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When we come together in any kind of meeting, we must exercise to keep ourselves away from anything of religion. Something of the influence of religion can be seen in the way we come to the meetings. Some saints are very talkative everywhere else and at any other time except at the time of the meeting and in the meeting hall. This is the result of the influence of religion. Outside of the meeting hall they may be very active and talkative, but as soon as they get inside, they become very quiet and “reverent,” walking quietly and maintaining an attitude and posture of attending a religious activity. This kind of conduct is altogether religious and must be completely abandoned. We must learn to come to the meetings in a very general and natural way. We should consider the meeting hall only as a convenient place to come together, not as a “sanctuary.”
In our daily life we must be people who are full of Christ and filled with the fullness of God in our spirit, praising, rejoicing, and speaking of Christ all day long. Then, we should come to the meetings as we are in our daily life — full of Christ, full of joy, and full of the Spirit. If we are not such persons, we are failures. But if we are a praising, singing, rejoicing, and Christ-speaking people, we will come to the meetings in this way.
The reason that it is hard for us to practice the praising, singing, rejoicing, and speaking of Christ is because religion has been constituted into our being. As Christians, whenever we come to a meeting, we act in a religious way, because we have been influenced by the religious things of our background. This religious influence kills our preaching and singing spirit. The Christ-speaking spirit is also killed. The concept of religion has wrapped up our entire being and has become a part of our being. It seems that even before we became Christians, the concept of religion was there. We must exercise to reject anything of religion in our meetings.
The intrinsic things of the church, such as the intrinsic essence, the intrinsic growth, the intrinsic building up, and the intrinsic fellowship, are all just the processed and dispensing Triune God Himself in Christ, His embodiment, being realized by us. These intrinsic things stand in opposition to our disposition and character. We usually come to the meetings in our disposition and character and behave a certain way according to our disposition and character. Usually, we do not come to the meetings in our spirit, in Christ, in our singing spirit, or in a praising attitude. But when we go to the group meetings in the preaching, shouting, singing, and Christ-speaking spirit, we are completely outside of our disposition and character. Thus, when we attend the group meetings in this way, we are far away from religion.
Our disposition and character hinder us from practicing the proper Christian meeting; therefore, we must learn to deny our disposition and character. According to the teaching of the New Testament, we must deny ourselves (Matt. 16:24), our soul-life (16:26; Luke 9:24). To deny ourselves is to deny our disposition, since the self is in our disposition. The soul-life is the person, and the being of the person is the disposition. The expression of the person, the self, is the character. We sometimes say that someone is “a real character.” This means that a certain person expresses himself in a particular way that distinguishes him from everyone else.
As Christians, we should be people who are always against our disposition and against our character. To be against our disposition and our character is to deny ourselves. We must learn to always live, behave, and have our being against our disposition. To be against our disposition is to deny ourselves. Without being against our disposition, we cannot have proper group meetings. If we are not against our disposition and character, we will go to the meetings religiously, enter the meetings religiously, sit down religiously, and conduct ourselves in the meetings religiously. The entire activity of the meetings will altogether be a matter of religion, because religion always matches our disposition and character. If we meet according to religion, disposition, and character, there will be no Spirit, no Christ, no life, and no speaking of Christ. This is the situation of Christianity today. Although many dear saints love the Lord very much, they do not meet with the Spirit or with Christ but with religion and their disposition.
We must learn to be against our disposition and character. Whether or not we use our time in a proper way exposes our disposition and character. As full-timers, it is very easy not to budget our time wisely. When we were employed in a business, there was always a certain schedule that served to budget our time. As employees, you could not go in to work whenever you felt like it. If you did this for even a short time, you might receive a termination slip, and you would be fired. As full-timers, it may seem that you do not have a boss since you have dropped your job. You may say that the Lord is your boss, but actually, you are your boss. Today you may go to work on time, but tomorrow if you feel somewhat tired, you may go to work a little later. Who is your boss? Jesus Christ or yourself? Actually, you are the boss. I know that it is easy to spoil you as full-time trainees, because I have been in this line for many years, and I have seen many full-timers. We may say that we live, walk, and have our being in the name of the Lord. But actually, we often live, walk, and have our being completely according to our disposition.
