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Scripture Reading: Rom. 16:5, 10-15, 23
One and a half years ago the Lord granted us a new direction in His leading as a means to turn ourselves fully away from the way of traditional Christianity. This is a fact that we all acknowledge. Christianity has made the Lord’s church altogether an organization. An organization derives its existence from big meetings with one man speaking and everyone else listening. Such big meetings kill the spiritual life of the believers as well as the function of the members of the Body of Christ. We have seen this clearly from the beginning of the Lord’s recovery. Regrettably, in our practice we have been groping for the past fifty to sixty years. As early as 1934, Brother Nee pointed out that the kind of Sunday morning “worship service” where one person speaks and everyone else listens should be dropped. To him that was “the custom of the nations.” After fifty to sixty years of searching and groping, we still did not find the way to have the proper practice.
After many frustrations, losses, and setbacks, the Lord has finally brought us to our present way of practice. Thank the Lord. Concerning this way, I still need to fellowship a few points. First, this does not mean that after we have the small group meetings and the home meetings, we can forget about the big meetings. I have said from the very beginning that these two kinds of meetings are like the two wings of an airplane; we cannot have one without the other. The two must go hand in hand. I believe when we put these words into practice, we will see that while we still have the big meetings, our way of carrying them out is entirely different from the way of the denominations.
During the past fifty or sixty years, we have been experimenting with the proper way, but we were not that accurate in our search. As a result, more or less we were still under the old habit of meeting. Now that we are suddenly changing everything to a new way, many of the brothers and sisters may feel uncomfortable about the change. They may not be accustomed to the new practice. Some have said that this new practice is something borrowed from the West and that it will not work in the Far East. Other co-workers have said that the new practice is suitable only for Taipei; it will not work in other places. No matter what is said, I believe one day we will see that this way works even in the farthest corner of the earth, unless, of course, one chooses not to take this way; in such a case, it will certainly not work. It is altogether not too much for me to say this.
The crucial thing concerning the new way is to have the Lord’s salvation realized in a practical way by every saint. We know that the only way anything can be sustained in human society is for it to be carried out in the homes. The home is the place where everything related to human existence is sustained. If we have only individuals in a society without the existence of the homes, nothing related to our human living will last; society will be short of the vessel needed to hold it together. The home is the basic unit of society; it is the foundation of a nation. According to God’s Word, the church of God is first the house, household, or home of God (1 Tim. 3:15). After that it is the kingdom of God (Rom. 14:17). It is difficult for God’s kingdom to exist without the existence of the homes. Without the home as a basis, it is difficult for individuals to exist, and it is difficult for a nation or kingdom to be established.
Christianity has fallen prey to the wiles of Satan; it has completely overlooked the homes. In Christianity only the big meetings are cared for without any thought of the home meetings. A person in Christianity finds no vessel to hold his experience together. There is no vessel to uphold the testimony and no vessel to keep and maintain the truth. Consider Romans 16. Without a doubt, during the time of the apostles, the church was built up in the believers’ homes. We know that the book of Romans is a book dealing specifically with the spiritual life in Christ and the spiritual living in the church. At the end of this book, one entire chapter is devoted to Paul’s greeting of the saints. From his greetings, we can see that quite a number of homes were opened to the church. This shows that the church life at the time of the apostles had a very strong home atmosphere. Under Satan’s influence, Christianity has completely annihilated this spiritual atmosphere of the homes.
This is the reason that we must endeavor with all the energy, strength, and time that the Lord has given us to recover the proper atmosphere of the homes. The first thing we must do is to make every saint’s home a place for meeting. At the present moment many saints are burdened to open up their homes. This is a great step forward, yet we cannot be satisfied with this initial step. We must not only open up the homes of those who are burdened, but we must also bring the meetings to the homes of those who are not burdened. We hope that every home can be opened to become a place for meeting. Each opened home means one more place for meeting. The smallest places of meeting in a church are the homes of every brother and sister in that church.
