In Christian Science, church building is a continuous spiritual activity. With her discovery of the Science of being, Mary Baker Eddy was led to see the need of an organization by means of which to bring Christ, Truth, to the world. This need she supplied by founding The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, and made provision for its branches and its institutional activities. So well did she establish the movement that Archibald McLellan, Editor of the periodicals at the inception of The Christian Science Monitor, said of her, as recorded in William Dana Orcutt's "Mary Baker Eddy and Her Books'' (p. 120), "She has left us nothing to conceive or originate—simply to carry on and to execute."
The church member finds many opportunities to do this, and as his thought expands spiritually he sees that his opportunities include that of church building. He may be inclined at first to consider this activity as commencing when a place is needed in which to hold services, but the true concept is much greater than this. Church building really begins when one first considers church membership. Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 35): "Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can unite with this church only as we are new-born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth the fruits of Love,—casting out error and healing the sick." As one comprehends and fulfills these requirements, he is demonstrating the true idea of Church.
One is building church, then, when one learns to work co-operatively with others on committees and boards from the standpoint of Principle, turning to divine Mind to ascertain its ways of blessing and healing humanity. One is building church when one prays for and attends faithfully the services and business meetings of his church, honors and upholds the church offices, and refuses to indulge in destructive criticism, but instead separates error from man and sees that it can have no place in church. One is building church as he holds it his privilege and duty to testify at the Wednesday testimony meetings of what divine Love has done for him. As one works prayerfully for the lectures and sees that this Mother Church activity is embracing the world, one is building church.
