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Date:August 30, 1949Place:Hong Kong
Concerning the key issues related to the work, the first thing I would like to speak about is the coordination among the co-workers. First, the co-workers have to come together to pray much. Second, they have to spend time to study the Word together. Third, the co-workers should meet with the responsible brothers at least once a week to fellowship about the affairs related to the church.
In principle, the best way to have the bread-breaking meeting is by districts. The districts should come together once a month at the most.
If workers have a financial need, they should not look to man's hand. Perhaps they should look for a part-time job. This is what some people are practicing in the mainland today. At present, the government of the People's Republic has introduced the so-called "Common Policy." It points out four main classes of people: 1) small bourgeois, 2) farmers, 3) nationalistic bourgeois, and 4) workers. These four groups are combined together to run the government. This is the so-called "coalition government of the four classes." It is an imitation of the principle of having all things in common as described in Acts. There is no party and no special interest group. The whole nation is involved in production, and all the products go to the state.
In order to meet by districts, we have to look for suitable places. Once we find a suitable place, we can rent it. The church can rent the living room for meeting, while the brothers and sisters can rent the rooms for boarding. We can have prayer meetings, bread-breaking meetings, young people's edification meetings, and gospel meetings.
Due to the change in political conditions, there is an overabundance of civil workers and bureaucrats in Hong Kong. All of them do not work on the Lord's Day. Therefore, the best time for us to preach the gospel is on the Lord's Day. I strongly support using the Lord's Day morning as a time for preaching the gospel. This will deliver us from the habit of attending a so-called Sunday-morning service. Workers of the Lord should not be afraid of having too many people. Rather, our fear should be that the people will not come. If more people come, we can start a new meeting in another place.
The workers should have the proper concept that they are not professional preachers; they do not receive a regular salary. The Bible never says that God's workers should receive a salary from anyone. The church does not pay me to do the work of preaching. I am called by God, and I can only look to Him for His provision. This was Paul's way when he said, "If I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a stewardship" (1 Cor. 9:17).
The work of a worker is to fulfill the ministry he has received from God, and this ministry is always for the church. The church is not for the ministry; rather, the ministry is for the church. A worker should not work with the intention of bringing the church under the control of his ministry. On the contrary, a worker should serve under the church. Whether one is an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a shepherd, or a teacher, all work is for perfecting others with the goal that all the brothers and sisters would be able to do what the gifted ones can do (Eph. 4:11-12). Today there are four thousand people who have turned to the Lord in Tsingtao. A few workers cannot possibly visit them all. Others must be perfected to do the job.
In Shanghai there are now over seven hundred brothers and sisters who are unemployed. Even at ordinary times there are two to three hundred unemployed ones. Perhaps the recent turbulence is actually an interim period that the Lord has provided for us to mobilize the unemployed ones to visit the new believers.
If we do not preach the gospel to those who are under eighteen years of age now, it will be hard to work on them after four years. The embryonic stage of the gospel in China was from 1918 to 1922. During this period, the Lord raised up many young lovers of Him in China. Most of them were under twenty years old. I was saved in 1920 at the age of seventeen. Four years later, I would have been in America for my studies. In preaching the gospel, we should not decide how old one should be before he can believe in the Lord. With the political situation changing by the minute, we have to be on the alert even more. The years of 1948 to 1952 may be another period of witnessing the Lord's revival. If we miss this time, it will be hard for us to make it up later.
In the Soviet Union the number of believers increased thirty times during the twelve years between 1918 and 1929. During the same time period, Russia's history became very turbulent. Similarly, I am asking you to do the seemingly impossible during this hour of trial. Throughout history, Christians have always been the ones who seized every opportunity to make gains for the Lord. They have always accomplished impossible tasks.
In the mainland, the People's Republic is discouraging gospel work. We are doing our best not to stir them up. We work quietly on people one by one. The Lord has placed the gospel work of China in our hands. If we work harder and stronger, sooner or later He will gain this land.
We should try our best to obey, labor, and work with our hands. We should pray much for wisdom from the Lord. Time is short. We do not know when we will lose our opportunity. Everywhere in Southeast Asia there are religious restrictions. British law in Singapore does not allow anyone to preach outdoors. Preaching the gospel in Malaysia is a criminal offense, with the government emphasizing its respect for the religious freedom of the Malaysians. We do not expect these governments to give us any help. Therefore, do not stir them up. We should not do anything to purposely demonstrate our zeal. Instead, exercise wisdom.
In east China, the number has multiplied a few fold in Nanking. Among all the provinces in China, Chekiang has the most promising work; the number of churches there is in the hundreds rather than in the tens.
We need to speak two things in relation to church affairs. First, we have to be watchful of the leading brothers. Do not let them take matters too lightly. Second, meetings should be held weekly because a week is a unit for a Christian.
Brother Hsu is a very good brother. Brother Liao has good recommendations from many sources, but I do not know him and therefore cannot say anything about him. Brother Chien loves the Lord very much, but his experience is not deep enough; it needs to take deeper root. Brother Chen is young but is pure before the Lord. Brother Ku has a good disposition. He does not have a hot temperament, and he is meek. It is easy for him to get along with others. But while he is a friendly person, he cannot exercise such friendliness in managing the church. He is short of one thing — strictness. Everyone who bears responsibility for the management of the church has to be strict. Moses was meeker than any person who lived on earth (Num. 12:3); yet at the same time, he was very strict. When he saw the people worshipping the golden calf, he did not wait for another word to smash the stone tablets. He forced the Israelites to drink of the ground powder from the golden calf and called upon the Levites to kill their own brothers (Exo. 32:19-29). All the responsible brothers have to be strict.
