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The central work in the management of the church by the elders is to coordinate the brothers and sisters. Strictly speaking, to manage is to coordinate, and to coordinate is to build. The elders’ work of managing the church is to coordinate and build up the brothers and sisters. Where there is real management, there is real coordination, and where there is real coordination, there is real building. We have said much about the management of the church. The central goal for speaking about this matter is to speak about coordination. For this reason we stayed on the matter of coordination for a long time. Because of time, I spoke only sixteen points. Strictly speaking, there are many more lessons to give on coordination. Moreover, the sixteen points given must be explained by practical, real, and detailed examples. All the fine points and detailed considerations in our work occur in the matter of coordination.
For example, we have to help the brothers and sisters to solve their problems. This one item alone has much for us to learn. In our following the Lord and serving Him, we often encounter many problems. For example, there are problems with family, with jobs, with education, with marriage, with spiritual progress, with the study of the Bible, and with prayer. There are too many problems. How should we solve them all? If possible, we should spend much time to illustrate them point by point with examples. We can only mention them in brief now and will leave it up to the brothers to probe into them in detail. Strictly speaking, the one item of solving others’ problems will alone require much practice for many sessions.
For example, a person listening to the gospel may have a girlfriend. Now this person is saved, but the girl has not yet believed. The question is brought before the elders. How are you going to solve this problem? The elders cannot merely say, “Brother, just pray!” Of course, he has to pray. But you have to show him a way that fits his present condition and that does not contradict the biblical truth. It has to pose no hindrance to his future following of the Lord and not put him in difficulty with his family. This is not a very easy thing to do.
Take another example. Some young people may be graduating from high school. They are zealous in pursuing the Lord, and they come to you for fellowship. What kind of university should they attend? Should they study medicine, or should they study engineering or some other subjects? Do not think that this is a light matter. Many times their choice has much to do with their future growth in life and their usefulness in service. You cannot say something rashly and expect them to act rashly. You may be a little spiritual and say, “Go and pray! The Lord will lead you.” This will not work. You have to touch their real condition, bring them to the Lord, and solve the problem before the Lord.
Some brothers had two wives before they were saved. Now they are saved. How should they solve this family problem? How will this affect such a one in his service to the Lord? What attitude should he take in the future? What kind of stand should he have? There are many questions such as these. If the elders cannot open a way for others in these matters and cannot solve their problems, they are short in management. The brothers and sisters will suffer and will be like children without the care of their parents.
If one of your children was bitten by a dog today and ran home to tell you, “Daddy, Mommy, I have been bitten by a dog,” would you pat his back and say, “Just pray, the Lord is almighty”? You would not do this! Of course, you have to pray, but you must face the real situation also. Sometimes a child may come home and say, “I lost my diary on the way home from school. I need to buy another one.” You cannot say to him, “Just pray.” This is not the way to manage a home. When a problem arises with the children, you have to open up a way for them, and you have to help them solve the problem. This is only a simple illustration.
The church is the house of God. There are many brothers and sisters. Some are old, others are young. Some are deep, others are shallow. Some have experience, others are without experience. Some have problems, others have difficulties before the Lord. These brothers and sisters are continually confronted by problems. If the elders do not try to solve these problems, there will be no problem, because all the brothers and sisters will know that the elders cannot solve problems, and they will not come to the elders. But if you really know the way to manage a church and will really take up such a burden, the door to your house will be daily jammed with people. One brother will come to you with his marriage problem. Another brother will come to you with a problem at work. One sister may come to you with her problem of education. Another may come with a problem of studying the Bible. Still others may come with a problem in prayer or a problem with their calling; they do not know if they are called, and they do not know how to answer God’s calling. All these people will come to you. As a rule, the more the brothers and sisters come to the elders, the better it is. If the brothers and sisters do not come to the elders, I am afraid it means that the elders have lost their job. To have lost your job means to have become unfaithful in your ministry. If you are not unfaithful to your ministry, you will find that every day there will be brothers and sisters coming to you. This is because they have many problems. I am simply elaborating on one of the sixteen points of coordination that I have mentioned. The elders have to practice this in a practical way. They have to help the brothers and sisters to bring together all the problems and to solve them together. In this way they will bring the church to a proper condition.
