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In this chapter we want to fellowship some principles in the matter of handling the eldership in the churches. The Lord has given us a new start with a new way to practice the church life. A number of churches have been existing in the United States for over twenty years, and the eldership has gone through very much. In a good sense it has been tested quite much. According to the past, the present elders should have some realization of the condition of the eldership in their locality. Has the eldership in your place been prevailing? Some of the elders may have become a little old. You also may have discovered some younger brothers in your locality who are not in the eldership but who may be more useful in taking care of the church’s leading. Based upon these facts, the situation of the eldership in your locality should be reconsidered. I do not have the time to go to every place to help the arrangement of the eldership. Almost every church in the United States has been fully established and even founded. Thus, in a sense the elders in each locality are quite capable of helping the eldership there.
You have to consider the eldership in your locality according to these three points: (1) Should the present elders resign or not, and is this necessary or profitable? (2) Are there some new ones who are younger that might be quite useful in the eldership? (3) If the present elders remain (all or some), do some brothers need to be added who would be helpful and useful in the eldership? Because we are honest and we are for the Lord’s business, for the profit of the church, and for the recovery as a whole, we should have a sober consideration and proper evaluation of the need of the eldership in our locality. You as an elder need to consider whether or not you are a real profit in your locality. My feeling and observation regarding the eldership in your place may not be that thorough because I have not been there for some time. I would ask all the elders throughout the United States to consider the eldership in their locality. Some of the present elders may feel honestly, fairly, and rightly that they are not so useful in the eldership. It may be that you would be more useful if you were not in the eldership. If this is the case and this is the feeling, it is better for you to take the initiative to resign. You should know the situation of the church in your locality and the real situation of the eldership. You also should know if it will be profitable for you to remain in the eldership or more profitable for you to stay away from the eldership. If you decide to stay away from the eldership in this light, this is something beautiful.
Any kind of office or post for an organization or other concern usually has a term that goes with it. The president of the United States has a four-year term, a congressman has a two-year term, and a senator has a six-year term. But there is no hint in the New Testament regarding how long a brother should remain in the eldership. The only point we can find is in 1 Timothy 5:19-20, which indicates that the saints could appeal the matter of a sinning elder to the appointing apostles. The apostles do have the standing to deal with a wrong-doing elder. Even in 1 Timothy 5, however, Paul does not tell us what should be done with the wrong-doing elder after he is rebuked and dealt with.
Humanly speaking, some elders who become more experienced will be more useful. However, human beings may not be so strong, so healthy, or so capable for a certain post as when they were younger. As elders who love the Lord and who love the recovery, we should consider the situation of the eldership in our local church. Only the elders know the real situation in their locality. The church life is like a family, and the elders should be the fathers. At a certain time a father should know whether it would be better to let his son take care of the family. The emperor of a certain country may be too old to adequately carry out his commission and duty, whereas his son may be more capable. Whether this should be done or not depends upon the emperor’s decision.
In this matter the elders should neither be polite nor be afraid of anything, but they should be honest. This fellowship should help all the elders to reconsider the eldership in their respective localities. Whether we stay in the eldership or stay away depends upon the real profit of our staying or not staying. What is the best for the profit of the church? I do not think anyone can make this decision on your behalf. Only you can do this.
You may have realized that there are some younger ones in your locality who are really much better. If so, you should give in. This is not a matter of politeness but a matter of whether or not the church will receive more profit. If you feel that it would be more profitable for you to stay, then you have to stay. You all need to forget about your ambition, your politeness, or any other motives. You should only take care of the profit of the church in your locality. We need to do this by really meaning business with the Lord because we like to see that the new start in the Lord’s recovery will be much blessed. The key and the hinge to this new start is the eldership. Regardless of how much we will be in the one accord, if the eldership is not so proper, that will be a big minus. We realize that we are not that strong, but something better could be worked out. We have to admit that mostly no church is up to the standard, so let us admit our shortage. However, according to what we have and what we are, we need to make a decision concerning what the best way is for the eldership in our locality.
Some of the leading brothers have been in their locality a long time, and it might be more profitable for them to go to another locality and let some new ones take the lead in the leadership. They could go to another locality to have a new church started or go to another local church. Then some younger ones can begin to bear the responsibility of the practical leadership. There is also the need for some to take the lead among the Chinese-speaking saints.
In some localities the eldership really needs some help. A brother who is in the lead may be a “floating” person. He may not be in his locality that much, and yet he may be taking the lead there. It may be more profitable for him to travel and to take care of his burden with the ministry. Thus, the eldership in his locality will need strengthening.
