Some time ago a friend of mine who has demonstrated Christian Science consistently—and in some instances dramatically—told me she didn’t need church. She had joined one or two branch churches at different times and places over the course of many years, but had decided it wasn’t her cup of tea.
This dear friend felt her spiritual progress, and ability to heal, was pretty much her own business—a more or less private matter between herself and God, not something involving or requiring others. When I suggested that church might be a way to share the truth with a wider community, her response, in essence, was that she could do that by her own example and didn’t need an organization to support such an effort.
Surprising as this conversation was to me, it was not without resonance. On a monthly basis my own Christian Science Reading Room could attest to the phenomenon of several visitors who bought the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lessons, studied them regularly, relied on their teachings for healing, but rarely if ever appeared at our branch church services.