One time I asked one of the sisters whether or not she functioned in the meetings she attended. She responded by saying, “Oh, Brother Lee, you know that by birth I am not a person who can speak anything in a meeting. I was born quiet, and I am not an outspoken person.” When I received such a response, I said, “This is just your disposition.” To use the word disposition is pleasant, but to use the word self is not so pleasant. Actually, the disposition and the self are very close. To say that we are a certain way by birth seems to be a good excuse, but the Bible tells us that whenever we come together, we should have something, such as a psalm or song for speaking as well as for singing. The Lord is not happy for us to sit in a meeting according to the way we were born. Sometimes the older sisters have said to me, “Brother Lee, we are over seventy years of age. For the young ones to shout is okay, but we older ones find it difficult to do the same thing.” Their disposition became their argument against functioning as well as a vindication of themselves. We must be against our disposition. A good practice to help overcome our silent disposition in the meetings is to praise the Lord by ourselves many times throughout the day but not in a way that would disturb or threaten others. If we live a life of praising the Lord, we will be beside ourselves with the enjoyment of the Lord when we come to the meetings. This enjoyment of Christ will encourage us to praise the Lord and shout Amen when we come together with the saints in the meetings.
We are familiar with the traditional way of meeting in Christianity. The attendants come in and sit down quietly, waiting for the pastor to lead the singing, to give a message himself, or to introduce a guest speaker. Only one speaks, and the others simply listen. This kind of meeting annuls the function of the attendants. But another way to meet is by each one coming into the meeting praising the Lord, singing, or saying Amen as they enter. This meeting begins on the way to the meeting place. It bears the testimony of Christ and makes the Lord very happy.
The first part of the group meeting is primarily a time of singing, praising, and praying. This spontaneously brings us into fellowship. For example, one brother may pray for another brother who is sick and who has lost his job. Such prayer opens a window for the group to fellowship concerning the sick brother. Perhaps, immediately after the prayer, another brother would ask, “Brother, could you please tell us what kind of occupation this brother has?” The brother may respond by saying, “He came from China to this country two years ago and has been working in a certain firm as a bookkeeper.” This little conversation is an example of fellowship.
Following such fellowship comes intercession. Some of the brothers in the group may begin to pray for the brother to get a job. Then the following week, one of the brothers may find out that there is an opening for bookkeepers in his company. He may then go to the group meeting and ask for a resumé that he could present to his company. This is an example of practical care.
After fellowship, intercession, and practical care, shepherding follows. Some in the group may find out that one of the saints is sick at home or in the hospital. After some fellowship two of the group may decide to go to visit the sick brother or sister. This is shepherding visitation. Spontaneously, all the things that are so necessary for taking care of the saints — fellowship, intercession, proper care, and shepherding — could be and should be done in every group meeting.
The matters of fellowship, intercession, practical care, and shepherding can easily be carried out in the group meetings. But because we are short of the group meetings, we are also very short of these things in the church life. We come together, but our coming together is not very practical. We perform as actors in a religious service but do not care for the practical matters. We call hymns, but they have little to do with anything of fellowship or intercession. We may speak things that have little to do with practical care, or we may propose things that have little to do with shepherding. We talk a great deal, but there is very little fellowship, intercession, practical care, or shepherding. The result is that we waste our time and do very little to take care of the saints, to perfect them, or to build them up. Often we do a lot of religious things that have nothing to do with the actual, practical situation of the saints. For this reason I feel burdened to fight against the oldness, the religious concepts, and the dispositions of the saints, including my own.
The church life is on a high level whenever the group meetings are on a high level. Therefore, the group meetings are very crucial, and we must pay very close attention to the group meetings. If the group meetings are loose, the church is also loose. The church life is rescued from looseness in the group meetings. Through the group meetings the saints, not the elders or co-workers, take care of the fellowship, the intercession, the practical care, and the shepherding. In the group meetings, all these things can be done thoroughly. But without the group meetings the fellowship, the intercession, the practical care, and the shepherding could not be done so thoroughly. Even five brothers functioning as elders would not be able to thoroughly take care of a church of two hundred saints without the group meetings. But a group of eight to twelve saints can take care of one another in a very thorough way. Because we have not practiced the group meetings over the past years, it is possible to be in a locality with a number of saints for years and not know the names of some of the saints. But if a small number of saints come together week after week in the group meetings, these saints will eventually not only know each others’ names, but they will also know the inmost being and disposition of each other.
Because of the intimate nature of the group meetings, you may discover that a brother who seemed to be very spiritual and heavenly in the larger meetings is really not very spiritual at all. This discovery should cause you to pray and intercede for the brother, not to criticize him. After exercising to intercede on behalf of the brother, you may be led of the Lord to shepherd and care for the brother in a practical way.
