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The purpose of the practice of the new way is to practically carry out the gospel, the truth, life, and the church, which God has commissioned us with. Our hope is that the new way would gain new ones and that the new ones would walk in the new way.
Through more than sixty years of experience, during which we have carefully analyzed the practices of the Christian denominations and have studied the divine revelation again and again, we have found the way that is according to the Bible and ordained by God. This way is testified to and is according to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and it is most effective. We call it the “new way.” Over the past two thousand years there have been some who have seemingly taken this way but have not considered it to be the unique way ordained by God. Practically speaking, this new way has four steps. First, we go out knocking on doors and visiting people to preach the gospel and to lead them to be saved and baptized. After the experiments in the first term of the full-time training, this point has been proven to be workable. We have all heard the testimonies of the full-time trainees. There are even some who gained one hundred twenty people in a little more than two months and brought them to be baptized. This is a tremendous accomplishment.
Second, we must lead people into the knowledge of the truth. When we speak of the truth, we do not mean the ordinary, shallow truth spoken by most people but the truth revealed in the Bible concerning God’s eternal economy. God’s eternal economy is that God in His Divine Trinity passed through various processes to dispense Himself into men so that they may be regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified to become the many members of Christ who constitute the Body of Christ as the corporate expression of God on earth. After we go out door-knocking to preach the gospel, we must establish meetings in the homes of all the newly baptized ones and begin to teach them this truth. This truth is the essence and the center of the Bible. This truth concerns what God intends to obtain according to His heart’s desire. Christianity, however, has continually ignored this truth.
From my youth until the present, I have been studying the Bible for more than sixty-one years. The more I have studied it, the more I know the mystery it contains. This mystery is about God’s eternal economy, which is truly a great matter. Within God there is an economy; by passing through various processes, He intends to dispense Himself into His chosen and redeemed people, uniting them with Himself as one entity and constituting them into the Body of Christ as the expression of God on earth. The saints should all study this truth thoroughly. They should understand it to the extent that they can open their mouth and easily teach it to the new ones. They should also make every new one someone who teaches others after just a few months of home meetings. If they do this, then in a very short time many people will know the truth of this mystery and all the other truths of the Bible. This is what we mean by our commission concerning the truth.
The truth includes all the riches of God with light, life, power, and all spiritual things. When we teach the truth to people, they will spontaneously be fed and supplied with life, and they will be able to grow in life. The life spoken of in the Bible refers to the uncreated, eternal life of God. This life is not something outside of or apart from God. This life is just God Himself. Therefore, this life is the Spirit, and the Spirit is Christ. When we say that we minister life to people, we mean that we minister the Spirit and Christ to them. Life, the Spirit, and Christ are all appositives referring to one substantial matter — the eternal life. Therefore, we should all jump with rejoicing because we have obtained this eternal life.
God, however, does not stop here. He has a unique purpose in dispensing His life into us. His intention is that we, the regenerated ones, may be sanctified, renewed, transformed, and conformed to the image of His firstborn Son and that we may be constituted as His Body, the church, the golden lampstands appearing in each locality to express His glory. Thus, our fourth commission is to build up the new ones — those who were baptized, have been edified in the truth, have grown in life, and are being transformed — into the Body of Christ as the corporate expression of God.
Most people consider Christianity a religion. In the Bible religion is a negative term, not a positive one. In other words, the Bible actually depreciates religion; religion has no position in the Bible. Therefore, is so-called Christianity really a religion? According to the orthodox, scriptural teaching, Christianity is actually not a religion. The suffix -ianity was brought in by translators. In the Bible there is only “Christ” without the “-ianity.” Christ is a living person who is the embodiment of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — and who passed through death and resurrection to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit in order that we can breathe Him in and be filled and occupied by Him. I believe that when we meet together, He is with us, and He is also moving in many ways, giving grace to each one of us. This is the Christ mentioned in the Bible and the Christ whom we preach, believe, worship, and serve. He is not a religion, not even so-called Christianity; rather, He is the living Christ as the contents of our faith.
