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In the fall of 1984 as we began to study the Lord’s new way, I began to speak about the group meetings. At that time I did not differentiate between the home meetings and the group meetings, because we considered these two terms as synonyms. Gradually, through our study and practice over the past few years, we have learned that we should differentiate between these two types of meetings. The home meetings are for nourishing and cherishing the newly baptized ones in their homes. This nourishing and cherishing is like that of a nursing mother after the delivery of a child.
The group meetings, on the other hand, are more advanced because they are for the perfecting of the new ones. We were not so clear about the distinctions in these two types of meetings at the beginning of our study in 1984. Now, we are clear. We also anticipate that there will be some improvement in the coming days.
The group meetings are crucial to the church life. Without the group meetings, the church cannot be very strong or increase very quickly. If a local church is to be strong, it must be built on the group meetings. Without the group meetings it is difficult to have remaining fruit. The home meetings are for nourishing and cherishing the new believers in their homes. But these home meetings are good for only a short period of time in the initial stage of caring for the new believers. If you were to baptize a few new ones today, the interest of the new ones for the nourishing and cherishing in their homes would last for only about six months. If you continue to have the home meetings without the group meetings, the new ones will begin to lose their interest in meeting with you.
The church should be built upon the group meetings. According to the history in Christianity and also among us, the strength of a congregation is apparently determined by the speaker. If a congregation has a strong speaker, as long as the speaker is alive, the congregation seems to be strong. But when the speaker goes away or dies, the congregation begins to weaken. This is very common in Christianity, and we also have had similar experiences. When a church has a brother who is a good speaker and he remains in the church for a while, speaking in a regular way, the church seems to ascend to the moon. But when that brother leaves to go to another place, the church quickly descends to the earth again. It seemed that the church was strong. But through many experiences, we have realized that it was not the church itself that was strong; it was the speaking or preaching that was strong. The speaking was not that much related to the actual strength of the church itself.
The actual strength of the church itself depends on the group meetings, not on the strong speaker. If the group meetings are built up, whether or not you have a strong speaker makes little difference as far as the actual strength of the church is concerned. A good speaker with good speaking only adds another “crown” to the church. If the church is strong, the church will be strong with or without the good speaker as a crown.
When I was in Taipei from 1949 to 1955, I spoke in nearly every meeting. Apparently, the church in Taipei was strong, but eventually, I discovered that my constant speaking weakened the church there. In Shanghai Brother Nee had a similar experience. Brother Nee was a strong speaker, and the more he spoke in the church in Shanghai, the weaker the church became. The factor for this weakness was the lack of the group meetings being built up. We may think that the more a good speaker speaks, the more a church will be strengthened. This may be the case when a church is first established. But over time this kind of speaking weakens the church. The good speaking of a speaker is like good food prepared in a restaurant. If you eat such rich food three times a day every day for a long period of time, you will not be very healthy. The emphasis must be placed not on the good speakers but on the group meetings. This is because the strength of the church rests actually in the group meetings, and the strength of the group meetings depends on our labor.
At the beginning of this term of training, we encouraged you to go back to the homes of the newly baptized ones in order to meet with them in their homes to nourish and cherish them. We also encouraged you to bring the new ones into the group meetings after a while, which we did not specify. At the beginning of this term, however, we did not encourage you to form group meetings with the new ones. But now, through the practice of the last few months, we have realized that it is best to try to bring the newly baptized ones into a group meeting as soon as possible. If a group meeting has not been established, you should form one with the newly baptized believer and the other members of your team. If the newly baptized one is a brother, it would be best to go back with at least one brother in your team. In a sense, your going back to visit the new one is the principle of a home meeting, but after a while that home meeting could become a group meeting.
