The early pioneers in the Christian Science movement built up a tremendous momentum for church growth through their healing work. This momentum was fueled by a supreme love of, and trust in, God, divine Spirit, the true motive-power in healing, and it underpinned the growth of the branches of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, that these men and women founded. Such momentum can come about through demonstration today because it is impelled and sustained by God, and we can expect to see evidence of this in our individual lives, as well as in our churches, even in the resurrection of the church body.
Once, I was driving to a meeting to discuss the subject of church renewal with a handful of Christian Scientists in a town where there had been no Christian Science church for more than 25 years, when the words “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25) came clearly to me. This declaration that Christ Jesus made to Martha before raising her brother Lazarus from the dead seemed especially relevant, because where there appears to be inactivity or stagnant growth—an absence of life—within the church organization, there is often a need for spiritual stirring, for the raising of thought from a material sense of life to the spiritual, giving new life and energy to the church.
I didn’t take Jesus’ words to mean that I, or anyone else, was personally responsible for making this happen, any more than through human effort Jesus was responsible for raising Lazarus. Christ Jesus once said, “I can of mine own self do nothing” (John 5:30), acknowledging that it was the Father working in him. He recognized that it was the Christ, his divine nature, that empowered him, and so made him the resurrection and the life. That same Christ-power is working in human consciousness today, enabling us to demonstrate that this divine influence, or Christ, cannot be lost but is constantly carrying us forward afresh. I think each of us at the church renewal meeting caught a clearer glimpse of this fact, and as a result, Christian Science services were restarted in the town.
