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The home meetings are the life pulse of the church life and the key to the success of the new way. Therefore, we have to apply our full strength to the home meetings.
When we go to a home meeting, we must be living persons with a living spirit. If our spirit is not living, we had better not go. If we go, we will certainly give others an impression of emptiness and deadness, and this is what we must not do. When we go to the home meetings, we must be vital and go with our spirit. If we do not go with our spirit, we should not eat or sleep until our spirit is ready. Otherwise, we should not go at all. If you want to go to the home meetings, you must have the spirit and life.
Since the change of the system in October 1984, it has been our hope to have the small group meetings. However, in our opinion the small group meetings are not successful, not in only one locality but in every locality, whether in Taiwan, Anaheim, Irving, or London. They have not been successful anywhere. There are two reasons for the meetings not to be successful. First, those who go to the small group meetings are deadened in their spirit. If a person goes to attend a big meeting or a “Sunday service,” it does not really matter whether his spirit is dead or living and whether or not he goes with the spirit, because the leading ones are responsible for the meeting.
This is the reason why we are very hesitant about bringing the newly baptized ones to the big meetings. In the big meetings some people may be falling asleep, and others may be talking or doing something else. We truly do not want the new ones to see that situation and be contaminated. If all of us still meet according to this old way, we too may eventually give up the meetings because we do not have the spirit and life. This is why we always emphasize that the home meetings must be living. If the home meetings are living, all the other meetings will also be living.
Some people may compare a meeting to a playground in which children jump and laugh; no one there is deadened. For the time being, we may agree to this saying, but even in a playground you still have to have a ball to play with. Likewise, in order to be living in the meetings we have to go with the spirit. It is ridiculous for players to come to the ball court without a ball. Without the ball it is not possible to have the game. After our study we have found that in the matter of bringing people to salvation, the ball is The Mystery of Human Life, and in leading the home meetings, the ball is Life Lessons.
Now although we have the ball, we still have another problem. The problem is that we do not know how to play; our playing is not up to the standard. This is what we are concerned about. What the coach fears most is that the ball, the court, the opponents, and everything else are ready, but the players cannot play well. This is a real headache for the coach.
We know that one ball game is different from another. On the court things are always changing, so each player has to receive training. When we use Life Lessons, we are the “players” who have to go through training. After the training, however, the way to play the game is not always the same. It is no wonder that no one among us truly knows how to play. Neither the elders, the co-workers, nor anyone else plays well, because we have not received enough training.
The second reason that the small group meetings are not successful is that we do not know how to use the spiritual materials. Since the beginning of the small group meetings in 1984, all the localities have realized that even though the meetings were good, there were no materials for the meeting. For this reason we compiled Life Lessons. Although we have had a very good response from everywhere concerning the materials, when many people use the materials, they either “miss the ball” or “throw it” where others cannot catch it. We still have the problem of not knowing how to use the materials. We can compare this problem to going to the market to buy groceries. People think that if they want to eat chicken, fish, vegetables, or rice, all they have to do is bring them home. They may have never realized that they do not know how to cook the rice. They may not even know where the kitchen knife is. When they see others preparing the water, stir-frying the vegetables, and doing other things, they may think it is simple, but when they try to do it themselves, they have all kinds of problems.
We cannot blame anyone but ourselves for not making good dishes. We think that as long as we have the groceries, we can all cook, open a restaurant, and be the chef. In actuality, everything is not as easy as we imagine. Similarly, we cannot say that because we have Life Lessons, we have a cure-all. Even if it is a cure-all, we have to know the right way to apply it. When we eat, we have to know how to take the food; we cannot put it into our ears or nostrils. Although we all are happy to have Life Lessons, we still have to consider how to use this publication.
We already know where the secret lies. Today we have the ball, the coach, the court, and the players, but how are we going to play? We need to keep practicing. Therefore, all of us full-timers have to be clear that we are engaged in this profession to do two things: to go door-knocking and to lead home meetings.
