Date: April 14, 1948, morningPlace: Hardoon Road, ShanghaiSpeakers: Watchman Nee and Witness Lee
Brother Nee: In the past there were many things that we could not say or do, because we were not open to one another. When over twenty brothers recently handed themselves over to us, I told them that now I was not afraid even to take off my hat to ask for money from others. When a man has handed himself over, his position changes. There is the need for a certain degree of openness before there can be the capacity to receive a certain kind of word.
The first need today among the co-workers is to learn to be open. What we did last night [referring to the comments by the co-workers, see chapter eight] can only be done when there is openness. There are some things that we can say; there are other things that we cannot say. It is a question of position. It is a question of whether or not a person has the position to say certain kinds of words. It is also a question of motive and relationship. When you want to say something, you have to check whether your motive is right. You also must ask what kind of relationship you have with your listener. Different relationships mean that our words have to be different. In addition, we have to speak in love. Without love, we cannot speak honest words.
We have been nodding our heads and patting each other on the back for over ten years. Yet there are still many things that we dare not open up to one another. We dare not speak about these things ourselves, and others dare not speak about them either. Outsiders may not know about these problems, but we have been clear about them for a long time. We know that there are some things that we cannot say or that are hard to say.
The problem today is that the members do not want to receive the supply from others. Once a member refuses to receive the supply, all ministries stop. When some people come across difficulties, they refuse to receive the supply from others. Instead, they will only accept exhortations and supplies from those who are three miles away from them. To have to say something under such circumstances does not even touch the surface of the issue; much less can there be any deep or open words. The need today is for us to put ourselves under the authority of the Head. If a man sees the Body, he will not be hurt or caused to stumble. What is needed among the brothers and sisters is not friendship, cordiality, or tactfulness. None of these things exists in the Body.
Among us in the past, we had the supply. Yet it could not flow out even though the supply was present. In the coming days we have to look to God for mercy.
Specifically, every brother and sister must understand the need of authority in the local churches. Romans 12 speaks of ministries, and Ephesians 4 speaks of the ministry. The ministry in these two places is different. The "ministry" in Ephesians 4 is singular; it is the same ministry as the apostles' ministry of the word and prayer as recorded in Acts 6. The ministry in Ephesians is "the ministry"; it is unique, and it refers to the ministry of the word, which includes the five kinds of gifts in that chapter. The ministries in Romans 12 are manifold; they are plural in number. Not everyone has a part in the ministry of the word. Only the apostles and the prophets have a part in this ministry. However, every child of God has a share in the ministries of Romans 12. In the local churches all the brothers and sisters have a part in these ministries. Every member has to consider himself and work according to his measure.
The beginning of Romans 12 speaks of God's mercy. This mercy includes chapters one to eleven. Chapters one to eight cover sanctification, and chapters nine to eleven say that it is not of the one who wills nor of the one who runs, but of God, the One who shows mercy. Chapter twelve goes on to speak about God's mercy. This mercy produces a result, which is consecration. The goal of consecration is for the ministries, which is not to be a preacher, but to serve God. Service is ministry and ministry is service. The words service and ministry are the same word in Greek. This service is like the service of the priests in the Old Testament. There the ones who served at the altar partook of the food of the altar (1 Cor. 9:13).
A cook can prepare food in the kitchen, but he does not serve the food himself. Rather, the waiter serves the food at the table. This is a picture of the ministry. A ministry is the work of bringing food from one place to another. Originally, the food was far away from you. But now the ministering one brings the food to you, and you can enjoy the food. Those who are serving receive the supply from the Head on the one hand and minister this supply to the brothers and sisters on the other hand. A man receives his ministry from God. He receives such a ministry for the purpose of serving the brothers and sisters and the church. When the brothers and sisters serve together in a local church, everyone should put in his or her portion. This is a different kind of service. Such service cannot be replaced by the ministry. What Acts 6 talks about is a different matter.
There are two reasons that there is little supply among the brothers and sisters in the local churches. First, there are works of the flesh, and second, the saints have not learned the lesson of submitting to the authority in the church. Because there is the flesh, the responsible brothers are hesitant to let the fleshly ones function, for fear that they will do more damage than good. This actually helps the one-talented ones to bury their gifts. In the end the church neither suffers a loss nor brings in a profit. The flesh does not come any longer, but neither do the one-talented ones come. Today we have to turn the situation around. We can no longer despise the one-talented ones. We have to gain these one-talented ones. Of course, when the one-talented ones come, the flesh comes with them also. But we should not be afraid of this.
