Hymn #212 in the Chinese hymnal was written after we had a thorough study of Ezekiel 1 more than twenty-three years ago. The messages given during those meetings were published in Chinese.
Ezekiel 1 speaks of a vision seen by Ezekiel in which a storm wind, coming from the north, brings a great cloud in which there is fire flashing. From the midst of the fire there is something like electrum in brightness (v. 4). This shows that in Ezekiel 1 there are four main items: the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. John Nelson Darby says that the electrum is “an unknown substance” that “some think a mixture of gold and silver.” According to the divine revelation, gold represents the manifestation of God’s divine nature. The storm wind comes from God, the cloud that comes with the wind contains a flashing sanctifying fire, and from the midst of the fire there is something like the glowing electrum, composed of the elements of gold and silver. This picture, which is full of spiritual significance, implies that every one of us must become a man of wind and cloud, filled inwardly with the divine fire, and full of the shining forth of the divine essence.
Five hundred years of Christian history have passed since Luther began the Reformation. The item most emphasized in Christianity during these years has been revival. According to church history, for the past five hundred years the Protestant churches have been maintained mainly by revival meetings. We cannot say that this is against the Bible; however, even with revival meetings the condition of Christian meetings has progressively declined, and the result is a loss of spiritual weight. When the gospel was preached in China, the Christians changed the word revival into excitement. This means that the meetings merely excited people. After a short time believers grew cold again, and they continued to live as they had in the past. For this reason, after the Lord raised up His recovery among us, we did not pay much attention to revival meetings; neither were we willing to use the term excitement meeting. There have been very few revival meetings among us.
I have been speaking God’s word for many years, and I rarely quote the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament. However, for this meeting, there is one sentence that we can use: “O Jehovah, revive Your work / In the midst of the years” (Hab. 3:2). Hymns, #797 is also very appropriate, because the beginning of every stanza and the beginning of the chorus say, “Revive Thy work, O Lord!” However, in considering this matter, we will use hymn #212 in the Chinese hymnal.
If we read this hymn thoughtfully, we can see that the revival we are speaking of is not the shallow revival of which most of today’s Christianity speaks, much less is it a revival of excitement referred to by the Christians in China. The second half of the third stanza of hymn #212 says, “Burn out filthiness, / Burn up common things, / Making man correspond to God, / Holy without blemish.” The revival we are speaking of causes man to correspond to God by making man holy and without blemish. The second half of the fourth stanza says, “Divinity mingled with humanity, / Man’s spirit joined with God’s Spirit, / Causing God’s life / To be manifested in man.” This is the revival that we are referring to, and I believe this is also the revival that God desires. It is not an outward, so-called revival work, much less a revival of excitement; rather, it is “divinity mingled with humanity, / Man’s spirit joined with God’s Spirit, / Causing God’s life / To be manifested in man.”
In 1961 I conducted a Life-study of the book of Ezekiel, and I wrote this hymn. This proves that the revival that God showed us over two decades ago was a revival of “divinity mingled with humanity, man’s spirit joined with God’s Spirit, causing God’s life to be manifested in man.” This is also the revival that causes man to correspond to God. We need to sing these words until they enter into us and come out from us as a cry unto God: “Lord, bring in such a revival among us that makes man correspond to You so that Your life can be manifested in us.”
In the past few conference meetings more than six hundred saints have consecrated all their time for the Lord’s work and service, and another group of more than six hundred saints have consecrated themselves to be part time for the Lord’s work and service. This will greatly expand and strengthen our service. We must, therefore, make new arrangements for the Lord’s work in Taiwan and for the building up of the church.
We will thoroughly fellowship with all the saints concerning the leading we have received from the Lord, the vision we have seen, and the way we must take in order to go on. We want every church and every saint in Taiwan to know how the work of the Lord’s testimony should go forward. We also want the churches to know how to build up the priesthood through service. We will fellowship as a family concerning the way we should move forward to promote the Lord’s testimony.
According to church history, the first meeting of the church was in Jerusalem. The church there was raised up and established by the apostles. From the beginning there was a large number of saved ones in that church. According to the record in Acts, one hundred twenty disciples prayed in one accord in the upper room for ten days. Then on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out, and three thousand people heard the gospel and were saved (1:13-14; 2:1-4, 41). When the first church was raised up, three thousand people were added to it on the first day. Not long after Pentecost, another five thousand men believed in the Lord on another day (4:4).
