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Prayer: Lord, thank You for Your mercy. Thank You that You have exposed us, that You have shown us our shortage, and that You have shown us what You need. Lord, we thank You for all these things, yet we are still ignorant concerning the proper experience of the group meetings. Today we are still looking to You. Show us Your way. Show us how to face the situation and how to meet the need at the present time. We need Your wisdom. We do not like to do anything by ourselves, by our wisdom, or on our own. We are in fear and trembling before You. We do not like to speak anything by ourselves. Lord, save us and rescue us from making mistakes. We do not like to be misled. Lord, cover us against all the devices of the evil one. We desire to be preserved, and we desire to be kept. Lord, cover us and give us a clear understanding and an open spirit without any prejudice or hint of opinion. We do not like to be opinionated. Lord, cover us from all these things that we may have a clear, pure, and even purified fellowship so that You can show us Your way. Amen.
In this chapter I will fellowship a few points that we have seen from history. The New Testament shows us clearly that in the beginning of the church life the meetings were first in the homes (Acts 2:46; 5:42). The fact that the saints were meeting in their homes indicates strongly that they met together in groups. There was a group in every home. The larger gatherings were needed, but the larger gatherings were not a daily need. The daily need was the group meetings.
The record in the New Testament does not make the group meetings as definite as what is being revealed to us today. The reason for this may be that the divine revelation is always released after the experiences of God’s people. First comes the experience of God’s people; then God’s revelation follows. There is no example in the entire Bible of God’s revelation coming before the experience of His people. God called Abraham, but if Abraham had not gone on, the divine revelation would not have come to him. All the revelations in the Bible came as God’s people went on in their experience. Because Abel, Enoch, and Noah went on with God, God was able to reveal something through each of them.
At the close of the New Testament the church had existed on the earth for less than a century. The last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, was written in approximately A.D. 90. At that time the church had not experienced very much, so the revelation stopped there. However, according to the record in the heavens, the book of Acts is still going on; it has never stopped. After the book of Acts many centuries of church history have passed. In all the going on of the church we can see something further.
When Brother Nee was raised up, he started the first church meeting in 1922. That first church meeting was surely a small group. I was not there in the first ten years of our history in the recovery, from 1922 to 1932, but when I came into the work, Brother Nee purposely told me the details concerning those ten years. In the first four or five years the number attending the meetings was increasing. This increase was due to the spontaneous practice of the group meetings. In the beginning there was not a large meeting. But after ten years the situation changed. From 1927 through 1932 the church in Shanghai grew in size to about one hundred. After the number reached one hundred, the rate of increase became very low.
In 1933 I began to serve in Shanghai. Eventually, Brother Nee committed to me the responsibility for the church and the work. On the one hand, I was very busy, but on the other hand, from today’s point of view, I was not very busy. First of all, I gave a message on the Lord’s Day. At that time the main thing was the Lord’s Day morning message meeting. If the message was good, the meeting would be a success; if the message was not good, the meeting would be a failure. Thank the Lord, to some extent the messages I gave were a success. Every Lord’s Day morning I gave a message. The people and Brother Nee were happy. I also was happy. When I was young, I put my whole being into my speaking. Today I cannot speak in such a way. At that time I did not need a microphone. I would speak for an hour and ten minutes, and my whole being would be exhausted. Consequently, I needed the entire next day to rest. Therefore, on Mondays I was quite free.
The second thing I did was to take care of the weekly meetings, mainly the prayer meeting and a brothers’ fellowship meeting. The brothers’ fellowship meeting was for the practice of 1 Corinthians 14. Because all the brothers were priests, the meeting had no chairman or clergy. Even though I was not charged to take the lead in that meeting, I still was there unconsciously taking the lead.
The third thing I did was to visit people. Although I rarely went out to visit people, and people rarely came to fellowship with me, I did visit, fellowship, and contact the saints on occasion. I also took care of the correspondence.
By studying the past history and our present situation, I have realized that if we had had the way of the group meetings in 1933, we could have gained several times as many people as we gained at that time. This would have made us very busy.
According to our history, whenever a church reached an attendance of one hundred, the rate of increase became reduced. The reason for this is that after attaining that number, the principle of meeting in groups was annulled. We began to trust in the big meetings and began to do everything to support, maintain, enrich, and uplift the big meetings. Everything was for the big meetings. This is absolutely against the biblical principle. The increase does not come through the big meetings. When there is a very good, spiritual speaker, the attendance in the big meetings will increase. But any Christian body that depends on such a speaker will suffer quite a loss when that speaker dies. That is not the Lord’s way.