On the other hand, according to the degraded and deformed situation of Christianity, it has truly become a great religion, of which the largest sect is Catholicism, and the second largest is Protestantism. In Protestantism there are many denominations and sects. This is a universally recognized fact. May we all understand that we do not represent any kind or any sect of Christianity. We represent the church of God, which is the church as the living Body of Christ constituted with all the saints, that is, with all those who have His eternal life.
If we want to carry out the gospel, truth, life, and the church, then we must rely on the Holy Spirit and the word of God, and we must pray with all prayer and petition while laboring diligently. Over these past sixty years we have not been satisfied with the result of our experience. If we look back at the past two thousand years, the result of what Christianity has practiced has also been disappointing. Now the Lord has given us a definite new way for accomplishing His commission to us, which is the way of door-knocking, visiting people, establishing home meetings, teaching the truth, and bringing people into the building up of the church.
However, this kind of practice needs sufficient manpower. This is due to the fact that door-knocking is not an easy matter, visiting people is not a simple thing, teaching the truth and ministering life are even more difficult, and bringing people into the Body of Christ to live together in the practical church life is the most difficult of all. These matters will require not only time but also manpower. Therefore, after much prayer and study before the Lord, we have seen that if we are to carry out the Lord’s commission, we will need three practical areas of coordination. First, those who meet regularly must produce one out of every twenty to be a full-time serving one who is supported by the other nineteen. Second, they must produce one out of every four to be a door-knocker who would spend at least two hours every week going out for door-knocking, caring for others, teaching the truth, fellowshipping with others, and ministering life. Third, in addition to the general offerings, everyone must give everything they have to support this move, not just with prayer but even more with monetary supply. This will be the strongest backing for this move.
Under normal circumstances every full-timer who sets aside the Lord’s Day for meeting and goes out six days for door-knocking and visiting people two to three hours a day will be able to gain at least one person each week for baptism. Those who go out two hours each week will be able to gain one person for baptism every two months. According to this principle, we will have a fourfold increase yearly. If we are faithful, this will not be merely wishful thinking but will be something attainable. I hope that we all will receive this commission and begin offering all that we can and all that we have for the gospel and for human souls.
The practice of the new way is not simple. Take door-knocking as an example. One person’s door-knocking is different from another person’s door-knocking. When a street-sweeper goes door-knocking, the feeling he gives others in his demeanor will be different from that of a college professor who goes door-knocking. In the same way, when the elders take the lead to go out door-knocking, they will be somewhat more weighty than most of the saints going out by themselves. Therefore, the elders must learn to lead. They should not be elders as in the former days, only sitting at a desk in the business office and busying themselves with the miscellaneous affairs of the church. Instead, they should go out every day to knock on doors, care for people, teach people, and perfect people. Moreover, according to the Bible, the elders should not lord it over the flock but should become the leading sheep as patterns of the flock (1 Pet. 5:3). Likewise, the co-workers should take the lead to go out door-knocking. There should be no silent spectators among us. On the contrary, we should actively carry out these principles of twenty people producing one full-timer and four people producing at least one door-knocker. Moreover, all the saints should rise up to support, pray, and coordinate fully with monetary contributions so that the door-knockers, especially the full-time serving ones, can go forward with all their might without having to worry about their livelihood. Simultaneously, the co-workers and elders should take the lead to preach the gospel of the Lord’s recovery, and all the saints should rise up as one man to allow the Lord to have the free way in this age to advance His economy.
I am certain that if we faithfully go to practice and labor, the great project of evangelizing Taiwan in five years will be a success under the Lord’s gracious leading. According to our original calculations, we would need two thousand five hundred full-timers for this evangelization project. Yet after our observations and experiences, at present I would say that we need only one thousand to evangelize the entire island of Taiwan in the remaining few years. The brothers and sisters must pick up the burden to expend their energy by praying and offering their money for this matter so that the move to evangelize Taiwan, which began in 1985, can be accomplished by 1990.
If some full-time serving ones from other countries can participate in the move to evangelize and “churchize” Taiwan in five years, the results and the glory will be promising. We now have people of every color from the six major continents on earth who have entered into this move. This is a very encouraging matter. I hope that the saints in all the local churches would say Amen from the depths of their being to the Lord’s new move today and that they would put forth their best effort to successfully carry out the unique, new way given to us by the Lord.