The loss we have suffered in the eldership in some localities has been due to the dissenting. Some brothers may have become good elders, but they were dissenting. Their dissenting was mostly due to their character. They have a dissenting character. It is hard for them to be one in anything. Dissension has eaten up these brothers. We would like to see them perfected, but it seems that there has been no way. As a result, we suffered the loss. These dear brothers were the right persons in their age (in their early forties), and they did have a history in the Lord’s recovery. I say this to warn all of us. We all have to kill our own dissension and condemn it. Dissension is a big eater. It has somewhat eaten up the Lord’s recovery.
We may need to bring some younger brothers into the eldership, but we also need to take Paul’s word in 1 Timothy 3:6 — “Not a new convert, lest being blinded with pride he fall into the judgment suffered by the devil.” Novices should not bear the eldership. This may open the door for the subtle one to seduce them into human pride. Then it will damage them. Not one among the eighty elders appointed in Taipei is under thirty. To be under thirty is too young. Even the Lord Jesus began to minister when He was thirty (Luke 3:23). In the priesthood an apprentice needed to be twenty-five (Num. 8:24) and the full priesthood was realized at the age of thirty. Thirty was the full age for God’s service (Num. 4:3, 35, 39, 43, 47).
During the eighteen years that I was with the co-workers under Brother Nee’s leadership, I never caused any problem, nor did I get involved with any problem. By the Lord’s mercy I was a pure person. Brother Nee had two great crises during that time — one was due to his marriage, and the other one was due to his pharmaceutical business. I was the main one to get the situation solved in both of these matters. The latter time forced Brother Nee to be away from his ministry for six years. By the Lord’s mercy I went to Shanghai, and that brought in a situation that enabled Brother Nee to return to his ministry. A revival was brought in mainly through messages I gave on the tree of life. Nearly all those who did not feel happy with Brother Nee repented. No one proposed or advised this, but they all repented to Brother Nee.
My point is this — with the elders, the co-workers, and all the brothers, the basic need is to keep yourself from being involved in any problem in the church life. We all must learn to be wise not to create any trouble or to speak a light word concerning anyone in the recovery. We should just say something positive.
One thing that has caused the Lord’s recovery trouble is the fact that we have different publications. If we mean business for the Lord’s recovery, we must avoid any kind of involvement in problems. When we were on mainland China, only Brother Nee had a publication, and the Gospel Book Room belonged solely and uniquely to him. He asked me to help in the publication work. I did write some books, among which were a book on the genealogy of Christ, a translation of part of Pember’s Earth’s Earliest Ages, and some books on the kingdom of the heavens. I never published anything by myself. I always mailed my manuscript to the Gospel Book Room, which was under Brother Nee and his helper. It was up to their discernment whether my manuscript should be published or not. I liked to have my writings checked as to whether there might be some inaccuracy in the truth. It is not a small matter to write a book that expounds the kingdom of the heavens. I liked my material to pass through their checking. This helped and protected me. Brother Yu, the eye specialist, translated some of the mystical books, but he did not publish anything. We had only one publication. Everything was published through Brother Nee’s Gospel Book Room because the publication is really the trumpeting. The sounding of our trumpet is not just in the verbal message but more in the publication.
I hate to see that some of the brothers would try to publish something by copying my points mixed with their “spices” and their “color.” Why do they need to put out some points from my writings in this way? Brother Nee taught us concerning the kingdom of the heavens. I received the basic knowledge from his teaching, but he never expounded on it very much; he simply gave a sketch. It was I who from 1936 began to expound upon the sketch given to me by Brother Nee. After I published my exposition, Brother Nee admired it and told me personally that it was very good.
I hope that some of you brothers would do much development and expounding of all the messages I give. Do not merely speak some points, adding your own “color” and “spices.” This changes the taste. It damages my messages. You must receive the ability to expound all these things. I am not narrow. I would like to see that all of you will be great servants used by God. How wonderful that would be. But I do not like to see that some would merely repeat what I have said, pretending that it is their work with their spices and color.
It bothers me that some brothers among us still put out publications. According to my truthful observation, there is no new light or life supply there. They may contain some biblical doctrines, but any point of life or light has been adopted from the publications of Living Stream Ministry. There is nearly no item of life or light that has not been covered by our publications. Based upon this fact, what is the need for these brothers to put out their publications? Because all the publications are mine, it is hard for me to speak such a word. But I am forced to tell the truth. By putting out your own publication, you waste your time and money. You waste the money given by the saints, and you waste their time in reading what you publish. Where is the food, the life supply, and the real enlightenment in the other publications among us? Be assured that there is definitely at least one major revelation in every Living Stream Ministry publication.
