Living Church February 2, 2026 Issue

We can pray about “aging church” concerns

Attraction to Church has no age designation.

Michele Newport

Sitting at the back of the church auditorium, I watched people walking down the aisle and finding seats in preparation for the service. My branch Church of Christ, Scientist, has a rather large auditorium, and we have what might be called a good-sized congregation. So, as the seats filled up, I saw many people of different backgrounds, races, and so on. But one thing seemed common to most of the congregants: their age group. Where were the younger people? It seemed to me that there was no one from the Millennial or Gen Z groups.

I’ve always found it encouraging that Church is defined spiritually in the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, in part, as “the structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle” (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 583). And I’ve noted that the word structure can be a verb, not just a noun. As a verb, it refers to actively building something rather than to a finished structure. So to me, this part of the definition indicates that Church is always enlarging, expanding, and unfolding as a spiritual idea. In Mind, God, it is already and forever a complete idea, but it is continuously “blooming” in our individual and collective understanding and experience, just as a rosebud is a complete idea but must unfold petal by petal to reveal its full fragrance and beauty.

Church is always enlarging, expanding, and unfolding as a spiritual idea.