We all need to learn how to have meetings with people in their homes. The co-workers need to learn, the elders need to learn, and the full-timers need to learn. In particular, the sisters need to learn. We should learn to go to people’s homes to have meetings with them. We do not need to wait until they have the burden and the desire. As long as one is a believer and as long as he or she has a home, we need to work on the home. If they do not know how to have a meeting, we should lead them and teach them to do it. If for any reason they have difficulty starting a meeting, we should help them. We should continue persistently time after time until they are able to sustain a meeting in their home. After that we can hand the meeting over to them. Such meetings are not primarily for the relatives and neighbors but for the members of the family, especially for the husbands and wives. Perhaps the couple has not been meeting for a long time. As long as we bring the meeting to their home, they will be touched by the Lord to start meeting again. This is one lesson that all the co-workers, elders, and full-timers must learn.
I would also speak a word of advice to the co-workers and elders. In the past we were accustomed to taking care of the big meetings. Now we have a new way. We are asking everyone to work on the small meetings. In other words, we need to work on every saint’s home. Not only must we recover the dormant ones, but we must also recover their homes. Although many brothers and sisters are not co-workers, elders, or full-timers, they do have a heart for the Lord. There are about three thousand such saints in Taipei. If they all form units of three, we will have one thousand units that can carry out meetings in others’ homes. Every Saturday we will have one thousand teams of saints looking for people to work on, whether they are dormant ones, weak ones, or indifferent ones. We can even send a meeting to the home of a gospel friend. We will not graduate by doing this only once. Such a practice must be sustained in a steadfast way. In the process of doing this, we must learn to take care of other things, such as the arrangement of chairs, the provision of food, and the preparation of the refreshments. We also must learn to choose the hymns and exercise to follow the leading of the Spirit. If we do this, I believe the result will be more than we can think or imagine.
Another secret to the success of the small group meeting or home meeting is the singing. This is especially crucial among the older ones, those who are more than forty years of age. We have many good hymns among us. Many times we do not need to sing the entire hymn; we can sing only one stanza. When we go to a home meeting, our singing with a released spirit will stir up the meeting. The most crucial thing is to help every attendant of the meeting to function. We can take the lead to pray and afterward ask the brothers and sisters to pray one by one. If some express reluctance, we can help them along. We can also encourage them to give a testimony of their salvation and to tell the story of their experience of the Lord’s grace. This will rekindle the love for the Lord within them and fire them up. It will also stir up the heart of the listeners.
Every time we have a home meeting, we must provide the proper material for the supply of life. We must all learn to use such material. Do not be legal or inflexible in using the material. At times we may come to deep and lofty points. Depending on the actual need, we may want to skip over some of these points or cover them in a brief way. Any Scripture reference listed at the beginning of a lesson or chapter should be pray-read. Ultimately, we still need the supply of the Lord’s word for spiritual nourishment. If we do this, the meetings will become living.
Before we go to a home meeting, we need to pray before the Lord, confess to Him, and ask for His cleansing. We need to wash our hands every day. We cannot say that since we washed our hands yesterday, we do not need to wash them again today. Nor can we say that since we washed them this morning, we can skip it for now. Every time we contact the Lord, and every time we touch anything concerning the Lord, we need to confess our sins and ask Him for His cleansing. We do this not as a formality. We confess our filth, weakness, lack, corruption, and evil from the bottom of our heart. Whether they are conscious sins or unconscious sins, we must ask the Lord to forgive and cleanse them one by one.
The result of such prayer, confession, and supplication for cleansing is the moving and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We have to believe that the Spirit of the Lord today is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. He is all-inclusive. He lives within us and is also upon us. After we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness, He will cleanse us with His precious blood (1 John 1:7, 9). After such confession we must exercise our faith to claim His Spirit. We must believe that He is within us and is also upon us. We also must believe that every time we are with the brothers and sisters, His presence is with us. In Matthew 28:20 the Lord said, “I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age.” This Lord who is with us is the Spirit. If He is not the Spirit, how can He be with us? The Lord who is with us in the meetings is the Spirit.
Once the Lord cleanses us, we must stand on this fact. Based on this faith, we should exercise our spirit in the meetings. Whether it is singing, praying, speaking, or fellowshipping, the minute we open our mouth, we need to learn to exercise our spirit. Our meeting is not a common thing. It is a holy matter. Whenever we meet, we touch God. For this reason we must exercise our spirit. John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” According to my observation, when the brothers and sisters come together, most of the time they do not exercise their spirit; they do not worship in spirit and truthfulness. This is our greatest lack.
