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Scripture Reading: Acts 2:42, 46-47; 5:42; 1 Cor. 14:23-26
We have a completely new arrangement of the church in Taipei. On the side of administration, we have arranged for over forty elders to take the lead in the halls. On the side of the spiritual work, there are five items plus one. The burden of the first five items should be shared by the full-time co-workers. The burden of the last item should be shared by the saints in each hall. The co-workers should take the lead to carry out the five items of the spiritual work: the small group meetings; the gospel on the campuses, which includes spreading the gospel on junior-high and high-school campuses as well as college campuses; the gospel in the homes; the gospel in the community; and the children’s work. The last item, visitation and shepherding, is reserved for each hall and should be a burden shared by all the saints under the elders’ leadership. These are the six items of our spiritual work.
In order for the church to be built up and move forward, to grow spiritually, to know the truth, and to bear fruit in the gospel, there must be the elders’ leadership on the administrative side and the six items of spiritual work on the spiritual side: the small group meetings, the gospel on the campuses, the gospel in the homes, the gospel in the community, the children’s work, and visiting and shepherding.
I have a burden to lead the church to move forward in all these aspects of spiritual work. The first aspect relates to the small group meetings. Having small group meetings may sound easy, but I realized from the day we began that this aspect of our spiritual work would be harder than any other aspect. I even do not have the confidence that I can do it well.
The Lord’s work is difficult in Taipei but even more so in the United States. The mountain in the United States is steeper and harder to climb than the mountain in Taiwan. It became so difficult that we even had to resort to a lawsuit to “appeal to Caesar” (Acts 25:11). Praise the Lord, we have climbed over that mountain. The mountain in Taiwan is not as steep, so we should not be discouraged in any way. I speak of the small groups as being hard work for the sake of guidance; we should not think that this is easy.
I have told the co-workers who are responsible for promoting the small groups that they should not expect a great success but instead should prepare themselves for failure. The easiest work among the six items that I have mentioned is the campus gospel, because the only requirement is to go to the campuses diligently. On the campus our movement is not on a flat surface; it is on a slightly downward slope. Thus, it is very easy to “drive the car” there. Once we start to drive, we can certainly reach the goal. Those who are working on the campuses should not simply rejoice about this environmental benefit but be realistic in order to take advantage of it.
The difficulty related to the small group meetings involves our need to change our concept. To repent, to turn, was the word proclaimed by John the Baptist at the beginning of the New Testament. To repent is to have a turn in our mind, a change in our concept.
The Old Testament traditions, starting from Moses to John the Baptist, existed for one thousand five hundred years; they were deeply embedded in the Jews. The first sent one in the New Testament age was John the Baptist. His opening word was, “Repent” (Matt. 3:1-2). It was as if he were saying, “All your old Jewish concepts must change. My father, Zachariah, is a priest who is taking the lead to serve God by offering sacrifices, burning incense, wearing priestly robes, and eating priestly food. Although I am his son, I am wearing camel’s hair and a leather girdle around my loins, and I am eating locusts and wild honey. I have forsaken the temple, and I do not serve as a priest who offers sacrifices or burns incense. I am here to change your concept. Repent! Throw away the old things! Jesus Christ is coming; He is ushering in a new beginning.” Everyone who believes in the Lord believes as the result of a change of concept. For example, idol worship is very prevailing in Taiwan. When idol worshippers hear the gospel and believe in the Lord, they forsake the idols and turn to God. This is repentance, and repentance is a change in concept.
Today we cannot deny that the church in Taipei, after thirty-six years of history, has grown old. Not only the church in Taipei but all the churches on the entire island of Taiwan and the entire Lord’s recovery have become old. The Lord’s recovery began in 1922. The first church was established in Foochow sixty-three years ago, but now we have become old. We fought and struggled vigorously in the early years because it was not easy to have the Lord’s recovery in China. Then the recovery came to Taiwan. But gradually, the situation among us has become old.