In mainland China before I went to Taiwan, we did not have group meetings. We did call some smaller meetings “home meetings,” but in actuality they were not group meetings. After we began the work in Taiwan, we began to practice the group meetings very much. When we first went to the island of Taiwan from mainland China, the number of saints throughout the island was from three to five hundred. However, in just five years, from 1949 to 1954, the total number of saints on the island reached forty thousand. It was at that juncture that Brother T. Austin-Sparks was invited to visit us. During his visit, a few of the young co-workers under my training were negatively influenced by him. This caused a turmoil among us. After the turmoil, in approximately 1958, the practice of group meetings nearly ceased, and the rate of increase was much reduced. The rate of increase that we experienced from 1949 to 1954 has never been regained, even until today.
We all must realize that our destiny depends on how to have group meetings. If we do not practice the group meetings, our rate of increase will remain very low. We may be busy in many things each day, even with meetings here and there, but it will mostly be in vain because the increase will be less than about ten percent a year. This is the reason that we must endeavor to form the group meetings.
From now on I will practice my work in a way very different from the way I practiced in the past seven and a half years. In those years I was the coach, giving instructions to the saints and teaching the principles and never practicing myself. But as I have observed the situation, I have realized that if I do not practice, it will be difficult for us to have a definite beginning. I look to the Lord very much that He will give us a new start.
This new practice will not conflict with the present church life or with the present way. The saints do not need to stop going to the prayer meeting or the other meetings. They should still keep going to all the regular meetings. But in addition to the regular meetings of the church, there is the need for some to pick up the burden and form new groups.
To form the new groups, first you should pray, asking the Lord to give you a companion. If you pray, the Lord may lead you to go to the brother sitting next to you. As you go to him and tell him of your intention, the Spirit may confirm your work and inspire him to join you. Then the two of you will become a group. The first thing the two of you must do in your group meeting is to get yourselves closely joined in spirit and in your environment.
In the church life today we often pretend that we know each other. Truthfully speaking, I do not know many of the saints. I do not know the names of many of the saints. In some cases I know the first name, but I do not know the last name. I may know the names of certain saints, but I do not know how many children they have. This illustrates the fact that we do not have a close, thorough fellowship with one another. We must pick up the burden to form the group meetings in a new way. First, according to the Lord’s leading, you must get a few companions. You and your companions must get to know each other thoroughly. You must know each companion’s age, the name of his wife, the number and ages of his children, the schools the children attend, and so forth. In other messages I pointed out that the first thing in the group meeting is fellowship so that all the members of the group may know each other in an up-to-date way.
The wife of a certain brother may be sick in bed, but not many of the saints may be aware of this because we do not have the fellowship in a group meeting. If we were in a group meeting, the first thing I would ask is how the other members of the group are doing. In the past we concealed our real situation, not letting others know what our situation was. We covered our real situation and pretended to be something else. By such a practice we deceived ourselves, and we also deceived others. As a result, we did not know each other’s situation. We pretended to know each other; actually, we remained separate. In this kind of situation it is impossible to be in one accord with the real impact. This was the reason that when we went out to visit people, they could easily realize that we were not one. To have the one accord and the impact, we must intimately know one another through fellowship.
In forming a group, the first step is to get a companion. The second step is to pray together and fellowship together in order to know each other in a thorough and intimate way. You may pray, “Lord, what is the next step that You want us to take?” When you ask the Lord such a question, I assure you that He will not tell you to go out and visit people. I say this based on my study of the new way in the past seven and a half years. If you met with your companion last night, and you meet together again this morning, the first thing to do is to let your companion know what happened to you between last night and this morning. In this way you and your companion maintain a thorough knowledge of each other. As a result, you will become one, and a real love and care will come in between you. The Lord may then lead you to get four or five additional companions.
After this, the Lord may lead you to pray for a period of time. At this time do not go out; just pray. After praying for two weeks, you may be ready, and the Lord may lead you to go out to visit people. During the period of prayer, you should pray, asking the Lord to lead you to the ones whom you should visit. The Lord may lead you to study not only your own relatives, cousins, in-laws, neighbors, classmates, friends, and colleagues but also the close acquaintances of the other members of the group. The Lord will show you the ones who need to be visited. This is to knock on warm doors. In going, do not go by yourself or according to your feeling. You should not go according to your decision; rather, you should go by the group. At most, two or three from your group should go, but in order to find out who should go, you need to study your candidates and pray.