Chinese philosophy extols “inward substance” over “outward show” so that even if a person is filled with “inward substance,” he should behave outwardly as if nothing has happened. To the Chinese, this is virtue and valor. But such “valor” should not be found in our meetings. In the meetings we need to have inward substance, and we need to have outward expression. Fifty years ago the most famous preacher in China was John Sung, who did not graduate from any theological school. He received a doctoral degree in chemistry in the United States. When he returned to China, he was called by the Lord to preach the gospel. Around February or March of 1933, he came to Chefoo. I went purposely to listen to him. He was like a madman. He would come in either from the front door or from the back door. Sometimes while everyone was waiting for him, he would suddenly appear and would sing in a loud voice, saying, “Down with sin, down with sin; out with Satan, out with Satan!” At that time even Christian congregations of a thousand people would be completely silent for the entire meeting. But the minute John Sung sang in this way, every dormant spirit was awakened. When we go to a meeting, we should do the same; we should stir up other people’s spirit.
We must realize that with whatever part of our being we speak, we will touch that same part in others. If we speak in a joyful way, others will rejoice. If we speak in anger, others will be led to anger. If we speak with our emotion, we will touch others’ emotion. If we speak with the will, we will touch others’ will. Of course, if we speak with our spirit, we will touch others’ spirit. This is an invariable rule. When we go to the meeting, we are there for only one thing — to do God’s business. We are there to stir up people’s spirit. If we do not exercise our spirit, others’ spirit will never be stirred up. If their spirit is not stirred up, they will not touch God, and they will not receive any supply. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit. When we go to the meeting, we need to exercise our spirit. We must always exercise our spirit.
Some saints are always strong. They are always ready to speak and can exercise their spirit without any encouragement from us. But the majority of the saints need encouragement before they will exercise their spirit. When we go to a meeting, that is, when we deliver a meeting to a person’s home, the minute we come and the minute we open our mouth, we need to exercise our spirit. Once we exercise our spirit, the meeting will be full of the Spirit. Once we speak with the spirit, others’ spirit will be opened, and they will touch God.
Every Lord’s Day I go to a different hall to observe the teaching of Truth Lessons. I feel that all the brothers are making progress everywhere. However, it seems that we are still not thoroughly clear about how to teach the main points of the lessons, and we do not know the secret of teaching. In the past I implored that we not expound but only teach the lessons. Now I am still holding on to this principle. The reason is that the content of Truth Lessons is already a complete message which includes everything that should be included. It does not require us to expound any further. As long as we are able to point out and impress people with the main points, this is the best way to teach Truth Lessons.
The first and foremost requirement in teaching Truth Lessons is the exercise of the spirit. We need to exercise our spirit in every word that we speak. The minute we open our mouth, if we exercise our spirit, we will spontaneously stir up others’ spirit. On the contrary, if we speak in a low tone without any vigor, people will be killed by our speaking. For example, in a classroom full of naughty students, if the teacher speaks without any vigor, the students will be even naughtier and will not listen to the teacher. Even though we are not teachers, we still need the same kind of attitude and manner. Once we stand on the podium, we should not speak casually or in our regular tone. Rather, we need to speak in a dignified way. Once we open our mouth, our spirit should be released. We must learn this. If we do this, our teaching of Truth Lessons will be entirely different. Once we open our mouth, our spirit will come out, and what we are going to say will also be spirit. The attendants will also exercise their spirit when they speak and read the messages. Hence, the exercise of the spirit is the first item that we must work on.
I said earlier that according to my observation and experience, the best way to read Truth Lessons is that everyone reads instead of a few reading or only the teacher reading. But all should not read together; rather, they should read a sentence each, one after another. Consider a basketball game. It is not one person who holds the ball all the time or five persons simultaneously playing the ball; they pass the ball to one another and take turns playing it. Based on what I saw, almost all the churches commit the mistake of not reading in the right way. I hope that we will receive this fellowship.
