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Scripture Reading: Deut. 16:13, 16-17; 1 Cor. 14:26
Throughout the New Testament Christians are likened to sheep (Matt. 10:16; 18:12; 26:31; John 10:1-16, 26-28; 21:15-17; Rom. 8:36; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25). This is an indication that Christians are people who need to be together. Sheep are different from dogs and cats because they are always in a flock. A dog or a cat can be alone, but a sheep must always be in a flock. The life of a sheep is a life in the flock. In order for us to be normal Christians, we must join together with other believers. Just as sheep cannot live independently of the flock, we cannot be independent or individual. We must have a Body life, a church life.
Our need as Christians is to come together with other Christians, but when we do so, we must come together according to the revelation and teaching of the early church as unveiled in the New Testament. When the early Christians came together during the time of the apostles, they did not have any regulations, forms, or rituals. Rather, they came together in a simple way to meet and to fellowship. In the book of Acts there were no regulations, forms, or rituals. All we see are saved persons, ones who had been filled with the Holy Spirit, coming together to fellowship and to share, exalt, and glorify the Lord with one another. This was their church life.
The early church met in such a simple and living way, but the church eventually fell from this genuinely spiritual condition into a man-made condition of having religious “services.” The religious services that take place in Christianity today are not spiritual. In Christianity the nature of the Christian meeting has changed and become degraded. Suppose a person who lives by the Lord, walks in spirit, contacts the Lord in his spirit, and is filled with the Holy Spirit were to come to a religious service in today’s Christianity. He would feel that this religious service does not match his spirit. His spirit would be looking for one thing, but the religious service would offer him something else. It would not match his spirit, meet his need, fit his spiritual condition, or satisfy the longing of his spirit. This proves that there is something wrong with these so-called Christian services. They are formal and religious and are filled with regulations, forms, and rituals.
What then is a proper Christian meeting? A proper Christian meeting is one in which saints come together to exercise their spirit apart from regulations, forms, rituals, and all other religious bonds and hindrances. In a proper Christian meeting there is a spiritual order and a divine atmosphere of decency, but there are no religious bonds, hindrances, or frustrations. In such a meeting the attendants express what is in their spirit and what they sense in their spirit. They also display what they have experienced of Christ in their daily life. In such a proper Christian meeting the brothers and sisters who come together are like burning wood. Each of them has been set on fire, and each of them also sets others on fire. They burn one another like burning wood that is piled together. After each meeting, each saint has been burned and is burning. When they go home, they burn their families; when they go to work, they burn their colleagues; and when they go to a restaurant, they even burn the people in the restaurant. They are always being burned and burning others. This is what a proper Christian meeting is like.
In order to have proper Christian meetings, when we come together, we must forsake regulations, forms, rituals, programs, and every other thing that is not in the Scriptures. In 1932, after I had prayed to the Lord for several months, the Lord began a ministry, a work, in my hometown. At that time many of us felt that there was something wrong with Christianity, so we made a decision to forsake everything of Christianity. We received the Lord as our Savior and all-inclusive Lord, we fully received the gospel that had been preached to us, and we absolutely received everything in the Bible. We received these three items absolutely, but outside of these three things we did not receive anything that Christianity brought to us. We realized that the Lord is right, that the gospel is right, and that the Scriptures are right, but we also realized that Christianity is wrong. We made a clear differentiation between these three items and Christianity. In fact, we made a list of all the things in Christianity and examined them one by one to see if we could find these things in the Scriptures. Eventually, we had to cross nearly every item off our list and let it go because we could not find it in the Scriptures. For example, where in the Bible does it say that it is necessary to have a pastor to take the lead in a Christian meeting? You cannot find such a thing. Furthermore, where in the Bible does it say that when the believers come together, they should all sit in pews and wait for a pastor or an elder to read the Scriptures, pray, give a sermon, and then give a benediction? Nowhere in the Bible does it say this. We checked the things that we saw in Christianity against the Scriptures, and one by one we crossed nearly everything off our list.