The Lord Jesus came after John the Baptist, and He proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (4:17); He also wanted people to repent and change their concept. When the Lord sent out the twelve apostles and later the seventy disciples, they proclaimed the kingdom of God as the gospel, asking people to repent and change their concept (Luke 9:1-2; 10:1, 9; Mark 6:12). When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, Peter rose up and spoke the same thing. The Jews asked, “What should we do, brothers?” Peter said, “Repent and each one of you be baptized upon the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:37-38). To repent means to change our concept. For Peter, to be baptized meant to be buried, to terminate all oldness, including Jewish doctrines, Jewish traditions, and the keeping of the Mosaic law. In this way the church was new from the very beginning.
When the church was established, three thousand people were saved, and later five thousand men were baptized (v. 41; 4:4). Altogether, at least eight thousand people received salvation. How did they live the church life? The church met together, but how did this many people meet? In other words, what was the foundation of their meetings? With anything that we do, there is always a foundation. Even language has a foundation. The twenty-six letters of the English alphabet are the foundation of the English language. What is the foundation of the church meetings? The eight thousand who were saved met in the temple and from house to house, from one house to another (2:46; 5:42). When they were in the temple, mainly Peter, John, and the other apostles spoke. But there was no way for Peter and John to meet with all eight thousand people, comprising a minimum of a thousand homes; the believers needed to meet from house to house.
Acts 5:42 says, “Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.” Those who were saved for even a day or two began to meet in their homes, and they did not speak the teachings of Moses or Elijah. Every household was speaking what they heard from Peter in the temple.
The crucial point is that the meetings in the homes were the foundation of the church meetings. A big meeting in the temple was not the foundation. The believers who were produced by the speaking in the temple were brought to meetings in individual homes. In other words, the building up of the church did not depend on the big meetings in the temple; rather, the building up of the church depended on the meetings in the homes, the meetings from house to house.
In Acts 8, not long after the eight thousand were saved, a great persecution arose in Jerusalem. The believers all left Jerusalem, and only the twelve apostles remained. It is hard to believe, but the Bible says that “all were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” (v. 1). The propagation of the gospel and the spread of the testimony of the church did not depend primarily on the apostles but rather on the newly saved ones who were dispersed. We have to believe that even in their dispersion, they were not able to hold big meetings because of persecution. It should be clear that big meetings were not the foundation of the church. The meetings from house to house, the meetings with three to seven people in the homes, were the foundation of the church. The big meetings are like skating in an ice rink; it is easy to skate in, and it is easy to skate out, but the home meetings can actually keep people. This light is very clear in the Bible.
In the Lord’s recovery we saw this light from the beginning. Thus, we encouraged the saints to migrate for the gospel. It was very difficult to bring people to salvation during those days in mainland China, and there were no big meetings to rely upon. Even baptizing five people was an earth-shaking event. In the eighteen years from 1922 to 1940, no more than thirty-seven people were baptized at one time. In 1940 the church in Chefoo saw the light concerning the church preaching the gospel. At that time, as many as one hundred would be baptized at one time, and there was a need to meet in homes because of the increase in number.
In Taipei we first began to meet in one hall. When we gained more people, we met in several locations. When even more were added, we divided them into homes and then into groups for visitation and shepherding. These homes and groups brought in tens of thousands of people and were able to retain them. From 1949 to 1957 the number of saints in the churches on the island of Taiwan increased from four or five hundred to forty or fifty thousand; there was nearly a hundredfold increase. However, in 1958 we were distracted and started to go downhill. This downward slope was not steep; rather, it was a gentle decline. However, we have been going downhill for twenty-seven years.
When we began to leave the big meetings, which were according to the practice of the denominations, we began home meetings and small group meetings; it was not an easy mountain to climb. But before we could reach the peak, we were distracted and could not climb any further; instead, we went downhill. We went downhill to such an extent that we paid attention only to big meetings and eloquent speakers. Good speakers attract people, and the saints acquired a habit of listening to sermons. Before going to a meeting, we often would ask about the speaker. If “Paul” was speaking, everybody would go, but if “Mark” was speaking, many would say, “I don’t have the time to go.” Thus, the foundation of the church gradually shifted from small groups in the homes to speakers in a big meeting. This is like degraded Christianity.