The advantage of teaching in this way is that in reading the lesson, everyone will spontaneously exercise to speak, and we will not be the only one speaking. Everyone will read consecutively, like five players passing a basketball from one to the other. This is to be flexible. The most important thing in our home meetings and small group meetings is for everyone to speak, as if they are passing a basketball. The best opportunity to train the saints to speak is when we teach them Truth Lessons. We need to explain to them or even give them a demonstration of how to read the lesson.
Second, in reading the lesson, we need to teach them how to pay attention to the main points. When we come to an important point, we can ask someone to read it again, or even three or four times. If the one who reads is experienced, he may be able to stress the point a little. In this way, not only will he gain the benefit, but everyone will be benefited. The newly saved ones and gospel friends in particular will be very impressed. The teacher and the student can profit from each other. The teacher speaks; the students speak; everyone speaks. Spontaneously, we will all grow. This is not easy, but it is not too difficult. I hope we can all practice this. Do not practice this in a rigid or monotonous way; instead, do it in a living way.
Third, after each section has been read, the teacher should highlight the subject and the main point. This will give the saints a deeper impression and enable them to learn the truth and receive the supply.
If the teachers can speak with an exercised spirit, lead the saints to practice repeated reading, emphasized reading, reading that brings out the main points, and give a conclusion after each section, the saints will be able to taste the sweetness and riches of the messages. After each lesson the saints will not only receive the knowledge of the truth but also the life supply released from the main points that were highlighted. This is a very profitable practice.
There are also a few points to which we should pay attention. When we ask questions and highlight the main points, we should not pay too much attention to trivial things, such as history, geography, or the names of persons; rather, we should pay attention to the types, prophecies, and fulfillments. Once, I heard a teacher ask questions, not related to the prophecies of Christ but to the names and numbers of prophets. Some people may ask, “Since we do not need to pay attention to all these things, why did you include them in the lessons?” I have already pointed out that for a chicken to grow properly, it needs to have bones, feathers, and skin. But when this chicken is presented for man’s enjoyment, the more meat there is, the better. When we compiled Truth Lessons, we included some of the “bones,” “feathers,” and “skin,” but this does not mean that we want them to be taught.
I have read the Bible for sixty years. From the very beginning, I started to memorize the names of persons and places, but until today I am not able to remember all of them. If the trainees were to tell me that they have memorized only the names of the twelve minor prophets, I would not be happy. However, if they have not memorized all the points concerning Christ’s prophecies, I would say that they should be dismissed and should leave the training. I am afraid, however, that many of them have memorized the names of persons but not the prophecies of Christ. This indicates that our teaching of Truth Lessons has reversed the order of importance — we are presenting only a pile of bones for people to gnaw on, but we cannot present the meat for people to eat. This is a big failure.
Last Lord’s Day I joined a corporate Lord’s table meeting in a certain hall. The saints were tested on the main points of the lessons and accordingly given rewards. I agreed with their practice. They did not test on trivial matters but on the outlines — in Adam, we see God’s redemption; in Abel, we see God’s way of redemption; in Enosh, we see man’s need for God and man’s calling upon Him to enjoy God’s riches; in Enoch, we see one who was redeemed and who walked with God on the pathway of redemption. We do not need to ask questions such as how long Enoch lived or how long he walked with God. The trivial matters are not important. The most important thing is the spiritual significance.
All the co-workers and elders should be teachers of Truth Lessons, and especially the younger ones should bear this burden. The older ones are already sixty or seventy years of age; the younger ones should pick up this burden. In the Lord’s recovery our teaching of the truth should not be the same as the way people teach theology. For example, they teach the historical event of Abraham’s being born in Ur of the Chaldees. Instead, we should teach the spiritual matters and things, such as the spiritual significance of Ur of the Chaldees being a land of idol worship. We must remember this kind of spiritual significance. The failure of theological teaching is that even though people have received theological education, their comprehension of the spiritual matters is still incomplete. What they learned are things such as history, geography, archaeology, and culture. What we teach must be matters of spiritual significance.