However, Acts does not say much about how the service in the early church in Jerusalem was carried out. The saints did not have their own meeting hall; they met in the temple and from house to house (2:46; 5:42). Verse 46 of chapter 2 says that all those who believed met from house to house. These words in Greek are specific. In the very beginning the church in Jerusalem had their meetings in the homes of the eight thousand saved ones; the saints met from house to house. This is what the book of Acts reveals.
The record in Acts does not show another church that had as many believers as the church in Jerusalem. In other words, it is difficult to find a pattern of a large church in the New Testament; the New Testament does not record another church that had more than a thousand believers or that had more than ten thousand believers. Hence, it is difficult to know how to build up a local church that has a large number of saints and how to spread in such a local church.
Even though there were numerous revivals in church history, it is difficult to find a record that indicates that a church had several thousand or tens of thousands of believers meeting together. It is difficult for us to find a pattern for the administration of a large church from church history.
The first church was raised up in Foochow in 1920. In the beginning there were only three saints, and they met in a home. However, even though they were only three, they quickly increased to ten and then to more than twenty believers. After they increased to about one hundred, they did not have further increase. The number of saints in the church remained at around one hundred for several years. In 1927 we spread from Foochow to Shanghai. After five years in Shanghai, in 1932 we spread up to the north and began meeting in Chefoo. The meetings in Chefoo began in the living room of my home. There were eleven of us at our first bread-breaking meeting, and we sat around an old-fashioned Chinese square table. By the Lord’s mercy, our numbers increased to one hundred in 1933.
The strange thing is that when we reached about one hundred, it was difficult for us to increase further. For eleven years, from 1922 to 1933, the number of saints in every church from Foochow in the south to Shanghai and on up to Chefoo in the north was about one hundred. One hundred is not a large number, but when our numbers first reached one hundred, we wanted to celebrate because we thought that it was a large number. It is easier to administrate, to lead, and to shepherd a church with this many saints. For this reason the churches stopped increasing when they reached one hundred saints.
The number of new believers we would baptize never exceeded forty at one time; at the most there were thirty-seven or thirty-eight. It was in 1940, in Chefoo, that we received light to promote the whole church preaching the gospel. The term the church preaching the gospel was first used in 1940 in northern China. As soon as we began to practice the whole church preaching the gospel, the number of saved ones increased greatly. During the second year of the whole church preaching the gospel, we received a great blessing — many were baptized. The first time we baptized more than one hundred twenty people. Then we had baptisms every month for at least four consecutive months. We baptized one hundred people, then around ninety, and then around eighty. As a result of the four times that we had baptisms, several hundred new ones were brought in. From that time onward, the number of saints in the church increased greatly.
Chefoo is my hometown. The church raised up by the Lord in that locality began meeting in my home. After the church in Chefoo was raised up in 1932, our numbers increased to over a hundred saints in the second year. Therefore, I felt that I needed to leave my job to serve full time in the church. In August 1933 I left my job. In October I made a special trip to Shanghai to visit the church there. When I first arrived in Shanghai, there were no more than one hundred fifty saints in the church. The city of Shanghai is huge, and the meeting hall was located in the west on Hardoon Road. Since some of the brothers and sisters lived in the northwest district of the city, there was the need to meet in two places. Later, they had another meeting hall in the northwest district, besides the meeting hall on Hardoon Road. The total number of saints in both places was not more than one hundred fifty. It was not until after 1940 that there was a church in the Lord’s recovery, the church in Chefoo, where the number of saints increased from a little over one hundred to several hundred.
Soon afterward, the war in the Pacific broke out, and there was a great change in the domestic situation, and many brothers and sisters moved inland. As a result, churches were raised up in the inland areas around Szechuan. There were very few saints in these localities. The church in Shanghai had to temporarily close its doors and stop meeting because Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese army.
After the Chinese victory over the Japanese, the church in Shanghai resumed its meetings in 1946. Initially, there were less than a hundred saints in the bread-breaking meeting. In the summer of that year, I was invited back to Shanghai. When I arrived, there were less than ninety saints in the bread-breaking meeting. Later, the brothers suggested that I move my family from northern China to Shanghai. So at the end of 1946, I moved my family to Shanghai, and I also began traveling between Shanghai and Nanking to work in both places.
At the beginning of 1947 I began to lead the saints in Shanghai into the practice of the church preaching the gospel. This practice was successful. The church preached the gospel during the Chinese New Year holiday, and more than one hundred people were baptized. For the next two or three months, many people were baptized every month. This is the way we had a great increase in the number of saints in the church.