In Christianity there is little emphasis on home meetings or group meetings. Mainly, congregations hire a pastor who has a seminary degree, some human capability, likableness, and eloquence and who can speak on many topics. With such a pastor, the congregation will flourish and prosper, but if the pastor is not capable or eloquent, the congregation will dwindle. This is the general situation in Christianity; there is some growth, but the direction is ultimately downhill. It is hard to retain people by relying on gifted preachers or spiritual giants. When a great preacher comes, tens of thousands may come and listen, but when he leaves, everyone leaves as well. When the great preacher leaves, the thin ice that everyone is skating on melts.
People hold revival meetings in Christianity because they are deflated. The purpose of a revival meeting is to give a heart-strengthening injection. The foundation of today’s Christianity is not with small groups but with big meetings. When I was young, I went with my mother to a Sunday service for nearly twenty years. I never talked to anyone, and no one talked to my mother and me. Everyone was dressed up and sat quietly in the pews. There were hymn numbers posted on a board, and someone would begin the service by calling out these hymns. After the singing, someone would preach a sermon, and then someone would make announcements. Finally, there was a benediction to end the service. After the benediction everyone got up and left. I did not say anything to anyone, and no one spoke to us; we simply went our own way. There was no mutual fellowship, much less a steadfast continuation in the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42).
Sixty years ago the Lord showed us the mutual fellowship of all the members of the Body. This cannot be practiced only through big meetings. Even if we met in this way for ten years, it would not be easy for every member to be contacted. However, once we meet in a home, there is a need for everyone to speak. Even if we have never had a thorough conversation with another member, we will spontaneously have many such conversations in the homes. This is the advantage of the small group meetings.
In recent years we put too much emphasis on speaking in the big meeting. When the numbers decreased, we changed our way of speaking. When people disliked what they were hearing, we would change topics. Our only concern was related to the speaker, and we did not know how to use our family treasure — the small groups. We went back to depending on big meetings and following the way of Christianity. We must change our concept. The big meetings have their usefulness, but we need to pay close attention to the small groups. With the small groups as the foundation of the church life, we can take care of the ones who left the big meetings. The building up of the church requires a solid foundation, and this foundation is the small groups.
We have relied so heavily on the big meetings that it is hard to break our old habits. Nevertheless, we must actively move forward and devote time and energy to practice the small groups. When the small group meetings were set up, those who had not been meeting came back and would give their testimonies. This made everyone happy, but after the second or third week, there was little else to speak. Even a dessert that is served repeatedly will lose its appeal. Those meetings did not last long because there was no content. We have all experienced this. When I was in the United States, I received a letter from some brothers in Taipei, saying, “The situation of the group meetings in Taipei is one-third up, one-third down, and one-third breaking even.” In accounting terms, the credit side is the same as the debit side, which makes it an unprofitable effort. The small group meetings were considered unprofitable, however, only because everyone was still holding on to a “big-meeting” concept, that is, of having a capable speaker come and preach.
In order for the small group meetings to endure, we must bring Christ. Christ will not wither, and Christ will not wane. There is a famous hymn in Christianity: “Beautiful flowers will wither, and the full moon will wane; only my best Friend will never depart.” Our best Friend is the Lord Jesus. Perhaps some of our small group meetings have not waned or withered, but I am afraid that more than half of our small group meetings are like night-blooming flowers that start to droop once midnight has passed. For this reason, I want to proclaim the word of John the Baptist: “Repent!” To repent means to change our concept. We must change our concept; we should not emphasize the big meetings. At a minimum we should consider the small group meetings to be on the same level as the big meetings.
