Want to be a member?

Suzanne Smedley - The Christian Science Journal June, 2006

When 13-year-old Anna decided to join her local branch church, she wasn’t sure what to expect during the application process. What would she be asked? And what would she say? As it turned out, the whole thing was a lot easier than she thought. Here’s her story . . .

A SMILING ANNA FACES ME on the couch we’ve plunked down on and reels off her weekly activities: school, soccer practice, ballet, piano lessons . . . and church.

Like most of her seventh-grade friends, Anna finds her days are abuzz with homework and extracurricular activities. But for Anna, church is a top priority. In fact, two years ago she decided to join her local branch Church of Christ, Scientist—a decision she says she made on her own, and she says was easy to make.
“I always use Christian Science in my daily life, and it seemed like the right thing to do,” says Anna. I ask what motivated her to join when she turned 12—the age her local branch church takes in new members. “It seemed like a great way to be connected with a lot of other people,” she says. “People who have the same idea of God.”

Today Anna is an active member of her church—and, she suspects, the youngest. In addition to ushering during Wednesday evening testimony meetings (when she doesn’t have an important test the next day), she helps her mom at the Christian Science Reading Room in town, attends church business meetings, and supports church-sponsored activities in the community, such as Christian Science lectures.

“Ushering feels helpful and productive,” says Anna. “And I go to all the quarterly business meetings. It’s fun to vote and help make decisions.”
Although Anna is in her Sunday School class on Sunday mornings, rather than down the hall in “church,” she sees Sunday School as an important part of church—and one that she eagerly supports.

“Going to Sunday School is helpful to the church because we have very few kids in our Sunday School, and it helps keep things going. And I learn so much every week,” she says. “I always think about church in my prayers and support it.”

Anna, who attends an all-girls school during the week, has been going to Sunday School since preschool. Which is to say, she knows everyone at church in her small town of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Even so, when she applied for membership she was a bit intimidated about meeting with the church’s membership committee, which interviews all applicants.

What was the process like? “First I filled out an application form with simple, basic information—more like factual information about myself,” explains Anna. “Then I met with the membership committee, and they interviewed me one Sunday morning before Sunday School.”

“I was like, ‘Mom, what are they gonna ask me?’ I was kinda scared about it,” she admits.But Anna was well prepared to tell the committee what Church means to her. She had also done her homework. “Before meeting with the committee, I studied all the tenets of The Mother Church because it’s helpful to know what you’re coming into—to know the principles that you’re

following,” Anna says. “They could tell I was kinda nervous, and they were so loving and caring that I didn’t feel I needed to try to impress them. I just told them about my healings and how I’ve used Christian Science in my life. And they asked me things like which tenets of Christian Science I liked the most, and why I wanted to be a member. Then I signed the roll book, and everyone was so excited. That made me feel really good.”Not that I want to put her on the spot, but I am curious. “Which tenet do you like best?” I ask.

“I really like the sixth tenet: ‘And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure’ (Manual of The Mother Church, p. 16). When you think about the amazing things that Jesus did, and how he was always so calm and able to heal all these people—it’s just an awesome realization when you think about having that same Mind, because Jesus knew God can fulfill any task.”

Anna shared a healing of fear she’d had with the membership committee. It began on a flight home after visiting a camp friend. She’d been on planes “a million times before,” but this time she was flying alone for the first time, and she became upset after hearing the plane was going to be delayed for three hours before takeoff.

“There were tears in my eyes. I tried to read the Bible Lesson from the Full Text Christian Science Quarterly I had with me, but I was too flustered to concentrate. But the thought came to me that I would be comforted,” says Anna.

The previous week in Sunday School, the class had talked about God as being a presence that comforts us and gives us peace—that’s always there for us. No sooner had this thought come to Anna, when the woman in the seat next to her turned to tell her that everything was going to be all right. She offered Anna her cell phone to call her mom. Then the plane took off quickly, and even though her mom was delayed in picking her up, Anna was calm and poised.“I wasn’t upset or anything. I just started writing in my journal about the weekend I’d had with my friend and how much fun it was—and about the incident on the plane. It was great because I just got this idea that I would be comforted, and then everything was perfect.”

Anna clearly feels the comforting arms of The Mother Church embracing her, as well. She says that when she’s eating breakfast, she enjoys reading the Christian Science magazines that the Church publishes—especially, she says, the articles by teens or people in college. “There aren’t that many Christian Scientists in the world, so it’s cool to know you can be unique and still fit in with everyone in the world.”

Through reading the Christian Science Sentinel and Journal, she became interested in also joining The Mother Church in Boston. “I was reading about all these amazing healings that people in Africa and all these places were having, and they were just astounding. I thought it would be really cool to be part of a church organization that supports that healing work. And also to be linked to people—other Christian Scientists¬—even though I don’t know them.”

“Because after all,” says Anna, “church is like a community. It’s not just about doing the church work, like being a treasurer and taking care of the finances and everything.” As she says she’s learned from church membership—Church is about loving and caring for one another.

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