The church in Shanghai had a slightly longer history than the other churches. It also had a considerable number of brothers and sisters. However, due to the political situation, from 1942 to 1946 the doors to the meeting hall were closed, and the saints were unable to meet. As a result, the saints were scattered. Nevertheless, the meetings were resumed in 1946, and in the beginning of 1947 a revival occurred. By the summer of that year, several hundred new ones had been added and most of the original saints, who had been dormant, came back to the meetings. In 1947 there were more than one thousand saints meeting in the church in Shanghai. Since the saints were spread out all over Shanghai, we felt that we should begin district meetings. So in the summer of that year we separated into sixteen different districts for the bread-breaking meeting. After more than one year of meeting in districts, our numbers increased even more.
In 1949, due to another change in the political situation, the Lord led me to leave Shanghai and come to Taiwan. During the time that I was in mainland China, there was only one locality that had over one thousand saints, and that was the church in Shanghai. All the matters related to service were divided among the sixteen district meetings. Every district meeting had from a few dozen to one hundred saints. This was the largest number of saints that we had in one locality in the work in mainland China.
Beginning in 1946, a small number of saints began migrating to Taiwan. More saints migrated in 1947 and even more in 1948. By the end of 1948 there were thirty to fifty saints meeting in the church in Taipei. When I came to Taiwan in the spring of 1949, there were less than one hundred saints in the church in Taipei. In August we built a small meeting hall where hall one is now located, and we officially began the work. Our numbers increased very quickly, and by the end of 1949, the number of saints meeting in the church in Taipei had increased to around nine hundred.
In November of 1950 the Lord led me to go to Manila in Southeast Asia. From then on, I spent approximately four months of every year in the Philippines. Most of the remaining time I spent giving trainings in Taipei. Prior to 1952, a sister and I were the only full-time serving ones. In 1952 we increased to approximately one hundred full-time serving ones. As a result, the work on the island of Taiwan increased and spread, and churches were established in almost all the major cities of Taiwan from Keelung in the north to Kaohsiung in the south and even in Hualien and Taitung on the east. The full-time serving ones spread to these localities to care for the churches for the furtherance of the Lord’s work.
By the Lord’s mercy, during 1954 and 1955 the number of saints in Taiwan increased to almost fifty thousand. Two years later, from 1956 to 1957, our numbers reached fifty thousand. In other words, we began with a small number of less than five hundred saints, and in six to seven years we experienced a one hundredfold increase — we had fifty thousand saints.
At the time of our increase in numbers we wanted to receive help in order to pursue spiritual growth, so we invited Brother T. Austin-Sparks to come to minister to us. He came the first time in 1955 and again in 1957. His coming, however, caused problems among us and brought in a storm. As a result of the influence from T. Austin-Sparks, several young brothers had a change of heart and began to dissent. That was a great distraction to the work. It has been approximately twenty-seven years since that storm, but our numbers have not increased; they have remained stagnant.
During the first few years of the work in Taiwan, our numbers increased quickly. In Taipei we increased from one meeting hall to several meeting halls, every meeting hall was divided into several district meetings, and every district meeting was divided into several small groups. Looking back, we must confess that our practice of every meeting hall being divided into several districts and every district being further divided into many small groups was appropriate and effective. The advantage of this practice was that newly saved ones were taken care of by the small groups. However, we became distracted by T. Austin-Sparks’s visit and no longer paid attention to the service in the districts and in the small groups. Later, the small groups gradually disappeared, and the districts were rearranged.
According to our rearrangement, the church in Taipei had more than twenty districts, but there were no more small groups. Thus, the basic level of service disappeared. As a result, our care for the brothers and sisters, especially our cherishing of the new ones, was not as effective. Many brothers and sisters were not cared for, and the newly saved ones were not appropriately supported. Subsequently, the number of people in the church gradually decreased, even though the brothers and sisters faithfully maintained the Lord’s testimony and preached the gospel to gain new ones. Despite these efforts, our numbers fell far below the fifty thousand that we had gained more than twenty years ago.
For the past three or four years, I have been observing our situation. Even though I have not been in Taiwan, I have had a burden for Taiwan. I have been observing the situation in Taiwan from afar. I have also had thorough fellowship with the responsible brothers and the elders. We have constantly been seeking how a church as large as the church in Taipei should go on.
Even though we were distracted and had problems in 1957, the situation remained with us until September 1965 when I came back from America to deal with it. As a result of the problems, the church was like a person who, having suffered a long-term illness, had been cured by an operation and needed a long period to recover his strength. The operation was in September 1965, and we needed one to two years to recover our strength. I visited Taiwan in 1966, 1967, and 1968.