In door-knocking, we must seek out the sons of peace. This may not be too difficult for us, but neither is it easy. When we first started door-knocking, it was popular among the localities, and everywhere it was so fresh. In Taipei especially, the saints knocked on almost all the doors neighboring the meeting halls. They knocked on the doors of some homes four or five times. This kind of plentiful door-knocking has both an advantage and a disadvantage. The disadvantage is that people may not like it when we keep knocking on their door. The advantage is that although they do not like it, they will admire our spirit and feel grateful for our love toward them. Perhaps when we first knock on someone’s door, he does not open. When we go the second time, he may open the door, but his heart is not open. When we go a third and fourth time, he may open the door and also his heart, but he still will not be baptized. When we go the fifth time, however, he will be greatly touched and think that these people are truly amazing. They were rejected many times, but nothing could stop them from coming, not even the wind or the rain. With this one final contact, his heart is moved. A man’s heart is not made of iron. If we knock on his heart a few more times, he may be softened and moved. Do not think that being rejected will spoil the matter. There is an advantage to it.
After knocking on every door, the situation will hardly be the same as it was before. The response may not be as good. Some may think that there are no more doors for them to knock on. However, in Taipei, for example, there are still many commuters whom we have not visited. Among them there are many sons of peace predestinated by God. Some of them are “sheep”; it is just that they have been influenced by the atmosphere of society and have put on a wolf’s skin. Frankly speaking, God created them and prepared them as sheep. If we knock on their doors a few more times, we will be able to pull off the wolf’s skin and find the sheep.
We have not yet penetrated Taiwan with the gospel. It is not until we baptize all the people in Taiwan that we will have penetrated the whole land. We cannot deceive ourselves. The full-time serving brothers and sisters in particular need to be clear about this. To gospelize Taiwan, they should knock on doors not only in the big cities but also in the villages. Sometimes on the same day they may have to knock on the same door three times. In the morning they may knock on the door, but no one answers. Then at noon and again in the evening they may knock again without an answer. Therefore, they may need to go a fourth time. Perhaps no one is home until ten o’clock, so they can go again at that time. We need to be steadfast in door-knocking. Especially in the villages, if we practice door-knocking in the way that we are doing now, we may be able to knock on all the doors in one day. We need to knock on the same doors again and again. Only in this way can we gospelize Taiwan.
The most important thing to learn for the home meetings is how to use Life Lessons. One of the characteristics of the four volumes of Life Lessons is that all the titles of the lessons are printed on the cover so readers will understand what the book is about at a single glance. For example, the first volume covers from lesson 1, “Knowing That You Are Saved,” to lesson 12, “Knowing the Church.” From this table of contents we can quickly see that the first volume is for helping the newly baptized ones to know that they are saved all the way to their knowing the church. The first lesson of the second volume is “Knowing the Sects,” and the last lesson is “The Offering of Material Riches.” The first volume covers from salvation to the church, and the second covers from sects to mammon. The first volume speaks about knowing that you are saved, having the life of the Lord, knowing the church, and living a life in the church. All these are positive. However, on the negative side there are several “demons” that need to be dealt with. The first one is sects, and the last one is mammon. Thus, the second volume covers the teaching from sects to mammon. All of these matters are negative.
In the third volume we have the positive side again. The first lesson is “Transferred into Christ,” on being transferred from all the negative things into Christ. Being transferred into Christ is not being buried; it is a matter of living in Christ. The last lesson is “Raptured to Meet the Lord.” Being transferred into Christ is being saved, and being raptured to meet the Lord is the end of our journey of following the Lord. These twelve lessons cover the things from our being saved to the end of our journey. This is the content of the third volume.
The fourth volume begins with “The Way to Enjoy God’s Salvation,” that is, how to enjoy God’s full salvation. Then lesson by lesson it speaks of the full salvation of God: the first stage of sanctification, the forgiveness of sins, the cleansing away of sins, propitiation, reconciliation, the second stage of sanctification, and justification. These are the aspects of redemption. Then there are also the aspects of life: regeneration, renewing, the third stage of sanctification, transformation, maturity, and conformation, and the last item is glorification. In other words, all four volumes of Life Lessons range from knowing that we are saved to the obtaining of glory. Therefore, once the matters in all the forty-eight chapters are wrought into us, we will enter into glory. These forty-eight chapters clearly tell Christians all the matters from their being saved to entering into glory.