Brothers, I can give you my testimony. When we were first raised up by the Lord, we were led by the Lord to realize that the whole of Christianity has been deformed and has departed from the Lord’s way. It has lost the original position that the Lord ordained for it and has lost its original nature. This is why, when we first began to meet, we threw away everything we saw in Christianity. When we came together, we did not know anything. We did not know how to meet, and we did not even know how to pick a hymn in the meeting. We began to probe a little at a time. First, we probed the way to meet. Then we probed the way to pick the hymns. Up to a certain point, the management of the church became a big and serious question. At the beginning we had only six or seven people; everyone had a strong desire to go on, and there did not seem to be the need for much management. But gradually, we grew to eight, ten, twenty, and then thirty. By that time we preached the gospel. When some were saved, we baptized them. Gradually, we increased from fifty to one hundred and from one hundred to two hundred, and the number became larger and larger. By that time a serious question arose: how were we going to manage all these brothers and sisters?
At that time we could not find any reference book on the subject of church management, nor could we find a place to learn from. There was no place to ask for help. Later, we turned ourselves back to God and spent much time to probe through actual experiences ourselves. We have probed for over ten years. It was not until 1944 and 1945 that we became quite clear concerning the matter of church management.
I have repeatedly said that the main element in church management is to bring the brothers and sisters step by step into the coordination. Because of the limitation of time, we were unable to consider this matter in detail. Now let us consider some directions in our coordination.
The directions in coordination are three, which we have already spoken about. They are the gospel, the perfecting, and the service. Every one of these three items of church service is a direction in coordination. In their management of the church and in bringing the brothers and sisters into the coordination, first the elders have to take the gospel as their direction. They must coordinate the brothers and sisters to preach the gospel. Second, they must take the perfecting as a direction, perfecting them in the coordination. Third, they must take the service as a direction, bringing them into the church service. The directions in coordination are always these three things: the gospel, the perfecting, and the service. The sixteen points mentioned earlier discuss how we bring the brothers and sisters step by step into the coordination. Here we are talking about what direction they should take after they have been coordinated together.
The first direction in coordination is to help the brothers and sisters to preach the gospel. The elders must always lead them in the direction of the gospel. They must help the saints to be active in the gospel, to strive in the gospel, and to bear fruit in the gospel. They must bring the new ones into the church through the gospel. In other words, they have to continually spread the Lord’s kingdom through the gospel.
Never think that anyone can preach the gospel; no, there are certain qualifications here. You can see that some are effective in preaching the gospel, whereas others are not effective in preaching the gospel. When some preach, people are saved, but when others preach, people are not saved. This is a matter of the way and the method. I hope the brothers and sisters would pay attention to the following points.
The elders must lead the brothers and sisters to be zealous in the gospel. If a local church is lacking in zeal for the gospel, that church must be sick. Regardless whether a local church is large or small, it must have zeal for the gospel. Of course, the elders have to personally cultivate this zeal for the gospel.
a. The elders themselves have to pray for zeal for the gospel.
b. The elders have to have zeal for the gospel themselves.
c. The elders have to gather the brothers and sisters together to have some prayers of the church, asking for the zeal of the gospel. All the brothers and sisters have to come together to call on the Lord, to ask God to stir up the fire of the gospel, so that everyone would acquire a zeal for the gospel. Oh, dear brothers and sisters, the fire of the gospel needs to be stirred up. If you do not stir it up, it will not burn. Please remember that according to God’s ordination, the fire of the burnt offering on the Old Testament altar must not go out from morning to evening and from evening to morning. It was necessary for the priests to add wood to that fire continually. The priests had to be responsible to take care of it and to keep it burning. In the same way, the zeal of the gospel needs the stirring up of the elders.
