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Prayer: Lord, do teach us how to pray concerning Your move in the matter of grouping. We need Your guidance. We do not want to pray in vain words. We desire to touch Your heart and to touch the crucial items. Lord, do cleanse us again with Your precious blood that we may have a clear conscience with a crystal clear spirit in our fellowship. Give us step by step all the things that we need in order to go on in this matter of the groups. We do need Your leading that we may know what we should do in all the churches in Your recovery concerning this matter. When we come to the practical steps, it seems that we do not know anything. Lord, how should we do this? This morning we are desperate, looking to You for Your clear leading. Lord, defeat the enemy. We hide ourselves in You. Amen.
I feel that we should consider taking the way of groups not as something new but merely as an additional part of the work in the recovery. In our speaking concerning the vital groups, we do not need to use terms such as the old way or the new way. Just as a country forms an army, the Lord’s recovery is forming an army. To form this army, we do not need to stop anything that is presently existing in the church life. We can let everything continue just as it is.
Today to form the vital groups is very practical. We are like a country without an army. Now we feel the need to strengthen our “country.” To build up our country, we need an army. To form the army, in every church we can gather the volunteers together. Then we need to look into how to form the groups. We also need to consider who the leaders should be. Then we need to get into the practical situation step by step. In forming and practicing the groups, the principles should be the same in every church, but the particular steps do not need to be the same. The church in one locality may take a way that is appropriate to their situation, whereas the church in another locality may take a different way. In principle, however, everything should be initiated by the elders.
At first I held the concept that the saints in the churches should form their own groups, but after considering the matter further I feel that that may not be the proper way. I feel that the leading ones in every church should gather the willing ones and give them a word of explanation to cause them to know what we intend to do and how we are going to do it. Then they should pray and fellowship together for some time concerning the formation of the groups. This should be something besides the normal church activities. This means that we do not do things without prayer. We should pray and fellowship and cause everything to be understood by all the concerned saints. Then we should form the groups with seven or eight members in each group, and we should also select leaders for each group.
If we stress the matter of leadership too much, we will fall into a snare. We should simply tell the leaders that they should fulfill the responsibility of a leader without assuming the position of a leader. In the world people everywhere like to assume the leadership. However, in the New Testament, although the Lord did appoint the twelve apostles (Matt. 10:1-4; Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16), eventually, in Matthew 23:8 He said something that seemingly contradicted His appointment: “You, do not be called Rabbi, for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers.” Here the Lord seemed to diminish the apostleship and consider all the apostles merely as brothers. In contrast, at the beginning of nearly all his Epistles, Paul declares that he is an apostle. If one has the capacity, the burden, and the commission from the Lord, there may be the need for him to assume the apostleship. If those who do not have the capacity, the burden, or the commission from the Lord assume the apostleship, the situation will be very disorderly. At Paul’s time there was such a disorderly situation. Because of this, in writing his Epistles Paul had to assert his apostleship. The Corinthians questioned Paul’s apostleship, and the Judaizers claimed to be apostles in order to annul Paul’s apostleship (1 Cor. 9:1-3 and footnote 3 on verse 1, Recovery Version; 2 Cor. 10:12, 18; 11:5, 12-15, 21-23a; 12:11; 13:3, 5-6). Thus, there was a need for Paul to vindicate his apostleship. However, the leaders of the groups do not need to assume the leadership. They simply need to take care of their responsibility and fulfill their duty without having the thought and feeling that they are leaders. To assume the leadership is related to the works of the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:6).
Our experiences in the past and our experiments in the recent years have led us to conclude that, although the church life should be organic, by the Spirit, in the Spirit, and with the Spirit, still there is the need for some arrangement. This understanding has been strongly confirmed by the last seven and a half years. During these years, I taught that the church life should be organic, without any arrangement under any leadership. However, concerning the practice of the God-ordained way, the coming out has not been as satisfactory as it should be. This may show that there is the need to have the leadership in a proper way.
According to what principle should the groups be formed? We should not form the groups merely according to geography or according to the saints’ age, and we surely should not do it according to preference. The way of choosing according to self-interest always brings in death.
In the beginning we can set up the groups with seven or eight members. Then within a year each group should double, at which point they should be divided, one group of sixteen becoming two groups of eight.
