Every branch Church of Christ, Scientist, is needed in its local community, and has a unique niche to fill. A Christian Science lecture supports the invaluable role of each branch church.
“Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eternity,” wrote Mary Baker Eddy, Founder of the Christian Science movement and its Board of Lectureship (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 70). A niche is something distinct. Each branch church, just like each individual that makes up the membership of the branch, has a unique, God-ordained purpose and is a God-originated expression that is not the same as any other. We aren’t made to fill someone else’s role, or even fulfill our own role in the same way that someone else is fulfilling theirs.
Each local community is unique, too, and the role a branch church plays in its community is God-ordained and invaluable; it can’t be duplicated. Our neighbors are in need of health, more love-filled relationships, and freedom from patterns of thought and behavior that stymie progress. Christian Science has something unique to offer those hungry hearts. Our neighbors often need to learn something about Christian Science, though, or have specific misconceptions addressed, before they could be interested in finding out more about what Christian Science has to offer. And that’s exactly what a lecture on Christian Science is designed to do.