First, you should begin to nourish and cherish the new one. Then you should begin to practice the things of the group meeting, such as fellowship, intercession, care, and shepherding. If you baptize some others in other homes, you should try to gather them together into this group as soon as possible. If you do not bring them to the group meetings, after a few months they will lose their taste and interest for the home meetings in their homes. The group meeting will stir up their interest again. Our returning to feed them in the home meetings can be likened to the regular feeding of a nursing mother. After a few months of feeding the new child regularly, the mother may try to nurse her child, but the child will be naughty, refusing to eat. The child would rather play than eat. But if some other babies are brought in, the interest of the young child is renewed again. It is the same for the new ones in the home meetings. If you go back to visit them repeatedly, after a few months they will lose their taste for that kind of meeting. The best way to take care of the new ones at this point is to bring other new ones together with them in a group meeting. They will begin to converse with each other, and their interest will be recovered. By grouping them together, they will also begin to be built up together with others. They will become like burning coals placed together to build and keep a strong fire. Thus, this kind of grouping will be a great benefit to them. Therefore, if we are serious about taking the new way, we must try our best to bring the newly baptized ones together to form group meetings as soon as possible.
The problem among us today is that some of the groups that have been meeting for several months are full of oldness. I would advise you as visiting ones not to bring the new ones into these older group meetings. These older group meetings are like a Chinese household that has emigrated to the United States. The older ones in the family can speak only Chinese, but the children of the family have learned to speak English. It is difficult for the older ones to change their language from Chinese to English. But the younger ones find it very easy to do so. Although the younger ones may try to teach the older ones to speak English, the older ones would still prefer to speak Chinese. It is the same in the group meetings. The older ones by habit practice in an old way. The younger ones, however, know to practice only in the new way. Yet they can be influenced by the older ones. The older ones may not be influenced very much by the newness of the new ones, but the new ones could be very influenced by the oldness of the older ones. This kind of influence is a problem in the group meetings; therefore, it is better to have two different types of group meetings.
The conclusion of the new way in our understanding is that we must build up the group meetings. The need to build up the group meetings is very urgent. But in building up the group meetings, I encourage you to have two groups, an old group and a new group. Because we are in a transitory period of time, changing from the old way to the new way, it is better and necessary to keep these two different types of group meetings. The first type of group meeting would be composed of saints who have been meeting in groups for a long time. The other type of group meeting is the one formed with the newly baptized ones. The first type of meeting is composed of saints who are in full agreement with the new way, but due to their habit in the old way, they take the new way according to the steps of the old way. They take the form of the new way but with the habit of the old way. Eventually, this kind of practice is just a repeat of the old way. In many of the existing group meetings, the old way of meeting was unconsciously repeated. We should not annul these existing groups; we should try to help them. Gradually, they will pick up some of the aspects of the new way.
The second type of group meetings is the result of our going out as lambs in the midst of wolves (Luke 10:3) to find the sons of peace (v. 6). If we go out regularly, we will find the chosen ones. Since we have realized the need to visit our relatives, friends, neighbors, and other acquaintances, there is not that much need for us to knock on “cold doors.” We can simply make appointments to visit our relatives, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, and from among these we will surely find some who have been chosen of God. When we find these chosen ones, we should form them into groups as soon as possible.
In forming the new believers into groups, you do not need to wait until you have eight or nine. You could form a group meeting with just one newly baptized believer and one or two other visiting ones. Then gradually, the group meeting will grow until it reaches a size large enough to subdivide. No group meeting should remain for over a year without subdividing, so each year the group meetings should double. By this way the church will grow and expand. As we labor in this way, we will discover a lot of details that will help us to grow and improve our practice. Within three to five years a good foundation for growth and expansion will be laid in all the churches.
As we take care of the new ones, we must learn to do two things at the same time. While we are in the homes of the new ones to feed them, we are also there endeavoring to bring them into the realization and practice of a group meeting. The home meeting is mainly to cherish, nourish, and to feed the new ones a little bit. But the group meeting has other elements, such as fellowship, intercession, care, shepherding, and mutual teaching. As we are with them, we should try to add these elements of the group meeting into the home meeting. When these elements are brought into the meeting, the home meeting changes into a group meeting. But this does not mean that the home meeting with cherishing, nourishing, and feeding should be abandoned. We still should care for the new ones in the principle of the home meetings. But as we are laboring in the home meetings, we should also labor to build up the group meetings. Actually, a group meeting will also meet the need of feeding the new ones. The group meeting is really a miniature of the church life because it comprises the elements of fellowship, intercession, mutual care, shepherding, and mutual teaching, as well as gospel preaching.