I hope the elders would have an impression that one of the jobs of the elders is to stir up the fire of the gospel in their local church. They have to increase the wood regularly, stir up the fire regularly, and cause the brothers and sisters to become zealous for the gospel regularly. It is not right to go to a local church and find the brothers and sisters interested in spiritual things yet cold toward the gospel. There is something wrong in this kind of situation. No matter how big a church is and how mature and deep in experience it is, it must have the fire of the gospel. This is one thing that the elders have to be responsible for. The church must have zeal for the gospel.
The church must have not only zeal for the gospel but also the power of the gospel. Of course, this requires that the elders pay attention to the filling of the Holy Spirit. They must have dealings and consecrations before the Lord, and they must accept by faith the Lord’s death and resurrection, together with the Holy Spirit that comes through His ascension. The elders cannot relax in this matter. They must lead the brothers and sisters to seek after the filling of the Holy Spirit all the time. On the one hand, we very much disagree with the so-called Pentecostal movement that has existed in the church during the last one hundred or so years. Yet on the other hand, there is the definite need to help the brothers and sisters, under normal circumstances, to receive the power of the Holy Spirit before God. This is also a matter within the elders’ management.
Let me repeat again, brothers, that the management of the church is just like the management of a home. If a housewife neglects the house throughout the month but instead, eats, sleeps, and plays day after day, the house will still survive. But if she wants to manage the house well, there will be no end to her work, from morning to evening, and from the first day until the last day. Consider only one item: the cleaning. There are so many things to clean, to mop, and to wash. The same is true with the church. If you want to manage it well, there are too many things to do.
Those who manage a church must never take things easy, as if there were nothing to do. They must never have a feeling like this: “We have the preaching meeting on Sunday morning, the breaking of bread meeting in the evening, the prayer meeting on Tuesday evening, the Bible study on Thursday evening, and the fellowship meeting on Saturday evening. Thank and praise the Lord. We have so many meetings in a week already. This is good enough. Our brothers and sisters do not have serious sicknesses or any deaths. There are not too many who are out of work. Thank and praise the Lord. We have only thirty or more brothers and sisters. Most of them come to the meetings, and none of them is having too much trouble. We are very, very good.” Let me tell you this: you can rest in peace, but the Lord cannot rest in peace. You have been meeting in that place for two or three years already, yet there are still only thirty or more brothers and sisters. There has been no increase in number for over a year. How can that be? As an elder, you have to rise up to stir up the fire of the gospel. You cannot rest in peace. You have to go to bed a little later and get up a little earlier. You have to pray, to call on the Lord to give the church the zeal of the gospel, and to have every brother and sister burning within. If you can stir up the fire, many works will follow.
For the brothers and sisters to preach the gospel, there must not only be the zeal and the power without the truth; the elders have to spend the time to help them to know the truth. They have to teach them the meaning of repentance, redemption, substitution, regeneration, justification, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for the conviction of men. When the brothers and sisters have the zeal and the power to preach the gospel, they must not preach haphazardly; they must have the basis of the truth with them.
The elders must also help the brothers and sisters to receive guidance regarding the move in the gospel. They should not run without aim, wasting time or beating the air. Instead, they should be able to receive the Lord’s leading.
When the brothers and sisters are raised up to preach the gospel, and they have the zeal, the power, the truth, and the guidance, they still need the elders’ help in finding the people to preach to and the targets of the gospel. The elders have to point out that with some, the target should be their family, whereas with others, the target should be their schools. The elders have to teach the brothers and sisters to look for gospel targets among these people. They must help the brothers and sisters to consider everyone they know and those within their sphere as the targets and objects of the gospel. If you are a teacher, your school, colleagues, and students are your gospel targets. If you have a factory, the workers in your factory are the targets and the objects. In addition, all our relatives should be our gospel targets and objects.
