On a Saturday morning a small van pulls up to the curb in a busy shopping center. The side doors slide open, and two church members begin off-loading a fold-up table and stacks of pamphlets, books, and magazines. Shoppers begin stopping to examine the free literature, asking questions, and many leave taking a piece or two of the reading material.
The same scene is repeated now in a growing number of cities in many parts of the world: at bookmobiles at the beach, at public parks on a Sunday afternoon, at exhibit tables at summer fairs and festivals, in centrally located information rooms. All are examples of branch churches reaching out, of individual Christian Scientists working together with greater mobility and penetration to share an enlarged, healing view of God and man.
A branch in Melbourne, Australia, describes their bookmobile as "a most practical and up-to-date way of reaching many people who might otherwise never hear of Christian Science." They see the mobile extension of their literature distribution work as "an expanding concept of church"—taking church where more of the action is.
