I’ve had fun in recent months thinking of church as a metaphysical place to occupy rather than a building one walks into.

Common usage teaches that church is a building or common sanctuary where people gather and pray together. And after attending a service, many go home thinking, “I went to church today.”

But is this true? I’ve been questioning.

Spiritually considered, church is not a physical location, but a state of Mind.

Church is about expressing love to one’s neighbor, gaining a spiritual education, learning about God, and growing spiritually. Church, at its finest, is a spiritual experience, more than a geographical place.

There is church, and then there is Church!

After I enter my local branch church and sit down in a pew, I ask myself, “Am I in Church?” Meaning that just because my body is sitting in a pew, doesn’t mean I’m in Church yet. It’s where my thinking is that matters more than where a body is plunked, I remind myself.

Is my thinking in Church—in the Church of Love? I ask. And then I pray to eliminate any un-churchlike attitude or perspective that would keep me from truly being in Church.

Negative emotions, criticism, suspicion, fear, anger and their kin are all the opposite of Church. They are enemies to church progress and destructive to its human manifestation.

I love this questioning of “Am I really in Church?” because it lifts my demonstration of church to a much higher level.

In spiritual Church, no one causes me trouble. Experiencing harmony is all up to me. Success is a function of how much I am willing to love and forgive.

Fellow church members, even ones we find hard to get along with, do not bother us when our thinking is in Church—in a place of Love.

There are no disagreeable church members in Love. Everyone is an angel, a brother and sister living under the parental supervision of the one Father-Mother God.

In Church, I never have to worry about a fellow church member, what they’re doing, what they think, or whether they agree with me. In Church, the one Mind takes care of these issues.

In Church, God manages the crowd, not me. And that realization can take a huge load of false responsibility off of one’s mental shoulders.

The health and prosperity of Church is up to God, not up to any human.

We don’t have to wrangle, argue, wrestle or compete in Church. In Church, the one Mind is in control, not personal opinion or human will.

Church is a gift from God, a place to occupy metaphysically.

And this doesn’t mean I don’t need a local congregation to worship with. I do. The divine ideal has to be practiced humanly to prove faith and understanding, lest spiritual truth remains vague and theoretical, and becomes a fraud.

“Love thy neighbor as thyself,” requires practical outward proof.

But it sure makes working with a local congregation easier when one remembers that the ideal of Church is a spiritual place in Mind to occupy regardless of what is happening around us humanly.

Holding to the spiritual ideal lifts and improves the human experience of it and keeps us happy and healthy in the meantime.

So, did you go to Church yesterday? Only you can answer the question…