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The Lord wants us to practice His ordained way with the ultimate result of bringing the church life completely into the homes. The Bible gives us such a pattern in Acts. After the apostles passed away, however, the church, affected by various tests, fell into the condition of today’s Christianity. Instead of having the church life in the homes, the believers hold big meetings in large worship halls with one person speaking and all the rest listening. If the big meetings were eliminated, Christianity would be finished. We hope that according to what we have seen in the Bible, we could bring the church life back into the homes in the shortest time possible. In this way the church will still be able to prosper and go on even without the big meetings.
Just like a society or a nation, the basic factor of the church’s health is the family. If each family is strong, all the problems will be solved. If the families are not doing well, then the problems in society cannot be solved, and the proper persons cannot be produced to be the steadying strength of society. If a nation or society wants to produce useful people, it cannot rely merely on education. Rather, it must rely on healthy families because the family is its supporting strength.
Let us take Taiwan as an example. The progress of these past few years has been possible for the undeniable reason that the families are healthy. For the sake of building up the families and perfecting their children, the parents in Taiwan all go to work early and come home late, labor diligently, and live thriftily to have some savings for supporting their families. They mainly pay attention to the education of their children, considering the perfecting of their children to be one of the most important things in life. They even do certain things themselves in order to be a pattern to their children. This is because they know that if the family is not strong, their children will not be able to receive a sufficiently high level of education to have a secure future. Their concept of society is not necessarily strong, nor are they always patriotic, but their concept of the family is deep and strong. They firmly believe that the family is the stabilizing force of everything, the cause and factor of progress, and that if they do not take care of the family, then society and the country will be finished. This is an important factor in Taiwan’s becoming stable and prosperous.
The main function of the family is not to beget children. Begetting children is not a problem; people start begetting as soon as they are married. After the begetting, however, the nourishing and educating are great sciences. A proper family must carry out the begetting, the nourishing, and the educating simultaneously. Although we rely on the schools for a large portion of the education of our children, it is difficult for the schools to produce good students without the support of good families. Good students are cultivated by good families.
Nearly the entire supporting strength of all Christianity today is in the big meetings. They invite famous people to preach sermons and hire pastors with degrees, special talents, and eloquence who can gather, contact, and organize people. The result is that the strength of the meetings and the shepherding of the believers depends solely on the pastor. If the pastor leaves, the meetings collapse, and the believers lose their care and nourishing. Therefore, this practice of relying only on the big meetings is truly not the proper way revealed in the Bible. The Bible shows us that the proper church life must be carried out and built up in the homes.
The first step for practicing the new way, the God-ordained way, is to knock on doors and bring people to be saved and baptized. The second step is to set up meetings in the new ones’ homes to feed and care for them. We can say that the practice of these first two steps has been very successful. So far, we have knocked on the doors of more than one hundred thousand homes, baptized more than six thousand people, and set up approximately one thousand nine hundred home meetings with more than three thousand people meeting regularly. In other words, of the newly baptized ones, more than half are meeting regularly in the homes. On the one hand, this proves that the new way is workable, and on the other hand, it shows us how great the need is. Now the churches in all the localities are rising up to coordinate and receive training in the new way. This will meet the need considerably.
After the successful practice of the first two steps of the new way, we must go on to the third step, which is to lead the new ones in the home meetings to advance in the truth and to grow in life. This is not just nourishing but teaching. Because this step affects the constitution of the entire church life, its importance is evident. Leading a big meeting or a training is not a problem for us, because for many years we already have had much experience. When we speak of leading the home meetings, however, I am afraid that we do not know what to do. Although the principles are the same for both big meetings and small meetings, the practices that we learned in the past can easily be used to take care of the big meetings but are very inadequate to take care of the weekly home meetings. Therefore, we need to learn and spend much time in the study of how to successfully take the third step of the new way.
With respect to the fourth step, we hope that after six months of teaching in life and truth, we can care for and perfect the new ones to truly, practically, and fully have the church life. In other words, the fourth step is to bring the new ones into the full knowledge of the church, that they would intrinsically know what the church is and enter into the practical church life. By that time the church life will be completely built up in the homes. This is our goal.
There are a few things we must learn before we go to lead the home meetings. First, the saints raised up in the localities must have a clear burden from the Lord to consecrate two or three hours every week to Him. This time is not for empty running or aimless working but for definitely going to lead and care for two home meetings, spending less than one hour in each home. Each home meeting should, at the most, last for fifty minutes; we must learn to be economical in our use of time.
In the past the big meetings choked the service of the saints, disabling their spirit for service and preventing the release of their desire to serve. Now the practice of the new way gives us an outlet. Unless we do not have a heart to serve, the six thousand new saints in two thousand households are a good opportunity for us to learn how to serve. We must pick up the burden in a definite way and not in a way that is careless or without much consideration. We must have a willing heart to really learn how to do this.
I hope that the full-time trainees would take the lead and help all the saints in the churches who have a serving heart to take the proper way. The trainees’ function is to lead the saints and not to replace them. The saints should, on the one hand, follow the trainees to learn something and, on the other hand, follow the Lord’s leading to receive a burden from Him to take care of two specific home meetings. Once the saints have received the burden, they should not carry out this burden halfway or in an inconsistent manner. They must go again and again to nourish and care for the new ones to such an extent that they understand and are completely sure about the new ones’ situation so that they know how to bring them on.
