From the Directors

The Christian Science Board of Directors

Joining the Church

In some parts of the field there appears to be a tendency toward making the qualifications for branch church membership so rigid and severe as to be almost prohibitive. Worthy applicants are summoned to appear before an examining board or membership committee and put through a course of questioning so rigorous and exacting as to make the experience an ordeal so trying that it is contemplated with dread rather than welcomed with gladness. As a result, many prefer to remain unattached who are wholly eligible, and who should not find confronting them a barrier difficult to cross when they are ready to become members of a Christian Science church. They need what the church can give them, and the church needs what they can bring to it.

While the motives of those in charge of the examination of candidates for admission to our churches are commendable, their methods are often open to improvement. It is a mistake so to surround the occasion with an atmosphere of severity that it suggests a trial at court or a civil service examination. To ask a candidate how he would handle this or that error, to pry into his inmost thoughts about things that are sacred to him, or to question him on abstruse metaphysical interpretations, is to cross the line of propriety and possibly to enter the field of personal opinion.

It is of much greater consequence to make sure that the applicant is seeking to serve God than to uncover his ignorance about some particular passage in our textbook. His motive for joining should always be first ascertained and, if found worthy, unselfish, and commendable, and if he has gained entire freedom from other church affiliations, the rest of the way should not be made hard for him. It should always be remembered that Jesus imposed as a fundamental qualification for membership in the glorious company of those who had enlisted under the banner of the first and great commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."

This is not to be taken to mean that the bars should be let down and the unworthy, the indifferent, and the mentally immature be allowed to enter. Our membership must be rigidly guarded against the intrusion of the conspicuously unworthy, the notorious trouble-maker, and the self-seeking adventurer. Mere willingness to become a member is never to be accepted as sufficient qualification for membership in a Christian Science church; there must also be a clear apprehension of its mission to the world, together with a sincere, whole-hearted desire to support its undertakings.

The examining committees of our churches have an important duty to perform, and for the most part they are doing it creditably; but upon the shoulders of the various church officials who determine the nature and extent of the examination to which their candidates are subjected, rests the greatest responsibility. In framing their restrictions and regulations for admission, they need to pray without ceasing. The mischievous errors of self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, and excessive zeal cannot influence them when they give first place to wisdom, love, and tactful consideration of the brother who is timidly knocking at the door.

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