During those three years, I asked the brothers in Taipei to find the address records of all the brothers and sisters in the church in Taipei. According to the reports they gave me, we had names and addresses for about twenty-three thousand saints in the church in Taipei. Over the intervening years, the population and territory of Taipei changed considerably, and many streets and addresses changed. Now we have the names and addresses for only eleven thousand saints. This is significantly less than the twenty-three thousand saints we had from 1966 to 1968. The main reasons for this decrease in number are that the saints moved, emigrated, or passed away. However, according to my observation, the main reason for the decrease in number is that we lost our leading at the basic level.
Why do we pay so much attention to the situation in Taipei? First, it is rare for a church in the Lord’s recovery to have more than ten thousand saints. Second, even though the church in Taipei has not increased in numbers for more than twenty years, the church has been growing in life. Third, the level of education in the city is relatively high; hence, most of the saints have a higher education and are quite capable. Fourth, Taipei is a large city with a population of approximately two million. It is the most densely populated city in all Taiwan, and it has convenient transportation. These are all the prerequisites that make it beneficial for us to spread the gospel. We cannot ignore these resources. We have spent more than twenty years guarding our accomplishments without spreading. This has been a huge loss. Based on this loss we have analyzed our situation, and we hope that the church in Taipei can move forward.
Before I returned to Taiwan this time, I had a blueprint within me. The blueprint is the light I have received from the Lord, and even though I am not absolutely clear, I know the general pattern. My burden was not to hold conferences or put out a call for full-time serving ones. However, through these few meetings, more than one thousand two hundred saints have consecrated themselves to serve full time or part time for the Lord’s work. Thus, the light within me has become even brighter, and I feel that the work in Taiwan should have a completely new beginning. Because my time is limited, I can hold only two meetings to present the light I have received from the Lord to the saints. This is the way we will take. I hope that the brothers and sisters will be happy, and I believe that the Lord will also be pleased.
We need more full-time serving ones. The church in Taipei has more than eleven thousand saints, but only four to five thousand attend the meetings regularly. These four to five thousand saints are a basic number; they will be successful at whatever they do. There are not many full-time serving ones among these five thousand brothers and sisters who meet regularly. Most of these saints are busy with their jobs and their families. They are only able to come to meetings and serve the Lord during their free time. We cannot accomplish many things if we use only our free time. We must have many full-time serving ones to push the Lord’s work forward.
The church in Taipei as well as all the other churches in Taiwan have this need. The church in Taipei has five thousand saints who meet regularly and over eleven thousand saints on its name list. Motivating the five thousand saints to exercise their function and labor for the Lord is a great matter. We would need more than thirty or even fifty brothers to do this. Even one or two hundred full-time serving ones would not be enough to advance this work. We must ask the Lord to give us enough full-timers. When we brought up the matter of serving full time, we hoped that five hundred saints would rise up. According to our consideration, two hundred full-timers plus three hundred part-timers would be equivalent to five hundred serving ones. The church in Taipei does not yet have five hundred serving ones. We do not even have two hundred saints who are willing to serve full time, but the number who are willing to serve part time has exceeded our expectation. The work will not be effective if we can use only part-timers as compared to full-timers. Hence, there is still a lack in the number of full-timers. We hope that more saints will consecrate themselves to meet this need.
Some saints may ask whether we will be able to make arrangements for so many full-timers. There are Christian groups that have been successful at this. There are several large Christian groups in America that are successful. We have found that forming small groups is an important principle. Imagine the scene when the Lord Jesus fed five thousand people. There were five thousand men, not including women and children, so there must have been more than ten thousand people. The people had not eaten for almost the entire day, and no one had anything to eat. When evening fell, the Lord Jesus took five loaves and two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed the food and distributed it to more than five thousand hungry people. If there had not been some arrangement, everything would have been in chaos. The people were on a mountain out in the wilderness, and there was a possibility that many would have been trampled in a rush for the food. Before distributing the food, the Lord Jesus in His wisdom told the disciples to have everyone sit down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. The Lord told the people to sit down. If they had been standing, it would have been easy for them to move around, but since they were sitting, they remained in one place. After everyone was sitting in their place, the Lord Jesus gave them bread. It did not matter if they were impatient, because all they could do was sit and wait. Thus, the bread was distributed for everyone to eat in an orderly manner (Matt. 14:14-21; Mark 6:34-44; John 6:1-13).
