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In the church life we need to read the Bible in a living way; this requires practice. For example, the subject of this chapter is “The Functioning of the Members of a Small Group.” The main points related to the subject of this chapter are taken from Romans 12. Verse 5 says, “We who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” Verse 8 says, “He who leads, in diligence; he who shows mercy, in cheerfulness.” And verse 15 says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” It is worthwhile to read these verses, but we also need to read them in a living way.
Consider Song of Songs 1:8, which says, “If you yourself do not know, / You fairest among women, / Go forth on the footsteps of the flock, / And pasture your young goats / By the shepherds’ tents.” The focus of this verse is not on the one who is the fairest among women; rather, it is on pasturing the young goats by the shepherds’ tents. Christ is the Shepherd, and the churches are the shepherds’ tents. In a small group some members must bear responsibility to bring the young and weak goats to the gatherings.
Likewise, in reading 2 Timothy 2:2, we should pay attention to the fact that the main point is not on “the things which you have heard from me through many witnesses” but rather on committing these things to “faithful men, who will be competent to teach others also.” The members of a small group must be faithful men who are competent to teach others. After learning the truth and bringing the young goats to a gathering, there is a need to nourish and teach them.
We should learn to exercise the spirit when we gather; we do not need to wait for certain brothers to arrive before starting the meeting. In many so-called churches the Sunday service begins only after the pastor arrives and shakes the hand of everyone who is in attendance; this is not proper. Our gatherings do not belong to certain leading brothers but to everyone. If this were the case, we would not be able to meet without a so-called leading one being present. Our gatherings also do not depend on religious rituals, such as singing and praying at the beginning of the meeting. If this were the case, we would not be able to meet without first singing and praying. One time in a meeting I said, “Today we will not sing hymns.” The saints responded by immediately beginning to pray. Then I said, “Today we will also not pray.” At once they wanted to read the Bible. Then I said, “Let us start the meeting without any singing, praying, reading of the Word, testifying, or sharing.” This perplexed the saints, and they did not know what to do. However, this is not a difficult situation for someone with experience in “playing ball” in a coordinated way.
For instance, two brothers could speak on God’s creation of man in Genesis 1 in the form of questions and answers. Brother A could say, “God’s creation of man was wonderful,” and Brother B could ask, “In what way was it wonderful?” Brother A could reply, “When God created all things, He spoke, and they came into existence, but before the creation of man, the Triune God held a conference.” Brother B could then ask, “What do you mean by a conference?” Brother A could answer, “There was a consideration, a conference, within the Godhead concerning the creation of man. In this conference the Triune God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’” (Gen. 1:26). Brother B could pursue further, asking, “What is the image of God?” If a meeting was conducted in this way, no one would fall asleep, and Genesis 1:26 would be in our hearts forever.
Furthermore, a brother could be asked to memorize and recite Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Another person could be asked to memorize and recite verse 26: “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Then a third person could be asked to memorize and recite the first part of verse 31: “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good.” At this point, we could ask others to speak on the main thought covered in verses 1, 26, and 31, which is God’s creation and the center of God’s creation being man.
This illustration shows how we frequently follow old, traditional, natural, and religious concepts rather than exercising our spirit. The culture of the world is constantly progressing. However, in the last two thousand years Christianity has fallen backward rather than advancing. The New Testament contains nothing old, traditional, natural, or religious; it is altogether a revelation of God’s economy, which is exceedingly fresh. The apostles brought this revelation to a peak, but the condition of the church began to gradually decline because the saints did not hold to the apostles’ teaching. Later, many old, traditional, natural, and religious concepts were applied to the New Testament. Consequently, over the years God’s New Testament economy was completely lost to those in Christianity.
People who attend services in Christianity hear nothing of the high revelation in the New Testament. Although the Bible is in print and in their hands, Christians see nothing of God’s revelation when they read the Bible. Instead, they read with their mind and interpret the Scriptures based on their own concepts. Even though our way of reading the Bible is absolutely different from those in Christianity, we still have elements of oldness in our meetings.
