Reflecting on Being a Scientology Church Staff Member

The amazing surge of life & activity in and around the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C. these days has inspired me to write a bit on my time as a Scientology staff member, one of the most amazing periods of my life which I’ll cherish forever.

In an absolutely futile attempt to encapsulate the experience in a few words, I’ll say this: My time as a Scientology staff member was easily the most fun, the most challenging, rewarding, and the most life-changing experience I’ve ever undertaken. And I say that with no qualifiers, and no exceptions.

That obviously begs the question of “why”.  That, unfortunately takes a bit longer to express, but if you’ll bear with me, I’ll attempt to articulate.

Prior to my being on staff, I had a life which (I say now in retrospective) was a bit flat and purposeless.  I had gotten a string of excellent IT jobs that made great money, and had no problem, really, acquiring any car, computer, vacation, or other worldly item I wanted.  However, my activities were unpleasantly self-oriented, and I knew that.  There’s only so much gratification one can get from helping oneself, and oneself only.

Once one has a great car, a nice house, all the computer equipment one could ask for, and a body in good health, one sort of realizes that there’s got to be a bigger game – and a cooler one too that doesn’t just involve oneself.

I then started dating a girl (now my wife of 11 years) who was a staff member at the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, DC.  After weeks of observing her and the fun she was having as a staff member, I decided to take a break from computer networking and take up a position on staff at the Church.

I honestly had no idea the number of changes that would make in me, all of them changes for the better.

To sum up a few points:

• I was able to make a real difference in an organization providing honest, effective help to others. I couldn’t begin to count up the vast numbers of saved marriages, saved careers, happier families, smarter kids, more effective businessmen, and empowered individuals that I personally witnessed when on staff in DC.   Week in and week out, there was just person after person, helped individually with whatever it was that was most ruining their life.The work I personally did was mainly with personnel, seeing to it that there were people there to do the work, that they knew their jobs, that they were happy at it, and could be effective at it.  Made it all the more fun when areas of the organization I helped establish then went on to create products like those mentioned above.

  

  It was immensely challenging. I had done things before which I felt were challenging, but nothing compared to this.  The job I walked into required I learn how to do virtually every job in the organization, and to understand in detail how each part of the Church contributes to the whole.  As such, it wasn’t until I stepped on staff that I really started to get an idea of my own limitations and how far I could really push myself – how fast could I learn, how fast could I adapt to something new, how effective could I be, etc.I think any staff member knows exactly what I’m talking about, and anyone who hasn’t yet tried it just plain won’t know until you do.

• Oh, my good lord, is it just the most FUN group to work with. I can’t emphasize enough how much fun it is to work with a positive, energetic-beyond-comprehension, gung-ho group of folks who each of them came on board to work with the Church for the right reasons – to make the planet a better place one individual at a time.

It’s that last part I’m reminded of constantly now that I get to rub elbows with the Church Staff here on a regular basis.  They are the most caring, fantastic, outrageous, amazing people I’ve ever known, people that I am just utterly proud to say are my friends.