I was burdened to publish the Life-study messages to stress the matter of life because this matter has been neglected, missed, and even lost to the uttermost in today’s Christianity. In most of the commentaries and expositions there is not much life. Even the term Life-study is a new term. I have used this term for thirty-two years. In 1954 and 1955 I finished a Life-study on the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation in Taipei.
This does not mean that I am so capable or so knowledgeable. It all depends upon whether or not our sovereign Lord has given you this portion. Even though I wrote some books in mainland China, I never dared to publish anything by myself. I do not like to have another sounding. Our sounding must be one, so we must be restricted in one publication. My intention in calling a writers’ conference was to encourage you to write something but not in the way that came out. This fellowship may preserve and protect us from doing things lawlessly.
If some localities would have gone the proper way of the recovery, using all the materials of the ministry, their number would have increased greatly. Some are wasting their time by writing and publishing their own material. This is not their portion. I would like to see that many brothers had this portion with the riches of truth. This would be marvelous and wonderful, but this is our problem today. I advise all of you to take care of this matter. You have to swallow up the dissension. Do not let dissension eat you up.
I hope this fellowship will render some help to all the churches. Take these principles, pray before the Lord, and consider the real situation in your locality. Then you can make some adjustment of the eldership.
The training of the young full-timers is needed. Whatever we do, we should not be that confident or contented. We still need to hold an attitude that we are learning. We like to be improved and adjusted. I hope that the brothers who have the burden to take care of the training of the young full-timers do it in this way. I told the saints in Taiwan from the very beginning that we were in the “lab.” We needed to try things to see what would happen. I did not have the confidence that anything was absolutely right or would really work. If it did not work, we should change and improve. Thank the Lord that most of the things we raised up did work well. I hope that you brothers would take the same kind of attitude and have the same kind of spirit in training the full-timers.
One very crucial thing that we have to train the full-timers in is that they must learn how to contact the Lord. Every day they must have a proper time to contact the Lord. Everyone must have a private time to pray to the Lord, to have a direct, private, personal contact with the Lord Himself. In our contact we should not pray for so many things, but we need to open to Him to be enlightened, exposed, and judged. We need to exhort them to have some direct dealing with the Lord. This is the way for them to grow up in life.
We must also help them get into the Word. The best reference books for the young ones to study are the Recovery Version with the footnotes and the Life-study messages. If they still have time, they can get into the cross references. If they use this material, they will get into the proper knowledge of God’s New Testament revelation. We must train the saints to get into this material to have themselves equipped with the proper understanding of God’s Word.
Another basic thing we like to train our young people in is their character. We have a little book with thirty aspects of human character. It is worthwhile to train them in this way. I consider this as something basic. One morning in Taipei I dropped in on the full-timers for about one hour, charging them to build up their character. They were wondering what I meant. Then I began to point out specific things. One brother’s necktie was the wrong color, and the way he put it on was wrong and loose. I told them to look at the way they combed their hair, the way their shoes were not shined, and the color of socks they put on. I told them that not wearing a necktie was a sign of their bad character. Whatever such a person says to others will not be regarded. In a bank every teller is required to dress quite well because he is representing the bank in his contact with the public. If the young ones who go out are properly dressed with a proper haircut and are very polite, neat, and straight, they are the right persons. The listeners respect this kind of person and regard him regardless of what he says. Whatever he says, they want to listen to him. Another person may wear a blue shirt with a very strange necktie that does not match in color. His tie distracts people’s eyes. When he talks to them, they have no heart to listen. They would only be distracted to look at the tie he is wearing. This becomes a big embarrassment to his speaking.
The full-timers in Taipei were convinced by this fellowship, and everyone looked much better the next day. They all even improved the combing of their hair. Some began to comb their hair in a good way, but later their old character came back. I told the saints that if they did not build up their character, they could never read the Bible properly. A loose person in character could never understand the Bible in the right way.
We also have to warn them strictly and strongly to not be alone with a member of the opposite sex. Their contact should be only for the work or other necessary purposes. They must be very careful, and we must warn them. We have seen a number of young people who had a good beginning get snared by their youthful lusts. The unrestrained contact between the males and females in this present age is terrible. It is an abomination in the eyes of God. The great amount of fornication in the United States frustrates the Lord’s blessing of this country. For one young male to stay in a room with another female is absolutely wrong. To travel together is also against the principle. We even prohibit the young trainees from giving a ride to someone their age of the opposite sex. Then they will be preserved.
The four items above are the basic things. Of course, they also need some fellowship on how to trust in the Lord. I do not feel that it so necessary to fellowship with them concerning how to preach the gospel. The simple way for the full-timers to take is to learn how to present the printed pages of the ministry and to speak them. If you want to train them in the skill of teaching and preaching, teach them how to use these printed pages.