I do not know that much about the spiritual perception of Brother Shang. Has his understanding increased during the past few years? He is also a pure person, a good man. Unfortunately he is short of spiritual understanding. Today if anyone is short of spiritual understanding, he cannot be a responsible brother. Whether or not a man can easily change depends on the amount of spiritual understanding he has.
A responsible brother should not hold everything in his own hands. Rather, he should learn to assign responsibilities and to supervise the brothers and sisters in their work. He should not monopolize everything.
The responsible brothers should come together at least twice a week. First they should be together one day per week to let the brothers and sisters know that at least they are available. Second, there should be a co-workers' meeting in which the co-workers fellowship about going on in the work and about problems among themselves. The co-workers should take care not to relax in the matter of Christian fellowship. Problems among people and with things should be dealt with and taken care of in a thorough way. No procrastination should be allowed. Every meeting should begin with prayer and end with prayer. The ending prayer should be a prayer that leads to some kind of solution. Arrangements and charges should be made concerning those who are rebellious.
Business affairs, once they are made clear after fellowship, should be assigned to the brothers and sisters for execution. Be high in your expectation of the brothers and sisters. It is better to be high than to be low. If the standard is too low, the result will be low even if the standard is attained. Learn from A. G. Gordon, who said that one should put a nail on the wall as high as possible. The responsible brothers have to set a high expectation for the saints. If they do not, the saints will never advance. Business affairs should be based on whether or not it is right to do something, not on whether or not it is hard to do it.
The Christian meeting is a meeting gathered in the Lord's name. The church is the ekklesia, which means "the called-out assembly." A congregation of pew members is not the church. Such a congregation only provides a taste of a Sunday- morning worship service. Unfortunately, I think the meetings in Hong Kong somehow have developed such a taste. Perhaps Hong Kong has picked up the tradition of the past generations. Sometimes its meetings are almost the same as a congregation of pew members. This is the reason we have to change the Lord's Day morning meetings. Do not allow the brothers and sisters to sit quietly in the meetings; this is the same as not coming to the meeting at all. In the meetings, it is true that the brothers and sisters should not express their own opinions, but neither should they wait for someone to come and help them. Everyone should remember when they come to the meeting that they are coming to serve the Lord and serve the saints. They should not come with an attitude of only listening to a sermon.
Next, you have to help many people to function. Everyone should use his one talent. We should not wait for a strong speaker to come. Actually, when a church is weak, it hardly matters whether or not there are strong speakers. Only when the functioning ones in the church are so few does everything depend on speakers. All we need is a strong bread-breaking meeting and prayer meeting; there is no need to always have speakers. The issue is what takes priority. The speaking platform is clearly not the priority.
How the next generation fares depends on how this generation behaves. If God has a way among us, those who will be saved will not be like the ones we see today; they will be better. If you are faithful in Hong Kong, you will make the believers in Hong Kong the same as those in Kuling. In Kuling, unless one sheds tears and gives up his worldly possessions, he is not considered genuinely saved. The important thing is not how others criticize us, but how we are before the Lord.
Every Lord's Day morning we should preach the gospel. This should last for only thirty or forty minutes. The gospel message should be short. Once it is long, there will be no time to draw the net, and the fish will all jump out of the net. We have to capture the listeners with the Spirit of the Lord. Those who only have a burden to explain doctrines are in the realm of the mind; they cannot break down the strongholds in others' minds.
In our preaching we speak to men's minds, yet our main goal is to capture them with our spirit. You can follow the Kuling training in many things, but never in the length of its messages. You should not think that you can extend your time indefinitely as long as you are explaining the teachings clearly. You have to learn to subdue and conquer others with your spirit. If you are merely speaking to others' minds, you will waste much time, and the result will not be that good. The rest of the brothers and sisters also should learn to support the preaching with the release of their spirit.
The bread-breaking meeting should be conducted in the districts. The more we divide, the easier it will be to grow, and the more opportunity there will be for others to serve. If we do not subdivide our meeting into districts, the priesthood will be confined to just a few people.
There is the need of a new believers' meeting. All the saints should be treated as new believers in the beginning. Give them lessons. If a brother or sister cannot come, someone has to go to him or her to make up the lesson. If no one makes up the lesson with them, they will not be sustained. In making up the lessons, be thorough and careful. Do not be careless. You have to speak in such a way that they will want to come the next time. Unless you can do this, they will think that coming is optional, and your work will be very loose.
The workers should be careful and diligent. This is especially true in Hong Kong. If we are not careful, we will not get anywhere even if Hong Kong is blessed with many people. The present condition in Hong Kong is very precarious. The condition of the gospel is not proper, and the condition of the church is not proper. Consider, for example, the way the new believers' meeting is conducted. It is not serious enough. You are happy as long as the message is released. How can others receive the blessing if this is the way you work? Do you expect to see any fruit at all? If you want remaining fruit, you have to labor in the new believers' meeting in a genuine way. Everywhere in China the new believers' meeting is the strongest meeting. In Hong Kong it is the weakest meeting.
Hong Kong should be a place to produce people and money, but it seems that we have labored in vain here. Neither people nor money have been produced. This is because we have neglected the truth. Our words and our actions do not match. Some are able to preach a message on consecration, but they are not able to take the lead in consecration themselves. You have finished your fifty-two lessons for new believers already. What can you give to the new ones next time?
May the Lord pardon our shortcomings, and may He shine on us. May He grant us sufficient grace to offer up everything we have to secure His blessing.