The elders must also lead the brothers and sisters to learn the skill in preaching the gospel. If the brothers and sisters do not know how to preach the gospel or are not familiar with the skills of preaching the gospel, the church will not be a proper church. This can be compared to what happens in a family; it is a great joke for the children of a household not to be able even to cook their own rice or boil their own water. If a local church is properly managed, built up, and coordinated, most of the brothers and sisters should be able to preach the gospel. They should all have learned this skill.
For this reason the elders have to spend time to teach the brothers and sisters to preach the gospel. They should teach them to pray for others, to visit others, to bring others to the gospel meetings, and to take other brothers and sisters along to preach the gospel. These are the outward and rough aspects of the job. Besides this, there are the inward and finer aspects of the work, which deal with the way to talk to people, the way to touch others’ feeling during the conversation, the way to impress others’ heart, the way to understand others’ mind, the way to open up people’s understanding, and the way to help others to pray. They should know when to argue, when to advance, when to debate even if the others do not want to debate, and when not to argue. They should know when to use the words of the Bible, when to ask them to confess their sins, and when to ask them to pray. All these require skill.
The six points we have covered are not enough; we also need the tools for gospel preaching. We have to prepare different types of Bibles — large and small, the whole Bible, the New Testament, the separate books, the expensive ones, and the economical ones. These Bibles must be available before we go out to preach the gospel. In order to preach the gospel, we have to have Bibles. It is sad that when some come to the church for a Bible, the responsible ones would say, “Go to the Bible Society for your Bible.” This may sound very good, but it proves that this church is sick in the matter of preaching the gospel.
Other than Bibles, there are other tools, such as tracts, booklets, gospel stories, testimonies, and gospel posters. All these are gospel tools, and they are necessary for the preaching of the gospel.
Why should we preach the gospel? What is the purpose of the gospel? We must impress this upon every brother and sister. We have to tell the brothers and sisters who are preaching the gospel that the purpose of the gospel is for men to receive the Lord’s life, to enliven men’s spirit, to regenerate them in the spirit, and to enable men to take the Lord as their life.
Our gospel should not gain only some who are barely saved but who are not clear about the matter of life. We should not have only those who seem to have believed in Jesus and who have been forgiven of their sins but who do not seem to have been regenerated. Seemingly, this word is not according to the truth, for no one is saved without being regenerated. But in actual cases, some are indeed like this. Some people believe and confess that the Lord Jesus is the Savior. They have confessed their sins and have prayed. They say that their sins are forgiven and that they are saved. No matter how hard you try, however, you cannot sense that they are living within. The reason for this is that in preaching the gospel we have not paid attention to the purpose of the gospel. The gospel is not merely to bring forgiveness of sins to people but to bring them the Lord’s life and to enliven them within.
After the elders have trained the brothers and sisters in all the points we have covered, they should begin some gospel activities. They have to conduct gospel meetings in the meeting hall. They have to organize gospel meetings in the homes. They should have some activities in public places. Every day they should carry gospel tracts with them and should pass out these tracts in the train stations, the bus stops, and on the bus and the train. These are the gospel activities.
When the harvest is ripe, there is need for reaping. After the gospel is preached, the saved ones should be brought into the church. There is much to say about this also. Here I can only mention this briefly. After the gospel is preached, there must be the reaping.
To preach the gospel there must also be the coordination. Some should be responsible for the message. Some should be responsible for leading the hymns. Some should be responsible for ushering, for sitting with the new ones, or for passing out the tracts. The elders have to help and coordinate all these people together.
Finally, we have to help the brothers and sisters to pray for all the items we have covered. They should pray for the zeal of the gospel, the power of the gospel, the truth of the gospel, the leading of the gospel, the purpose and the tools of the gospel. They should ask the Lord to bless every Bible and every tract. You can see that simply on prayer alone there are many things in which we need to render help.
