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In this chapter I would like to present the contrast between the practice of the church life as seen in the record of the New Testament and what is seen in Christianity.
I would like to point out three verses that are very crucial. Acts 2:46 tells us that the early Christians broke bread from house to house. The Greek text can also mean that they broke bread “according to their homes.” Acts 5:42 tells us that the early apostles went from house to house to do two things: to teach and to preach Christ as the gospel. Their gospel was not a theology or mere doctrine. Their gospel was a living person, the very Christ, whom the Jewish religion at that time opposed to the uttermost. They preached this opposed One as the gospel, and they also taught. These two verses are critical. Another crucial verse is 1 Corinthians 14:26. This verse tells us that when the church comes together, each one should have something. This one has a psalm, another one has a teaching, another one has a revelation, etc.
By these three verses we can see the real situation and the real condition of the believers’ meetings in the early days of the church. This situation and condition cannot be seen in today’s Christianity. Even we ourselves are very short of this God-ordained way to practice the church life. First, the early believers practiced the church life according to their homes. This means that the church life at that time was in the believers’ homes. Second, when the whole church came together, it was not a meeting in which one person spoke and the rest listened. Their church meetings were full of mutuality. Each one should have something of the Lord to share with the others for the building up of the church. Such meetings of mutuality cannot be seen in today’s Christianity, and it is hard to see them prevailing among us.
This is why by October of 1984, I was forced to reconsider what is in the Bible, what we are doing, and what we see in today’s Christianity. My eyes were once more enlightened to see God’s ordained way to build up the Body of Christ. Surely Christianity has deviated from this way. We also have deviated to a certain extent because we have not fully practiced what is recorded in the holy Word. Thus, I was strong to make a decision that we needed to have a great change, a revolutionary change.
The present practice of Christianity leads to hierarchy, organization, and clergy, producing many so-called laymen. Hierarchy, organization, and clergy are the factors that have killed and even cut Christ’s Body into pieces. Doctrinal factors have not done the damage that these three things have done. These three things depend mainly on the present practice of Christianity. If the present practice of Christianity is torn down, hierarchy falls apart, organization is gone, and the practice of clergy is buried.
Many years ago our brother Watchman Nee saw this clearly. I surely knew where he was. He had many talks with me. Actually, I learned these things through him. Since the time that Brother Nee shared these things, however, the Lord’s recovery has gradually and unintentionally drifted back in certain respects to the practice of Christianity. It seems that hierarchy, organization, and clergy, in principle, have begun to exist among us secretly. The way to uproot hierarchy, organization, and clergy is to fully abandon the practice of Christianity.
I think that the leading ones in all the different localities should have realized that the real situation among us has drifted back, to some extent, from the living Body of Christ to hierarchy, organization, and clergy. The way to pull down hierarchy, organization, and clergy is to kill the system of having big meetings with one person speaking and the rest listening. Then there will be no means to build up hierarchy. If we pull down this old system of meeting and meet according to homes, hierarchy will be gone.
Some may argue by saying that if we have many home meetings, the church will be full of confusion. My response is that it all depends upon how we have the home meetings. The Bible shows us that the home meetings are not for doctrines or organization but for preaching Christ and teaching Christ. The pattern in the New Testament reveals that in the home meetings they remembered the Lord by breaking bread, they preached Christ, and they taught what Christ did and is still doing. They ministered Christ to people. If we do this, there will be no standing and no ground for the enemy to come in to cause confusion.
In order to fully enter into the scriptural practice of the church life, the way ahead of us is very long. We are acquainted with the way to hold big meetings. We were raised up in this way, and this way has become a part of the “tissue” and the “cells” of our being. It is somewhat easy for people to establish a so-called church. They can build or rent a place to meet, collect some people together, raise funds, and hire someone to speak to them. But we must labor to learn the God-ordained, scriptural way to practice the church life because it is really new to us.
It is new for us to go out to visit people with the gospel. The way that we knock on people’s doors in the community is new. The Mormons knock on doors, but they bring their heresy with them. What can they give people? They have no truth, no life, and no light. But we visit people with truth, life, and light. The booklet entitled The Mystery of Human Life is full of truth, life, and light. The high gospel in this booklet can reach the thoughtful people.
Most of the Chinese people are very logical and philosophical. We have found that the truth in The Mystery of Human Life can reach these people. Confucius taught about human life, but he did not give the answer to the meaning of human life. Human life is a mystery. The answer to the meaning of human life is not in any philosophical book; it is in the Holy Bible.