After we crossed nearly everything off our list and gave up Christianity entirely as a religious system, we did not know what to do, so we simply came together. Our meetings at that time began in a variety of ways. In my home province a group of saints composed primarily of medical students began to meet together. These students had been saved and led to know the Lord in a living way. As a result, they had the desire to meet, and they began to do so. Since they did not have any place in which to meet, they went to a cemetery. Most cemeteries in China are located outside of town at the base or top of a mountain, so these young believers went to the outskirts of town to meet together in a simple way in a cemetery. In many cemeteries in China, each gravesite has a small pyramid next to it along with a stone table that people use for offering sacrifices to their ancestors. When these young believers came together in the cemetery, they sat down on the ground, put the bread and the wine on one of these stone tables, and began to meet together. At that time none of us knew what to do or how to practice the church life. The only thing that we knew was that we had to give up all the regulations, forms, and rituals, because these things cannot be found in the Scriptures.
In addition to abandoning all the things that were foreign to the Scriptures, we knew that we also needed to pray. We prayed much, and gradually the Lord began to lead us to go on in a new way. We began to receive light from the Scriptures concerning the proper way for the Lord’s children to meet together. One thing that we began to see was that when the Lord’s children come together, they must bring something of the Lord with them to the meeting and offer something of the Lord to God. We also saw that in order to do this, we had to experience the Lord day by day. For example, suppose there is a person whom you cannot love by yourself, but because you experience the Lord as love, you are empowered to love that person by, through, in, and with the Lord. Suppose that you also experience the Lord as patience. Although you are unable to be patient with the members of your family by yourself, you learn to experience Christ as your patience and are able to be patient with them in Christ. If day by day you experience Christ in many different ways, and all the other brothers and sisters do the same, when we come together, we will all have something of the Lord to bring with us. You may come to the meeting with the Lord as your love and patience, I may come to the meeting with the Lord as my peace and joy, and another brother may come to the meeting with Christ as his rest and satisfaction. Then when we come together, we can exhibit the Christ whom we have experienced, and we can offer our Christ to God. We can do this by offering a prayer or praise during the meeting. You can simply pray, “Lord, I praise You. You are so wonderful to me. In these days You are so real to me. By You I can love those whom I would never be able to love by myself, and by You I can be patient with those with whom I would never be able to be patient.” This kind of prayer exalts, glorifies, and exhibits the Lord. It also puts the enemy to shame and ministers Christ to the other saints. After you pray, a sister may declare, “O Lord, I praise You. You are so real to me. I testify before the principalities and powers in the heavenlies that You are real to me. By You I can do what I would never be able to do otherwise.” After this sister prays in this way, a brother may ask that we all sing a hymn. The hymn may be an old hymn, but since we all have experienced Christ during the week, we can sing it in a new and living way, and as we sing, we can praise the Lord. After we sing a hymn, another brother may stand up and read a passage from the Scriptures and give a short message or testimony. If we meet in such a way, then surely Christ will be exhibited and expressed, and all the saints will be strengthened, anointed, and enlightened. Christ will be ministered to all the attendants, and their needs will be met. If an unbeliever were to attend a meeting like this, surely he would be saved. This is the kind of meeting that we should have.
In the Old Testament when the children of Israel came together, the Lord demanded that they not come empty-handed. They had to come with their hands full of the produce of their labor. Throughout the year they had to till the ground, sow the seed, and care for their crops so that when the time of the harvest arrived, they could reap an abundance of rich produce from the land. Then when they came together, they brought the produce of their labor. Some brought wheat, some brought corn, and some brought wine. Each brought the firstfruits of their harvest and offered it to the Lord. They also shared what they had brought with one another and enjoyed it together. Thus, both they and the Lord enjoyed what they brought when they came together.