What is the church? The church is all the one-talented ones functioning. When all the dumb ones open their mouths, when all the brothers and sisters speak, and when all the one-talented ones are functioning, we have the church. What we need today is not just the "minister of ministers,'' but the whole church. Here, not only do we have the ministry of the word, but we have all kinds of services. We must never allow the one-talented ones to bury their talents.
There is indeed the need for the recovery of authority. The recovery of authority is for dealing with the flesh. All the brothers and sisters have to rise up. Although they may only have one talent, they still have to rise up. Wherever the one-talented ones are placed together, there is surely the flesh. When the flesh comes in, there is the need to have the authority of the church. Some will exercise their flesh, and they will have to be told that the way they laugh, for example, is wrong, and that they should not do this. Hence, on the one hand, authority has to be recovered. This will safeguard the church. On the other hand, we still have to encourage the saints to speak. If we do not practice this, everyone will become silent when we lay down the principle of forbidding the flesh, and the services will become the work of a few again.
Everyone has to participate in the services. We cannot allow one or two to be passive. We oppose the system of pastors. It is wrong to have one pastor, and it is equally wrong to have ten pastors in place of one. We cannot tolerate one man, and we cannot tolerate a few men either. Today we have to deal thoroughly with the one-talented ones. It is wrong for the one-talented ones to hide themselves. We cannot tolerate one group of people serving while another group of people is not serving. All the local churches have to make a full turn in this matter. The responsible ones and the co-workers must first be coordinated before they will have the strength to deal with the flesh in the church and before they can deal with all the rebellious, disobedient, and insubordinate brothers and sisters. Only then can the authority of the church be established. In another five years, you will realize what I mean today.
Brother Witness Lee: The situation today is that only a few co-workers and responsible brothers and sisters are serving. We have not brought everyone into the services yet. There are many reasons for this. Immaturity in life and the lack of love hinders some from coming into the services. The poverty of their spiritual condition bars others from the services. The condition of the brothers and sisters is such that they are merely saved. In many cases their salvation experiences are even weak experiences of salvation; they do not have rich and absolute cases of salvation. Many only come for a Sunday morning "service,'' and they are not properly recovered yet. We are weak in all the areas, and authority among us has not been established or built up.
Once our standard is low, church services become a matter of position or organization. Today the condition among the saints is poor, but the responsibility is not on them; it is on the responsible ones. The responsible ones have to bear eighty to ninety percent of the responsibility. Today the saints are fully influenced by the co-workers. If the spiritual condition of the co-workers is high, the spiritual condition of the saints is high. If the spiritual condition of the responsible ones is progressive, the spiritual condition of the saints is also progressive. Those who are in authority need to have not only the position, but even more, the life. Aaron's rod represents authority on the one hand and life on the other hand; it is a budding rod (Num. 17:8). If life is not expressed in authority, this authority is a mere positional authority. If life is expressed, it is easy for authority to be executed. An authority that is without life is an empty authority. This is like some so-called governments that apparently have authority, but whose laws cannot be exercised beyond their own buildings.
Unless we build up the authority of the church, our work today is a failure. If we do not build up the authority, there will be no way for the brothers and sisters to be built up. If there is no authority in the church, where will the brothers and sisters go for the proper authority to submit to? The condition of the churches today is like a pile of stones; there is no building up. The situation among us is one in which not one stone lies on top of another. Today no one is above anyone else. If authority is built up among us, the services will be built up also. When we are built up under the proper authority, the services will be produced.
There is only one mouth in the human body. There is only one place where orders are issued. All the other places only need to follow the orders. Mopping the floor is a small thing. Yet, in doing such a small thing, a person must nevertheless ask the church. This is real coordination. A man is built up through serving in the church. If you have to ask someone about something, that someone is spontaneously the authority above you. With authority, there are orders. Without authority, there can be no orders, and without orders, there cannot be those who follow the orders. However, the presence of proper services always proves that authority is there, and under these circumstances, a model of the Body will emerge.
Whether or not local authority is built up depends on the presence of authority in the work. If the coordination among the co-workers is not smooth, you cannot expect the coordination among the brothers and sisters to be smooth. The crux of the matter today is the coordination among the co-workers. This is our biggest problem.
