I'VE OFTEN THOUGHT about a passage from the Manual of The Mother Church that mentions the Bible Lesson as "a lesson on which the prosperity of Christian Science largely depends" (p. 31). But isn't it a Lesson on which our own individual well-being largely depends, too? So many healings of physical distress, relationship issues, lack of employment relate back to our own individual study of the Bible Lesson.

Over the years, I've read and heard of the gratitude people feel for the Bible Lessons. I've rejoiced with people who have been healed by one line from a Lesson and others whose lives have turned around because one section so stood out to them.

I started working for the Board of Trustees of The Christian Science Publishing Society, and the Bible Lesson Committee in 1989, when there was just one product we managed and supported the Christian Science Quarterly. The Quarterly was published in 14 different languages and contained three months of citations from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy.

Since then, we've come a long way in both the numbers of editions of the Bible Lesson, and the numbers of formats offered. Now we have printed text versions of the citations from the Bible and Science and Health in both regular and large print (sometimes known as the "full text"), audio cassettes and CDs, television and radio programs, and two Web-based products. And there will be a brand new product coming in January a Spanish full text, or study edition, which is the new name being used for all full text versions of the Lesson beginning in 2008.

With the advent of the first Concord Study Package around 1988, students of Christian Science were discovering many new ways to study an electronic form of the Bible, the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, and the Christian Science Hymnal. Small businesses were popping up to provide printouts of the Bible Lesson to anyone who wanted to subscribe. It became easy to key in the ciations for a week's Lesson on a computer and hit "print." And there you had it—a take-along Bible Lesson to meet your needs.

The Mother Church started hearing from members who wanted a text version of the Bible Lesson produced by The Christian Science Publishing Society—something that could be referred to for a healing idea before going into a business meeting or while sitting in traffic.

Our first publication of a full text was created back in February 1991, to support the spiritual study of American troops in the first Gulf War. It was published as a little pocket edition. By April of that year, we were ready to launch a study edition for a wider audience.

Over the years we've changed the style of the full text. We went to facing to facing pages, changed the size of the booklet, and added a large print format.

Before we even had the full text version, the Publishing Society produced a television program similar to the one we have today where one or two people read the text of the Bible Lesson aloud. Branch Churches subscribe to this broadcast service and purchase airtime in their own communities.

Audio recordings of the Lessons are also produced, which air on radio stations across the country. They're available for subscription in monthly CD and cassette formats.

With the Web becoming a popular medium for communicating, the Bible Lessons became electronic. The first version, eBibleLesson, combined everything one could want—you could read the lesson, print it out, read it in context (by opening it into the electronic versions of the entire text of the Bible and Science and Health), watch a video, or listen to an audio version. The Bible Lesson could even be downloaded onto an iPod or MP3 player.

Following on the heels of BibleLesson was my Bible Lesson, a youth-oriented product that has become popular with young people and youthful thinkers, my Bible Lesson is the first version to add definitions, other Bible translations, explanations of Bible stories, and thought-provoking questions on Bible Lesson material.

While the staff of the Bible Lesson Products Department has many products to oversee now, we love and value each Lesson in each version as it passes through our hands. And I like to think of the role of the Bible Lesson Committee as Christian Science practitioners on the case, supporting the birth of each new infant idea through prayer. Once the Lesson has been created, the proofreaders, designers, and composition staff are like Christian Science nurses. We nurture and care for the idea of the Bible Lesson as it makes its way through the processes of typesetting, proofreading, printing, and mailing. Then, the Lesson is ready and sent on its way—meeting needs of individuals, communities, and the world.

We hope you, as readers of the Bible Lessons, feel the love that supports the Lessons from their inception until they roll off the presses and into your hearts and homes. icss