CHURCH CAN MEAN different things to different people. To some church members or attendees, church provides a worship service where they can praise and honor God, while to others, involvement in a church means paying homage and obedience to religious rituals and creeds. And still to others, church is a place to meditate and feel at peace.

To Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science in 1866, the concept of Church transcended a physical structure. She saw Church, in its spiritual meaning, as "the structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583). Unequivocally, she knew healing and Church as one— as synonymous.

In Mary Baker Eddy's day, it was considered normal for people to be healed during Christian Science church services. Seekers came looking to be set free from whatever physical or mental ailments they had. Many who came to the earliest Christian Science services in Boston were lame, blind, or struggling with some disease, and they often walked out free and well.

Today, we can have that same kind of experience, when we realize that every service is a healing service. This very thing has happened to me.

One Wednesday afternoon many years ago, I suddenly became quite ill. I'd been planning to attend the weekly testimony meeting at my Christian Science branch church later that evening, but now I felt that was impossible. As I started praying for myself, the most startling and arresting thoughts came to me about Church.

It occurred to me that a testimony meeting is the best place to be when you're not well, because you're going to a healing service that rests on Truth and Love, and those words are synonyms for God. These ideas roused my thinking as I realized that I could go to that testimony meeting and expect healing.

These thoughts, which I felt were coming to me straight from Truth and Love, awakened me to realize the full potential of church services. So, that evening, still feeling ill, I went to the meeting. And while others were sharing their testimonies of healing, I, too, was healed. I walked out completely well.

The next day, I began to contemplate what had touched and healed me during that service. Suddenly, I glimpsed and understood more fully the impact that Church and its healing influence had had on my consciousness. And I saw the power of effective prayer. I had felt totally embraced by divine Love throughout that hour-long meeting, and the fear of disease just collapsed and vanished. The presence of the Christ—the voice of Truth that speaks to each one of us—had so permeated my consciousness that I was elevated to a spiritual oneness with my Father-Mother God. That church service had fulfilled its mission that day.

Every church service has a mission. Its true mission is regeneration and restoration, better known as spiritual healing. Each member of a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, can be praying to see everyone in the congregation and beyond, spiritually, as the child of God—whole, pure, loved, and sound. In essence, each church member is an effective healer. That Wednesday when I felt ill, I'm sure that the members of that branch church in Virginia were praying, individually and collectively, for the healing efficacy of that service, and my healing was the fulfillment of that prayer.

Today, each Sunday and Wednesday Christian Science service held around the world is fulfilling the healing mission that Mrs. Eddy envisioned for her Church. She expected Christian Scientists to heal. She saw every member of her Church as a healer.

Are we demonstrating that expectancy by seeing everyone who comes to our services through the lens of Spirit, and not in any negative, material, or personal way? Do we truly love others?

As we lift up our concept of man spiritually—from seeing men and women as burdened by limitation, deprivation, or inadequacy, to beholding those who come to our churches as complete, vibrant, and unencumbered expressions of Life— everyone attending those services will be blessed.

Whatever thoughts fill our consciousness—spiritual or material—determine what we experience. We each have our own comfort zones, but as we rise up in our thought and action to a greater commitment to healing spiritually and loving unconditionally, we will fulfill the desire to free others from illness. Healing always requires the spiritual view of God and his creation.

The spiritually correct view of all things shuts out the clamor of fear and doubt, which try to imprison human hearts and minds through oppressive pictures of human frailties, hereditary disease, cruel indifference, immoral behavior, or a financial crisis. Our prayers for church services set the captives of such circumstances free, and enable those who had been oppressed to become active healers themselves.

A church of healers has a welcoming atmosphere, where the expression of universal and unconditional love is continuous. Love and Christian fellowship are vital to offering the community such a healing environment. Once, I had a conversation with a minister in Boston about welcoming newcomers to church services. He told me, "Every newcomer wants to feel loved and accepted the first time they step inside your door, or they won't return, because they are looking for a church family." In his church, they make sure that each visitor meets at least seven members, and he always asks newcomers to stand up so his congregation can recognize them later.

I so liked his idea that when I brought someone new to a Wednesday testimony meeting, I took my new friend around after the service and introduced her to almost everyone in the church. On the way home, she commented on how warm and friendly the members were, and said she'd like to return when her work schedule would permit it. After that evening, I found it easier to make the effort to promote Christian fellowship.

As healers, we value Christian fellowship because it's a vital part of Christian Science. When we interact lovingly with one another, we're expressing the highest standard of ethics. We love, and it's in that loving that we find forgiveness and grace.

"A Rule for Motives and Acts" in the Church Manual (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 40) shows how to provide a pure, healing atmosphere for the benefit of everyone attending Christian Science churches—by mentally refusing entry to thoughts of hatred, judgment, condemnation, as well as refusing to be influenced in a malicious manner.

Another time, I brought my next-door neighbor to a Wednesday service, and she fell asleep just as soon as the First Reader began to speak. I might have been tempted to feel discouraged. But when the service was over, she apologized and said that a heavy weight had been lifted off her, and that she felt so peaceful. Clearly, she didn't feel condemned.

The Christian Science church is charged to demonstrate that the only real structure of anything or any relationship is Truth and Love. This fact is all that can touch the receptive thought during a service—and it will attract everyone in your community to your doors.

A direct link exists between a Christian Science branch church and its community, a link we can see and strengthen through our actions. It lies in a spiritual oneness, a sister-brotherhood that oozes with Christly love. This awesome presence binds up the brokenhearted.

The Christ knows no boundaries, stereotypes, or closed doors. Through church members' prayers, the outreach of Church extends beyond pews, location, size of congregation, to the hungry and receptive thought looking for home and rest. This impartial Christ-presence reaches out and envelops all humanity with a comfort that meets every need. It spreads a wonderful assurance that, as healers, we have the opportunity every day to bear witness to God and His perfect creation.