Article October 20, 1917 Issue

Efficient Service

NELL FLASH

Before accepting service in any capacity in our church work, it becomes necessary to understand thoroughly the fundamental requirements of that service and to be familiar with the nature and significance of church relations. A careful, prayerful study of the Manual of The Mother Church, together with Mrs. Eddy's definition of church (Science and Health, p. 583), gives us a basis whereon to build. We who have the privilege of serving in the least way upon committees should not look upon it as gratuitous work, but as an opportunity to pay in some small measure for something already received from Truth. We should never forget that some one labored to place the cause of Christian Science before the world, up to the point where it was first presented to us, and that as we, too, conscientiously do our work we are preparing the way for our brother man. Ours is an endless labor of love, and Mrs. Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 100), "Love's labors are not lost."

In the degree that Christian Science is a business it should be placed upon our highest concept of the demands of Principle. We of the business world know that prompt and faithful attendance, accuracy, and speed have been the foundation stones of our success. It is an important reason indeed that keeps any one of us from his or her office. We soon learn that the lack of accuracy or speed leaves us at the foot of the ladder, and if we possess one quality in the way of efficiency we must strive until we have acquired others. To be satisfied with anything less than perfection means to be left in the sea of mediocrity. Entering into unnecessary conversation and having superfluous telephone calls are conditions early eliminated in our business careers.

When we accept the privilege of serving on a church committee, our cause is our employer, and our service adds to or detracts from the progress of our cause according to our realization of the spiritual meaning of church service. As we review the work done by the previous committee, mortal mind has a strong tendency to condemn it, pick it to pieces, smile at its apparent inadequacy, and be quite self-righteous in the desire to tear it down and destroy it. We forget that those who labored before us probably worked under different conditions and circumstances, and that because of their untiring efforts we are able to build better, profiting by their possible mistakes, and realizing that there is in reality but one church, no matter how many differing human conceptions there may be concerning it.

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