Our meetings should reflect the corporate move of the Spirit. We should follow the Spirit, and we should exercise our spirit to be fresh and living. Anyone who has played basketball knows that the ball can be passed to him at any moment. Hence, every person on the team needs to be prepared to receive the ball. In the Lord’s recovery we need to learn to exercise our spirit to worship God, who is Spirit. When we read the Bible with our spirit, our reading is our worship to God. In many heathen religions, people are required to worship by kneeling down and prostrating themselves before idols. Our worship, however, is in spirit. If we read the Bible according to the inspiration of the Spirit in a meeting, the supply that others receive will not be forgotten.
When we meet together, our reading of the Bible should be living. After reading a verse in a living way, a simple prayer can be offered, a hymn can be called, and even a testimony can be given. This kind of exercise will cause everyone to be living. Without the exercise of the spirit, anything we do will be inappropriate and only bring in confusion. We need to exercise our spirit in the meetings because we should not regulate or attempt to direct the corporate move of the Spirit in the meeting. After singing or reading the Bible, some may be inspired to give testimonies, and others may follow with another hymn. In this way there will be a fresh supply in the meeting and no long pauses.
Under the influence of both Christianity and our natural man, it is very easy to fall into rituals rather than to exercise our spirit. Without such an exercise, outward forms may change, but the old content will remain. Hence, we should exercise to be in spirit, because there are no rituals in our spirit; there are only the riches of Christ with all of His freshness. With the exercise of the spirit, every meeting will be living, and the church will be fully revived.
According to our observation of the present condition of the small groups, if there are twelve people in a group, two or three of them may be strong and exercised. The other brothers and sisters may have little or no understanding of the teaching and fellowship of the apostles or even of the significance of the small groups. While those who are stronger should bear responsibility, there is no need to assign anyone to be a responsible one or a leading one. This matter should be left entirely to the spirit of the saints and to the Spirit of God.
This is a test to those in a small group who are more exercised before the Lord. Knowing that the church has not assigned anyone to be a responsible or leading one, those who are more exercised should pray in order to follow the Spirit. Anyone with a burden can pray, follow the Spirit, and bear responsibility. This does not involve human arrangements or organizational decisions.
Because the Lord is working in the environment, many saints who have not been meeting for a long time have returned. Although we rejoice in this, it is important that we immediately bear the responsibility to approach and contact them. Even though children do not know very much, they all know if someone is caring for them. If we care for a dormant saint consistently, he will fully trust us. A human being is a human being; he is not made of wood or stone, neither is he a tiger or a lion. Even if he is a terribly fallen person, he is still a human being and still has human feelings. As long as we care for him in the spirit, fellowship with him, and are concerned for him, he will receive our care and protection.
I believe that the young people in particular have a burden for the saints. It is important to respond to this burden. As long as you are concerned about the saints, the work of the Holy Spirit will follow you, and the Lord will confirm His work by raising up someone who matches you. Then you will become a “Timothy” who can impart the teaching of the apostle into him. After two or three weeks, he will be living and able to enliven others in the small group, and within two or three months the whole group will be brought into a revival.
When a revival comes, the work of the Lord requires little effort. For example, when you visited a dormant brother in the past, he may have ignored you. But when the wind of revival blows, he will be stirred up before you even visit him. As soon as you contact him, he will shout, “Hallelujah, brother, the Lord spoke to me of your coming two days ago, and I even dreamed of your coming.” Such things have happened.
In Chefoo many doctors and nurses were saved and brought to the church. The director and the pharmacist of one hospital were brothers, but they were not active in the meetings. Nevertheless, they were willing to receive help from the saints. Every Monday morning the saints in the church would meet before going out to visit the saints. They would study a list of names and fellowship about those who should be visited. Then, after touching the Lord to gain an inner sense from Him, they would visit the saints. During one meeting the names of these two brothers were mentioned, but some did not feel that the time was right to visit them. Several weeks later the names of these two brothers were mentioned again, and this time there was a feeling to visit them. This was truly the Lord’s leading because both the hospital director and the pharmacist were looking out a window when two brothers arrived to visit them. When they saw the brothers, they were overjoyed and later told the brothers, “We saw you coming in a dream last night, so we were waiting for you.” As soon as contact was made with the brothers, they were connected to the church again, and no effort was needed to exhort them to come to the bread-breaking meeting on the Lord’s Day. In my whole life I have never been to a Lord’s table meeting with such an uplifted atmosphere. We sang Hymns, #101, and we all were touched by the Lord. This atmosphere was the result of the recovery of the hospital director and the pharmacist.
