The Mind of Christ
Study Group

Missed Thursday? Here's the whole thing.

We recorded our August 20th gathering — all fifty minutes of it, unedited. This is exactly what a Thursday morning looks like: Kathy sharing, questions from the group, and a real conversation between people who love this material.

Watch a few minutes and you'll know whether it's for you.

This has been a long time coming — I have wanted to do it for years. Since I no longer go out to give talks in person, connecting with fellow Christian Scientists has become more inspiring to me than ever.

A study group, not a class.

For over thirty years I have been studying the Bible and writing about it — the Greek roots, Mrs. Eddy's commentary, and the long patient work of figuring out what a passage asks of us on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon. Most of that has lived quietly in my notes.

This is the part that has been missing: sitting down together and talking about it out loud.

I taught for thirty-nine years. I know how to share this. What I've missed is hearing back from you.

Start here — two free talks

Listen to both, with no obligation at all. They're yours to keep, and yours to share with anyone you think would like them.

We're walking slowly through Matthew 5, 6, and 7 — the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer, and the teachings around them. Of everything Jesus taught, Mrs. Eddy singled this out. She called it the diamond sermon, and wrote that reading it each Sunday and obeying it through the week "would be enough for Christian practice."

We have no picture of what Jesus looked like — we do not kow if he was tall or short, dark or light. But the Sermon on the Mount may be the truest portrait of him we have, because it is the closest we can come to what he actually thought.

Jesus spent the whole night in prayer before he gave this sermon. Matthew tells us that "when he was set" — when he was ready, prepared — he began to teach. The mountaintop may have been a literal place. It may also be an attitude, and an altitude, of thought.

Here we go underneath the most familiar words in the Sermon, into the Greek, and they turn out to be much larger than their English lets on. A disciple — mathetes — is not a student but a practitioner. Blessed — makarios — is a happiness no outward circumstance can touch. And the kingdom — basileia — is the royal dominion of the human heart.

Each talk comes with five handouts for your own study.

What happens on a Thursday morning

Kathy opens with a short recap of the talk you've had that week. Then we simple talk — your questions, what you've been sitting with, and whatever others would like to share.

There is nothing to prepare, and nothing you must say. You are welcome to listen quietly as to speak.

"What I appreciate about this format is that I see spiritual companions here."

"If God wanted us to figure it out alone, he would have given us each an island and thrown the handbook down and said, do it."

"Christian Science is really a religion of thinking — and Mrs. Eddy says the time for thinkers has come."

How a month works

First week

A new talk is posted in our course platform with five handouts available to download.

Second Thursday @ 10:00 AM CST

We gather online through a Zoom link to discuss it

3rd week

A second talk will be posted with handouts

Fourth Thursday @ 10:00 AM CST

We gather again to discuss

Every gathering is recorded, so nothing is lost if a Thursday doesn't work for you. They will be posted a day later in the study group platform. And it's one link, every single time, for the Zoom call — it never changes.

So for example, the month of September dates are as follows:

Thursday, September 3 — Talk by Kathy and handouts

Thursday, September 10 — Online gathering through Zoom

Thursday, September 17 — Talk by Kathy and handouts

Thursday, September 24 — Online gathering through Zoom

What's ahead

We'll keep going through the Sermon on the Mount for as long as it holds us as a group — and there is a great deal more I'm longing to share:

The Twelve Tribes

Why they matter, and how they end up as the gates of the holy city in Revelation

The Tabernacle

Which is really how to give a treatment, and how to pray

The Ten Commandments

Are they outdated, or exactly the point?

Everything in the Bible relates to everything else. It's like a necklace of pearls, strung together. I didn't know that for most of my life — and discovering it has been a wonder.

You help decide where we go in the future. Tell us what you'd like to spend more time on as we go along each month.