Once while getting ready to attend a members’ meeting in my branch church, I heard a grumpy thought in my head that said, “Being a church member is no picnic!”
Not a particularly healing or constructive observation, I quickly realized, so I took a moment to reconsider my understanding of and feeling for Church, which Mary Baker Eddy defined in part as “the structure of Truth and Love” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583).
Then I thought about a creative writing class I’d taken for many years. The criteria for joining the class were pretty basic—you signed up, you attended, you participated as fully as you could. The class wasn’t free, but the cost was reasonable. Members were expected to treat each other with kindness and respect. And to listen as much as they talked. Some people stayed for a semester or two; others stayed on for years.