The experience of the children of Israel is a picture of the proper Christian meeting. The rich produce that the children of Israel brought and offered to the Lord is a type of the all-inclusive Christ. The riches of the good land typify the many riches of Christ. Christ is full of rich produce for us to enjoy. Before we can enjoy Christ’s riches, however, we need to labor on Christ day after day. We must till the ground, sow the seed, and reap the harvest. We should not be lazy but should labor on Christ every day. Our hearts are the ground, and Christ is the seed. Every morning we should rise early to till our hearts and to allow Christ to sow Himself into our hearts. If we do this, then there will be a spiritual harvest of Christ in our daily living. Christ will be produced in us, and we will be able to live by the produce of Christ within us. In addition, we will also have a surplus of Christ that we can bring to the meetings and offer to the Lord. From Monday through Saturday we labor on Christ; that is, we experience Christ. Then on the Lord’s Day we come together with all the saints and bring the Christ whom we have enjoyed. I bring my Christ, you bring your Christ, and we all bring our Christ and offer Him to God. This pleases the Father. This is also a great enjoyment for all of us, for we all enjoy each other’s Christ. Meetings like this are wonderful, spiritual, heavenly, and full of Christ.
First Corinthians 14:26 says that whenever we come together, “each one has...” The little word has in this verse is full of meaning. It means that everyone comes to the meeting with something. One has a teaching, one has a revelation, one has a tongue, and one has an interpretation. This is the pattern of the New Testament for Christian meetings. The religious services in today’s Christianity, however, are not like this. Instead, all the members of the congregation are merely “pew-sitters.” Everyone comes and sits in the pews, and perhaps only one or two pastors or ministers do everything. This is wrong. This is not a proper Christian meeting. A proper Christian meeting is one in which all the participants bring something of the Lord to exhibit, express, and share with one another.
Although there should be no regulations or forms in our practice, we have realized in the past that there are certain things that can help us have a proper Christian meeting. One of them is to sit in a mutual way, facing one another. We call this having a “round table” meeting. If I were to invite some brothers to my home for a meal, I would never have them sit one in front of the other, all facing the same direction, the way pews are set up in the services in Christianity. If we were to sit this way while having a meal together, what kind of feeling would this create? I would never ask the brothers to sit this way. Instead, I would ask them to sit around the table so that we could look at and speak with one another. In our meetings it is good to sit in a similar way. Of course, this is not a form, because forms never work, but we have found that sitting in this way can be very helpful to our meetings.
To have proper Christian meetings, we must contact the Lord daily in our private life so that we will be living Christians. Then we must come to the meetings with the realization and understanding that we are coming to exhibit Christ and to share Christ with others. When some hear this word, they may feel that since their Christian life is marked by failure, they have nothing to bring to the meetings. They may feel that they cannot function in the meetings since their experience of Christ is so poor. Even if this is your condition, you must realize that you can still function in the meetings. You can come to the meeting and pray, “Lord, I am so poor. I have failed You many times this week. Please forgive me and have mercy upon me. I have come to this meeting with nothing of You.” If you come to the meeting and pray in this way, many of the saints may be deeply touched, and tears may come to their eyes. Moreover, you can also pray, “Lord, since I have nothing of You, I come to contact You in Your Body and through Your Body. I believe that You have something for me in this meeting.” You can pray in such a way, and you can also open yourself to the saints in the meeting and say, “Brothers and sisters, please pray for me. I have been trying to live the Christian life, but I have failed the Lord again and again. Please pray for me.” If you bring your failures to the meeting and open yourself to the Lord and to the Body, your failures will disappear. I once knew a brother who had a very bad temper. He tried very hard to overcome his bad temper, but by himself he continually failed. One day this brother brought his weakness to the meeting and opened to the Body. After that, a wonderful thing happened — his weakness disappeared. If we experience Christ during the week, we can share our Christ during the meeting, and if we fail during the week, we can share our weaknesses with the saints. We must learn to allow others to bear our weaknesses. If we practice in this way, our meetings will be living, rich, edifying, strengthening, and enlightening.