The instructions I am giving now concerning the new way are different from what I spoke in Taiwan. In Taiwan I charged you to visit people and to get them baptized immediately. But today I do not encourage you to get people baptized in a quick way. Also, when you visit people, do not speak too quickly to them concerning the Bible, God, Christ, or salvation. If you do, people may think that you are too religious and that they cannot come up to your standard. They may be turned away by your enthusiasm. In your first visit with someone who has been recommended to you, do not stay very long; the shorter the visit, the better. A short visit will give the one who is visited a good taste so that he will welcome another visit. Do not spoil the taste of those whom you visit. On the first visit do not speak too much concerning spiritual things.
As you visit a second or third time, you may begin to say something concerning Christ. You may need to go a few times before you are able to get a person saved. The principle is: the slower, the better; the slower it is, the safer it is. The slower the pace is, the more certain it is that you can gain that person.
We have said that if we could get one real fruit in a year through our contact, that would be a great matter. It may even be possible to get one person every three months. Generally speaking, one gained in this way may be steady.
Baptism also should not be done in a quick way. Try to avoid baptizing people in a bathtub. This does not mean that it should not be done at all; it depends on the situation. Actually, any place where there is water — a baptismal tank, a bathtub, a pool, a river, or the sea — is good for baptizing people, but when you go out to visit people in a regular way, you do not need to baptize people in their bathtubs in a hurry.
When a new one is saved, it may be best not to speak to him immediately concerning the church. You should continue to meet with him in his home or in your group meeting. Then as the Lord leads, speak with him about the church and bring him to the church meeting.
I would also propose that, if possible, the church set up special meetings for the new ones periodically, one for the Caucasians, another for the Chinese-speakers, and another for the Spanish-speakers. You can bring your new ones to the special meetings. Several groups can bring their new ones to such a meeting. In that special meeting the first thing to do is to give them a short message concerning baptism and to baptize the new ones. Because they are baptized in a baptistery with a number of people surrounding them, they will feel very stately. There should be a joyful celebration with many praises to the Lord for their baptism. Everyone should shake hands with the newly baptized ones. After this you can have the Lord’s table with all the baptized ones and fellowship with them about the Lord’s table. If we practice in this way, we will surely be able to bring Caucasians into the church life.
In the practice of the group meetings, as much as possible the Caucasian saints should not be grouped together with the Chinese saints. Even someone who is not Caucasian by race may be Caucasian in principle because either he was born in America, he speaks typical American English, or his spouse is Caucasian. This is only a principle; it is not absolute. Whatever way allows us to have a success, we will take that way. In principle, all the Caucasian brothers and sisters should group with Caucasians. They should go to visit Caucasians, not Chinese or Spanish. The rate of increase among the Chinese may be higher than among the Caucasians. For example, we may be able to gain ten new ones among the Chinese within two weeks, but it may take three months to gain two Caucasians. Still, this labor is worthwhile. Let the Chinese saints group with the Chinese and go to visit the Chinese. Let the Spanish saints visit the Spanish, and let the Korean saints visit the Koreans.
In a larger church that has a Chinese-speaking meeting, there should also be a Chinese baptism meeting in the way that I described earlier. In the beginning such a meeting may not take place every week. But eventually, such a special meeting for baptism and the practice of the Lord’s table with the new ones should be conducted every week. In a place where there is only one baptistery, the different meetings by the different groups could be scheduled for different times. Of course, this is just a general idea; for the details we need to pray.
According to the New Testament, there are apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers (Eph. 4:11). For the long run the group meetings may need special, spiritual shepherding or teaching. After a few months one group may increase to more than fifteen. At that time the group can divide into two groups. All the brothers who formed the group initially can teach and shepherd, but we cannot expect that the new ones will be able to go very fast. Therefore, we must consider the need for shepherding and teaching. Eventually, when we have many groups, there will be a great need for shepherds and teachers. We must study the situation and pray very much about the coming days.
When the number of group meetings is very large, the care for the groups cannot be done in a general way. Although I hate to use the word leaders, after much consideration I find it difficult to avoid the need for leaders. According to our present practice, we have only elders, but if the number of groups in a locality grows to be a big number, the relatively small number of elders will not be able to take care of the entire church.
In the long run there will be a great need, but at the present time we must take the initial step to form the groups in a simple way. In the new start with the group meetings, the remaining aspects of the church’s present practice can remain the same. While we are practicing the new group meetings, we should still maintain the regular meetings of the church.