One of the first things The Mystery of Human Life speaks of is that man was created by God according to God’s image to receive God and contain God. The three circles representing the spirit, soul, and body are also in this booklet. It says that God desires to come into man’s spirit and that man’s spirit is for him to contain God. Thousands have been brought to the Lord through this small booklet.
Immediately after the new ones are baptized, home meetings should be set up in their home. Following the preaching of the gospel to lead them to believe and be baptized, we must teach them the truth and help them to grow in life. We must minister Christ to them.
Today in the local churches, by the Lord’s mercy, we have the high gospel and much truth and life. Regretfully, however, we have been limited by our unscriptural practice. We have much cargo of truth and life, but we do not have the adequate way to spread it. This is because in the past we took the wrong way, the easy way. In some respects we have been drifting back to the practice of Christianity, leaving our cargo in storage. Since 1974 we have published many books, but these books mostly remain on our bookshelves. We do not use them. By October of 1984 I was clear that our practice had to be revolutionized. The Lord has given us many truths and much life, but not many would go out to spread these truths and to minister the very Christ as life to others.
We have to take the way that is on the Lord’s heart. We must follow Him. He did not remain in the heavens, but He came down to visit man. He visited Zaccheus in his home (Luke 19:5-7). He went to visit the Samaritan woman (John 4:4-7). The Lord carried out His ministry all the time by visiting people. He visited Martha and Mary’s home (Luke 10:38-39) and the house of Simon the leper (Matt. 26:6). He charged His disciples to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all the creation (Mark 16:15). He also charged them to go and disciple all the nations (Matt. 28:19). In Acts 1:8 He told them that they would be His witnesses starting from Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and then to the uttermost part of the earth.
First, we have to go to our “Jerusalem.” In other words, we need to go to those close to us, that is, our relatives, neighbors, friends, colleagues, and classmates. Instead of going to visit people with the gospel, however, we have picked up much of Christianity’s way. We invite the sinners to come to us, instead of our going to them. The way that we have taken to meet and to serve in the past, in many respects, has been wrong. We must take the God-ordained, organic, scriptural way to meet and to serve for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Recently, I told some of the brothers that I was like Gideon looking for the three hundred to be in one accord with me for the Lord’s move (Judg. 7:7). I care for only one thing — to carry out what the Lord has charged us to do. We all need to rise up and put everything of the unscriptural practice of Christianity under our feet. The number one thing we should do in these days is to visit people in their homes. This is to follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus. We must go to visit people. We do not necessarily need to go to Africa or Mongolia. We can go next door to our neighbor. We can go to the homes of our relatives to bring the living Christ to them. We have the high gospel, the rich truth, and the wonderful life of Christ to minister to people.
After setting up home meetings with the new believers, we have to teach them the truth. We can use appropriate portions of our publications for this purpose. Now is the time for us to go out and send the truth to people’s homes. Then the ones in these homes will be brought into functioning. They will talk about the divine truths. We need to impress the new ones that they can practice the church life in their homes.
I want to take the new way, the God-ordained way. In the new way we have to be raised up to spread the gospel by visiting people. The elders need to forget about spending much of their time to work for the church at a desk in their office. They should go out to preach the gospel and baptize people. One leading brother told me that in the past twenty years he had not brought one person to Christ. Within a short time after coming back from the full-time training in Taiwan, however, he baptized seventeen people. Another brother who went to Taiwan knocked on a particular door, and the gentleman said that he was not interested. Then this brother went to the back of the house and knocked on the kitchen door. The gentleman said again that he was not interested, and he told the brother that he could not come in. Then the brother said, “Okay, I won’t come in. You come out.” This brother had the authority of Christ. That gentleman came out, and the brother read a few pages of The Mystery of Human Life with him. Then that man received the Lord and was baptized in his bathtub.
These experiences show that we need to forget about the traditional way of Christianity and come back to the scriptural way. Christianity has misled us and given us the wrong impression. We have received a wrong understanding of the Lord’s move. We do not need to wait to form a mission, raise up funds, and send missionaries to Africa. We can be missionaries to our neighbors right away. We need to budget our time to visit people with the gospel. We need to have a revolutionized church life.
We should baptize someone, if possible, immediately after he believes in the Lord. The Bible does not tell us that a person has to wait to be baptized after he believes. We do not need to wait so that we can baptize people in the baptistery of the meeting hall. Acts 8 shows us that the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized by Philip immediately after believing in the Lord (vv. 35-39). The Philippian jailer was baptized by Paul and Silas immediately after he believed. Acts 16:33b and 34a say, “He was baptized immediately, he and all his household. And he brought them up into his house.” After his baptism the jailer brought Paul and Silas “up” into his house. This indicates that this must have been done downstairs in the bathing pool at the place where they were (see footnote on verse 33, Recovery Version). When we practiced this, many people were shocked, but this is recorded in the Bible. The Bible shows us that baptism is practiced immediately after someone believes in the Lord.