We must believe that the Holy Spirit is always working. Without much effort the small groups can be brought into a revival one by one after two or three months. When the Holy Spirit comes, He works. This work is very marvelous. However, we still need to be faithful and diligent to coordinate with the Lord. Although the hospital director and the pharmacist were very desirous of the Lord, they would not have been gained without the diligence of the church through the weekly visits of the saints. The church must coordinate with the Lord, and the small groups are the means of coordination. We must be faithful and diligent to coordinate with the Lord.
If we open to the Lord faithfully, the Spirit of the Lord will lead us to be a member who supplies others. Even an elderly sister, who has been saved for many years and who also loves the Lord dearly, can function to supply others with grace. We do not need to wait for the elders to give us a title in order to function. We need to believe that the Lord’s grace is with us, and we must rise up to faithfully and diligently offer our portion.
We all love the Lord and are willing to pay the price because we have a heart; however, we need to take a further step to bear this burden faithfully. On the surface it is a burden, but actually, it is a blessing. In your eyes I am laboring; actually, I am quite joyful because I see so many being saved and so many young people being trained and receiving grace. This is a joy to me. If we all function in the small groups, our small groups will ignite the city of Taipei just like a spark of fire burns through a meadow.
Hence, we should not be timid or proud. Our spirit has to rise up. Once we rise up in spirit, we will not care for outward ways or practices that can cause us to deviate, to be opinionated, and to be divided. We do not care for these things at all. We desire to be fully in the spirit, to love the Lord, to love the church, to love people, and to love the brothers and sisters. As long as we receive a burden in spirit, the blessing will come. Then whomever we touch will be enlivened, whomever we meet will be blessed, and whomever is in our thoughts will be waiting for us when we visit. It is not a small matter when someone dreams of us coming to visit. This was the story of Paul’s conversion in the New Testament. When Saul of Tarsus was saved, no one dared to believe that he could be saved, because he had persecuted the Lord’s church so severely. Then the Lord sent Ananias to seek him out, and while the Lord was conversing with Ananias, He told Ananias that Saul had seen a vision of Ananias’s coming while he was praying (Acts 9:10-12). The dream of the hospital director was a similar work of the Holy Spirit.
We should all be faithful. We should not say that we have no responsibility because we are not an elder or a deacon. Every person should be in a small group. If we love the Lord and are faithful, we should begin to work in our small group. First, we should build up the small group by being burning and by burning others. After two months of mutual burning, the entire group will be in a revived condition, and even when the saints in the small group see each other in a big meeting, the meeting will be enlivened. Every member in a group must have a sense of responsibility; every person is responsible. However, we must bear in mind that there should not be any competition or rivalry within a group.
We all should learn to kindle a fire in the group and also to kindle a fire in order that every brother and sister can be burning. Every recovered brother and sister is tender and delicate; they must be treasured. They cannot be touched casually, or they will be damaged. However, it is not necessary to always let them have their way. In our interaction with them, we must exercise our spirit and have love toward all.
First Thessalonians 5:14 says, “We exhort you, brothers, Admonish the disorderly, console the fainthearted, sustain the weak, be long-suffering toward all.” The most touching part of this verse is being “long-suffering toward all.” When we are with the brothers, we often are quite lacking in patience. Even I need to learn this lesson because it is hard for me when I see the trainees being so sloppy. Sometimes, when I look at their shoes, it seems as if they have not been polished for two or three years. In 1953, when I set up the first formal training here, I trained the brothers to polish their shoes. I spoke a strong word to the trainees, telling them, “If your shoes are not well polished, do not expect your work to be carried out in a good way.” The brothers and sisters who were being trained at that time are now fifty to sixty years old. They remember the detailed aspects of our training. I often went into their rooms at irregular times and touched their desks or nightstands with my fingers to see if they were dusty; this was part of our training. We should not despise these things. If our shoes are not well polished, should we expect to be able to properly recover a brother?
