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Scripture Reading: Matt. 28:19; John 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; Eph. 4:12; 1 Cor. 14:3-5, 31; Gal. 6:1; Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:28; John 4:15
In this chapter we want to continue our fellowship concerning the purpose of the elders’ contact with people. The elders must contact people. If the elders do not properly contact people, there is no proper eldership. Many times we consider that the eldership is simply the management of the church, the caring for the things related to the church administration. We feel that as long as the business affairs of the church are adequately cared for, the eldership is proper. However, this is not the case. The church is not a business organization; it is the Body of Christ in life. A church may be organized in a good way, but it still may have a shortage of life. A building complex may be very well arranged and be neat, clean, and beautiful, but there is no life in it. On the other hand, an orchard may seem to be disorderly, but it is full of life, full of fruit. When the Lord comes to look at the church, He looks for life. He looks to see how many persons are under the care of the eldership, how they are doing, and how their growth, life, and daily living are. Therefore, we need a change in our concept regarding the eldership.
The elders must pick up the burden to contact people. It is not very meaningful for the elders to care for the business affairs of the church. Rather, the elders should make a thorough and clear arrangement in which the business affairs, such as keeping the accounting books, are delegated to the serving ones, the deacons and deaconesses. The elders should not count money; they should count the people under their care. They should know how many people are under their care and what each one’s condition is. Of course, the spending of money in the church should be under the direction and management of the elders, but the business affairs should be directly carried out by the deacons while the elders go out to contact people.
The elders should contact two or three persons a day. Whether or not this is difficult for us depends on our habit. We may not have practiced and exercised to contact people until it has become our habit. Moreover, we may not have been born as persons who like to contact people. However, in the ministry we are compelled, forced, to forget about ourselves and to contact people. The elders need to be adjusted in the matter of contacting people in a successful way. They must answer to the Lord regarding how many persons have been brought to the Lord through them since they became elders and whether their way to contact people is more effective today than it was five years ago. An elder should be concerned about whether or not he has contacted people in an adequate way. It is a failure for an elder not to contact people for several days. All the people in the church need the care of the elders, and the elders can only render care by contacting them.
In contacting people, the elders must avoid a superiority complex, argument, offense, or any form of humiliation. A superiority complex is very common in human society. Everyone has his prestige and desires to show that he excels in certain things. People like to show their superiority, but the elders should not have a superiority complex. An elder may be fifty-five years old, and the one he contacts may be only fifteen, but the elder should not care for his status. He should be careful in the way he expresses himself when he speaks with this person. The elder should not feel that he is better or higher than the one with whom he speaks.
In contacting people, the elders should avoid arguments. Arguments do not help people. Rather, the way to contact people is to try to find the opportunity to minister Christ to them, to give them an “injection” of Christ.
The elders should also avoid offense in their contact with others. Whether one comes to us with a good intention or an intention to cause trouble is not our concern. On our side we should still be proper. If we are not proper with those whom we contact, we will offend them and cause them to close their heart to us. Once people are offended, there is no way for us to minister anything to them. It is also possible that the offended persons will remember the offense for a long time. The elders must also avoid any form of humiliation in their contact with people.
In their contact with people, the elders must always remember well that the church is not a police station or a law court and that they are not policemen or judges. A policeman arrests people, and a judge judges them. We should not “arrest” or judge anyone. We should only minister life, the gospel, salvation, and Christ. Regardless of what one has done, if he comes to us, we should take the opportunity to minister something of life into him. We should not catch him so that we might “arrest” him and pass him on to others who may judge him.
As the leading ones, the elders bear a certain responsibility to consider people’s situations, but they must not forget that their ministry is to minister life. When we know someone’s background, we should not go to others to talk about him. We should go to him not to talk about what he has done but to take the opportunity to minister life and light into him. Then he may be enlightened by the Lord, and when he gets home, he may repent. This is the way for the elders to take care of the people in the church.
If we know that someone has done something improper, we should not touch it. We must have a strong burden to touch the person but not his sin or failure. To know others’ failures is a strong temptation and a strong spoiling of our contact with them. If we do not know someone’s sins and failures, they may be helped by us when we touch them. However, once we know of someone’s failures, this knowledge changes our contact with that person. It is difficult to know the defeated background of a brother without being changed in our attitude toward him. We must contact such a brother as if we knew nothing about him and in a way full of life and full of Christ. By one hour of this kind of contact, he will receive something that will enlighten him. Then he may go home to repent to the Lord. This is the way to contact people. We are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14) and the children of light (Eph. 5:8). Whenever we contact people, we should be a light shining over them. People must come to us to be under our enlightening, not our condemning or rebuking.
When an elder first comes to a church, he may think that the church is very good and that there are many things for him to do in that church and many people to help. Gradually, however, he may come to know the backgrounds of everyone in the church life. Then he may feel that he is jobless because there is no one good enough to help. This is why sometimes it is not good for certain elders to stay too long in a certain church. Some elders eventually become an “information desk,” knowing many things about everyone in the church. It is very good if an elder can be in a city for fifteen years and seemingly know nothing about anyone except how to minister Christ to them.