We need to reconsider our situation. The elders should take the lead to visit people with the gospel. Then meetings should be set up in the homes of the newly baptized ones. We need to teach them the truth and help them to grow in life and to know Christ in an experiential way. Eventually, they will be perfected to do what we do. We all have to be revolutionized to learn something new. We should not practice the church life in the old way. We need to pick up the new way, beginning with preaching the gospel by visiting people.
The number one thing in preaching the gospel is that we need to be desperate to gain new ones for the Lord’s increase. We also have to exercise our faith to apply the Lord’s authority, standing on Matthew 28:18-19, where the Lord said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations.” When we go out to preach the gospel, we should pray, “Lord, I stand on this word. Your authority is mine. I go with Your authority.” When we are sharing the gospel with people, we should not ask them if they would like to receive the Lord and be baptized. If we do this, they will say no most of the time. Instead, we need to exercise the Lord’s authority and direct them to believe and be baptized.
Before we go out to preach the gospel, we must be cleared up with the Lord. We must practice making a thorough confession of our failures, sinfulness, and wrongdoings so that we can receive the filling of the Holy Spirit. Then we will not go empty and alone. Instead, we will go to people filled with the Spirit.
I hope that from now on the leading ones in the churches would take the lead to preach the gospel by visiting people. Going out to visit people is the most effective way to spread the gospel for the kingdom of God. Those of us who go out for the spread of the gospel must be strict with ourselves. Any looseness can bring in death. We must be serious not only before man but also before God’s enemy. We are not here for doctrines. We are here for the Lord Christ, and we want to give Him a way to come back.
Recent statistics show that over the last twenty-two years, from 1964 to 1986, the membership of the Roman Catholic Church has increased by only .62 percent annually, while that of the Southern Baptist denomination has increased by only 1.38 percent annually. A recent article said that since the mid 1960s, the mainline denominations have collectively lost more than 4,778,000 members. These statistics show us that the traditional, unscriptural way of preaching the gospel does not work well over the long run.
We have to consider the situation in our locality. How much has the church in our locality increased over the years? Where is the increase? We all need to wake up. We need to be wise and sober. We need the increase, and the Lord Jesus needs the increase. Many people have been saved through big gospel campaigns throughout the years, but where are these ones today? Christianity is full of activities, but where is the remaining increase? Where is the real result?
We must take the God-ordained way to spread the gospel. We should be afraid of the poverty of increase in our locality. We need to wake up and endeavor to gain people for the Lord’s kingdom. All of us have to give an account at the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). We should go first to our “Jerusalem.” Then we should stir up the seeking ones in our locality to go out to visit people with the gospel.
In the past we were wasting our time by taking an unscriptural way. Because of this, we have been delaying the Lord’s coming back. Are we satisfied with our present situation and condition? Do we think that we will be approved by the Lord when He comes? We all need to be desperate to bear fruit for the Father’s glorification (John 15:8).
I also hope that one out of twenty in every church would be a full-timer. The full-timers should use their time to visit people for the spread of the gospel. They can also use their time to learn the truths and to pray. I believe that the issue of this will be marvelous. I hope that one out of twenty can serve the Lord full time and that one out of four in the churches can be raised up to preach the gospel regularly in the God-ordained way. If this can be realized, I believe that we can have a solid increase of one hundred percent yearly. We can gain the solid increase, but we have to labor desperately, not in a loose way.
If all the Christians on earth would do this, I believe that within one or two years the entire earth would be “Christianized.” We all need to wake up. We should forget about the façade of having big meetings with a good speaker. A number of us have been doing this for years, but what has been the result? Why would we not change our way? We should not waste our time and delay the Lord’s coming back.
I have seen a vision, and I believe it will come to pass that the church life in all the cities will be practiced in many homes. Regularly, the church life will be going on in all the homes, and the entire church can also come together with everyone functioning. That will be wonderful. We have to realize that every home is a station for the Lord. The Lord can do many things through a home as His station. Every home can be a station of the gospel, a station of the truth, a station of life, and a station of the church life. The members of this home can be preachers of the gospel. We need to reconsider our way. We should go back to our localities to practice preaching the gospel according to the God-ordained way, and then we should train the faithful ones who have the way and the burden.
