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We need to realize that our present situation is very desperate. We have been speaking concerning the God-ordained way in both Taiwan and the United States for seven and a half years, but we have not seen a definite result. The word that we released has been more than clear, stressing that the group meeting is the crucial matter in the Lord’s ordained way. We said that the group meetings should constitute eighty percent of the church life, and we also said that the gospel preaching, the nourishing, the cherishing, the feeding, and the perfecting should be done in the groups. But where are the groups, and where are the group meetings? We heard and received the word, and we even prayed much concerning this matter, but where is the definite building up of the groups? Among the churches there are some group meetings, but these are not the group meetings we intend to build up that can occupy eighty percent of the church life.
The group meetings are the life line of the God-ordained way. As long as we have not touched the group meetings, we have hardly begun to practice the God-ordained way. Satan has deceived us, just as the serpent deceived Eve, through the practice of Christianity to pay attention to big meetings. However, the New Testament makes it clear that the first stage of the Christian meetings was in the homes. According to Acts 2:46, on the day of Pentecost the believers met from house to house. This means that they met in homes, from home to home. The Greek phrase translated “from house to house” implies that wherever there is a home of a Christian, there should be a meeting. In all the Christians’ homes there should be meetings. Although I stressed this again and again, today we may still prefer to have big meetings. If we gather together only in big meetings, the proper church life will be hindered. When clumps of grass are scattered about, they grow and spread, but when they are piled together, they die. We may prefer to have the façade of a big meeting, but the Lord is not for that. The Lord is for His spreading, and His spreading is in the homes.
For any work among the saints we need the group meetings. If it is not brought into the group meetings, even the work on the campuses will not be so adequate. It is good if we can lead many students to believe in the Lord, but they must be grouped together. Without the groups it will be difficult for them to remain, but if we have the groups, everything we do with them will be a success. However, in our work we may trust in many things, but we may not spend any of our strength to take care of the groups.
I fully realize that our barrenness is due mainly to the lack of the group meetings. If we do not have the group meetings, it will be difficult to overcome our barrenness. We may still have some increase, but the rate of increase will probably not be high, and the atmosphere in our meetings will also not be high. A large tree without branches cannot bear fruit. The big meetings are like the trunk of a tree, but a trunk alone cannot bear fruit. The trunk needs tender, fresh branches. It is the branches that can bear fruit. In the church life the branches are the groups. We should not be individualistic but should live in the Body. According to the New Testament, to live in the Body we need the groups. This does not mean that we should group all the saints into one gathering. According to Acts, it means that we should group the saints together in home meetings.
We need to take Haggai’s word and consider our ways (Hag. 1:5, 7). We — especially the elders and the co-workers — need to reconsider our church life and our work. We need to consider what has been the result of our living day by day. We cannot allow ourselves to continue in our present way.
In the new localities in Southern California, the rate of increase was high initially. However, I found out that when the number attending the meetings in a locality reached one hundred, the rate of increase slowed considerably because the brothers there did not know how to go on. In the beginning they practiced the group meetings spontaneously, because the number was small. But gradually they grew out of the practice of the groups into the practice of having big meetings. The increase in those localities was reduced because they had only the big meetings without the proper group meetings.
I have given a number of messages presenting the principles and the detailed instructions on the practice of the group meetings, but until now I have not given you the steps on how to form the groups. I have been expecting day after day, month after month, and year after year for seven and a half years to see some of you rise up to do something organically to form the groups. However, I have not seen the result that I had hoped to see. Therefore, I feel burdened that I myself need to do something.
After the recovery spreads to a certain nation, it should reach the typical local people. America was built up by the Caucasians. The recovery in the United States should reach the Caucasian people. If we cannot do this or we would not do this, we will suffer a big deficiency. God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). Nevertheless, we must find the remedy for our imperfect situation in gaining the Caucasians in a country such as the United States. When I came to the United States, I came with the strong determination not to work among the Chinese people. Although I love China and the Chinese people, the commission that I received of the Lord was not to come here to take care of the Chinese. I did not do any particular work among the Chinese in America until 1983. Shortly before that time the law in America was changed to increase the quota for the immigration of Chinese to twenty thousand per year from both Taiwan and mainland China. I realized that many Chinese had already come to America from Taiwan, and after they arrived here, they became lost to the recovery. Abraham Chang proposed to me that we begin to take care of the Chinese immigrants. That was the beginning of the Chinese-speaking work in the United States. In view of our present situation, I feel that the Caucasian brothers must consider how to bring the Caucasian people into the Lord’s recovery. If we would not do this, it is a shame.
