What is God asking our church to be and do today?

The Book of Acts records that after the stoning of Stephen, who was one of the early Christians, a great persecution arose against the young Christian church in Jerusalem, and most believers scattered throughout the region, fleeing for their lives (see Acts 8:1).

Regardless of this crisis, Acts continues with accounts of these followers of Christ Jesus sharing their new faith, making new disciples, and sowing the seeds of new churches wherever they went. What in many ways must have felt like a daunting situation—fleeing the familiar and heading into the unknown—was, in fact, a step in an extraordinary expansion of the church that gave Christianity a foothold across the entire Roman Empire.

What can we learn today from these early Christians? Can modern-day challenges to Christian Science branch churches become catalysts for expansion?

In my six years of work for the Church Activities Department of The Mother Church, I have spoken with many members of branch churches whose work has been challenged by a slower-moving but equally consequential challenge to Church—specifically, a shrinking membership. Challenges include too few members with too much work to do, difficulty in meeting the requirements in the Manual of The Mother Church to be a church or society, and in many cases buildings that are oversized for the congregation and expensive for them to maintain.

There is no time, place, or culture where this institution of Church cannot minister to the spiritual and temporal needs that come into contact with it.

These conversations have been opportunities to think together about how Church as an eternal, spiritual idea is made tangible in the uninterrupted continuity of the human institution—an institution which, when rightly understood, is as invulnerable to decline as the spiritual idea that animates it.

This spiritual idea of Church is defined, in part, in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy as: “The structure of Truth and Love” (p. 583). This idea is, in turn, expressed in church organizations whose activities are permeated by Truth and Love, and that demonstrate their utility by elevating, rousing, and healing their members and community. This spiritual idea is infinite, so there is no time, place, or culture where this institution cannot minister to the spiritual and temporal needs that come into contact with it. This capacity to adapt flows from divine Love, for the Church idea, like divine Love itself, is “impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals” (Science and Health, p. 13).

The Scriptures offer many examples of the power of Love’s adaptation and bestowals to protect and guide church institutions (in any form) in times of need. The children of Israel, pursued by Egyptian armies, found the Red Sea parted before them; Elijah, hiding in a cave and thinking he was the last follower of God, heard God’s voice directing him to thousands of others; Jesus, facing opposition to his healing work, triumphed through his selfless love over the malice he faced; Peter was delivered from prison through the prayers of church members; and Paul, establishing churches throughout the Roman Empire, offered practical guidance in his letters that helped each meet the unique challenges they faced.

These narratives reveal something of the dual story of the Church idea and the church institution, and show how the complete, inviolable, and eternal nature of the divine idea protects each spiritual expression of the institution, guiding its adaptation to keep it an active, healing force in the community and protecting it from forces that would oppose it.

The adaptable nature of this dual unfoldment really crystallized for me through the light that Science and Health throws on the account of Jesus’ disciples seeing him after his resurrection, and, after a night of fishing with no results, suddenly finding their nets full of fish (see John 21:1–14). Science and Health explains: “Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into newness of life as Spirit” (p. 35).

I was familiar with the biblical account of the exceptional catch of fish and the quote from Science and Health. However, when I read this soon after starting my work with the Church Activities Department, the word anew really caught my attention. As I pondered the disciples’ experience, I saw how a fresh discernment of a spiritual idea will always lift human consciousness, and from the new vantage point, new views of Love’s adaptation and bestowals become visible in human experience.

Being open to such newness is a mindset I generally find among the members of branch churches who are successfully pushing back against the claims of decline. They are reaching for and finding new glimpses of the spiritual idea of Church; and at the same time, like the disciples in their boats, the inspiration they feel reveals something new about how to proceed with their work.

How the latter plays out is unique for each branch church and society, but in almost every case it comes down to members praying with some form of the question: What is God asking our church to do and be today?

Since the structure of Church is Love, a membership might examine how they are living out love.

This question demands prayer and puts on hold the human tendency to focus on the past or the future. It shifts effort from being outcome-focused to first seeking prayerful communion with God. It involves humbly drawing close to God, putting down fear and outlining, and carefully listening for His guidance.