I deeply feel that our prayer meetings have become too general under our leadership. The reason for this is that we do not have specific goals. Sometimes we do not need to pray for so many things. All we need to do is to pray specifically for the targets of the gospel. Here are the schools, the factories, the prisons. We have brothers and sisters working in all these places. We have to pray specifically for these gospel targets. If you do this, you will find that the prayer meeting will come alive, and the prayers will become weighty. These are all works within the elders’ management. The elders are the managers. They must be enterprising and must generate business. If you would spend time on these matters, you could find out that there is much to learn on every point. I am only mentioning the points in brief.
Other than the above, the gospel message, the gospel hymns, the gospel counseling, and the gospel visitation are four important items as well. This means that the elders have to be good in everything. This is why I said that no one can be an elder alone; we have to serve in coordination. Among the elders, there should be some who can preach the gospel. They should train the brothers to learn to give a gospel message, to lead the gospel songs, to give gospel counseling, and to have gospel visitation. All of these are part of the helps the elders should render with respect to the gospel. In the management of the church, after the elders have brought the brothers and sisters into the coordination, the first direction they should take is the gospel.
Perfecting is more troublesome than the preaching of the gospel. No one can say that he has learned or has graduated in this matter. We are all beginners in this school, and there are too many lessons that we have to learn. Just the four stages of the spiritual life alone require much time for training. There are too many points belonging to this direction of perfecting.
Once someone is saved and baptized, the church should give him some beginners’ lessons. This will acquaint him with some foundational matters. This must be done by the elders themselves; they cannot wait and depend upon the workers to do it. This is like raising up children at home. The mother has to do the cooking and the washing herself. She cannot expect the restaurant to cook for them and the tailor to make all the clothes for them. In the same way, the elders must take the lead themselves to take care of the beginners’ lessons.
The elders must also help the newly saved ones to pass through the gate of consecration. If many brothers and sisters in your church have never consecrated themselves, this proves that your church has never been managed. Every church that has been helped and perfected will have most of its brothers and sisters consecrated before God. Of course, this is not an easy thing to do. This requires much prayer, and it takes the Holy Spirit to find the opportunity to operate in the hearts of the saints. The consecration of the brothers and sisters must not only be genuine but must be something living in the Holy Spirit. The elders should consider how much work there is to do in bringing the brothers and sisters genuinely through the gate of consecration.
Let me repeat: The church needs the management of the elders. It does not need the preaching of famous preachers. Suppose you invite one person to come this week, another person to come next week, and a third person to come the third week. One gives an interesting exposition on Genesis. Another gives an interesting exposition on Revelation. Still another one gives an exposition on Daniel or on Psalms, which are all very interesting. But by doing this, you have absolutely sacrificed the brothers and sisters. These brothers and sisters have been listening to interesting messages year in and year out. Yet they themselves have not changed. No. For the elders to manage the church, they should behave like parents teaching their children. The children need to go to kindergarten now. I cannot invite a college professor to come and teach them. I do not need that profound an education here. I need only a kindergarten teacher to teach them to count with their fingers. Perhaps after two or three years I will need an elementary-school teacher. After they graduate from elementary school, I will need a high-school teacher. I cannot invite a renowned professor to come and lecture any time I want. The professors may speak to their hearts’ delight, but the children will not understand anything. In the end such a thing will only damage them. Suppose I invite Dr. Chang to my house for a lecture today, Dr. Wang for another lecture tomorrow, and Dr. Lin the third day. If I keep on inviting people like this, without sending the children to elementary school, junior high school, and high school, what should the children do when they reach eighteen or twenty years of age? All they can do then is to be a street sweeper. The parents cannot be that foolish. They must know what their children’s levels are. I know that the brothers and sisters need to consecrate themselves now. What I need to do is to pray and to seek the Lord so that all the brothers and sisters can pass through the gate of consecration. This is called church management.
