If hard-working Christian people become too accustomed to thinking of their local church as a fragile thing, in danger of failing or falling apart, they can be surprised when spiritual breakthroughs show that Church actually sustains them in difficult times. When the Saviour described his church as something against which "the gates of hell shall not prevail," he was declaring the absolute permanence of God's power to govern the lives of His people. There was—and is—nothing weak in that.
This month's Journal is one of a series of three that began in April. The focus has been on the real strength of the Christian Church in changing and challenging times. J. B. Phillips wrote of the early church," . . whatever conclusions our modern conferences may reach, there can be no reasonable doubt but that the early Church possessed the power to heal . . ." This deep, Christian power to heal is what we're seeing signs of in many places today. Dr. William H. Willimon, Methodist minister, professor, and Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, describes the power of genuine Christianity in his Journal interview: "One thing the church does is to realign us. The Christian faith doesn't call me simply to feel better; it calls me to be born again. It wants me to see a self that I didn't even know I could have."
The transforming and regenerating power of Christ's Christianity is at the heart of what Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, saw to be original New Testament faith in Christ. And it's what this Journal is reporting. We hope this issue will be one that will pass from hand to hand in the way that good news always goes from one person to another.