I have met with Brother Nee many times. I constantly have the feeling that Brother Nee's ministry must be recovered among us. During the past year and a half, we have discussed this matter many times. Once there is coordination in the work, the local churches will be able to send people out and there will be an increase in quantity and quality. Today the preaching of the gospel should be a work in the Body. Men remain unsaved because they have not yet seen the power of the church. Once the Body appears, there will be the real recovery. Today we cannot say that we are fully recovered yet. In short, if Brother Nee does not resume his ministry, nothing will happen. If real coordination is not established in the work, we cannot expect the local churches to have the real services. If such is the case, there will still be the system of the Nicolaitans; we still will not see the whole Body rising up to serve, and we will still be left with a few serving.
Brother Nee: My personal ministry is to serve as a minister of the ministers; I am here to serve the ministers. My own work seldom touches the brothers and sisters directly. Concerning the work, I have much to say. Concerning the brothers and sisters, I have very little to say.
In the church a person has to learn to ask everything. Once there is the asking, the services will be produced. If a brother mops the floor in the church for two years and is still the same, he should not come any longer. He has to mop the floor to the extent that he becomes a different person. In the church the main emphasis is not to get the work done, but to learn to be the proper person through doing the work. Every time we engage in any work, we have to learn coordination, and we have to ask the church about everything. We should not propose anything; rather, we should learn to submit. Those who have the ministry are responsible for speaking up, and others are responsible for putting aside their own ideas. Everyone has to learn to submit under the Head.
If the church does not learn this lesson, it will become the same as the denominations and other social groups. Everything in the church is under God's authority. Not only should the responsible ones learn to give orders, but the brothers and sisters also should learn to follow orders. The responsible ones have to learn to speak, and they also have to learn not to speak. Whether they speak or do not speak, they have to live under the authority of the Head. Living the church life demands our very life. The first thing we have to do is not to think, but to submit. The saints should present all the problems to the elders, and the elders should present the problems before God. In this way the saints can come to God through the elders, and God's authority can be realized among the saints.
We have to let the rich ones and those in high positions see that the church does not beg for their services. Who is begging for their services? There are others who can do things better than they can. But we have to let them see that we allow them to serve for the purpose of perfecting and edifying them. In addition, we have to help them to care for the poor in material things. We have to help the saints who occupy high positions to step down from their heights and to open up their wallets so that God can edify all.
In the matter of preaching the gospel, we have to recover the kind of preaching that is done by the whole church. We do not need to invite people with big advertisements. Rather, we should ask all the brothers and sisters to invite people individually. There is a difference between inviting people through advertisements and inviting them individually through the brothers and sisters. In this way the whole church will be able to rise up to serve. This kind of service will be the whole Body serving together. If we have only a few serving today, we have not reached God's standard.
The way to go on today is to have authority plus the one-talented ones. When authority is added to the one-talented ones, we have the church. Whether or not a church is up to the standard depends on whether the one-talented one are functioning. It is not enough just to have the two and five-talented ones. If our work does not bring out the one-talented ones, our work is a failure.
The flesh always comes with the one-talented ones. Before we have learned obedience ourselves, we will not know whether others are obeying or not. But after we have learned obedience, we will detect disobedience as soon as it is present. If we are coordinated, there will be authority among us. With authority we can deal with the rebellious and the insubordinate.
Our co-workers have been working and laboring all this time. I would like to ask if they feel tired? Perhaps God is telling us to let go now. The way today is not to struggle individually by ourselves. The way today is to do things all together and in coordination. The church is the reservoir of Christ; all the riches of Christ are stored in the Body. If one day we see the whole church rising up to preach the gospel, we will realize what a beautiful and powerful picture it is.
Today very few spiritual giants are being produced any longer. In the last century during the Keswick movement, many spiritual giants were produced. At that time people had a very shallow knowledge about the Bible. When A. T. Pierson stood up to preach, very few people knew what he was talking about. Today man's knowledge about the Bible has increased. When a person steps up to the platform to preach today, he only needs to speak the first sentence, and everyone knows what will follow. Today there are very few five-talented ones like Paul. However, although there are very few spiritual giants, two or three one-talented ones and two-talented ones will make up for a Paul. Today we do not have many Pauls. We can no longer wait for spiritual giants to come to us. I believe the time has come for the church to rise up to serve, work, and preach the gospel. There is no way for us to go on individually any longer. This is the time for us to take the way of the church. We have to be in the same mind with God. We criticize the denominations and their system of one man monopolizing everything, but in the local churches, one co-worker plus two or three elders monopolize the services. They are replacing the functions of the saints. In principle this is the same as the denominations.