After consecration we have to lead these ones to fellowship with the Lord, to learn to pray, and to study the Word. I really hope that the elders can manage the churches well. Suppose the brothers and sisters here are very poor in the matter of the study of the Word. They do not know how to study, nor do they have the interest to study. The elders here do not know how to help them. You can go to the nearby churches and ask one or two brothers who are especially good at helping others to study the Word to come and help. You can invite them to come for eight or ten days and to speak every day on the way to study the Word. At the same time, you have to take the lead to actually help the brothers and sisters to study the Word. This is something you can do. This is the proper way to manage the church.
Suppose my child is good in English and general science, but he is weak in mathematics. I will have to hire a mathematics teacher to come and tutor him in mathematics. Perhaps he is not good in chemistry. I will have to invite a chemistry teacher to come and tutor him in chemistry. This is the way to manage a home. The management of the church is in the same principle. You cannot merely give a message on Sunday morning. This will not work. For the elders to manage the church, they have to know at what stage the brothers and sisters are and what kind of things they lack.
You may say that this is too artificial. Dear brothers and sisters, look at Genesis 1 and 2. There, on the one hand, it says that God created the different kinds of plants and herbs. On the other hand, it says that “no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up — for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to work the ground” (Gen. 2:5). Here you can see that the sending of the rain is God’s work, whereas the working of the ground is man’s work. In order to have the produce of life, there is the need for man’s work to match God’s work.
We know that here in Taiwan there are two harvests each year. However, there must first be those who till the ground before there can be the harvest. If everyone is looking to the heavens for food, and no one tills, sows, or irrigates, there will surely be no harvest at all. For the heaven to rain, it takes God’s grace. For example, last year there was too much rain, and we had a flood. This year, there is too little rain, and we almost have a drought. This is God’s work. We have to learn to fear God. However, the cooperation on man’s side is indispensable. The apostle Paul says, “You are God’s cultivated land, God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9). The building needs someone to build it, and the cultivated land needs someone to till it. You may say that this is artificial. The ones who truly know God’s grace are the ones who are truly diligent, and only those who are truly diligent before God know truly what God’s grace is. Hence, dear brothers and sisters, you should pray more, look to the Lord more, deal with Him more, and be more diligent. Never think that this way of managing the church is artificial or is an exercise of human manipulation.
I fully agree that in today’s deformed Christianity there is not much prayer, not much dealing before the Lord, and not much trust in God. It depends mostly on outward organizations, outward committees, and outward activities. This is, of course, too artificial. But while we are learning today to live before God, to have dealings with Him, and to look to Him, we cannot neglect the outward things that we have to do. The coming of the rain does not take away the need for the tilling of man. You have to endeavor with perseverance and manage with diligence. You have to bring the brothers’ and sisters’ condition before the Lord and consider them well. You cannot take the easy way. You must have a goal in perfecting them, and you must help them to consecrate, to learn to fellowship with the Lord, to exercise to pray, and to study the Word. This is the proper management.
The elders must also bring the brothers and sisters into the experience of the cross. They need to help the brothers and sisters to see that their old man has already been crucified and terminated. Their carnality, their flesh, temper, disposition, ambition, and aspirations have been terminated on the cross. They can be fleshly elsewhere, but not in the church, because in the church everyone has been crucified. They can be ambitious and have high aspirations elsewhere. But in the church they can neither have an ambitious heart nor a high aspiration. They are just a pile of ashes, a terminated man on the cross. They can fight for name and fortune in any social organization or covet position. But in the church they are all buried in the grave already. They are all dead and buried ones. Here there is no name or fortune to fight for and no position to covet. You have to help the brothers and sisters to take the cross. Of course, this is a deeper lesson.
These are the directions in coordination. While you are helping one brother, you may feel that he is good in the gospel, and he is most suitable to take the platform. You have to help him in this area, developing him, encouraging him, perfecting him, and giving him the opportunity to practice. You may not be very good at giving a gospel message. You can introduce him to those who are experienced in this and encourage more contact with them. In this way you will produce one who is good in gospel preaching.
