Article May 26, 1986 Issue

"The same care one for another"

JENNIFER S. YOUNGMAN

Consider this: a church member's marriage crumbles or the member's family is facing some other challenge, so he or she feels too embarrassed, too unworthy, too ashamed, to attend church. Is it the church's responsibility to keep communication going? If so, how may fellow members nurture without imposing?

We sometimes long for increased membership in our branch Churches of Christ, Scientist; yet do we let current members slip away unnoticed? Shouldn't we cherish what we have? Paul did. In those early days of Christianity, the apostle's letter to the church at Corinth touchingly presented the value he placed on every individual. He posed this question: "If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?" And a bit further, he cautions, "The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee."^{See I Cor. 12:12-27.}

Do we by thoughtlessness or even critical comparison allow a member to feel unworthy of representing Christian Science? We need each other. Does a Reader have no need of humble listeners in the church service? How fruitful would an executive board's activities be without supportive church members?

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