In addition to groups, there are also houses. This is based on the record in Acts: the believers met and broke bread from house to house. Groups and houses are basic units. For example, according to China’s present military arrangement, there are battalions, companies, and squads. The most basic of these is the squad. When the army goes to war, the squads must be strong. In order for the entire army to be strong, all the squads must be strong. In the same way, the church should have small group after small group as the basic unit. As long as the small groups are strong, the church will also be strong.
More than twenty years ago, we practiced the small groups. In the beginning we had only ten to twenty saints in a group. Later, as the number of saints increased, our groups became larger. One group even had more than one hundred saints, but the members did not want to split to form another group. According to the Bible, it is appropriate for the small groups to have about twelve members. The first small group was established by the Lord Jesus Himself. That group had twelve members — the twelve apostles. Therefore, we are going to practice the small groups according to the Bible, and we will have twelve or less saints in every group. The number in the groups can be less than twelve, but it should not be more than twelve. As soon as the number in a group reaches fourteen or fifteen, the group should split into two. If the number in a group remains less than twelve, the group will have to “recruit soldiers.” The group can either preach the gospel to gain new ones, or it can recover some dormant saints. In any event the saints must fill up the number in their group. This is the way to practice the increase through the small groups.
The four to five thousand saints meeting regularly in the church in Taipei have been divided into more than four hundred small groups. The groups were formed according to geography, not according to the spiritual level of the saints. For example, suppose there are three people in your household who are able to meet, and there is a household down the street with three saints who can meet, and there are saints across the street from you and on the street behind you who also can meet. When these saints come together, they have the number of saints needed for a small group. These few households are a small group. It may be that not far from them there is another group of households that can form another small group. In this way the church in Taipei has been grouped into more than four hundred small groups.
Furthermore, these small groups do not have a group leader or a responsible person or even a coordinator. In another sense, someone is taking the lead because everyone is a coordinator, everyone is a responsible one, and everyone is a group leader. Every one of the twelve saints in a small group is a group leader, and everyone can take the lead. This means that you lead me and I lead you; from your perspective, I am the leader, and from my perspective, you are the leader. Since we are all leaders, we must seek out each other if one is lost. If I fall into a pit, you must rescue me, and if you stumble, I must uphold you.
From our experience, we discovered that appointing group leaders has drawbacks; therefore, the groups will not have leaders. In the past those who were appointed as leaders or as responsible ones felt as though they were a government official. Even though we did not speak of position or rank, they still manifested such a flavor. As a result, the other saints in the group felt that they did not need to bear any responsibility. They felt that it was the responsibility of the group leader to care for the ones who stumbled.
After thorough fellowship and consideration, we feel that we do not need group coordinators. As soon as responsibility is given to two coordinators, the other ten saints will not take care of anything. Hence, we decided not to have any responsible ones or leaders in the groups. Everyone is a group coordinator, and everyone is a group leader; no one can escape responsibility, and no one can condemn anyone else. If someone stumbles, everyone must bear the responsibility to support that saint; no one should push aside the responsibility. We believe that everyone will approve of such a practice. Regardless of whether you are a small brother or a small sister, you are a group coordinator, and this is good. However, we must not forget that as coordinators, we must bear responsibility. When we see someone fall, we must lift him up. Everyone must take care of each other.
Furthermore, the small group meetings will not be held in a set location. The twelve members of the small group can decide where to hold the next meeting. For example, if the meeting is in a brother’s home, everyone can fellowship concerning the location of the next meeting. The meetings can be held in any of the homes of the saints in the small group. If you do not have enough chairs in your home, you should not be troubled; it is all right for the saints to sit on the floor. The homes in Taiwan are all very elegant, even the floors are very clean, so it is not bad for saints to sit on the floor. The important thing is that there can be a place to meet. If every home takes turns to have the meeting, everyone will bear responsibility, and the small groups will be a success.
The church in Taipei of approximately six hundred saints has been formed into districts by joining fifty or so small groups together. If we want the condition of every small group to be the same, every saint to be equal, and every household to be alike, the co-workers need to advance this practice among the saints. The full-time co-workers are not here to lead the groups. They should exercise to advance the practice of the groups in every district. Every district probably needs four to six co-workers.