We need to realize that the way the Lord is taking is to build up His church in the believers’ homes. Once the church is built up in the homes, the homes will be transformed. The husbands and the wives might have been arguing couples, but once they have meetings in their homes, they will stop their arguing. The children will also be preserved from drifting with the current of the age. As a result, the family will become proper and normal. If possible, we should compile some material to teach the brothers and sisters how they should build up their own homes. For example, we should have something to teach them how to behave as parents, children, husbands, and wives. This is scriptural. A book as spiritual as Ephesians contains teachings on being proper husbands, wives, children, parents, slaves, and masters. In the past we were somewhat negligent in this matter. All the brothers and sisters devoted their attention to the big meetings and neglected the building up of the homes. In the coming days we hope that we can compile some messages on the building up of the homes so that every saint’s home would be a proper home. Once that happens, we can invite our relatives to the home meetings, and they will see the situation in our homes and will be touched to receive the Lord’s salvation.
Once we build up the church in the believers’ homes, we will be able to spread the gospel through the homes. All the churches that do a good job with the homes will not need to have big gospel meetings; the gospel will spread spontaneously. The home is the place that touches man’s heart. It pierces and digs deep into man’s very soul, even his very spirit. This does not mean that we cannot have big gospel meetings, but we need such meetings only a few times a year. The main emphasis with such meetings is in reaping, not sowing. The crucial thing is to build up the church in the homes and to spread the gospel through the homes. At the same time we need to encourage the brothers and sisters to group two or three families together into small groups. In the small groups they should fellowship together and render spiritual help, nourishment, and care to one another. Then in the larger church meetings there should be the teaching of Truth Lessons. Such teaching is mainly for everyone to learn the truth. If we build up the church in such a well-coordinated way, the Lord will greatly bless us.
What surprises me the most is that many dormant believers, including those in the United States, like Truth Lessons. Some dormant saints in the church in Anaheim recovered their meeting in order to learn Truth Lessons. Right before this meeting, a few elders from Kaohsiung told me that before they started the truth classes, the number of people fluctuated very much. But since they began the truth classes, more people are meeting steadily. This indicates that man has the heart to know the truth and that Truth Lessons is truly being used by God.
First Timothy 2:4 says that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.” Therefore, we cannot tolerate to see a group of saved ones merely loving the Lord fervently but not knowing the truth. We must teach with Truth Lessons. After God’s children are saved, if they pursue the truth, the church of the Lord will have a base and foundation and be built up in truth.
After we have led the saints in this way, they will have the understanding to enter into the spiritual significance of the Bible and comprehend the revelation in the Scriptures. We have all had this kind of experience. When we were newly saved, we did not understand the Bible. After we were taught for one or two years and learned some truths, we started to understand a little. Now the leading of the new way is to have home meetings, small group meetings, and truth classes. These three matters are like a threefold cord and are very powerful. Through these three things we bring people to salvation, enable them to know and pursue life, and help them to enter into and be equipped with the truth so that they may have the way to life and the light of the truth.
Since October of 1984 we expected to begin a five-year plan for the gospelization of Taiwan. Now one and a half years have passed. This period of time can be regarded as a time of preparation. It may take us another year and a half to prepare. First, we need to work out the home meetings, the small group meetings, and the truth classes. After we have established the homes, we will take the homes as the starting point to cooperate with the campus work in order to raise up full-timers. In the preparation period of three years, I hope that we will produce at least one thousand full-timers. In the fourth year, they will be formed into an army with ten people in a team. These one hundred teams will set out together. Each team will work first in a town and then in the villages. They will stay in a town for at least three weeks or a month. They will establish the church by preaching the gospel through door-knocking, establishing home meetings, and bringing ten to twenty people to salvation. Then two full-timers will stay behind to continue to nourish, shepherd, and lead the new ones. The other eight will come back, re-group with new full-timers, and set out for another town. In this way, in fewer than four months we will gospelize all three hundred eighteen towns throughout the island. Later, a team of six to eight people will re-group to work in the villages. Then in a few years Taiwan will not only be gospelized but also “churchized.” There will be a church in every town and village as a shining testimony of the Lord. This plan is the Lord’s leading. We should not think that this is too difficult.
In order to carry out this momentous task, the preparation work is more than crucial. We should consider the kind of transportation the teams will need — gospel vans, motorcycles, bicycles, or taking buses. Before the full-timers set out for the towns, we must first rent houses for them. The location of the houses must be appropriate. Moreover, the expenditure, realized in furnishing houses and providing the living expenses of the full-timers, will be very great and thus will require all the churches to prepare in one accord.