Our work today is one in which we perfect others to do the work themselves. We are not here to work for others. Paul produced a Timothy to be his disciple. Timothy then committed the work to faithful ones (2 Tim. 2:2). The faithful ones went out and perfected others more. This is the way of our work today.
But now we are doing the work for others. This kind of working for others will not bring about anything even if we work ourselves to the point that we contract tuberculosis. The way today is to teach others to work. Only those who can teach others to work will succeed in the work.
When a person takes all the work upon himself, he is in reality telling everyone else not to work. This is the wrong way. The work of the co-workers today is to lead others and to induce them to work. Their job is to distribute the work to others. They have to use whatever means they can to cause others to work.
An older brother who is now deceased was working in the navy. He told me once that when the gunboats are engaged in battle, the cannons are carried from the bottom of the boats to the deck and handed to the gunners. The gunners themselves do not carry the cannons. This brother told me that he had worked for many years on a gunboat, but he had never fired a shot himself. All the time he carried cannons for others to fire the shots. Today we have to be that kind of people. We have to bring the cannons to the brothers and sisters and let them fire the shots.
One day we will all pass away, and another generation will rise up. The next generation that we bring in must not be made up of three or five serving ones, but must be made up of the whole church serving. If one day the whole church rises up to do everything by itself, with the whole church preaching the gospel and the whole church edifying each other, that will be the day when the world will see the church doing a new thing on earth. Today the whole problem lies with you and me. We must help every brother and sister to serve and make everyone a priest of God. Some may have the flesh with them, but we still have to ask them to work. Some brothers say that what they have is so little that it would be better if they hid it. But we have to tell them that they cannot do this. It is an easy thing for the one-talented ones to hide what they have. Many brothers and sisters feel that since they make mistakes no matter how they work, they may as well not work at all. But we have to ask them to work. This is the way. Please believe my words. In the not-too-distant future such a church will appear. By that time men will see Philadelphia, the genuine brotherly love.
Today the responsibility rests on our shoulders. God must have a way with us first, before He can have a way in the church. Everywhere God is recovering the condition of the early churches. From the garden of Eden through the tabernacle and the temple, God is gaining the church, which will usher in the holy city. By that time God will be able to dwell in the city, and Satan will no longer be able to come into that place.
Brother Witness Lee: In the last century many spiritual giants were raised up. But today it seems as if there are no such giants. I believe the reason for this is that God wants to bring in the ministry of the church and the service of the church. In China and even in the whole world, there seem to be no great evangelists being raised up. Not only are there no new ones being raised up, but the old ones are passing away. Some should not have passed away according to their age or their ministry, but they did pass away. This is probably because spiritual giants are a hindrance to producing the church ministry. Some so-called spiritual giants are not as prevailing as they used to be. Even among the co-workers now, there is always the sense of loneliness. Although the term coordination is not there, there is a cry for the reality of coordination.
Today the saints' heart toward service is very different. The situation today is like the spring blossoms after the early rain. Among the churches many people are seeking after the Lord. In the hospitals and on the campuses, many young ones are rising up. In Shanghai we see clear signs everywhere that the brothers and sisters have a desire to serve the Lord. On the one hand, we do not see spiritual giants being raised up. On the other hand, we see all the brothers and sisters in all the localities rising up. Even the little members are rising up to serve the Lord. This is the Lord's own work.
Whether or not we can bring about the service of the Body depends entirely on us. Can we submit ourselves to the authority of those ahead of us? If we can submit to authority, we can be others' authority. What is needed today is men who can lead others into the services, not men who will replace others in their services. We have to perfect others to the extent that they can rise up and serve. It is not the way today to have revival meetings, nor to enlist people into services. The way today is for us to learn the lessons first and to dive into the realities first. It is difficult to submit to authority, but it is more difficult to be an authority. Yet only through authority can we bring the brothers and sisters into the services. This requires that we pass through the dealings and breakings ourselves. We cannot give ourselves an easy way out. If we do not give ourselves an easy way, the Lord will have His way among us.