Before the full-time co-workers encourage the saints to be in the group meetings, there is a need for training. We now have saints who have consecrated themselves to serve full time. They can be compared to newly recruited soldiers who need training. We cannot arm newly recruited soldiers with rifles and send them off to war without training them. If they do not know how to hold their weapons properly, they will lose whatever battles they fight. Hence, we need to plan a training program so that we can train the saints, just as soldiers are trained. We need to train the saints in such things as how to use the Bible, how to speak the word, and how to care for people. All these matters require training. The church in Taipei has already been divided into more than four hundred small groups. These groups can be formed into eight districts of approximately fifty groups each. If every district should have four co-workers, we need at least thirty-two co-workers. These co-workers must serve full time; otherwise, they will not have the time to encourage the saints to practice the group meetings.
The full-time co-workers should bring “business” to the fifty small groups in a district. A co-worker can be compared to a manager who is over several stores. If the stores do not make a profit, it would be better for them to shut their doors. The full-time co-workers must bring “business” to the small groups.
Even though every group meeting is coordinated by the saints, if they do not know what to do when they come together, they will sit and look at one another. Someone may eventually suggest that they sing a hymn, but the saints do not know which hymn to sing. After two or three of such meetings, I am afraid that the coordinators will be absent from the meetings; the saints will not come, because they will feel that such meetings are a waste of time. For this reason the co-workers need to give the saints “business” and help them run their meetings.
The co-workers can gather the six hundred saints and tell them what to do in a group meeting. We must encourage the saints not to worry but to invite people to the group meetings. We should tell them that we guarantee that everyone will be fed. Of course, we cannot merely say these things without keeping our promise. Every co-worker must prepare material to help the saints do business. For this reason it is a great responsibility to form the small groups. The co-workers should train the full-time serving ones by having them serve with them. The co-workers can be compared to leaders in an army, who lead the soldiers in their squads. The squad leaders must take the lead to do things.
The co-workers who help the small groups in the districts should encourage all the saints until every household is preaching the gospel and every saint is serving and functioning. This type of encouraging requires some ability. If after one year of serving, a co-worker is unable to help the saints in this way, we should consider whether or not he should continue to serve full time.
In today’s society, people who work for corporations must be competitive and do their best to improve; otherwise, they will not have a future. Even preachers hired in denominations are under a contract system. Those who are employed by contract must produce results; otherwise, when their contract expires, their employer will not hire them again. The full-timers among us should not think that they have a secure job or that they do not need to improve. This is not appropriate.
Doctors in America must take an exam at least once every two years. Even if they have their own clinics, they still have to take an exam. If they do not pass, they lose their license. Even if they have been practicing medicine for more than twenty-five years, they must still take an exam. This is because medicine in America is improving daily. One’s experience is not the sole basis of his qualification. Even a doctor who graduates from a famous medical school must keep up with the advances in medicine. Furthermore, numerous government agencies in America hold examinations for their employees every few years. If an employee cannot pass the examination, he will not get a promotion, and he might even lose his job. Therefore, the ones preparing to serve full time must be trained, and after they have served for some time, they should be tested. They will be tested on their performance in the training and on the effectiveness and result of their service.
Some saints might ask whether it is scriptural to do such things and whether Paul ever gave Timothy a test. Several verses indicate that Paul expected those who served with him to be effective (1 Tim. 3:15; 4:15; 6:14, 20; 2 Tim. 2:2-7; 3:10, 14). On one hand, we need to be trained, and on the other hand, we need some testing. People should not need to feel a whip before they make progress. There are many things for the full-timers to do. Two to three hundred full-timers might not be enough to encourage the saints who meet regularly in the church in Taipei to function.
The condition of the church in Taipei shows that the greatest need in the work in encouraging the small groups is to recover the dormant saints. The business office has gone through the name lists and made a list of the dormant brothers and sisters. We will give this list to the small groups according to their addresses. For example, there are some dormant saints who live close to group 2. They are neighbors, so the members of group 2 should go to visit them. Other dormant brothers and sisters live near group 9, so the brothers and sisters of that group should take care of them. The first responsibility of every group is to recover the dormant brothers and sisters.
We cannot rely merely on the brothers and sisters in the groups to take care of this; we must also depend on the full-time co-workers. As the co-workers are encouraging the small groups, they should give the brothers and sisters in the groups a list of the dormant saints who are in their neighborhood. The co-workers should encourage the brothers and sisters to find the time and the way to recover the dormant saints. The full-timers should help the groups and encourage them to contact the dormant saints. The saints can call the dormant ones and invite them to a meal for fellowship. We should not speak to the dormant saints about the meetings; we should first think of ways to warm them up.
