Christ Jesus' healing work was an integral part of his life. He healed many as he traveled, and he healed as he preached. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus established his church and maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught his followers that his religion had a divine Principle, which would cast out error and heal both the sick and the sinning."Science and Health, p.136;
To Jesus, healing was natural. It was also vital because it demonstrated the truth he taught of God and man. If a Church of Christ, Scientist, is to relate to the needs of humanity, it must follow the Master's healing example. All its activities, especially its services, should spiritualize thought and heal. When this happens, people can't help but benefit by attending church.
Today some may wonder if the healing work in Churches of Christ, Scientist, is going on as effectively as it once did. There's certainly no reason why it shouldn't since our impersonal pastor, the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, is the same. If the members of a church aren't doing the healing work they feel they're capable of, what can be done to bring about the necessary change? This basic, self-searching question might be a good start: Am I really praying for church, to witness the healing effect of church services? If we answer no or we're not sure how to pray, this indicates where our efforts for church can begin.
In some ways praying for a church service is similar to praying for an individual. Our job is to realize and affirm the truth of Church as a divine idea. But we must also uncover and deny the supposed reality of specific evil beliefs that would counterfeit or deny the true, spiritual concept of Church and so interfere with our church's healing mission. In this way we can pray, or give Christian Science treatment, for our church and its services just as we would give treatment for an individual.
The human organization, church, manifests the collective thinking of its members. If the members' thinking isn't based on the spiritual facts of Church—its universality and permanence—then the church's progress may be held back. Church, which manifests God, possesses spiritual strength, the unity of Love, the clear direction of Truth, the effectual government of Principle. If a member is holding opposite thoughts about his church, this tends to limit its healing influence. Prayer isn't undertaken to change a material, limited church or the other members but rather to bring our thought more into line with the true, spiritual concept of Church. Each member is responsible for his own thinking. How he responds to the thoughts that come to him is the important thing. False suggestions that may present themselves—arguments of division or stagnation—can be dismissed instantly.
For instance, the argument that church services don't have the healing power they used to might present itself. To counteract this suggestion, we can know that these services always express infinite Truth. Truth is irresistible, all-powerful. Its spiritual might is eternal, unlimited, undiminishing. It is just as powerful today as it has ever been, and this power heals. The power of Truth, God, has never lessened; therefore the power of Church, Truth's manifestation, has never lessened. This lie of diminishing effectiveness can claim validity only as long as it is unchallenged by individual members.
At times the claim may arise that the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly helps certain people but doesn't benefit others. But communication isn't dependent on reaching a mortal, limited mind. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man."ibid., p.284; The inspiring ideas expressed in the Lesson-Sermon are divine Mind's ideas, and man reflects divine Mind. Mind communicates its own allness; it speaks individually to each of us through the Lesson-Sermon. Identifying ourselves as Mind's idea prepares our thought for the reception of the lesson's inspiring message.
The members of the congregation aren't dependent on a personal, finite mind to understand the idea expressed, but on all-knowing divine Mind. There is never a separation between Mind and its loved idea, man.
Sleepiness, heaviness, or inattentiveness might attempt to rob us of the spiritual good derived from the Lesson-Sermon. Of course, the Readers have an obligation to present the service in a vital and enlivening way. Moreover, it must be seen that as Life's expression man is active, always awake, ever alert. In reality, there is no mortal mind lie to lull us to sleep, no mortal claim to dull our spiritual senses. Man reflects the eternal buoyancy and spontaneity of Life.
The atmosphere of the service is enlivened when one sees that it is impelled by Spirit, God. The word "spirit" is often used to express a sense of activity. In the atmosphere of divine Spirit there is no room for heaviness or stupefaction. Spirit's power—as we realize it—casts out, totally annihilates, such tendencies at services. We feel the influence of Spirit as we each identify ourselves as Spirit's idea.
No matter what mortal mind claims, it can be immediately silenced. We can replace the false claim with the specific truths of God and His creation that reverse and annul the deceptive, material picture, bringing healing.
This prayer for church isn't undertaken primarily to benefit the one praying. It blesses the whole congregation. Essentially, what is taking place is the spiritualizing of our concept of church activity. It's a good opportunity to be selfless and to constructively take part in the collective demonstration of true Church. What is being sought, in a sense, is a Pentecostal experience such as that described in the second chapter of Acts.See Acts 2:1-4; Here the disciples were "with one accord," and "filled with the Holy Ghost," spiritually uplifted. When all are praying for the same purpose, spiritual inspiration is the inevitable result.
While praying for church, we should never ignore the claims that evil, animal magnetism, would attempt to have us believe. When a false suggestion presents itself, we can reverse it by seeing and affirming the absolute spiritual truth that specifically counteracts it.
As we all pray more consistently and effectively for church services, more healing will take place. Prayer can bring outstanding healings like those mentioned in the Gospels, or like Peter's experience recorded in Acts 12. Here the church members as a group prayed for Peter, who was in prison. As a result he was freed by "the angel of the Lord."12:7.
All can be released from the bondage that holds them, from ill health, lack, indecision, by the divine messages that God gives us through services in the Church of Christ, Scientist.
