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It is not easy for anyone to leave their old ways and habits. Even without purposely expressing them, a person’s old habits and ways will come out. For a person to build up a new way is not an easy matter. Door-knocking and home meetings are an example of this; no matter how we carry them out, our doing may still be in the old way because we have been in the old way for too long.
In principle, to meet in homes is more difficult than door-knocking. We cannot find precisely from the Bible how the Lord wants us to meet. One thing is certain, though: the Bible clearly says, “According to the spirit” (Rom. 8:5). “According to the spirit” is easy to say, but the phrase according to still indicates a way; this requires us to spend more time to study. We must also be ready to encounter setbacks, disappointments, distractions, and pressures during our process of studying how to have home meetings. We may use the example of children learning to play the piano. Children are very wild at first, playing in the way they want to. Therefore, the teacher must apply strict control and limit the students, teaching them to play with only two or three fingers at a time and to practice at least one hour every day, applying a certain amount of pressure on them. This “pressure” produces an ability in them. Olives do not give oil without pressure; once pressure is applied, the oil comes out. Therefore, do not be disappointed. The secret of door-knocking is to be excited, but the secret of meeting in homes is to not be disappointed.
In order for anything to have results, it is necessary to make estimates and keep statistics. Estimating and keeping statistics are the guidelines of a business. Without estimating there is no preparation. The more estimates we make and the more detailed they are, the more adequate our preparation will be and the more reliable our work will turn out.
For this reason, we need to redo our estimates. First, we will assume that the number of those meeting in the churches in Taipei and in the whole of Taiwan is ten thousand. Of course, the number on our lists is larger than this by severalfold, especially if we include the seven to eight thousand who were baptized through door-knocking last year. Nevertheless, in 1987 we set the base number simply as ten thousand.
In principle, every church should produce one full-timer for every twenty saints meeting regularly, which is five percent of the total number. If we take ten thousand as the base number, five hundred full-timers should be produced. Every full-timer who goes out door-knocking every day for two to three hours is bound to see one person saved and baptized in less than a week. This is what we have already experienced. However, according to our actual church life, it is not possible to go door-knocking every week for fifty-two weeks of the year. Sometimes there are trainings and certain church activities, and sometimes a person may become sick and need a few days to rest. Therefore, we can set aside four weeks for time off and still use forty-eight weeks for work. Five working days every week for forty-eight weeks is two hundred forty days. If someone goes door-knocking two to three hours every day, and in six days he gains one person, then in one year he can gain forty people. Forty times five hundred full-timers is twenty thousand. Even this number is very conservative, but the smaller the number we use, the more accurate and realistic it can be. If our standard is too high, I am afraid we may not be able to attain to it.
In regard to how many new ones will remain, we need to apply a significant discount. We know that there are always losses in a factory. We may use pottery as an example. Out of one hundred pots in a batch, there may be ten that do not pass quality control inspections due to defects or breakage. These must be discarded, which is a loss of ten percent. Then during distribution there is another quality control check to examine the products. If the decorative design on a pot has a small defect that is detected by a close inspection, it will not be distributed to the regular market but will be sold elsewhere at a reduced price. It is the same with the manufacture of garments and articles of wood. Every industry encounters the problem of loss in the production process. Eventually, perhaps only sixty to seventy percent of the products are up to the proper standard. It is the same with the printing of books. Sometimes there are books with missing or upside-down pages; these must be thrown away. In farming, the planting of vegetables and orchards have the same problem. Farmers must account for losses due to pests, floods, a scorching sun, and substandard harvests. After accounting for all the losses, what remains may not be very much.
Based on this principle, in fellowship we have estimated that only thirty-five percent of the seven thousand five hundred people we gained last year have remained. Therefore, if we gain twenty thousand people from door-knocking, the actual number of those who remain will be seven thousand.
Next we must consider the saints meeting regularly in the church who have the heart to go door-knocking. According to our calculation and using ten thousand as the base number, twenty-five percent, or one-quarter, of the saints go door-knocking once a week. One-quarter of ten thousand people is two thousand five hundred. Counting forty-eight weeks as one year, if each gains one person every six weeks, he will gain eight people per year. Eight times two thousand five hundred saints is another gain of twenty thousand people.
Thus, we have a conclusion. The result of one full-timer’s work equals that of five saints who go out door-knocking once a week. The number of people gained by these two categories of saints is the same. Five percent who go out daily gain twenty thousand, and twenty-five percent who go out once a week also gain twenty thousand. Please remember, though, that there is the discount of sixty-five percent. The remaining number of each category is seven thousand, so the two categories added together make fourteen thousand. Using ten thousand as the base number, after one year of work there is the gain of fourteen thousand, which is then added to the original ten thousand. Therefore, by the end of 1987 there should be at least twenty-four thousand people, which is an increase of two hundred forty percent.