Knowing too much about people may be illustrated by married life. In the initial years of our marriage, we did not know much about our spouse. Therefore, we loved our spouse blindly. Every lover is a blind person. Love blinds people. However, when our eyes “gain their sight,” our love diminishes, and when we know everything about our spouse, our love is spoiled. It would be marvelous if the elders could love everyone in the church life as much as they loved them in the first year they became an elder. When I hear an elder complain about the brothers or sisters, this is an indication that he is finished as an elder. He has lost his ground to help anyone in the church. Only the “blind” elders are the real helpers.
When we first came to the church life, we did not know anything about the brothers and sisters. As a result, we were pleasant to everyone. Gradually, however, we came to know certain ones, and eventually we could not be pleasant to them. Our eldership has been robbed by our knowledge of the saints. In the beginning of our church life, we had a “honeymoon,” but after a few years, certain saints may have even become our adversaries. This is because we know each other too well. This is the hardest part of being an elder. There are many lessons to learn in this regard.
In their contact with people, the elders should minister Christ to them to meet their need (3:8; Col. 1:28). They should minister Christ to everyone — the stronger ones and the weaker ones, the overcoming ones and the defeated ones, those with a good background and those with a bad background. We must be the same toward every person. It is easy for us to minister life to a brother we regard highly, but we may be cold and indifferent to another kind of brother. To behave in this way is to lose the opportunity to minister Christ to this brother. In the matter of ministering Christ to others, we may still have our own choice and preference. We may be willing to contact a brother like Timothy, but we may not take the time to help a brother like Demas, who loved the world and forsook Paul (2 Tim. 4:10). We may welcome Timothy but despise and reject Demas because Demas had a failure.
Many of us like to help the good ones, but it seems that we feel the undesirable ones are destined to be lost. No one seems to care for them. However, in the churches the so-called undesirable ones may be greater in number than the good ones. First Corinthians 1:26-27 says, “Consider your calling, brothers, that there are not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many wellborn. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world that He might shame those who are wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world that He might shame the things that are strong.” If we care only for the good ones, it is no wonder that the church does not have the increase. The Lord Jesus was zealous in contacting the “bad” persons. The publican Zaccheus in Luke 19 was a sinner, but the Lord Jesus was zealous in His contact with him. The elders should learn how to help the ones who are not good. If we learn that certain persons are not good and as a result do not care for them, we lose the opportunity to minister Christ to them.
We should not expect that our ministering Christ to others will cause them to have a rapid change. When we minister life to a person who has certain failures, our ministering may help him only a little. After a few years such a person may not have had much change. Ministering in the church tests us and requires much patience. We may prefer to see a quick change in people after a few contacts. However, this may not happen. We should care only to minister Christ to people and not care for quick results or for a person’s situation or condition.
In their contact with people, the elders should seek a way to get people to open to them. Then they must find the proper utterance to touch people’s spirit. This is a fine work and requires much learning. The elders should also catch the proper time to dispense Christ, either with a quotation from the Bible or with a word of their inspiration.
The elders must also stir up people’s hunger and thirst to seek the Lord by praying with them (John 4:15). Brother Nee once said that to minister a special supply to people is easy, but to cause people to be hungry is hard. We must find a way to create an appetite in people. Certain saints come to the meetings but do not seem to have an appetite for the Lord. We must find a way to create a hunger for the Lord within them. If we would practice to always seek a way to get people to open to us, to find the proper utterance to touch people’s spirit, to catch the proper time to dispense Christ either by a verse or by our inspiration, and to know how to create an appetite to cause people to hunger and thirst after the Lord, the attendance in the church will be increased. We must change our way of contacting people, staying away from catching or condemning people and learning to minister Christ to every kind of person. Eventually, people will be gained by the Lord through our contact.
Question: How does one overcome in a situation in which he sees people’s failures and his contact with people has become spoiled?
Answer: We must realize that to know others’ failures does not help us. We are sent by the Lord only to minister Him to others with His light, life, grace, gospel, and salvation. We are not sent to know others’ failures. This realization will help us. We must care only to minister something positive to people and avoid everything else. We should have no heart to know anything else. If the elders are like this, they will love everyone with the same love (Phil. 2:2).
Only the Lord Himself can know things about others without being negatively influenced by His knowledge. We cannot help but be influenced by knowing too much. Therefore, the best way is to avoid knowing too much. The less we know, the better. If we realize and keep this principle, our visit to any place and our fellowship with others will always be a profit, but if we touch others’ mistakes, our fellowship will be profitless. We will lose the nature of the fellowship, and it will become gossip. Only the Lord’s grace and mercy can help people, so we must always do our best to minister His love, grace, and mercy to them. This is effective. The church should be filled with love, grace, mercy, and lovingkindness through the ministering of Christ to others. In this way people will be helped.
When we are helping others to be recovered, we must remember that in nature and essence we are the same as they are. Otherwise, we will be caught by the enemy through our pride. We all are sinful, and sometimes the Lord will allow us to be tested to show us that we are the same as others.