Before setting out in the fourth year, the full-time trainees who have graduated in the first three years should already be coordinating with the local saints to propagate in the communities of some major cities, such as Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. At the present time they go door-knocking every Wednesday and Friday morning and visit people house to house in the apartment buildings. The result has been quite good. I believe that three years from now, when they propagate in towns and villages, they will already have some experience to establish a certain model in the communities. By this way, we “hit two birds with one stone.”
This five-year plan for the gospelization of Taiwan can be an easy task, but it all depends on the foundation we lay these first three years. This foundation is the small group meetings, the home meetings, and the teaching of Truth Lessons. This is the reason that I want us all to aggressively learn, because what we are learning and working out is not only a foundation but a model. I believe that if the full-timers seriously learn for half a year, when they go out, they will know how to set up and lead the home meetings. In this way, once the move of the gospelization of Taiwan commences in the fourth year, we will march with strong morale to spread the gospel and the churches all over Taiwan. We must be faithful to the Lord. Those who should give their time must give their time. The young people especially need to give their time to God to receive His glorious commission. After the gospel and the churches have spread all over Taiwan, these saints may be led by the Lord to continue to serve full time or to find a job. But they need to be faithful to this “military” service in these five years until every town, village, and hamlet in Taiwan is gospelized. On the other hand, those who give financially must also be faithful to God. The monthly support for more than one thousand full-timers is considerable. This is in addition to the need for the churches and the spreading of the gospel. This requires all the saints to give joyfully and willingly in one accord. If we are faithful in these two matters, the Lord will definitely accomplish what we ask and think.
The purpose of building a big meeting hall in Linkou is not merely for our need locally but for the international gatherings in the Lord’s recovery. This requires much prayer. Regarding the international conferences, saints from different countries came to visit Taiwan in this past year because they wanted to find out about the new way. There were hundreds from the United States who wanted to come, but I asked them not to come at the present time because our practice has not been fully developed. Last week several saints from Germany visited, and there will be a few more coming this week. A continuous stream of saints is coming from places like Japan and Brazil. Some American saints even have signed up to participate in the construction work of the big meeting hall when it begins. They all are professionals in building. Hence, when we speak of the international need, we should never think that this is an exaggeration. We are simply stating the facts. I hope that we will all have strong faith before the Lord to pray for this matter desperately.
Moreover, after the construction of the big meeting hall, we will expand the size of the training. At that time more will come to the training. We also thank the Lord that the international position of Taiwan has been raised up. The changes in the international situation are more favorable toward Taiwan. These changes are sovereign of the Lord. If Taiwan now becomes the gospel center, Taiwan will be gospelized, and the gospelization will spread from Taiwan to the whole earth in cooperation with the Lord’s move.
This term of the full-time training is approaching the end. In the coming term we will have classes for different languages, teaching the trainees a third foreign language other than English, such as Spanish and Japanese. Now the need for Spanish is very great. Consider Central and South America for instance. Even if we were to send three hundred co-workers there right now, it would not be sufficient to meet the need. There are many needs all over the earth. After the gospelization of Taiwan, some may be sent to Japan, Europe, or Africa. Hence, I encourage the young people to advance in their studies. They not only need to know the truth and life, but they also need to learn more languages, including Greek.
Many Christians confess, and even those in Christianity in America cannot deny, that the Lord has entrusted us with His truth in this age. This is an irrefutable fact. We must bear the responsibility to spread the Lord’s truth from Taiwan to every part of the world and raise up the Lord’s testimony in every place. Therefore, the construction of the big meeting hall in Linkou is crucial. Taiwan is the best location. I hope the co-workers, elders, and full-timers will have adequate prayer and will also explain this matter clearly to the saints in the different halls and churches so that they also will pray much. I hope that all the churches in Taiwan will call on the Lord desperately for the sake of His interest on the earth to touch the government officials and grant the authorities the wisdom to see that this building will be beneficial to our nation, our people, our society, our economy, Taiwan’s foreign relations, and even our people’s foreign relationships, so that they will gladly and promptly grant us the permission to fulfill this matter.
