I must sound like a broken record to friends and acquaintances. "Get involved in church. If you don't have one, find one or try mine!" I suppose I sound that way because of the importance I've come to see church as having in our progress Spiritward. While I'm aware of a tendency among some to think of spirituality solely in terms of one's individual relationship with God, and to think of church as having little to do with it—or even hindering it—I've learned that church is crucial to an uplifting faith.
I clearly remember the moment I realized this almost twenty years ago. During a discussion on the nature of divine Love it was brought out that Jesus' ascension took place as he was blessing his disciples. "And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." Luke 24:51. I remember thinking, "He was not alone on a mountaintop praying." In that moment I learned one stupendous, practical truth that brought tears of amazement and gratitude. Namely, that our ascension above the limitations of the material world comes, in large part, through blessing others. I also saw that church was the presence in my life that kept me focused on blessing others. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy gives an inspired, spiritual definition of Church: "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.
"The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick." Science and Health, p. 583.