Recently, I had a thought deep within me that the reason we have gained so few Caucasians in recent years might be that in our meetings we have a high percentage of people of other races. We do not practice the separation of the races as some denominations do. Nevertheless, because this is the United States, the majority of the saints in the churches in this country should be Caucasian. The other races should be a minority. If the percentage of those of other races in the meetings is too high, it will be difficult for the Caucasian people to be attracted to the recovery. Therefore, we must find a way to get into the Caucasian community. We are healthy in our teaching, but we are not healthy in our practice. We must reconsider our situation. I would like to pay some price to gain the Caucasian people. All the Caucasian brothers and sisters need to be burdened and consider so that they may be enabled by the Lord to find a way.
Even among the Chinese-speaking people our fruit-bearing has not been satisfactory. The number of Spanish-speaking people in some of the churches in America also is not what it should be. Thus, we must reconsider our way.
Some of the Chinese saints went out for some time and did not get any fruit. Eventually, they concluded that the way of door-knocking does not work. Please allow me to say that it is not the way of door-knocking that does not work; it is that our door-knocking is not persistent to the extent that the door-knocking does work. If door-knocking does not work, how could the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses have had a considerable success in door-knocking? According to statistics, in the past century the rate of increase has been highest among these two heretical groups. The factor in their success is their door-knocking.
Because we have Caucasians, Chinese, Hispanics, Koreans, and other ethnic groups in the church life, we need to face a real problem that we do not have in other regions of the world, that is, how to group our people. We cannot take care of one ethnic group and neglect the others. We need to find a way to take care of the peoples of different races and ethnic origins. According to our present practice of grouping the races together, if we bring new Caucasians, especially middle-aged couples with children, to our meetings, they may be disappointed after just one meeting. They may decide that they do not like our kind of church and may then seek to find a church among the Caucasians. This is a real problem to us. Now we are going to have a new beginning. In our consideration concerning the way to form the groups, we must pay our attention mainly to the Caucasians. Our deficiency in gaining the Caucasians in the past might be because we grouped saints from other races with the Caucasians. It might be because of this that we have suffered a loss. In forming the groups, it may not be wise to group the Chinese-speaking and the Spanish-speaking saints with the Caucasian saints. Eventually, the environment surrounding us may compel us to group the Caucasians together and to charge them not to go to other races, but just to the Caucasian community to gain the Caucasians.
Another problem is this: after we gain the Caucasians, what will we bring them to? I would like to stir you up to consider these things. We also need to pray in a definite way for these things. We should not repeat vain prayers but should tell the Lord exactly what we want Him to do for His recovery. Realizing our situation, our environment, and the condition of our work, we should pray, “Lord, we do not have the wisdom. We do not know how to go on. We have come nearly to a standstill. With all the different races among us, how should we go on? We do not have the way. But one thing we do know: it is very difficult for us to gain the Caucasians, and it is even more difficult for us to retain them. We would like to know how to face the situation.”
Although some Caucasians have been brought into our meetings, very few have remained. Some of the younger ones have remained, but in general the middle-aged ones do not remain. According to my observation, they do not feel that there is anything that interests them enough to cause them to stay. They have not arrived at the stage where they seek the Lord according to the deeper truth that we have released. What we have as treasures seem to be hidden in the earth. Although they may meet with us a number of times, they do not seem to see anything concerning these treasures. In our meetings we do not have the proper atmosphere or the way to present the treasures to them. There seems to be little in our meetings that can attract them or stir up their interest. I feel quite certain that the Caucasians should be contacted and taken care of by the Caucasians. This principle should be established among us.
Therefore, we must reconsider our way. We cannot go on contentedly, remaining the same for another year. In the recovery today there is a real warfare, a real need. The way that we have seen is right. The problem is that within ourselves we are not clear concerning the practice. To speak of grouping the saints together is easy, but to find the proper way to form the groups and to carry them on is difficult. Thus, we need to pray for this. I hope that all the saints would bear a burden to pray for this. This is a great need among us today.