When we come together to meet, there is no need for us to be formal. Let us suppose that we set the time of the meeting for 7:30 in the evening. It is good to set a definite time for the start of the meeting, but we do not need to be too formal about the time that the meeting actually begins. For example, if one sister arrives at 7:15 and a few brothers arrive at 7:20, they do not need to sit quietly until one of the leading brothers comes at 7:30 and calls a hymn. This is rather formal. If you come at 7:15 and are the first one to arrive for the meeting, you can begin to pray to the Lord quietly. When another saint arrives, the two of you can begin to pray together in a living and prevailing way. You can pray, “O Lord, we come together for this meeting. Grant us Your presence.” If two of you are already there, you can simply begin the meeting in this way. When others arrive at 7:25 or 7:30, they will sense the presence, anointing, and moving of the Spirit. In everything we do, we must act according to the Spirit in a very fine, divine, and orderly way, but there is no need for us to be formal. We all have the full liberty and freedom to follow the Spirit.
Thus, there are two requirements to having a proper Christian meeting. The first requirement is that all the attendants seek and contact the Lord in their daily lives. We all must learn how to contact the Lord in a living way and must labor to experience Christ every day. The second requirement is that when we come together, we must forget about all regulations, forms, rituals, routines, and programs. If we have a program for our meetings, we will quench the Spirit and kill the spiritual life within us. When we come together, we must abandon all things of religion and do one thing — exhibit Christ. We do this by expressing, sharing, exalting, testifying, and preaching Christ in a living way to one another.
Question: You have mentioned how we should begin the meeting, but how should we end the meeting?
Answer: In principle, we should end the meeting in the same way that we begin the meeting — according to the leading of the Spirit. We should end the meeting when the saints all have the sense that it is time to end the meeting.
Question: It seems that the only way for a group of believers to meet in this way is if they are one. Is this correct?
Answer: This is absolutely correct; we must have the genuine unity. This unity is not a unity in doctrine; it is a unity in loving and experiencing the Lord. You love the Lord, and I love the Lord; you experience the Lord, and I experience the Lord. You may believe in baptism by sprinkling, and I may believe in baptism by immersion, but that should not bother us because our unity is not a unity in doctrine but in loving and experiencing the Lord. We should not endeavor to have unity in doctrine. Such a unity is not genuine unity. If we try to have unity in doctrine, we will create division. As long as a person believes that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God, that He was incarnated to be a man, died on the cross, was resurrected on the third day, and is now in the heavens as our Redeemer, Savior, and Lord, that is good enough. Such a believer is our brother. It does not matter whether he believes in immersion or sprinkling or what he believes related to head covering or foot-washing. These kinds of doctrinal matters should not bother us and should not be allowed to damage our unity.
If some come among us and seek to promote a particular practice or doctrine, we should not exclude them. For example, in the past some have tried to promote the things of the Pentecostal movement. We did not exclude these ones; we welcomed them. We told them, “Dear brothers and sisters, we welcome you, and we respect you, but we beg you not to promote the things of the Pentecostal movement. If you do this, you will scare some of the other brothers and sisters away. This is not the place for you to promote or to push these things. This is a place for all the believers to come together in a general way.” Most of the ones with whom we fellowshipped in this way saw this matter and remained with us. Others who were more subjective, however, stopped coming because they could not dance or play the tambourine as they wished. When they played the tambourine, we begged them not to, saying, “Dear brother, please do not play the tambourine here. You can play at home, but if you play here, you will scare some of the others away. We love you and respect you, but we are not in the Pentecostal church. We are here simply to come together in a general way.” Praise the Lord that there were many who received this kind of fellowship. Some even agreed not to speak in tongues in the meetings for the sake of others.
We must not take any special standing. Our standing is the general standing of the church. We are simply Christians who have been saved and regenerated by the Lord and who are coming together to practice the church life in a general way. All the Lord’s children are our brothers and sisters, and we are open to them. We do not have anything special here. Everything is general. This way truly works.
Question: How do you carry out Sunday School for the children?
Answer: In principle, there should be some teaching and some ministry in the meetings for the children and for the young people on the Lord’s Day. Strictly speaking, this kind of meeting is not a meeting of the church; it is a meeting of the work. This kind of meeting is part of the church’s ministry, the church’s work. When the brothers and sisters come together to pray in a mutual way, this is a church meeting. When the saints come together to have the Lord’s table in a mutual way, this is a church meeting. When you come together to share your testimonies or to study the Word in a mutual way, this is also a church meeting. However, if you have a meeting for the children or young people, you need to have some teaching, some ministry. This is not a meeting of the church but a part of the work of the church. Similarly, when we have a meeting in which a servant of the Lord gives a message, this is not a church meeting but a meeting for the ministry, the work.