In 1988 the base number becomes twenty-four thousand, which multiplied by 2.4 becomes 57,600 by the end of the year. Using the latter figure as the new base number and multiplying again by 2.4, the result at the end of 1989 is 138,240 people. Therefore, using ten thousand as the original number, after laboring for one round of three years, the total is an increase of 13.8 times.
From 1990 to 1992 is a second round of three years. Using 138,240 as the base number and multiplying by 13.8, the result is just over 1,907,000. Using this as the base of the third and last round, from 1993 to 1995, the result after multiplying by 13.8 is over 26,300,000. By this time the total number has surpassed the population of Taiwan. In other words, Taiwan will be “gospelized.”
The population of Taiwan at present is more than nineteen million. In three rounds of three years each, twenty-six million people can be saved. Reaching this number in only nine years seems very astonishing. We are using only ten thousand as the base number, without including others. Furthermore, one full-timer out of every twenty people and one out of four who goes door-knocking once a week is not a high percentage. Out of the ten thousand saints there are five hundred full-timers and two thousand five hundred weekly door-knockers. This leaves seven thousand others who pray, give, and support those who go out. Three thousand go out to fight, and seven thousand remain stationed. The three thousand who go out to fight are like the three hundred warriors of Gideon (Judg. 7:5-7). These need the prayers of the seven thousand behind them as well as their material supply.
These statistics and estimates are not unrealistic. Out of ten thousand, if three thousand go to the front line and seven thousand remain as support, those who go out can go forward boldly without anxiety. The five hundred full-timers who go out forty-eight weeks, two hundred forty days, door-knocking every day for two to three hours, should be able to gain one person in six days. The two thousand five hundred who go out once weekly also gain one person every six days in which they labor. The statistics for the rate of gaining people in each of the two categories is the same, each group gaining twenty thousand. Assuming that thirty-five percent of these remain, out of twenty thousand we still have seven thousand for each category, fourteen thousand in all. Adding these to the original ten thousand, the total is twenty-four thousand people. Working according to this rate, which is an increase of two hundred forty percent, one hundred becomes two hundred forty, one thousand becomes two thousand four hundred, and ten thousand becomes twenty-four thousand. This calculation of the original base number, the number of full-timers, the number who go out once a week, and the discount due to loss is a very conservative expectation. Even still, after working for nine years, ten thousand can become twenty-six million. This number is astonishing!
If we agree with this way and do not oppose it, then the full-timers should go door-knocking two to three hours every day. In two and a half hours someone can knock on the doors of fifteen homes, and in six days he can knock on the doors of ninety homes. Among these ninety homes there should be at least one “son of peace” (Luke 10:5-6). If someone goes out the first week and there is no son of peace, and on the second, third, and even sixth week there still is none, he may go to the Lord desperately and say, “Lord, I give up. Without finding a son of peace there is no meaning to my living. In these six weeks I have not been able to find even one. Lord, have You taken away all the sons of peace, just like You chased away all the fish from Peter for the whole night in John 21? What can I do now?” I believe that if someone endeavors in this way and goes out again the seventh week, there will be at least two sons of peace.
In a certain church in the United States, a brother gave the following testimony. One Saturday evening he went out door-knocking with some brothers and sisters. Everyone was doing their best. They went to about twenty homes, but they could not find even one son of peace. Eventually, everyone wanted to go home. He said, “All right, you can go home, but I will continue. I must gain one person and baptize him. Otherwise, I will not eat or sleep.” Thank the Lord, at the twenty-first door he knocked on, he gained a son of peace. If we are willing to go door-knocking and are willing to have a serious transaction with the Lord, I believe that the Lord will respond to us.
A brother in North Carolina gave this testimony. He went with some who were knocking on doors for three days, yet he could not gain even one. He was upset to the uttermost and even felt shameful. Then he repented greatly before the Lord, cried, emptied himself, and asked for the filling of the Holy Spirit. The following day, the fourth day of door-knocking, he went again. That day he gained three people. This way is truly workable, and this method is definitely successful. We need only nine years, with ten thousand as our base number and three thousand to go out. Then we can reach twenty-six million people. Is this not extremely workable?
Even though approximately seventy percent of the saints do not go out, they still can pray, give, and supply. Of those Israelites who followed Gideon, eventually only ten thousand remained (Judg. 7:1-3). However, God said to Gideon, “The people are still too many” (v. 4). God wanted Gideon to choose three hundred among them. It is the same principle here. Of the ten thousand enlisted soldiers, we choose three thousand to fight. Of course, when the time for reward comes, they will get the prize first; nevertheless, the seven thousand will be the next to get the prize.
The estimation we have made for the rate of people being saved cannot be any lower. I do not know how many times we need to knock on the doors of the people on the whole of Taiwan before they all will be saved. In Luke 10 when the Lord Jesus was sending out the seventy disciples, He said, “I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves” (v. 3). Even though they were in the midst of wolves, there were sons of peace among the wolves. Today who among society is a son of peace? Who will receive the gospel willingly? When we go out door-knocking, we will find out who the sons of peace are. When someone opens the door, we will know if he is a son of peace. Someone may not be a son of peace today, but he will be one tomorrow. In Taipei we have gone door-knocking at two hundred thousand homes, which is over one-third of the whole island. In the future we must knock on their doors again, until 1995 when all the sons of peace are found and become Christians. What a glorious result this will be!