In addition to the above, we also need to practice our way of speaking. For example, when we go to a home meeting, we may want to tell the new ones, “Do you know what the first volume of Life Lessons covers? Let me tell you. It starts from knowing that you are saved and goes to knowing the church.” Although this is not wrong, this way of speaking is like that of a student reciting for an examination. When we go to the home meetings, we should not speak in the way of giving high-school lessons. We should bring people deeper and try our best to avoid the kind of questions and answers that students give. We should bear this in mind and abandon an “academic” atmosphere. University professors have their own way of teaching, which is different from the way the elementary teachers teach. We should not be elementary. We need to speak as if we were not quoting from Life Lessons. We should simply tell people that after knowing that they are saved, they should be in the church.
This kind of exercise may be too difficult for some people, but if it were not difficult, there would be no need for the full-timers to exercise and to learn. All the full-timers are college graduates. They have been in school for well over a decade. Today they are still receiving training here, but the content of this training is not chemistry, science, astronomy, geography, or history. It is door-knocking and home meetings. Many things we know without having learned them, but other things we may have been taught for over a year without knowing them. Therefore, we need a first term, a second term, a third term, and a fourth term in our training.
Basketball players know that even though there is only one ball, there are many different ways of playing. When I was young, I often watched basketball games, particularly those between the Chinese and the foreigners, because they played in many different ways. Some passed the ball by bouncing it on the floor, and some threw the ball high into the air. No matter how tall their opponents were, they had their own various techniques for winning the game. We must learn how to use Life Lessons until we can use the lessons skillfully. In this way, every time we have a home meeting, we will be able to reap a harvest.
We should obtain at least one copy of Life Lessons and study the lessons thoroughly. We should be able to memorize and speak from each of the forty-eight lessons. Then we will be so familiar with the content that when we go to the home meeting, we will not necessarily need to start with the first lesson. It will be like playing basketball. A player may not always pass the ball in the same direction. By playing differently each time, he can catch everyone off guard and throw the ball into the net. To do this, however, the players need to exercise to become skillful. We may find these few points easy to understand but difficult to practice. A coach has to teach his players the basic movements until they are not only familiar with them but can also exercise to become truly skillful players. If we are like this, then we will be successful when we go to the home meeting.
In addition to compiling Life Lessons, we are also preparing to compile further messages on life, comprising two hundred forty topics, not in the format of lessons but of messages. There will be twenty volumes, each with twelve short messages. We cannot yet say that we know the topics for all the messages, but we already have the first ones. If the Lord wills, we will publish the first and possibly the second volume in the coming year. Since we all are busy putting out literature, none of us can live a life of leisure. To be sure, if we live a life of leisure, we will not be able to accomplish anything.
We should not think that full-timers lead a very comfortable life. History tells us that the ones who truly serve the Lord with their full time do not live comfortably. I hope that no one among us will quit after hearing this. The journey ahead is long, but we believe that we will have a prosperous future. Many of us have gone on in this way and passed through this kind of day. We all can testify that although we are busy and tired, we are full of joy and peace inwardly.
When we go to a home meeting, we must learn to detect the atmosphere. In other words, we have to find out the real situation of the new ones and how much they have grown in life. Only in this way can we gradually lead them.
Although there are many points concerning leading the new ones, it is not necessary to practice them all immediately. We should first observe their situation. Then we can lead them accordingly. If the situation manifests the need for a certain kind of leading, and such a leading is possible, we can carry it out. However, if there is no such need or such a leading is not possible, we should wait for some period of time. We do not need to do things in a hurry. We may first lead a home to meet with two or three other homes. If one meeting a week is not sufficient for them, we can increase the frequency of the meetings. Perhaps we can add a Lord’s table meeting, a prayer meeting, or a truth study meeting. This is one side of the matter.
On the other hand, we may feel that the new ones in this home meeting can be brought to a big meeting of the church. However, when we do this, we should not bring people from only three to five of the other home meetings. It is better to join with a number of other home meetings. We hope that when we bring them to the meeting in the meeting hall, we will bring at least twenty homes with about sixty brothers and sisters.
Before bringing them to the meeting, we first should train them by telling them, “Today we are going to see the big meeting in the church. This is the old meeting that we used to have, a meeting of our ‘seniors.’ It is hard for them not to have wrinkles or a certain taste of oldness. On the one hand, we are their younger generation, and we should give them support and refresh them. Therefore, when we go, we should not shrink back or be overly reserved. We should refresh the atmosphere. When we break the bread with them, we should wash away the oldness with some ‘fresh air.’ On the other hand, no matter how old they are, they will eventually show their capability in the meeting. When they do this, we, the juniors, should receive from them and encourage each other to go on.” We should learn to do this.