The practice of the church life will become very thorough and sufficient in meeting all the needs of the saints through the group meetings. Today there is a lack among us because the group meetings have been neglected. A church may have one hundred saints, but due to the absence of the group meetings, there is very little shepherding, practical care, or particular intercession for the saints. Intercession is regularly needed in the church life. To intercede is more particular than prayer. When we pray for the saints in a common way, this is prayer in a general sense. But when we pray in a specific way by mentioning certain cases and persons by name, this is intercession.
When the church practices the group meetings in a thorough way, all the saints will be in a specific group, and the whole church will go on primarily by and in the group meetings. The elders of the church should oversee the group meetings in order to correct, improve, uplift, enrich, and enliven them when needed. When any of the group meetings are dead or short of life, the elders should exercise to enliven these group meetings.
Perfecting by teaching comes after shepherding. We may hold the religious concept that the teaching in the group meetings must be done by a brother who is able to teach and who has been appointed by the church to teach. That kind of meeting may be called a Bible study. But if you carefully study the New Testament, you cannot find such a practice in the meetings of the church. According to Hebrews 10:24-25, the teaching was carried out in a mutual way. These verses contain three very crucial words, consider, incite, and exhorting. To consider one another may not involve much teaching, but to incite surely does. To incite someone, you have to instruct and teach. Exhorting involves a lot of teaching. Without teaching, how could you exhort others? Both to incite and to exhort imply teaching. This teaching is done by many persons mutually, not by only one person. There should not be one person who only teaches and a group of saints who only are taught. The teaching should be done by all the saints. We incite one another, and we exhort one another. You exhort me, and I exhort you; you learn, and I also learn. When one of the group members teaches or exhorts another one in the group meeting, the other members of the group are also taught, because they hear the teaching or exhortation. This is mutual teaching.
Most of us know how to practice teaching only in the way of religion with a learned and appointed one teaching all the others in the group. Because we may think that we have no responsibility to teach and that our only responsibility is to be taught, we may simply delegate all the teaching in the group meeting to the learned ones. This thought may be very common even among us, but it is altogether wrong. This concept is not the concept revealed in Hebrews 10:24-25. According to this portion of the Word, we must incite and exhort one another mutually. Therefore, we must drop the old concept and the old way of practice.
Forty years ago in Taiwan we practiced meeting in smaller groups. So we cannot say that to meet in smaller groups is really new among us. But the way to practice these group meetings as I am now presenting it is completely new. On one hand, the group meetings are new, and on the other hand, they are ancient. Two thousand years ago the things concerning how to meet were recorded in the Bible in Hebrews 10:24-25. To consider one another, to incite one another, and to exhort one another are three things which show that the church life is very mutual. It is a life of mutual considering, mutual inciting, and mutual exhorting.
Our practice of the church life through the past years has not included the saints coming together to exhort and teach one another in a mutual way. To testify to one another is one thing, but to teach and exhort one another are completely different things. In a group meeting one brother may ask what it means to be watchful. In such a group meeting everyone can teach the brother who asked the question with some points. All the saints in this group meeting should try to answer the question concerning watchfulness. As these saints learn more, their teaching will be uplifted more and more.
In the group meeting, everyone speaks and everyone teaches. The group meeting affords the opportunity for everyone to learn to speak and to teach. In the old way of meeting many saints diligently attended the meetings, yet the level of their spiritual education remained at the elementary level. The reason for this is twofold: first, the teaching was not consecutive, proper, or adequate, and second, most of the saints were given very little opportunity to say anything. According to the New Testament, we all have certain gifts, capacities, abilities, and functions (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4). But the old way of meeting annulled these gifts, capacities, abilities, and functions. A newborn baby has the gift of speech by birth. After a certain number of months, the mother will begin to hear intelligible words from the mouth of her child. Given the opportunity to develop, the speaking ability will be manifested in the young child. No mother would say to her child, “Don’t speak. Don’t walk. Don’t do any of these things because you don’t know how to do them. I know how to do them, so I will do them for you.” If the mother were to do this, her child would not be able to speak or walk after a period of time, because she never gave the child an opportunity to practice speaking or walking. A mother repeatedly encourages her child to say words such as “ma” and “pa.” Eventually, after a period of time the child will begin to speak these words, and the parents of the child will be very excited.
We all should speak for the Lord in the meetings. Today you may still not be able to speak very much in the meetings, but this does not mean that you do not have the capacity to speak. It simply means that your growth has not yet come up to this level. You still need to grow more. My burden is to feed you so that you will grow. While I am feeding you, I am also encouraging you to take every opportunity to practice speaking. After a certain time of meeting in the group meetings, you will be able to speak for the Lord in the way of prophesying. According to the New Testament, the highest function in the church meetings is to prophesy (1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 12). To prophesy is not just to teach, to exhort, or to give a testimony. To prophesy is to speak forth the Lord, to minister the living Christ with all His riches into people.
