will in the whole service.
Now this is just how I experience the service. I expect it's completely different for other people. But how many people are experiencing the service like me? Why can't there be an option so our needs are being met by the CS community? I want to love going to church every week. And trying to heal me of these opinions by making me feel bad about them isn’t going to change my mind. These things I want to change aren’t in the manual by-laws. These are tradition and religiouosity and they can be changed if someone were willing.

If it's not a bylaw is it "in the Manual"

I’ve been thinking about “the present  order of services” in the Appendix of the Manual. I was  trying to figure out if it’s strictly “in the Manual” if it isn’t a bylaw. So I looked up the definition of  Appendix: Any literary matter added to a book, but not necessarily essential to its completeness, and thus distinguished from supplement, which is intended to supply deficiencies and correct inaccuracies. …Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary 1913. 

It seems the addition of the "present order of services" is meant to be a helpful informational resource rather than a rule to be followed strictly. While I may not want to change the order, I do like the idea that this is one more aspect of church that can be opened up to meet the needs of the community. I like the idea of using it as a guideline for our order rather than an order for our guidelines.

Why the church grew 100 years ago...

Pulpit and Press 29:8-8 np
Last Sunday I gave myself the pleasure of attending the service held in Copley Hall. The spacious apartment was thronged with a congregation whose remarkable earnestness impressed the observer. There was no straggling of late-comers. Before the appointed hour every seat in the hall was filled and a large number of chairs pressed into service for the overflowing throng. The music was spirited, and the selections from the Bible and from Science and Health were finely read by Judge Hanna. Then came his sermon, which dealt directly with the command of Christ to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons." In his admirable discourse Judge Hanna said that while all these injunctions could, under certain conditions, be interpreted and fulfilled literally, the special lesson was to be taken spiritually — to cleanse the leprosy of sin, to cast out the demons of evil thought. The discourse was able, and helpful in its suggestive interpretation.
THE CHURCH MEMBERS
Later I was told that almost the entire congregation was composed of persons who had either been themselves, or had seen members of their own families, healed by Christian Science treatment; and I was further told that once when a Boston clergyman remonstrated with Judge Hanna for enticing a separate congregation rather than offering their strength to unite with churches already established — I was told he replied that the Christian Science Church did not recruit itself from other churches, but from the graveyards!

Proof of Its Utility

Church: “The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.” Manual by MBE

Afford means to produce results. Proof means conclusive evidence and demonstration. Utility is usefulness and value. So in order to be called a church we need to be producing conclusive evidence that Christian Science is useful and has value. How on earth can we do this? Luckily we have the obvious profitableness of healing the sick, and we can measure that by testimonies. So one way to check whether we’re affording proof of our utility is to have continuous healings and testimonies.

But is it enough for a few to be healed? What about elevating the human race? We need to somehow measure how much we have we helped the human race by looking at the fruits of our efforts. Does our community, through interaction with our church, have a better apprehension of spiritual ideas, and have they seen the demonstration of divine Science? Are they living lives freer from error than before? I think we all must look at our own church work and ask ourselves if we’ve done this for anyone outside of our church membership.

If we’ve handed someone a Science and Health or had a wonderful sharing conversation in our work in the Reading Room or at a lecture is that the proof of our utility? How can we measure the impact that conversation had on the human race? Jesus had some conversations that we know about. We know the impact of those conversations because 2000 years later we’re still learning from them. Jesus’ church grew because people craved what he had to offer. They showed up to learn more about the Christ message. If the people he transformed in one conversation just went on with their lives we would never have heard about it. It was because these people gathered together in the early churches and shared with each other that we know what happened to them.

I can’t help thinking that some of the proof of its utility must be seen in the health of the church. If the church had been producing value then it wouldn’t be declining in membership over the past 50 years. Its Sunday school students wouldn’t be leaving in droves. And the world wouldn’t be so unfamiliar with us that they confuse us with Scientology on a regular basis.

So, bottom line, we have not been a church by Mrs. Eddy’s definition for decades. How then can we claim that we can’t make changes to our church because Mrs. Eddy wouldn’t have wanted it? She didn’t define church as a group of people who follow a strict set of rules to the detriment of all else. She focused on results not method in her definition of church, and now it’s time for us to do the same.