The big meetings have their uses and are necessary. Even now we are actively looking for land where we can build a big meeting hall. As soon as the big hall is completed, it will have many uses. For example, we want to evangelize Taiwan, and for this at least five hundred full-timers should be raised up each year. These young brothers and sisters need to be trained, and a training requires a place for them to live. On this land there will be not only a meeting hall but also a place that can serve as a weekend camp. The twenty-one halls in Taipei are twenty-one units, and there are almost twenty churches surrounding Taipei. Altogether there are more than forty units, and each unit could use this facility for a week. Furthermore, the campus work of the churches in various localities would be able to use it.
Our gospel must spread to homes, cities, and villages. However, to gain really good material, we need to gain young students. Therefore, we need to work on the campuses. Based on our past experience, the most effective way to work on the campuses is through summer and winter camps. When we go to a campus, we can contact many gospel friends. Rather than seeing them go to movies or dance parties on the weekend, we can invite our gospel friends, saying, “We have a mountain camp with a garden and dormitories. Let us go and stay there for a day.” If we bring them to the mountain and walk and fellowship with them, they will surely be saved. We will build a baptismal so that they can be baptized as soon as they are saved. Every week we can bring people in groups up to the mountain. Out of ten that we bring up to the mountain, surely seven to eight will be saved and baptized. This plan is surely worth promoting.
Big meeting halls have their usefulness, but if we focus only on this aspect, we will not have the foundation of the church. Our current way is like skating in an ice rink, and it is easy for people to skate out the door. If we bring people to the home meetings and group meetings, they will be rooted and grounded. Only the home meetings and group meetings can keep people. This is God’s wise design; it is not a method conceived by man.
The Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, and He led the believers to meet from house to house. The beginning of God’s work always reveals what is best, because after His work is handed over to man, it begins to go downhill. The beginning in Acts was the best. Now the big meetings are like a skating rink, and many skate in, but many also skate out. In Acts there were meetings from house to house as a foundation to bring people into the church. Once a person met from house to house, he was surely kept. This is God’s wisdom.
There are about six hundred fifty churches in the Lord’s recovery on the six major continents. The rate of increase has been very fast, particularly in Central and South America, and it is still increasing. My work in the United States is very busy, yet I had to come back to lead Taipei in order to lay a good foundation here, because this is the model. If the source here is not clear, the work cannot be spread elsewhere. Thus, I beg you all to pick up the burden to pray and to strive together. Do not belittle the small group meetings. Whether we can succeed, that is, whether the Lord can work out a way among us, depends on our efforts now. Otherwise, the Lord will have to look for some other people, and we will go downhill, becoming yet another group in Christianity.
We all need to change our concept of relying on big meetings and capable speakers. When we were saved, each of us had a change in concept; that is, we turned to God and were saved. Then we learned to pray, to read the Word, to know the truth, to grow in life, and to experience Christ, gain Christ, and enjoy the riches of Christ. Christ is our good land of Canaan. When we labor on Him daily, we will reap a harvest.
God’s way is balanced. Just as man was created with two hands and two shoulders, God has arranged for us to have the big meetings and small group meetings in a balanced way. Once we see this, we need to double our prayer, double our reading of the Bible and our seeing of light from the Bible, and double our experience of Christ.
In the church all the brothers and sisters love the Lord, and based on this love for the Lord, I have the burden to lead you. Since you love the Lord, you must mean business with Him; your love for the Lord should not just be vain talk. The Bible shows that the Lord has only one way to build up His church, to reach His goal — the small group meetings. The building up of the church cannot be accomplished with big meetings. The big meetings of Christianity are like the age of the judges, who were like spiritual giants. When Samson rose up, it was good. When he died, Israel declined (Judg. 13—16). The age of the judges in the Old Testament prefigures today’s Christianity. If we pay attention only to big meetings and neglect the home meetings and group meetings, we are returning to the old way, reenacting the age of the judges and depending on spiritual giants. We must change our concept. We do not want judges; we want homes. Every home and every group must be strong, and we must be strong in order to have strong homes and groups.