Question: How can we resume fellowship with a brother who has a problem after we have ceased to contact him for a while?
Answer: To touch such a brother carelessly is wrong, and not to touch him is also wrong. We must simply take the time under the Lord’s sovereignty to minister Christ to him. We do not know what the result of this ministering will be, but we must carry it out. We should not reject anyone but should always minister something of Christ, regardless of who or how he is.
Question: If someone comes to us and tells us about his own failures, should we stop him or listen to him and try to give him a helping word?
Answer: We have to discern the different situations. If their speaking is criticism concerning others’ failures, it is best to stop it, but we have to exercise our wisdom in doing so. If we tell them to stop speaking about this, we can offend them. We must say something to wisely turn the subject to other matters. However, people sometimes need to come and pour out what is on their hearts. They need to pour out their inward troubles so that they may receive grace. This kind of speaking is healthy. One can sense the repentance in this kind of speaking. After they have opened up their heart to us, we should pray with them. Moreover, we must always stay away from right and wrong. To deal with right and wrong is a temptation that belongs to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Question: When people come to speak about their problems, is it proper to open the Word and show them how the Lord feels about their situation?
Answer: In principle this is right, but we still need much discernment. Human beings are not simple. We have to exercise our spirit to sense where the person is and what their intention is. We must also learn the lesson to be fearful and trembling, looking to the Lord whenever someone comes to us with a problem. While we are listening, we have to pray, “Lord, show me what I should receive and what I should not receive, and show me how I can help this person.” To speak with people is a difficult and dangerous matter.
Question: What should we do if someone has been born again and is enjoying the Lord but has not been touched by the Lord concerning an improper situation in which he is remaining?
Answer: The elders should contact people in a proper way, always avoiding involvement in their situations. They should try their best to simply minister Christ and the gospel with God’s salvation, grace, love, mercy, and light in a pure way. Then we will get the benefit. If we do not contact people, there will be a loss; if we contact people carelessly, this will be a killing; and if we get involved in people’s situations, there will be a problem. Therefore, we must try to avoid unhealthy involvement but do our best to minister something on the positive side.
We must also realize that whatever we do will not be perfect. We should not expect that what we do will be a great success. Rather, we should admit that we do not know what the result of our contact will be. To do our best is all we can do. Perhaps we will even make some mistakes, but the Lord’s mercy is with us. If the elders consider in this way, they will always be able to get people saved and bring them into the church life in a remaining way. We are very concerned for the increase in the church, and we have found that the key to the increase in a local church is the elders’ contact with people. Without the elders’ contact with people, it is difficult for the church to gain people. The saints may bring in people, but the key to the increase in the church is the elders. If the elders do not have a proper contact with people, those whom the saints bring to the church may not stay. The elders are the key to the church life.
Question: If a person is in an improper situation, how should we regard him in relation to the Lord’s table?
Answer: Only the Lord knows what to do or say in such a case. Isaiah was a holy prophet, but when he saw the vision of the Lord, he said, “Woe is me, for I am finished! / For I am a man of unclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell” (Isa. 6:5). We may think that we are holy, but when we get into the Lord’s presence, our conscience tells us that we are not holy. No one is right. Who is qualified to take the Lord’s table? We must learn to minister the positive things to people and see whether there is the real fruit of repentance.
Question: For the sake of time, is it proper to contact people by telephone, or do we need to visit them or have them into our homes?
Answer: Today under the Lord’s sovereignty we have modern conveniences. The telephone is one of these. We should use the telephone as much as we can for the Lord’s interest. It is altogether a profit to call people by telephone. If possible, we may make two or three phone calls a day to the persons for whom we are concerned. The telephone may also be used for morning watch. Our calling people, however, should be done in a warm way from the Lord.
Question: Should those who are not elders also contact new ones in the way we have fellowshipped here?
Answer: Contacting people is not a responsibility of only the elders. All the saints should do this. We are in a big “pond” full of “fish.” We should speak Christ to people every day.
Question: In the eldership we cannot help but see things. How can we have discernment without turning it into something negative?
Answer: The practice of what we have fellowshipped here depends upon our own experience and realization. Whenever we have seen others’ failures, we should first sympathize with them. Without the Lord’s mercy we would be the same as they are. To consider in this way is helpful. We must realize what we are and experience the Lord’s mercy and grace. This will help us to take care of others with sympathy. The person whom we contact may be a weak person, but we also are weak persons. By the Lord’s mercy we may not have given Satan the ground to damage us as this person has, but we must be very watchful and careful lest we fail in the same way.
We may or may not know a person’s failures and sins, but if we minister Christ as life to him, Christ will care for him. He will gradually see the light and repent. We must strongly learn the lesson that it is better not to touch others’ failures. We should simply contact people, ministering Christ to them. Then the Lord will do many things. Many confessions are made to the Lord secretly and privately every day by His saints, but all these repentances come from the help of a certain ministry. Without the help of someone’s ministering, it is not easy for a person to repent. The church needs the elders’ proper contact with people.