Reaching this state of receptivity and obedience usually requires some conscious self-examination on a membership’s part. Since the structure of Church is Truth, branch church members might examine how they are living truthfulness. Are the bylaws and business processes right-sized for the present number of members, and not legacies from decades ago? Is the membership faithful about rotation in office, honest democratic processes, transparent financial reports, and church discussions that welcome each individual’s insights?

Since the structure of Church is also Love, a membership might examine how they are living out love. Are visitors’ impressions and needs prioritized over members’ habits and comfort, so visitors don’t feel like church is for insiders? One way to approach this is to think through the experience of visitors from start to finish. When visitors first think about attending, will they easily find the necessary information online or in local media? On arrival, will it be clear where to park and which is the entry door? During the service, is there ample guidance so visitors will know what’s going on and what’s happening next? After the service, if visitors are seeking an extended conversation, are members willing to change their plans and go out for a meal?

Working through these questions and being open to newness creates space for Love’s “adaptation and bestowals.” Church activities may end up looking different from what they used to, but this aligns with Bible experience and is the natural outcome of “discerning Christ anew on the shore of time”—showing the world our church’s contemporary relevance and not giving the suggestion of decline any platform.

Here’s an example. After fifty years of growth, a branch church in the United States then experienced two decades of precipitous decline. There were few people to hold office, and the great majority of seats in the church’s large auditorium were empty during services.

Then a new church member, grateful for recent healings of addiction and illness, which had brought him back to Christian Science and to church, was attending his first church business meeting. Surprised by the bickering and fighting between members, he pointed out the contradiction between their behavior and the teachings in the Bible and the Christian Science textbook.

Members agreed that something needed to change, and that they would start with prayer. They began to pray individually and to hold weekly meetings to pray collectively and talk about what their individual prayers were revealing. Through this process, members began to share honestly what their prayers had revealed about their church experiences—how they saw burdens rather than joy, routine rather than inspiration, and how at times they didn’t even want to be there.

As it became clear that their going-through-the-motions version of church organization was a counterfeit of genuine Church, two things happened. First, members were awakened to how a rote approach to church had misled them in their use of time and energy and had undermined their unity and harmony. Second, members became determined to recover the inspired sense of Church and to discover new, divinely guided means through which their church could retake its vital place in the community.

Anchored by their metaphysical meetings, the membership began taking practical steps to make some changes. They right-sized their building and organizational structure to fit the number of members, selling their big edifice, changing from a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, to a Christian Science society, and revising their bylaws to reflect the kind of church they wanted to be today, not what they had been years ago when the bylaws were written.

They rented a spot in the city’s central commercial district and used proceeds from the building sale to hire a forty-hour-per-week Reading Room librarian. The Reading Room’s work and products were welcomed in the community, and even the mayor of the city came to the Reading Room’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.

When the owner sold the building a couple of years later, the membership began thinking about a permanent church home. With prayer and patience, they eventually constructed a combined church and Reading Room on their community’s busy main street. Conveniently, the property included a garden that was already in use by the community as a space for prayer and reflection. The services were adjusted to reflect the local culture by being quite informal, while still following the order of service in the Church Manual. The membership began participating in the community’s large street fairs and annual events, which brought and still bring many hundreds of children and adults into the Reading Room and church.

Over the ten succeeding years the membership has been watchful to protect its commitment to newness—to stay alert to the question of what their church should look like today, keeping it fresh and current so it will be recognizable to the community as a resource worthy of their interest and investigation. We are “ready to change and adapt at a moment’s notice,” one member noted. Through these efforts, a spirit of love, commitment, and unity permeates their activities. Their membership has grown and continues to stay ahead of the claims of decline.

Not all the examples I’ve encountered in my six years of work have followed the same map. Naturally, each branch’s experience is individual. The prayer: “What is God asking our church to do and be today?” has been answered in many different ways. But the sincere willingness to “discern Christ anew” and leave the old for the new—like the believers who fled Jerusalem so many centuries ago—always opens thought to Love’s “adaptation and bestowals,” which reveal the unbroken continuity of church and open a way forward.