It is preferable for a small group to have no more than twelve people. Five or six is the best, seven or eight is fine, and even eight or ten is good. Because we love Him and mean business with Him, we should daily pray, read the Word, learn the truth, see the light, experience Christ, and labor on Christ. Then when we come together, we will have experiences to share, rather than being an “audience” waiting for others to speak.
If someone says that he does not know how to speak, I would say, “It all depends on your willingness to speak.” For example, there is a Dutch brother in the church in Taipei; in addition to Dutch, he also knows German, French, English, and Chinese. He speaks Chinese very well. We all need to learn from him. Is it easier to follow Christ, experience Christ, and enjoy Christ, or is it easier for this Dutch brother to learn Chinese? If he can turn his Dutch tongue into a Chinese tongue, we can turn our tongue into a “Christ tongue” if we are willing.
We all say that we love the Lord, and every day we carry our Bible bags and rush to the meetings. We should not just bring our Bible bags; we should read the Bible and learn to speak the word of Christ. We need to learn diligently to speak Christ so that we will have many experiences. In the small group meetings we can all speak the words of God, even though we are human beings. This is mysterious, but it is the real “speaking in tongues.” Such meetings will surely be rich.
Regrettably, this is not the situation in our small groups today. We have exhausted much effort to recover some dormant ones, and we all enjoyed their testimonies in the small groups. After a few times, however, the meetings were no longer interesting, and we just stared at each other with nothing to say. Consequently, the groups no longer met together. If a Dutch brother can learn to speak Chinese, we can learn to read the Bible, to pray, to learn the truth, to gain light, and to grow in life. If we do this, we will certainly speak to others with joy in the small group meetings.
The Acts of the Apostles can also be considered as the Acts of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the speaking Spirit who continuously speaks through the believers. If everyone in a meeting is eager to speak, it will surely be a rich meeting. If the meetings are rich time after time, the saints’ taste for relying on the big meetings will change, and new ones and recovered saints will not regard the big meetings so much or pay attention to who the speaker is. Instead, they will think that their group meetings are the best and most enjoyable because they have an opportunity to speak. Thus, it will not matter whether or not there are eloquent speakers in the meeting, because we will have our own meetings. This is the foundation of the church.
The church in Taipei is seemingly large and stable, but in actuality it may not be so reliable. If we removed all the capable speakers, the attendance might drop in half. The saints in Taipei need to change their concept so that the church would prosper even if so-called eloquent speakers stopped coming for ten years. This is the proper situation. Each one of us should be able to preach the gospel and lead the brothers and sisters to stand firm on this foundation. Even if the elders would no longer administrate, we need to be able to stand firm. All the saints need to be mobilized as soldiers and become reliable in their function. Then the church will be stable, and we will be able to fully evangelize Taiwan.
If we rely on big meetings, we may not even be able to evangelize our own family, much less all of Taiwan. If our family has not been evangelized and our relatives have not been evangelized, it will be impossible to evangelize Taiwan. We cannot rely on big evangelists to meet the need of evangelizing Taiwan; this is not possible with men. We need the Holy Spirit to initiate the work that enables even a newly saved one to speak the gospel. Every member of a family should speak. Everyone should speak. Every believer should be an evangelist. This is the only way to meet the Lord’s need.
I hope everyone can enter into this: “If there is a will, there is a way.” People in the world do not have the living Triune God, but they achieve many things using only their will. After we change our concept, we need to strengthen our prayer, Bible reading, fellowship with the Lord, seeking of light and truth, seeing the vision, growing in life, following the Lord, enjoying the Lord, and gaining the Lord. If we practice these things until we are skillful and rich, we will certainly have something to speak in the small group meetings.
I will speak truthfully in love. In our small group meetings there are testimonies and the singing of hymns, but this is done mostly in a natural way, and some of these things have become a regulation. Both the natural way and the way of regulation are not right. The right way is to experience and enjoy Christ. In our daily living we need to pray more, read the Bible more, fellowship with the Lord more, experience life more, and seek light and truth more. If we practice this every day, our speaking will not be natural or by way of regulation. We will have so many riches that we will overflow. To overflow is to follow the Spirit.
