Editorials

Has it ever felt as if the only point of friendly contact you have with many of the members in your church comes through the brief greetings you share after a worship service? You nod hello, or take a moment to shake someone's hand, or smile and wave at the folks out front on your way to the parking lot. All of that is important, of course.

A musician named John Buttrick writes: "Rivers run no higher than their sources. Our sources need cultivation, development, and freshening.

A First Reader I knew read everything with total attention to the meaning of the words, including the announcements repeated each week. The regular notice about Sunday School, for example, always caught my attention because the Reader emphasized the last word instead of the first: "Sunday School.

A writer in Christianity Today , looking at some of the challenges confronting the Christian Church as it heads into the twenty-first century, speaks of a "rampant selfishness" in contemporary society, where people "tend to give highest priority to the kind of worship that yields personal comfort. " The article continues with this hard-hitting analysis of what the writer considers to be typical of today's church life in Western culture: "Granted, God's Word encourages the sorely afflicted to seek solace; however, many of us are content to remain in the comfort zone.

One of the most encouraging aspects of Christian Science healing is that evil in whatever form it appears is always no more than a lie. Whether we're troubled by personal difficulties or disturbed by the complex issues that touch all mankind, the way these challenges are approached is basically the same.

Some have cheered and others have wept when they have passed her. Thousands have climbed to admire her at close range.

Do you ever wonder what it might have been like to have been present at the gatherings of the early Christians described in the book of Acts? It is said of the participants in one of these gatherings, "They were all with one accord in one place. " Acts 2:1.

The early Christian Church sets the example. The challenge today is to follow it—to keep the fires of spiritual purpose burning.

Christ Jesus sent his disciples into the world. In his great prayer just before his crucifixion, he said that he was not asking the Father to take them out of the world.

A message given at The Mother Church many years ago remains as timeless and timely as is the Church itself. Referring to the Founder of the Church, her student William P.