In 1965 I brought an American brother to the Philippines. He had been a traveling evangelist with some renown before turning to our way. I took him with me to the Philippines because the door to the gospel was quite open there. The saints offered him warm hospitality, putting him in the best room. However, even though he was quite good in preaching the gospel, the character in his living was rather disturbing to others. The brothers who gave him hospitality told me that he made a mess of the house where he stayed; this greatly detracted from the gospel he preached. His gospel preaching was like someone building a house twenty feet high but then tearing it down by ten feet. Although he was a competent speaker and very eloquent, he did not have much fruit in his work. Thus, having much knowledge and great ability does not necessarily mean success. Success depends not only on knowledge and ability but also on character and personality. We need to be diligent and faithful. If we are proper in personality, character, diligence, and faithfulness, we will have success even if we are slightly lacking in knowledge and ability.
We all must bear responsibility in the small group before the Lord and learn to be patient. When we take care of a brother, he may not be helped immediately or even want to receive our help. We should never let this be a source of hurt for us or a point of blame toward him. If we have a quick disposition, desiring quick results, we need the Lord’s mercy so that we will be persistent in our prayers. Even if the brothers and sisters we are caring for do not meet our expectations, being anxious concerning them will be of no benefit. In fact, the more anxious we are, the further they will seem to be from our expectations. We need patience.
Patience in a small group is essential because it is not easy for someone to become instantaneously burning. When this is the case, we should not murmur or be disappointed. We have to be long-suffering and patient with endurance. Even if a person has not become burning after six months, we need to continue to labor. We should never say, “Forget it! I will let him go; I do not care any longer.” Of course, we also should not be stubborn, pressing him to be burning when it is obvious that he is not open to be burning. We need wisdom with regard to our time, neither abandoning him nor being anxious about him. If he is slow to begin to be burning, we should let him be slow for a period of time. In the meantime, we can fan others into flame. After fanning others for a period of time, he may become burning as soon as we focus on him again. We should bring these matters to our fellowship with the Lord so that we can gain a proper sense of His burden and timing.
The arrangement of the small groups allows everyone to function according to his or her measure. A small group gathering removes every excuse for not functioning. Every small group gathering is a “playground” for playing ball. As long as there is a playground, no one has an excuse. In the past some may have felt that there was no place to exercise their function. But now one huge playground has become four hundred small playgrounds. There are small playgrounds near every saint. There is no excuse for not playing, but when we play, we should neither overvalue nor depreciate our function. The most important thing is that everyone functions and bears responsibility faithfully.
I would like to speak of my personal experience. During the first three weeks in August of 1933, there was a tremendous struggle within me concerning whether I should drop my job to serve the Lord full time. During this time, Brother Watchman Nee was sailing back from Europe to China. One day while he was praying in his cabin for the work in China, the Lord gave him a sense to write a letter, telling me that I should serve the Lord full time. He sent this letter to the Shanghai Gospel Book Room, which redirected the letter to me. My decision was a source of great consternation. At this time I had three children, and even though it did not matter to me whether I starved, I had the responsibility for my wife and children. Then I received Brother Nee’s letter in which he said, “Brother Witness, as for your future, I feel that you should serve the Lord full time. How do you feel? May the Lord lead you.” Although the note was short, I was deeply touched. Subsequently, I let go of my job to serve the Lord full time and went to Shanghai in October to see Brother Nee.
The co-workers in Shanghai also confirmed my decision to serve full time. When I arrived in Shanghai, everyone I met spoke the Shanghai dialect, whereas I spoke the native dialect of Chefoo in the north. Nevertheless, the co-workers encouraged me to move my family to Shanghai so that I could serve in coordination with them. A brother said to me later, “Brother Lee, you are a native of Chefoo, but you are able to come to Shanghai to preach and even work among the Shanghainese.”
Later I came to work in the United States. When I began to give messages, I heard comments that no Chinese preachers had been able to work among Americans except for me. Even though my English was not very good, I was asked about my secret for speaking to Americans. The only secret is to endeavor to learn the particular ways of others. In our learning, we will gain an understanding of their ways that even they may not fully realize. For example, after I arrived in Shanghai, I did not learn much of the Shanghai dialect, but I learned the ways of the Shanghainese. As a result, I could speak convincingly with clear messages that touched the feeling of the Shanghainese.
At the end of May 1961, I began to give messages in English in the United States. After speaking for three years, the Americans said, “All those in the church life in the United States speak Mr. Lee’s English.” Today some American Christian publications also adopt my expressions, such as “turning to the spirit.” In 1964 the Los Angeles Times published a report about us that was not very accurate. We responded by writing an article to state our standing, and I used the term church practice, realizing that there was no such expression in English. An American brother who taught English said, “This is not good English.” I replied, “You are right. I know this is not good English, but please tell me what other English words convey this meaning.” He thought for a long time but was unable to think of anything; in the end he had to agree with the expression I used.
