The ideal church business meeting? Maybe there isn't any such thing, any more than there's a perfect human being. But just as we, as humans, improve as we grow in the understanding that perfect man, imaging God, is our actual identity, church business meetings improve as a result of our progressive realization that real Church is the perfect spiritual idea of Truth and Love. As members acknowledge and live the spiritual realities that relate to Church as viewed in Christian Science, business meetings become more healing in tone, more productive and effective.
Christ Jesus assured his disciples, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32; For better church business meetings we must be actively aware of pertinent spiritual truths. This frees us from confusing and limitative untruths about them. The truth is that all that is occurring there, or anywhere else, at any time, is the action of Mind's dynamic ideas. These ideas, accepted in the thought of members, express themselves in efficient, fruitful, and—may we say—businesslike ways. A group of persons conducting church services and initiating good works in the community is a human sense of Church. But to help defend our church against dissension, confusion, frustration, we need to strengthen our understanding of Church as the triumphant spiritual idea of God.
No matter how successful our church business meetings may be, we should continue to improve them. Back of their formality and procedure is their highly important purpose to quicken humanity's understanding and acceptance of the truth of God and man. We attain this by sticking to the divine facts that outshine misconceptions about Church.