Fifty years ago I did not understand what it meant to follow the Spirit or to be moved by the Spirit. I thought that I would just sit and wait for the Spirit to move and touch me, and then I would speak for the Lord. Since I was not clear, nothing I did worked. No matter how long I waited, I could not sense the moving of the Spirit. I met with the Brethren five times a week for seven years, and I never missed a single meeting, but I never once prayed. Only a few would give messages, and a few would pray. This became their custom. Gradually, I became clear that the Holy Spirit moves in us because we love the Lord, pray, read the Bible, experience the Lord, and are filled with the Lord. When we are full of Christ, we will pour Him out in the meeting, and our speaking will not be in a natural way or by the way of regulation. Rather, it will be the outflow of the Lord’s riches. Both you and I will overflow, and the group meeting will be rich.
It would be too much to ask everyone to stand on a podium and speak a good message. It would be hard to find one or two out of a hundred who could do this. In the group meetings we speak using common, everyday language. Everyone can speak this way. What we hear in our daily life, we speak. The language that we speak in the group meetings should be the Lord Jesus whom we experience every day. We do not need to put on a show or pretend; we should simply overflow naturally and spontaneously.
The phrase from house to house in Acts 2:46 has been shining brightly among us. I believe that the speaking in these homes in Acts was normal, everyday speaking. This is the proper way to have home meetings and group meetings. One saint may say, “This morning I really touched the Lord in my fellowship with Him,” and then he may testify some more about his experience. Another may say, “Thank the Lord. I also enjoyed the Lord’s presence this week,” and then he may add something more. This spontaneous flowing out will be fresh and living. Who does not know how to speak to one another in this way? If we do not know how to speak in this way, it is only because we are unwilling to learn. If we are willing to learn, we can all do this.
The foundation of the church is not long sermons by apostles but the mutual speaking of everyone in the home meetings and group meetings. Someone gives a testimony, another speaks a word of enlightenment, and still another shares his experience. If everyone speaks, there will be an abundance of riches. After seeing and hearing this, the new ones and the recovered ones will receive the benefit. In this way the foundation of the church will be solid and lasting.
First, we must change our concept; this is the most difficult thing. We must realize that the small group meetings are not a method or merely an additional meeting. We should neither uplift the big meetings nor despise them. We need to regard them equally. Presently, we need to stress the small groups because the saints still overemphasize the big meetings. We need to be balanced. We should not consider that recovering someone means to bring a person back to the big meetings on the Lord’s Day. Of course, this would be good, but it is not required. As long as a saint can come to a group meeting, this is good enough.
Second, the group meetings should strive to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time. In Taipei there are tens of thousands of brothers and sisters who have not been meeting. The three to four thousand who meet regularly should be in group meetings in order to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time.
Third, we need to preach the gospel widely. The home gospel must go out from the small groups. The community gospel must go out from the small groups. Even the campus work can go out from the small groups. The small groups are the foundation. When the small groups are not strong, it is hard to perfect people to help with the gospel on a campus. If the small groups are not strong, who can shepherd when there is a need for shepherding? If the small groups are not strong, the children’s work also will not be carried out. In order for a nation to be strong, its families must be strong. Likewise, for a church to be strong, the home meetings and group meetings must be built up as the foundation, the base, of our spiritual work.
Fourth, the small groups must be able to keep and uphold people and cause them to want to come back. We have to work on the small groups to the point that they have the power to attract and keep people. Fifth, we need to strengthen the riches in the small group meetings. The content of the small group meetings must be rich. When the small group meetings become rich, we will attain the highest goal of expressing Christ.
The small group meetings are not easy to build up. This great and high mountain is not easy to climb. When we change our concept and begin to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time, to widely preach the gospel, and to uphold, strengthen, and enrich the content of the meetings, we will reach God’s highest goal for the church — expressing Christ. May the Lord have mercy on us. May we all pray for this matter.
