To members of the Church of Christ, Scientist, working for the church means much more than giving personal attention to various offices or committees to which they are assigned. It means working prayerfully and metaphysically to bring to light through these activities the spiritual idea, Church, and to protect the human institution which represents that idea on earth.
One is reminded that when Jesus founded his church on the rock, Christ—the true idea of man's sonship with God— one of his first utterances was protective. He said of his church (Matt. 16:18), "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The Master's declaration was effective, for whatever vicissitudes the Church has gone through in the centuries following his brief statement, the spiritual purpose of the Christian society has persisted and survived.
Christian Science clarifies the understanding of "Church" by its definition found in the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 583). Here Mary Baker Eddy gives first the spiritual meaning, "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle."