Question: If we were to have a meeting for young people on a certain evening during the week, would that also be considered a ministry meeting?
Answer: If this meeting consists solely of a group of young believers coming together to fellowship with one another, this would be in the principle of a church meeting. Church meetings are meetings of mutuality. Meetings that are for the purpose of teaching or ministering the Word are meetings of the work, but meetings that are conducted according to the principle of mutuality are meetings of the church. It may not be possible to always have meetings for the work, but we should always have meetings in which the saints come together to pray, study, testify, and admonish in mutuality (Heb. 10:24-25). In these meetings it is not necessary to have particular ones take the lead or bear the responsibility. We must realize that in the meetings of the church, everyone has the responsibility to share something in a mutual and spontaneous way.
Question: What happens when there are visitors among us? Does this change the nature of the meeting?
Answer: If we have the Lord’s grace, when a believer comes to our meetings for the first time, even he will be able to share something and to mingle with us. Actually, there are no “visitors.” We are all members of the family of God. I am a child of God, and so are you. Thus, when a believer comes to one of our meetings for the first time, we should not view him as a visitor but as a member of the family who has come home. This is the real church life.
If we will give up all the hindrances, bonds, and frustrating elements, the Holy Spirit will have a free way to move. When the Holy Spirit has the free way to move, many things will begin to happen. Our numbers will begin to increase. Many new believers will be brought into the church. Another thing that will happen is that the saints will genuinely grow in their spiritual life, and their spiritual gifts will begin to be manifested. In addition, the saints will begin to love one another more. The experience of the divine life will result in an increase in love, because love is the issue of life (1 John 3:14). This will cause the church life to be living, prevailing, functioning, and powerful. This is what God’s people are longing for. Deep in their spirits they are longing for this. They cannot utter or explain what they desire, but they have such a longing. If the believers in a particular city would practice this and be faithful in this matter, many believers would be attracted.
Question: I am worried that when those who have never heard this kind of fellowship come among us, they will not understand what we are doing. Is this not a concern?
Answer: There is no need to worry that others will not understand. If we are faithful before the Lord to practice to have proper Christian meetings in a way that is truly spiritual and full of life, when others come among us, they will appreciate what we are doing and realize that it is of the Lord. Surely the Holy Spirit will move in them to vindicate, prove, and confirm this way.
Every day we have three meals a day — breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This is not a form; it is a human need. If you eat only one meal a day, this will be detrimental to your health. To maintain the health of our physical body, we need to eat at least three times a day. Similarly, to maintain our spiritual health and to have a proper church life, we need to meet together several times in a given week. It is not healthy to meet only once a week. Every week we need to meet together to pray, to study the Word, and to fellowship together and admonish one another. It is fine to mingle the study of the Word with the prayer or with the fellowship, but in principle we need to have times together every week to pray, to study the Word, and to fellowship. In addition, according to the pattern of the New Testament, we also need to meet to have the Lord’s table. First Corinthians 11:25 says, “Similarly also the cup after they had dined, saying, This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me.” The word often in the phrase as often as you drink it indicates that we need to have the Lord’s table as often as possible. In the book of Acts the saints had the Lord’s table every day (2:46). Later the believers had the Lord’s table on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week (20:7; Rev. 1:10). In addition to these four kinds of meetings — meetings for prayer, for the study of the Word, for fellowship, and for the Lord’s table — the Lord may also raise up someone among us who has the gift of teaching. If this is the case, we can gather together periodically and allow this gifted one to minister the Word to us. This would be a special time for the ministry of the Word. This will be a help to us, but this is only something special. Ordinarily the saints need to meet together three to four times a week for prayer, the study of the Word, fellowship, and the Lord’s table. However, this should not be considered a regulation but a principle to meet our spiritual need.