Once a person is saved, we need to help him to have a home meeting. The principles of attending a home meeting are, first, that we must make a resolution and, second, that we must know that our going to the home meetings is not to lead the new ones but to teach them. We go there as “coaches” to open up their hearts and teach them the basic functions of a meeting, just as a basketball coach first teaches his team the basic actions of the game. The basic actions of a home meeting include praying, singing hymns, reading the Bible, expounding the Word, giving testimonies, and encouraging one another. There are at least six or seven basic actions that the new ones need to become familiar with.
In the first few meetings you can use some of the subjects from Life Lessons, such as prayer and reading the Bible. Then you can help them exercise to pray and read the Bible. On the third week you can teach them to sing hymns. You can tell them that anyone can sing. If they want to learn to sing more, they can obtain a set of tapes from One Hundred Selected Hymns and listen to them at home. Perhaps some hymns are difficult to understand, but the more someone listens to them, the more he becomes familiar with the tune and the music. You must teach the new ones item by item.
When we go to their home meetings and teach them these six or seven basic actions, we can tell them that this meeting is like a ball game, and we are simply the coaches who coach them how to play. Actually, we ourselves do not play, but they play. Then when they need some improvement, we will spontaneously correct them. Once they have this basic concept, they will exercise to function. In addition, we must also meet some incidental needs, showing them, for example, how we differ from Christianity and why our meetings are different from those in Christianity. We can also show them the example of baptism in Acts 8 once the eunuch was saved and wanted to be baptized, Philip baptized him in the water by the roadside (vv. 35-39). There is also the account of the jailer in Philippi whom Paul baptized in the jailer’s own house (16:30-33). In the Bible we do not find a baptistery. We must let them know this point so that by giving them some principles, if they have heard something wrong or confusing, we can help them to walk according to the truth. This is the way to take care of their incidental needs.
Question: The full-timers are supposed to gain one person every six days. If three of them go together, does it mean that they should gain three people a week in order to fulfill this count?
Answer: If three go out together and gain one person every two days, in six days they will gain three people. On the average each gains one person.
Question: According to statistics there is no problem with our estimates. However, normally the full-timers have much work and service, and they also have to go to many home meetings. Because of this we do not have the confidence that we can attain to this goal.
Answer: We must consider and discuss the assignment of persons in taking care of the home meetings. As an example, if there are twenty-five hundred people who go out once a week, once they bear fruit and home meetings are set up, they must add another time to go out every week. This is not an assignment given to them by others. Rather, once they bear a child, they will spontaneously love him. Even without others urging them, they will go to take care of their child. In the future it is possible to have the one in four who goes door-knocking to go out at least twice a week, one time for door-knocking and another for caring for a home meeting.
There are twelve thousand new ones among us. Since on the average there are at least two new ones in each home, there are about six thousand homes. Besides the manpower of the two thousand five hundred saints, the five hundred full-timers can also help in taking care of these homes. They will go out five days a week and attend home meetings at least three evenings and, if necessary, five evenings. Five hundred full-timers going out for five days is the equivalent of two thousand five hundred more persons to bear this burden. Added to the first two thousand five hundred saints, this will equal the manpower of five thousand people to take care of six thousand homes per week. This should be sufficient to meet the need.
We have the faith that the new way can bring the gospel to the whole inhabited earth. If the Lord has mercy on us so that we work out our estimate, then the people on the whole of Taiwan will be saved. This matter is so great that it shakes the universe. Consider this: Of twenty million Christians, every twenty will produce one full-timer, which makes one million full-timers. These one million should all be university graduates who are fluent in international languages and who can spread out to the whole world. Then they will be able to conquer the whole world with the gospel. Not only so, each of the twenty million should offer material support out of their monthly income. If each one has a monthly income of three hundred dollars, he can give thirty dollars per month. Twenty million times thirty dollars is six hundred million dollars. This is very remarkable. At that time much manpower and material riches will be given for the gospel, and the gospel will be spread throughout the whole world.
We truly look to the Lord to accomplish this. We believe that He is sovereign over all things and will certainly fulfill this matter. If He truly accomplishes this, then first of all the whole population of the island of the Republic of China will become Christians. This will shock the entire world. Second, with one million full-timers sent out, the gospel will be preached to the whole world. Third, the offering of millions of dollars to follow the full-timers will truly be a great feat. We all know that in the past ten or more years, the Lord has richly released the truths among us. When we go out, we do not go empty-handed, but we bring the truths to the whole world. This is the spreading of the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth (Matt. 24:14). Therefore, we have the assurance that this is a practical way that will take us toward fulfilling our estimate.
