My thoughts about Reading Room

Sometimes the Reading Room becomes more of a symbol more than an activity. Moving the Reading Room into the church or in this case the Sunday School is perceived as a retrenchment rather than progress. But, if I were there, I would say the following.

Reading Room is an individual expression of ideas manifested by the members. To me this means that each member is responsible for fulfilling the activities of Reading Room ie selling and exhibiting Science and Health, other works by Mrs. Eddy and the publications of The Christian Science Publishing Society. If each member would pray about how they could individually exhibit and sell a copy of Science and Health each month, and other publications of CSPS we would have more than 50 Reading Room locations all around the city and surrounding communities!

I have often wondered if spending money for a downtown Reading Room location hasn’t been a substitute for individual involvement and willingness to bring Science and Health (and our other publications) to the notice of the public. True, strangers are led by God to find the Reading Room and the healing Christ presented in the publications. But how many new people actually come into the Reading Room in a month? Are we really reaching the hundreds of thousands of spiritually minded people in Nashville and surrounding communities? Are we really supporting The Mother Church and The Christian Science Publishing Society financially or are we giving our church’s money to local building owners?

To risk being perceived as blunt, over a half dozen of our foreign language Heralds have now been discontinued this year, and the remaining language Heralds will be discontinued if there isn’t a reverse in the subscription rate. The Spanish Full Text and Spanish Herald are at imminent risk of being discontinued due to lack of subscriptions. I am intimately involved in prayer, conversation and action to support the existence of these Spanish publications to support the rapidly growing Spanish field. It is incongruous to me that literally hundreds of newcomers come to Spanish lectures and yet there soon might not be Spanish language publications to support their interest and continuing study.

If our church moved the Reading Room into the Sunday School, put suitable signage both at Hillsboro and at the drive leading to the Sunday School building why wouldn’t God lead the newcomer to this new location for Reading Room? Our building is passed by thousands of cars daily and is at a freeway exit used by visitors to Nashville. With correct signage a Reading Room at this location is very well located.

If each member committed to exhibiting Science and Health in their car, workplace and strove to sell one copy a month to others, if this church purchased subscriptions to the periodicals and used them to introduce newcomers to Christian Science wouldn’t we be more directly supporting the mission and purpose of Reading Room, supporting the survival of the periodicals and supporting The Mother Church?

I’m not in favor of giving one more penny of the branch church’s money for building rental when that money is so desperately needed for the survival of periodicals which are the future of our movement. If our branch church took just $1000 to buy Spanish Herald subscriptions and Spanish Full Text and another $1000 to purchase Science and Healths for distribution/sale to newcomers it would do more to promote the real purpose of Reading Room than paying rent to a building manager.

I vote to move the Reading Room into the Sunday School building. I propose that the branch church spend $1000 for Spanish Herald subscriptions and Spanish Full Text subscriptions, using them to introduce new individuals each month to Christian Science. I propose that the branch church spend $1000 for copies of Science and Health to be sold/distributed by members to newcomers. I propose that each member become a Reading Room attendant in their daily life, exhibit and strive to sell one Science and Health a month, and strive to overcome the resistance of mortal mind that says it is someone else’s job to present Christian Science to the world.

No amount of money spent can substitute the individual effort required to silence the animal magnetism that would hide Christian Science. We need to move Reading Room out of downtown and into an active lively expression in our daily lives.