Recovering the dormant brothers and sisters is a tremendous matter. We have a list with eleven thousand names, but only five thousand saints meet regularly. There are six thousand saints who stay at home. If we can work on recovering the ones at home, we will be able to recover at least three thousand saints by next summer. This means that the number of saints in our meetings will increase from five thousand to eight thousand. We might not be able to recover one hundred percent of the dormant ones, but we should be able to recover two-thirds of them. If we can recover four thousand out of the six thousand dormant saints, our work will have been effective.
We must also encourage all the households to preach the gospel. We must especially encourage gospel meetings in the homes of dormant saints. Some may think that this is hard to accomplish. How can we preach the gospel in the homes of dormant saints? The full-time co-workers should help the saints to encourage the dormant ones to open their homes for the gospel. According to my experience and observation, the best way to recover a dormant saint is to preach the gospel in his home.
For a dormant saint to be recovered into the church life, we should not only hold a gospel meeting in his home; rather, we should ask him to preach the gospel message. He might say that he has no way to give a message, because he has not been in the meetings for five years. Even though he has not been in the meetings for five years, he has been saved for more than five years, he has some experiences of salvation, and he loves the Lord. He can give a gospel testimony and tell others about his experience of salvation.
He might insist that he does not have anything to say, but we should encourage him to speak concerning how he was saved and about his present love for the Lord. Once he starts to speak, he might become more fervent, and he may even shed tears as he speaks of the Lord’s grace to him. After he speaks such a word, he will not be able to sleep at night, and the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum will come to him. When the wind and the cloud come, he will become a “man of wind and cloud,” and his home will become a “home of wind and cloud.” As a result, he and his family will be recovered. If we will be earnest in having the dormant saints preach the gospel, at least seventy percent of them will be recovered. This is the best and quickest method.
Furthermore, when we go to recover the dormant households, we should not speak to the brothers, because they have their dignity. They may be embarrassed because they have not been in the meetings for many years. We should, therefore, begin with the sisters. This means that first the sisters should visit the households, not the brothers. The co-workers must encourage the sisters to visit the households. It is easier for a sister to soften the hearts of the sisters. Once we gain the sisters, it will not be difficult to gain their husbands. Almost every husband follows his wife. Hence, we should not be afraid; as long as we have faith and boldly go through the door of the sisters, we will be able to gain the dormant household.
The co-workers must exercise wisdom. Sometimes a sister is hard, and it is not easy to contact her. In such a situation, we can go through their children and lay a foundation with the children. Then the children become a net to catch their parents. In most families the husbands follow the wives, and the parents follow the children. The parents will not follow the children to do evil things, but when the children do something positive, the parents will follow them. If the children are recovered, the father will consider the effect that his not being in the meetings has had on his children. He will be encouraged to meet with the saints since his children have been blessed and God has shown mercy on his household. In such circumstances, it will be almost impossible for the father not to be recovered.
Our goal is not merely to draw people to the meetings. That is not the purpose of our work. The full-time co-workers must be trained, and they must pray much when they go to help the saints enter into their function. The co-workers must pray for more than half an hour every day; it is best if they can pray for an hour or more every day. We need to pray desperately for every family that we are responsible for, and we must pray for every saint by name. Then according to the burden that we receive from the Lord, we should go to care for and encourage the saints one by one until they begin to function in their service. Then every saint will be an apostle, and they will be a prophet and a teacher.
First Corinthians 12:28 says that God has given the church first apostles, second prophets, and third teachers. I would ask: Are you an apostle, a prophet, or a teacher? You might think that you are not qualified and that you are neither an apostle nor a prophet nor a teacher. We need a change in concept. If you preach the gospel to your unsaved parents, you are an apostle. An apostle is a sent one. When the Lord sends you to preach the gospel to your unsaved parents, you are an apostle. After your parents believe, and you go to them with words of building up, encouragement, and comfort, you are a prophet. When you are sent to preach the gospel, you are an apostle; when you prophesy for the Lord to encourage others, you are a prophet. Later, when you teach them something further, you are a teacher. You should not despise yourself; in the church you can be an apostle, a prophet, and a teacher. It would be wonderful for all five thousand brothers and sisters who meet regularly in the church in Taipei to be first apostles, then prophets, and then teachers. The church in Taipei would have five thousand saints who are apostles, prophets, and teachers. Then there would be hope for the spread and increase of the church.