Not long after that, we published The Stream magazine as well as an English hymnal. For this hymnal I wrote nearly two hundred hymns. There was an American brother who knew music quite well, and he was also very good in poetry. Consequently, he felt that some of my expressions were not very good English. Based on his word, I handed the hymns to him to make corrections. He spent a good amount of time on them, yet he also felt that it was difficult to make corrections. In the end he used many of the original words. Then I told him that literature follows culture. When there is a certain invention in a culture, there will be the need for a new word; that is, there will be the need for an expression to convey the culture’s progress. When there are no appropriate words, a word needs to be created. I have had to create new terms because there were no words to express these new developments.
In the past there was not such a thing in Christianity as turning to the spirit. Turning to the spirit speaks of a new culture; it is a new expression created by us. Several years ago in an institutional publication of a renowned American evangelist, there was an article that even used the term pray-reading. This shows that Christianity also sees a need for new terms. Hence, we should not be conservative; rather, we should endeavor to learn in every aspect. This is the secret of my work. All of us need to learn well.
Today the Lord’s grace is with His recovery, and the Lord is continually bestowing grace on His churches. Now the Lord is leading us in a further step to initiate small groups in the church in Taipei. The needs of the church in Taipei, with thousands of saints, are simply beyond the capacity of the elders. The burden upon them is very heavy; thus, there is an urgent need to have small groups. If group after group is up to the standard, it will be similar to a strong nation with good families and good citizens. When one group after another is raised up in the church, every believer will be strong, and the church will be strong. With the increase, the Spirit will move and guide us. He may arrange an environment to bring us to other cities or may even impart a burden to spread to other countries.
In our functioning in a small group gathering, we must avoid acting independently but do everything in the Body, absolutely keeping the principle of coordination in the Body.
When we function to supply others, we need to let the Spirit of the Lord freely operate. The Lord in us is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17). Once the Lord’s Spirit has the freedom to move, the Lord will release His riches and fulfill His heart’s desire. As we carry out our function, continually learning to exercise our spirit and giving the Lord the freedom in our spirit, He will release His riches through us and fulfill His heart’s desire.
We all must receive a burden to shepherd, teach, and perfect the young or weak brothers and sisters.
The brothers and sisters with more experience need to teach and shepherd those who are young or weak. In the small group, no one should be without such care.
We need to lead every person in the group to be responsible to seek and recover saints who have not been meeting for a long time and those with whom we have lost contact. For this we should actively review our information cards. According to our current statistics, at least one hundred thousand people were baptized in Taiwan over the last thirty years, with as many as fifty or sixty thousand in the church in Taipei alone. According to the number of those attending meetings, there are less than ten thousand people on the whole island meeting with us. This indicates that we have lost many brothers and sisters.
In the church in Taipei alone, more than forty thousand saints have been lost; as far as the whole island is concerned, probably more than ninety thousand people have been lost. Among these ninety thousand saints, at most ten thousand have gone abroad or passed away. Therefore, based on these results, we have lost contact with approximately eighty thousand saints on this island. Recently, I heard many testimonies from those in the small group gatherings concerning recovering saints who have not met with us for twenty or thirty years. We must spend more effort to find these saints. Thus, we propose that every week at least two hundred information cards should be selected, copied, and sent to various meeting halls in Taipei and even to all the churches in Taiwan so that the saints in the small groups can endeavor to find these ones. We hope to locate half of them within one to two years.
We lost these brothers and sisters because of errors and shortcomings in our old ways. We should rise up and make amends as quickly as possible. The way to make amends is through the small groups, using the information cards as a base. Although we are greatly encouraged that the church in Taipei has baptized over fifty thousand people in the last twenty-eight years, we must make an effort to find those who have become dormant or lost. Let us pray for this matter. We must endeavor to seek and rescue the saints with whom we have lost contact.
We also should open our homes at least once a week to preach the gospel to relatives, friends, and neighbors. When we preach to our relatives, friends, and neighbors we will be able to reap a harvest.