In the group meetings everyone has equal opportunity and equal time to teach. Even those who are very young in the Lord can speak something as a teaching. This kind of exercise will improve our ability to teach, and it will also bring out the riches of Christ within each brother or sister. One person teaching is not as rich as everyone teaching. In a group meeting a sister who was saved three months ago may ask a question concerning abiding in the vine. She may ask, “I do not know what it is to abide in the vine. What is the vine, and how do you abide in the vine?” Her question opens the door for everyone in the group to say something. Another young sister in the group may say that, although she does not know very much about this subject, she does know that the vine is the Lord Jesus according to John 15:1. This little word is very good, because this sister has given a little teaching. Another sister who knows a little more may add to the first sister’s answer by saying that to abide in the vine is to abide in the Lord Jesus. These two answers put together form a very good teaching concerning abiding in the vine. Another brother who is quite learned and experienced may say that the word abide means “to remain.” He may also say that to abide in the vine means to remain in the Lord Jesus. Another brother sitting next to the first brother may then say that our need is to always stay with the Lord Jesus. Four brothers and sisters have spoken a few short sentences, but when these sentences are added together, they constitute a good message. This kind of teaching is often much better than what you can receive in many Christian books. The teaching of these four brothers and sisters is good, but it may still need to be strengthened, so another brother may add something. He may say that Christ today is in our spirit, so to abide in Christ is to stay in our spirit.
After listening to the speaking of the saints, some of the young ones may still not be satisfied with the saints’ answers. These young ones may then seek out some of our publications in order to find out what others in the recovery have said concerning abiding in the vine. This is very good. In the past sixty-seven years a number of books have been published on many different items of the truth. There is a long history among us of understanding the truths, and these truths have been printed. So, today we have printed many books dealing with various subjects for the young believers to get into and to uplift their realization concerning many different truths.
The group meeting will not only open the way for all to teach and all to learn; it will also help the seeking ones to seek the truth in a deeper way. Whenever we come together as a group, we must practice not to do anything according to religion. Rather, we should practice to come together in a living way, rejoicing, singing, and praying. Then as we fellowship with one another, intercession will issue forth spontaneously. The proper care for one another, as well as shepherding, should then be exercised. Ultimately, questions will be raised for all the members of the group to answer. This gives the way for everyone to teach.
All those in the group meetings, including the new ones, should be helped to practice all the items of the new way in the church life. The first item of the new way is the priesthood of the gospel, the preaching of the gospel by visiting others. In the group meeting we must teach the younger ones to preach the gospel. One of the sisters in one of the group meetings may ask if each of the saints in the group is participating in going out to visit people by knocking on their doors. Out of a group of fifteen members, seven new ones may not have entered into this kind of exercise. Thus, there is the need to say something to teach them and to stir them up to participate in the gospel preaching. Following this, there is the need to give them some instructions in preaching the gospel and to help them to form visiting teams to go out.
In another group meeting another brother or sister may say, “It is very good that everyone in our group meeting is going out to get people saved and baptized. But I would like to know if all of us are practicing to feed these new believers in the home meetings.” This question deals with the second item of the new way, that is, nourishing new believers in the home meetings. It may be that ten out of fifteen do not have the practice of caring for the new ones in home meetings. This indicates that there is a need to promote and stir up the saints for the home meetings. Then in subsequent group meetings, the third step of helping the young believers to group together with others needs to be touched. Although some of the saints in the group are already meeting with new ones in their homes, there is still the need to bring these new ones into the group meeting with the other saints. Once these new ones are brought into the group meeting, this may increase the size of the group from fifteen to twenty-five. With such a large number there is the need to subdivide into two groups.
Through this kind of exercise — from preaching the gospel by knocking on doors to home meetings with the new ones to group meetings, we all learn how to build up a group meeting. This is for the perfecting of the saints. In a sense, the group meeting is a miniature of the church life. The real and practical church life is in the group meetings. Whether the church life is strong or weak depends on the strength of the group meetings. Therefore, the group meetings are very important. If the church is still in the stage of one man speaking and all the rest listening, the church is not very healthy. Without the group meetings the church will be weak. The attendance in the Lord’s Day morning meeting and the messages may be good, but without the group meetings the church is really not very healthy. The church is the healthiest and strongest when all the saints in the church are in group meetings. When all are in the group meetings as I have described, everyone will be practicing the church life adequately and thoroughly.