This is the teaching in the Bible. But since Christians have completely lost this matter, they think that they are not apostles or prophets or teachers. Consequently, they hire pastors and preachers to be their apostles, prophets, and teachers. This is an error. We must encourage everyone to function. The thought in Christianity is that every responsibility must be given to an expert in that profession. For example, one can be a medical doctor only if he has studied medicine, and only those who study other professions can practice those professions. Christianity thinks that preaching the word is a profession, so if a person has never studied in a seminary and has not been educated in the knowledge of the Bible, he cannot be a preacher. When this is the case, the function of the saints is annulled.
A Christian who graduates from seminary and who is hired by a congregation to be their pastor and preacher does everything. Only he acts as an apostle, prophet, and teacher. This results in all the saints in that congregation being unemployed, and it annuls their organic function. This kills the function of the members of the Body of Christ, and it is most offensive to the Lord. This is not the practice in the Lord’s recovery, because we want to perfect the saints who are not apostles to be apostles and to perfect the saints who are not prophets to be prophets and to perfect the saints who are not teachers to be teachers. This is what the co-workers must do. They must go out to create apostles, produce prophets, and perfect the saints to be teachers.
In order to be apostles, prophets, and teachers, we need to study the truth. If we say that we are apostles, prophets, and teachers but cannot speak the truth, we are just pretending. There are many experienced saints among us, but they cannot accurately explain the names Jesus and Christ. We must study the truth if we are to go out as apostles, prophets, and teachers.
Even though the churches abroad speak highly of the church in Taipei, the church in Taipei is not yet up to the standard. There are many young people among us who cannot clearly speak the truth. In order to be apostles, prophets, and teachers, we must understand the truth. This is the main responsibility of the full-time co-workers. We need many full-time serving ones, because the earth is covered in darkness. People everywhere are blind and groping in the darkness. However, in the Lord’s recovery we are full of light and the truth. There is a need for many to go out to different places and preach the truth. The full-time serving ones do not need to go out to preach; instead, they should encourage and perfect every brother and sister to go out to speak. If the co-workers can do this, there will be a rich result.
Taipei has a population of almost two million. It has a convenient transportation system, a highly educated populace, sufficient economic strength, and good public security. In addition to these things, the church here has several thousand saints who meet regularly. We cannot afford to lose this tremendous opportunity to spread. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we should seize this opportunity to do business for the Lord’s interests. The way to do business is to begin with the small groups as the basic level. We should use the small groups to encourage every household to function, to recover the dormant saints, and to open their homes to preach the gospel. Everyone has extended family, neighbors, classmates, colleagues, and friends who are not saved. Two million fish are swimming around us every day. So why do we not go out to catch these fish? We are five thousand fishermen. Why do we not catch fish? We need to wake up and go out to preach the gospel.
We must remember that one day we will all stand before the Lord. How will we give an account of ourselves, if our hands are empty? Hymns, #930 says, “‘Must I go and empty-handed,’ / Thus my dear Redeemer meet? / Not one day of service give Him, / Lay no trophy at His feet?” This hymn gives a vivid description of how pricked our hearts should feel. We should not wait for others to ask whether our friends and relatives are saved. I am afraid that when God asks us, even the angels will condemn us. This understanding will change our living. In the past we had our friends and relatives over for dinner and politely laughed and conversed with them, but we never preached the gospel to them. How can we repay our debt of the gospel to them?
Paul says that he was a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians (Rom. 1:14). How can we justify working with our colleagues at the office for five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, and yet not preach the gospel to them? If we have this view, we would all repent and confess to the Lord, saying, “Lord, have mercy on me; I am a debtor to too many people.”
A great American evangelist, Mr. Moody, determined that he would preach the gospel to at least one person every day. One day as he was getting ready for bed, he suddenly remembered that he had not preached the gospel to anyone that day. So he got dressed and went outside. It was the middle of the night, and he could not find anyone except for a policeman standing at the street corner. Mr. Moody went to the policeman and said, “Mr. Policeman, you must believe in Jesus.” The policeman was both amused and angry because he felt that anyone who would go out in the middle of the night to persuade people to believe in Jesus had to be crazy. He said, “Go back home quickly. How is it your business whether or not I believe in Jesus?” Later, after the policeman went home, the Holy Spirit worked in him, and he had no peace. The next day he went around asking about a man who preached the gospel. He finally found Mr. Moody. The two of them had a conversation, and the policeman got saved.
If we would preach the gospel in this way, it would be equivalent to having five thousand Mr. Moody’s. Who knows how many people we would bring to salvation? This depends on the leading at the basic level, that is, the leading in the small groups, where the co-workers encourage and perfect the saints. May all the saints make this their goal, by praying and following in one accord. Then the church in Taipei will increase, spread, and have a glorious future.