The most necessary requirement for grouping together is intimacy. After a number of weeks the seven or eight members of a group should become one person in a thorough intimacy. Then within this inner circle of intimacy the group should practice the fellowship and also the feeding. Gospel preaching is not something to be practiced in the inner circle. The matter of fellowshipping requires a great deal of study and practice because we either do not have fellowship, or we come together merely to gossip. Actually, gossip is not fellowship. It is full of leaven and corruption. We need to avoid any kind of gossip.
We also need to practice intercession, that is, to pray for one another. Intercession depends on and is based on fellowship. Following intercession we need to practice the mutual shepherding and caring for one another. Shepherding is implied in the caring for one another. Then we should practice teaching one another in mutuality. This kind of teaching is very similar to feeding. We should not have just one man teaching; rather, we should practice mutual teaching through mutual inquiry and mutual answering. If we allow only one man to teach, the rest will not be able to practice prophesying. The way of mutual teaching is a foundation of the practice of prophesying. In the group meetings we need to build up all these things.
We will need approximately four months to practice all these things. Then we will practice the last item, the matter of going out to visit people for the gospel. For this we need much practice. We need to study in order to know people’s need and to find out to whom we should go. Altogether, we will need approximately five months to form the groups, to be trained, and to practice. I believe that if we will do this when we go out, we will be effective.
If possible, we may keep the principle that we will visit people only by recommendation. We need to ask the saints to give us the names of their relatives and acquaintances. Some recommendations can even be made by correspondence. Then we can arrange to call or contact the recommended ones.
Even though gaining Caucasians is somewhat difficult, by all these ways I believe that we can do it. No one can blockade us. According to our present practice, it is possible for those in organized Christianity to blockade us. Actually, they have blockaded us already in Orange County. If we will take the way of groups, I believe that we can jump out of the blockade.
The matter of bringing the new ones into contact with the church should be carried out according to the situation. We may feel that certain new ones are ready to attend a church meeting after only a short time. Some new ones may even ask to come to a meeting. I hope that the church meetings will be greatly improved. I believe that the Lord’s present move to form the groups will inspire and uplift the church life.
In the forming of the groups we need to take care of the matter of age. Those who are too old should remain at home to pray for the groups. We may liken the practice of the vital groups to the forming of an army. Not every citizen is suitable to join the army. We need to let the church know that the vital groups are like an army. Those who are burdened are encouraged to participate, but they need to consider whether their joining of the groups will help the groups or not. If not, it is better that they remain home and pray for the groups.
For the first stages of the teaching in the groups, it may be profitable to use Life Lessons. The forty-eight life lessons will be sufficient for one year. In order to use these lessons properly in the group meetings, we will need much training. We should not let the group meetings go on without any guidelines; there must be some regulation.
The length of the group meetings should be approximately ninety minutes or, at the most, two hours. We can divide the meetings into four sections, each section lasting about twenty minutes. The first twenty minutes should be for fellowship, and the succeeding twenty-minute sections should be for interceding, shepherding, and teaching, respectively. The group meetings will not be like the general church meetings; rather, they will be somewhat like an army. We can train all the members of the groups, but we may not be able to train all the members in the church life. Some may not be able to receive the training.
When Brother Nee wrote the three volumes of The Spiritual Man, he was seriously ill with tuberculosis. He wrote those three volumes in approximately one year, during 1926 and 1927. After he finished, he was exhausted, and he was prepared to die. At least in part his serious illness was due to his labor in writing that book. Then one day Brother Nee was healed by the Lord through a genuine divine healing. According to my knowledge, in his work for the Lord Brother Nee rarely had any peace; on the contrary, he was continually struggling and fighting against all kinds of troubles.
All the serving ones must learn to be diligent, doing everything with diligence but not doing anything in haste. To serve the Lord, we must be like soldiers in the military service. Once a person enters into the military service, he is put under regulations twenty-four hours a day. From the time he rises in the morning to the time he goes to bed in the evening, everything is regulated. In the Lord’s recovery, if we do not exercise and conduct ourselves properly, we will be spoiled. According to our present way of doing things, if the recovery were a commercial business, we would not succeed. In the field of commerce, everything is a battle. However, in the recovery we may not have any sense that we are in a battle. It seems that in everything we take it easy. This is not right. In the spiritual sense, in the Lord’s work we should be like those who are competing in business in order to make a profit (Luke 19:13b).
