News | Share the Practice

New site redesign for Neil H. Bowles Association

Gabriel Serafini — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 23:17:44 +0000

Very happy to announce the launch of a new website for the Neil H. Bowles Association. Check it out!

It was a lot of fun helping to reorganize content for clarity, better user experience, and effective communication for Association members and guests.

Be sure to check out the Articles and Lectures page if you’d like to read Mr. Bowles articles or hear a few of his articles.

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Earning a Girl Scout badge while learning about Mary Baker Eddy for Women’s History Month? Why not!

Gabriel Serafini — Thu, 16 May 2019 00:13:07 +0000

This story was contributed by Karen McMullen, of Denton, Texas, and shares how she helped organize a Girl Scout badge earning opportunity for her local troop. Check it out, and see if you can think of other fun and interesting ways to reach out to your local community!

Free Girl Scout Badge Workshop on “Who was Mary Baker Eddy?” for Women’s History Month

24 Girls Scouts learned about Mary Baker Eddy, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Christian Science Reading room in 2 workshops. Brownies, Juniors and Caddett Girl Scouts were invited through the local Girl Scout Service Unit. The first workshop filled up in 15 minutes of posting the event and there was a waiting list of 20 more girls so we added a second workshop the following weekend.

Here is what we did:

We started the workshop with a 9 minute video on Mary Baker Eddy – provided by the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity. The video is a great tool to quickly cover her history and accomplishments. We used that material to have a discussion of her struggles and how she was able to overcome them. The Christian Science Monitor has a section in the weekly magazine called “People Making a Difference”. We reviewed a few articles from that section and asked the girls to write a brief description of how they would like to make a difference in their communities on a worksheet provided by the MBE Library. Then we moved on the a simple craft. In one of Eddy’s homes she had a cross stitch that read “ Do Right, Fear Not”. We had the girls cross stitch this phrase on card stock for them to finish at home and save. The idea tied in so well with how they could make a difference in the world. Next, we played a simple game of cat’s cradle with the younger girls. We had divided into 3 smaller groups, so the for the last activity we all came back together and preformed brief skits about the articles the girls wrote on how they would make a difference in the world. We all ate Eddy’s favorite food, ice cream, as we watched the skits. All the girls left with a certificate of completion for their badge and a copy of The Christian Science Monitor.

This event was Simple, Easy, Low Cost, Effective outreach to our community. If you would like to have details on how to do this in your area I would be happy to share.

Karen McMullen
dkammc@verizon.net

The post Earning a Girl Scout badge while learning about Mary Baker Eddy for Women’s History Month? Why not! first appeared on Share the Practice.

Healing 101 Lecture Series

Gabriel Serafini — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 05:44:15 +0000

Click here to visit the website we helped develop for the Healing 101 lecture series featuring 5 lectures in 4 weeks.

http://healing101.sharethepractice.org

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Vibrant Reading Rooms

Linda Mardi — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 16:55:25 +0000

Vibrant Reading Rooms, by Patricia P. Wilson

Vibrant – pulsating with life, vigor or activity; responsive; brisk; bustling; humming; rousing; stirring; thriving; thronging; abounding; overflowing; populous; astir; alive; teeming

Quiet – marked by little or no motion; enjoyed in peace or relaxation; free from noise or uproar; serene; still; unobtrusive; conservative; speechless; wordless; secluded; asleep; dead; inactive; sleepy

I. Church Manual model – vibrant or quiet?
(From the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy)

Reading Rooms Article XXI. Establishment. Section 1. Each church of the Christian Science denomination shall have a Reading Room, though two or more churches may unite in having Reading Rooms, provided these rooms are well located.

Librarian. Sect. 2. The individuals who take charge of the Reading Rooms of The Mother Church shall be elected by the Christian Science Board of Directors, subject to the approval of Mary Baker Eddy. He or she shall have no bad habits, shall have had experience in the Field, shall be well educated, and a devout Christian Scientist.

Literature in Reading Rooms. Sect. 3. The literature sold or exhibited in the Reading Rooms of Christian Science Churches shall consist only of SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES, by Mary Baker Eddy, and other writings by this author; also the literature published or sold by The Christian Science Publishing Society.

ARTICLE 23 Branch Churches. Teachers’ and Practitioners’ Offices. Sect. 11. Teachers and practitioners of Christian Science shall not have their offices or rooms in the branch churches, in the Reading Rooms, nor in rooms connected therewith.

ARTICLE 25 The Christian Science Publishing Society. Rule of Conduct. Sect. 7. No objectionable pictures shall be exhibited in the rooms where the Christian Science textbook is published or sold. No idle gossip, no slander, no mischief-making, no evil speaking shall be allowed.

