Editorial March 31, 1962 Issue

Church Prosperity

Helen Wood Bauman

No human institution should be more prosperous than the church, because the church stands for the highest values in human life—the acknowledgment of the Supreme Being and obedience to the moral and spiritual laws that originate in God. In Christian Science we learn that such spiritual activity is true substance. In the measure that church members are spiritually active, both they and the church prosper in harmony as well as financially.

Christ Jesus indicated that the value of one's offerings to the church is measured by the spirit in which they are given rather than by their amount when he commended the poor widow, who threw two mites into the treasury of the temple. Jesus had watched the rich giving much, and he said to his disciples (Mark 12:43, 44), "This poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: for all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living."

This incident can well be a guide to branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, in taking care of their financial obligations. Instead of outlining the amount that each member should give, the churches can leave this decision to the individual members and let them make their donations a matter of demonstrating God's law of abundance. Setting a particular amount for each member to give may have a tendency to reduce the giving of many while at the same time creating a sense of burden in others. Neither result is desirable.

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