What happened when our church woke up

Ernest Gerard DiMarzio

Our local church membership was shrinking, and while faced with that challenge, we toyed with referring to what was going on as downsizing. But instead of accepting that, we decided to "size up" our situation and take a good look at ourselves.

We found that while we as members were all very comfortable with our surroundings and conveniences, other people in the community could not find us very easily. We were hiding our light! Christ Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). How could we share the precious gift of God's love and the healing power of Christ with anyone by being hidden? A visitor to our church helped open our eyes. She had great difficulty in locating our church and wasn't afraid to tell us about it, lovingly but frankly!

We also realized that a nest egg, which had helped to defray the church's expenses, was diminishing, and that unless we had some very rapid growth we could be "out of business" in just a few years. This, too, made us seriously "size up" our church's mission, purpose, objectives, and goals. We knew we could trust this statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (p. 494). We also pondered this description of Church: "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.