Article April 2, 1966 Issue

Faithful Church Attendance

JOSEPH TRAVIS HOLLEMAN, JR.

One Sunday morning while still serving in the Armed Forces, I was in my barracks getting dressed to go to church. I was going to the Christian Science church located in a nearby city. A good friend, a young lieutenant, dropped by and asked where I was going. When I said I was getting ready to go to church, this young man then asked, "Do you get anything out of it?"

This question was not asked facetiously or carelessly. It was asked earnestly and sincerely, and it was obvious from his question that my friend's own experience in attending his church had been that he got nothing from it. Quite a few years have passed since this incident occurred, yet it is still vivid in my memory. That my friend was a well-educated, well-mannered, and morally good person makes his question a thought-provoking one indeed, and even the regular churchgoer might well ask himself this same searching question.

As a group, Christian Scientists are very faithful in their church attendance. Usually, such things as inclement weather and outside interests and attractions do not keep the church member from the service; but how much of this faithfulness is prompted by pure habit or just the feeling that it is the thing to do rather than a sincere desire to commune with and to learn more of God? Perfunctory presence in a place called church cannot bring one closer to God, and this fact becomes very clear as we begin to comprehend Church in the light of the teachings of Christian Science.

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