II. Your model — vibrant or quiet? Based on the following definitions, how does your Reading Room measure up?

Establish – to bring into existence; to make firm or stable; to put into a favorable position;
to gain full recognition or acceptance of; to introduce and cause to multiply and grow

Have – to make the effort to perform; show; exercise; exhibit; to entertain in the mind; to cause to be in a certain place or state; to be competent in

Read – to become acquainted with; to look over the contents of; to receive or take in. Note: “study” is not a synonym for “read”

Room – an extent of space sufficient or available for something; a suitable or fit occasion or opportunity; freedom; capacity

Charge – having the qualities of a forceful leader; supervision or management
Exhibit – to present to view; to show or display outwardly especially by visible signs or actions; to have as a readily discernible quality or feature

Sell – to develop a belief in the truth, value or desirability of; to gain acceptance; to persuade or influence to a course of action; to give into the power of another

Thoughts to ponder:

Does the Manual imply that Reading Rooms are chapels? libraries?
Does the Manual imply that it is wrong or unpleasant to engage in the work of selling?
Are bricks and mortar essential to a RR?
Should RR workers be well-trained and skilled in the art to selling?
Does a vibrant RR count how many people pass by or look in the window?
Even if you have a big sign out in front, if people rarely come into your RR, is it truly established?

i.e., has it gained full recognition within your community?
How much does it cost to have a vibrant Reading Room?
How many workers does a vibrant Reading Room need?
How many products does a vibrant Reading Room need?
How many hours does it take to have a vibrant Reading Room?
How long does it take to change from a quiet/sleepy place to a vibrant one?
What does it mean to “walk a customer”? Does this happen in your RR? If so, why?

In the early 1900s, a Chicago RR, located on the 8th floor of an office building, consistently sold 4,000 of S&H a year, plus 15,000 Sentinels. Profits from sales covered all expenses including the librarian’s salaries. Profits were returned to the three sponsoring branch churches. Quiet or vibrant? Was it a fluke, or can it be repeated today?

A woman in Ghana ordered 240 copies of S&H and sold them out of her wheelbarrow. Quiet or vibrant?

A woman in Hawaii sold S&H out of her briefcase. Quiet or vibrant?

A mom and her two sons sold 13 copies of S&H at a farmers market. Quiet or vibrant? (See video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOEyHefa888) (P.S. The boys earned pocket money for their efforts.)

The Mother Church sells S&H from a 4-wheel cart located at an indoor shopping mall. Quiet or vibrant? 15 copies of S&H were sold at a Church Alive Summit in the Philippines. Quiet or vibrant?

For many more examples, check out www.JSH-ChristianScience.com and search for “Selling Science and Health”.

(c) 2013 Patricia Wilson – used with permission.
This article was used in a Christian Science Reading Room workshop presented by Patricia Wilson at the Philippines Youth Summit April 2013. Patricia served as a Reading Room representative for The Mother Church from approximately 1998-2002. In that capacity, she worked with about sixty Christian Science Reading Rooms from the East Coast states and Chicago metro area. She’s listed as a Practitioner in the Christian Science Journal and divides her time between Seoul South Korea and Florida.

The post Vibrant Reading Rooms first appeared on Share the Practice.

Find Christian Science Events and Talks on ChristianScienceCalendar.org

Gabriel Serafini — Thu, 30 May 2013 18:35:16 +0000

We’re pleased to be developing and hosting the new shared Christian Science calendar located at ChristianScienceCalendar.org. We announced the launch at the Northern California Church Alive Summit earlier this month, and already over 30 churches and organizations have signed up. We’re hoping to reach close to 100% participation, and are focusing on Northern California area churches to start, but plan to roll it out further as we can. Picture being able to open up your smartphone and reliably find upcoming Christian Science events near you. Pretty cool huh? That’s the vision.

Want to be part of it? Sign up here.

The post Find Christian Science Events and Talks on ChristianScienceCalendar.org first appeared on Share the Practice.

Share the Practice is happy to support the 2013 Christian Science at Burning Man project!

Gabriel Serafini — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:22:47 +0000

We’re happy to announce our public support for the 2013 Christian Science at Burning Man project. There is an ongoing discussion about the camp, art car, sharing contributions and artwork to bring. We’re excited about it and see this as a truly cutting-edge place to explore sharing spirituality with a broad and diverse group of people. As part of our involvement we’re sponsoring the web page for the group: spiritualplaya.org. Check it out!

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We’ve updated our Christian Science Bible Lesson subject display WordPress plugin

Gabriel Serafini — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 07:56:51 +0000

We’ve updated the Open Source WordPress plugin that we maintain that displays upcoming Christian Science Bible Lesson subjects in the sidebar of your WordPress site.

Updates to the plugin (now version 1.1) include:

Fix to re-synchronize weekly Bible study lesson topics for 2013
Fix widget so it correctly shows the More Info link depending on user input in widget options
Update “More info about Bible Lesson” link to point to new URL

You can download the update using the built-in WordPress plugin updater functionality, or download it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/christian-science-bible-lesson-subjects/

The post We’ve updated our Christian Science Bible Lesson subject display WordPress plugin first appeared on Share the Practice.

New Share the Practice Logo and Tagline!

Gabriel Serafini — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 08:00:08 +0000

We’re very pleased to announce a new logo for Share the Practice. This represents a conceptual evolution from our previous logo, and our new tagline is a clearer expression of our core mission — helping you find your voice and share it effectively.

New Logo:

Old Logo:

In addition to a major logo update, we’ve switched to using a new theme that dramatically improves how we share our content. This is available to all our clients.

Let us know what you think of the new direction and leave a comment below or on our Facebook page! :)

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Your Daily Lift has an iPhone app

Gabriel Serafini — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:58:05 +0000

In case you hadn’t heard, Your Daily Lift now has an iPhone app. We didn’t design or build it, but we like it.

Check it out!

What apps would you like to see?

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First Church of Christ, Scientist, Morristown, NJ has a new website!

Gabriel Serafini — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:59:28 +0000

We’re pleased to announce the launch of a new site for First Church of Christ, Scientist, Morristown, NJ. This is another Share the Practice Express site and features beautiful photos in the header along with thoughtful quotes picked out by the church. Check it out!

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