If my wife and I with four other brothers and their families went to an absolutely new place like Mongolia, I believe that in a single year, we could gain at least thirty new believers through the practice of the new way. This could be done mainly because the Mongolians would not have any idea about the practice of Christianity, and we would not bring anything of it to them. We would simply preach the gospel to them, baptize them, and meet with them in the home meetings and small group meetings. We would be absolutely new and keep anything of the oldness of Christianity away from them. Without the frustration of opinions and oldness, perhaps as many as five hundred could be gained in five years.
Due to the frustrations of differing opinions, the result of the practice of the new way has been greatly reduced. Because of the different opinions and attacks, as we labor according to the God-ordained way, we must build with one hand and fight the enemy with the other, as Nehemiah did in rebuilding the walls of the city of Jerusalem (Neh. 4:17). Sometimes only a small part of our strength can be applied to the positive work of carrying out the Lord’s move, and a greater part of our strength must be used to fight. This is the nature of the work in an old place.
As New Testament priests of the gospel, we must have a holy life and living. This holy life and living is maintained by being revived every morning. Each morning we should have a new start. To have some time with the Lord each morning does not mean that we have to spend a great deal of time with the Lord. I have practiced a lot and have found out that having about ten minutes with the Lord each morning is enough time. In this time with the Lord, we must reject all distracting thoughts about our activities. Try your best not to go along with your emotion, mind, or will. It is also good not to consider many different portions of the Bible at this time. Just concentrate your entire being on the Lord, and try to exercise your spirit to call on His name. We must learn to call on His name in the morning. It is also helpful to pray-read two or three verses, using them for your prayer. There is no need to compose a prayer; simply pray the verses as they are. In these ten minutes it is best to avoid praying for other things. In this time we should simply talk to the Lord directly. This is real prayer. As you contact the Lord in this way, something in your being will be revived, your spirit will be stirred up, and you will be strengthened to live a holy life. This is the morning revival.
If you have more than ten minutes, you can spend the first ten minutes contacting the Lord to be revived, and the extra time can be used to read and study the Bible. In this time of study it is helpful to use other publications in order to understand the Bible in a more thorough way. This second part of your time in the morning is what we call morning watch. Usually, in our speaking we combine the morning revival with morning watch. But it is good to separate them, because if you have only a small amount of time each morning, you should try to have a revival every morning.
After the morning revival, we must exercise to keep ourselves in the spirit throughout the day. We must do and say things in our spirit. This is to be overcoming and victorious. Throughout the day there will be a lot of failures because we are so fragile, unstable, untrustworthy, and not very steadfast. We may ascend very strongly early in the morning, but by ten o’clock in the morning we may already be down. We do not have to remain down. We can always exercise our spirit to come back to the Lord. Then we should continue to practice remaining in our spirit the rest of the day. This is to have the morning revival and the overcoming daily living.
We should not only exercise to have such a life and living ourselves, but we should also help each of our new ones to have the same kind of life and living. We have discovered that a very convenient way to help the new ones get revived every morning is to have some time with them over the telephone each morning. It is best to make an appointment with them before calling them. Because of the convenience of calling the new ones by telephone, if we rise up a little earlier each morning, there is the way to take care of as many as three persons very easily.
We must practice the biblical way to preach the gospel as priests of the gospel (Rom. 15:16). This priesthood of the gospel is carried out by training. The co-workers and leaders in the churches must understand this and labor to train the saints to practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel. We must preach the gospel in such a particular way. If we would practice this priesthood in a thorough way, we may be able to have a one hundred percent increase each year. But at the very least we should be able to realize a thirty percent increase a year.
The crucial point of the God-ordained way is the group meetings. How much success we will realize depends on how much attention and labor we are able to put on the group meetings. Therefore, we must endeavor to build up the group meetings. When the group meetings are built up strongly, the church will also be very strong.