At the same time, all the ones who are leading the home meetings should learn to record in a chart the time and place of the meetings that they lead and the number in the meetings. The responsible brothers can then make a chart of statistics. There may be two thousand homes on the chart. The brothers should consider these two thousand homes carefully and find out to which meeting halls and districts these homes belong. It is best to make separate charts to list the names and numbers in each home meeting for every meeting hall and district and to keep a record of the new home meetings. The responsible brothers of every meeting hall need to keep the chart properly.
It will be good to make such a chart every month. We hope that every month there will be a record of increase and progress for an accumulative calculation. In this way we can continue to show every meeting hall the result of our home meetings. In the future these results will be given to the brothers and sisters in every meeting hall who will lead the homes. Every church should also have a training to lead the brothers and sisters and perfect them appropriately so that they can go on with this service.
Man is rich in feelings. If we do not see another person often, it is easy not to be irritated with him. People become irritated with each other when they see each other too often. The best way to avoid being upset with someone is to stop seeing him. After getting married, a husband and wife sometimes become upset with each other because they see each other so much, and some marriages eventually end in divorce. We can see this same principle in our contact with people. When we contact one another, we develop certain kinds of feelings.
When we first knock on the door of a home, the person there may open the door to us, but he may wear a cold face. Gradually, however, after knocking on his door a few more times, we eventually will baptize him. In this way the relationship between us will change. He now will change from wearing a cold face to being grateful. He will feel that not only did we show grace to him and have love for him, but we also gave him the Lord, the truth of the Bible, light, life, and peace. In addition, we continued to visit him every week, especially after his baptism. It is natural that he would develop a certain feeling toward us. Some people develop particularly strong feelings. Some have wanted to give us everything. They prepared dumplings for us, gave us various items, and even suggested going on a picnic together. Therefore, we need to issue a warning about this. It is good to have feelings, but we should not have natural affection. Feelings are acceptable, but natural affection should be avoided. Feelings are a matter of mutual love. We may feel that a certain one is not only a man but now also a brother in the Lord. Not only so, it is we who begot this brother in the Lord. To be sure, we will have feelings toward him. However, this is where it should stop. We should not have natural affection. If we have natural affection, there will be trouble.
In the Old Testament proper feelings can be compared to frankincense in the meal offering (Lev. 2:1). This is what God wants. Frankincense is a kind of fragrance, but natural affection is honey in the meal offering, which God does not want (v. 11). God is pleased with frankincense but not with honey. This is because frankincense will not rot, but honey ferments. This is the type in the Old Testament. In the New Testament the love in Christ can be compared to frankincense, but the natural affection of man is honey, which will ferment and cause trouble. Therefore, when we knock on doors to contact people, we should keep a limit.
However, we need to be balanced. Some have said that no matter how much they knocked on doors, the doors would not open, or even if the doors were open, the hearts were not. For others, however, good news came one door after another. They report that the many doors they knocked on were all open, or that a new home has been brought into baptism and is having meetings. These are two extreme responses, like the weather in the tropics and at the poles. From the results of our study, we have found that the brothers and sisters “at the poles” went out to knock on doors with a cold face. Their faces were expressionless. When people open the door and see a face like an iceberg, how can they avoid being frightened? We should not knock on doors in such a way. When we go out, we have to be “hot.” Even before people come out to answer the door, we should already be smiling and rejoicing. Then when people open the door, they will be heated up. In this way it is normal that we will succeed.
We have to first train our character. If it is hard for someone to be “heated up,” he needs to move from the “poles” to the “equator” to be warmed up by the hot air. If someone knocks on doors in this way, there will be no doors unopened. This is the main point of what we are saying. When we go out to work, whether it is door-knocking or visiting homes, we need to heat people up but not make them too hot. Making people feel too close to us is not appropriate, because when this kind of feeling comes, natural affection also follows. Feelings are acceptable, but natural affection is not.
When we are too hot, we need to stay in the cold for a while to cool ourselves down. We can have a feeling of love for others — we can even go on a picnic together — but in whatever we do, there must be a limit. We cannot fall into natural affection. The reason we are saying this is that we must go on with our work. If we fall into natural affection, the accomplishments through our previous efforts will come to nothing. This is why we must pay very special attention to this point.