Many times those who are managing are not necessarily those who can do the things themselves. However, they can get help from those who can do the things. This is church management. In teaching her children, a mother may not necessarily know English or chemistry very well. But she knows when her children need to learn English and chemistry, and she can ask for help. This is the way to manage the church.
When we spoke about coordination, we emphasized the need for the brothers and sisters to be brought into the coordination. But when we speak about the direction in coordination, we are emphasizing the need for the brothers and sisters to have a definite direction in their coordination. Some will be directed into the aspect of the gospel and others into the aspect of the perfecting. For example, a brother has learned the lesson of the cross. You, as one who manages the church, in bringing him into the coordination, should channel him into the direction of perfecting. He should be brought into a perfecting function; he should learn to pick up the burden and the responsibility to help the other brothers and sisters learn the breaking of the cross. You are an elder, and the authority of the church is in your hand. When you give him the opportunity and the position, he will be perfected. Eventually, this brother will be able to stand up regularly in the church to testify concerning the cross and to release messages on the cross. In three to five months many brothers and sisters will have learned to take the cross. This is what I mean by the direction in coordination.
Take another example. Some sisters have learned some very good lessons in fellowshipping with the Lord. The elders should try their best to open up more meetings for these sisters to exercise their function in coordination so that they can go on in the direction of perfecting others. In the end even some brothers may get the help from these sisters. Here is a member that has some specialty. The elders should have good management here and should use this specialty well. I believe the brothers and sisters can understand what I mean now.
I can go on more along this line. But I hope that the elders would have an impression that there are no lofty theories to the elders’ management of the church; everything is a matter of practice. If the elders do not practice, there will not be much to do. At most they will need to make some announcements of the regular meetings and to make some decisions regarding the direction of the meetings. To be an elder in this way is too easy. It is a waste to confer on such brothers the title of an elder. There are too many practical things that the elders have to do.
Suppose the brothers and sisters in your church are cold and not at all zealous in the gospel. You have to stir up something and start a fire. If you do this, right away you will see that there are many things to do.
Suppose again that there are over a hundred brothers and sisters in your locality, but few read the Bible. Many brothers and sisters do not have the habit of reading the Bible; they do not have the interest in reading the Bible, nor do they receive any light in reading it. What should you do? The elders have to come together and spend a few hours prostrating themselves before the Lord, asking for the Lord’s mercy to open up His Word to them and to give the brothers and sisters a desire to love, enjoy, and crave for the Lord’s Word. If you do this, you will see that the elders have a lot to do. They will have to put in a lot of effort and energy. But I can tell the brothers and sisters that this is very worthwhile and valuable. It is a glorious work.
Some people who manage their own homes raise three to five children. The children grow from infancy to kindergarten age. They go from kindergarten to elementary school, and from elementary school all the way to college. When the parents see this, they will be very happy. Dear brothers and sisters, imagine how many children there are in God’s house! This managing, shepherding, and teaching responsibility is now commissioned to you. What a glorious work this is. Whenever you see the children of God growing and living before the Lord, how sweet your heart will feel! No wonder the apostle Paul says, “What is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at His coming? Are not even you? For you are our glory and joy” (1 Thes. 2:19-20). The apostle Peter also says, “When the Chief Shepherd is manifested, you [the elders serving as the shepherds] will receive the unfading crown of glory” (1 Pet. 5:4). What a glorious work this is!
Brothers, the way to manage a church is here. Do not expect lofty words and profound wisdom or grand theories. I am here giving you only some basic points, hoping that something better will come out from you. If the brothers would take this little bit of help, they will discover many riches when they put it into practice, and they will learn many practical lessons. After you learn the lesson and have some practical experience, you will not only be able to give the brothers and sisters some practical supply, but you will have the power of discernment. I do hope that the brothers would take this little advice and take this way to manage the church in the days ahead throughout all the churches. I know that the church needs this kind of managing. Where there is such managing, there the church will be on the right track, and there the church will be built up and will be able to meet God’s genuine needs in this age. Dear brothers and sisters, the way to build up the church is here.