Furthermore, the elders must be careful to not constantly change those who lead or take care of a home meeting. Otherwise, this will be like changing a child’s nursing mother so frequently that the child loses its sense of security and has a hard time growing normally. Just as children need a sense of security, a home meeting also needs a sense of stability so that the new ones will feel they can trust the church and be willing to receive its leading to go on. We all love the Lord, have a heart to serve Him, and are willing to consecrate two or three hours. Therefore, we should solemnly receive the burden from the Lord to lead and care for the new ones just as we lead and care for our children. Actually, they are our children. We should pray for them and care for everything about them. This is the first matter of our preparation.
Second, we must learn to nourish. When we go to lead a home meeting, we are not just attending a meeting but are leading and taking care of the new ones. In other words, they are our children, so we must feed and nurse them as a mother and also teach and exhort them as a father. We must bear all their problems. Some might refuse to do this, saying, “I cannot bear the problems even in my own family, so how can I bear the problems of two other families?” I dare not speak about any other matter, but concerning this matter, I have much experience. When I was young, the Lord uprooted me from the world and gave me a heavy burden every day. It has been fifty-four years now. We may think that we would be able to relax if we could lay our burden down, but we are wrong. If we reject the Lord’s burden, then Satan, the king of the world, will put his burden on us. If you ask me what you should do, my answer is this: The Lord is the way. You should go to Him to seek and rely on Him.
Furthermore, the more burdens we receive from the Lord, the more blessings we will have. When our burdens are gone, the Lord’s blessing will stop. Two years ago there were more than six hundred churches in the Lord’s recovery around the world. Now we have increased to almost nine hundred. This is the Lord’s blessing. In the past three months we have gained six thousand people through our door-knocking and have established two thousand home meetings. This, too, is the Lord’s blessing. Thus, when the Lord gives us a burden, He also gives us a blessing. The question is whether or not we are willing to receive the burden. When we receive the Lord’s burden, we will also receive His blessing. If we wish to not be busy, to have no burdens, or to spend our days in a leisurely way, then we will live our days without the Lord’s blessing. Our attitude should be that we are not afraid of being busy. We only fear not having “children.” Bearing children is a heavy burden, yet it also brings much blessing. Therefore, we should not be afraid; rather, we should pick up the burden to care for our “children.”
Third, we must practically care for the needs of the new ones. In the past we did not place much emphasis on such things as the so-called healing of the sick and casting out of demons; however, these things are definitely in the Bible. Sometimes when we go out to preach the gospel and lead people to be saved and baptized, some of them will have this kind of need, and we should care for them in these matters. There is no need for us to go out purposely to do these things, nor should we be too passive, but always seeking the leading. The principle of the matter lies with “whenever.” Whenever someone has a demon, we should cast the demon out; whenever someone is sick, we should heal him. Do not be afraid when you meet a demon. You should just cast him out boldly. When you meet with illness, do not be worried; just lay your hands on the sick one and pray, seeking the Lord’s leading to heal the sick one. The Bible clearly says that the Lord bore our sicknesses and carried our sorrows (Isa. 53:4-5; Matt. 8:17). He is our great Physician, who is able to heal all our illnesses. Whenever we meet people with these needs, we should do these things to serve them. Although it is wrong to care just for these things, it is also a shortcoming and a mistake to intentionally avoid doing them.
Fourth, when we go to lead the home meetings, we ourselves first must be the kind of person that we want them to be. This means that if we lead the new ones to read the Bible and pray, yet we ourselves do not have the habit of reading the Bible and praying, then that is not acceptable. We cannot lead others to read the Bible and pray unless we ourselves do so. In the same way, how can we lead and exhort others to forsake the world if we ourselves love the world? If we tell new ones that the Lord today is the life-giving Spirit within them and that they should follow Him — the Spirit — in their spirit, then we ourselves must be such people — those who live in the spirit every day and walk according to the Spirit. This is not just a matter of practicing what we preach or of being a pattern; instead, it is that we ourselves are such people in our constitution. We love the Lord, fellowship with Him, long for His Word, enjoy praying, obey the Spirit, walk according to the Spirit, forsake the world as if it were dung, and live wholly for the Lord. If we are such people when we go to lead and care for a home meeting, then after a short while, we will produce a great effect on the new ones.
New believers, especially young people, really like to imitate spiritual people. When I was first saved, I saw an old pastor whom I really admired in my heart, so I imitated his every move and action. My sister studied theology in Nanking. When she returned, she told me that at the seminary she met many spiritual people who pursued the Lord. They all spoke gently and elegantly, walked slowly with a Bible in their hands, and after walking a few steps they would look up to heaven. By nature I am a quick, impatient, and impulsive person. After hearing my sister’s fellowship, I wanted to learn to speak cautiously and walk slowly. This illustrates how every saved one wants to imitate the good pattern of spiritual people. As long as we are proper people, when we go to visit two households for forty to fifty minutes every week, we will have a great influence on them. They might not say anything, but unconsciously they will be affected and will even pay attention to and imitate our way of dressing.
The most important thing in leading a meeting is our person; people bear children who are just like themselves. We learn Chinese ethical education from the time we are small, not according to how much our parents teach us but mainly according to what kind of pattern they show us. They live altogether according to the Chinese ethical teachings, so they unconsciously plant those things into us until it even becomes very hard for us to change ourselves. Therefore, I exhort the brothers and sisters that since they have picked up the burden to lead the home meetings, they must pray earnestly before the Lord for the new ones and also consider their own condition to see whether they are the right people. We should not merely have a heart. We must also, more importantly, be right, and we must be the kind of person we want the new ones to be.
Fifth, when we take the lead, we must definitely not take it upon ourselves to be the head and do everything by ourselves. We may do this in the big meetings but definitely not in the home meetings. The home meetings do not have a specific person as the head. Therefore, although we go to lead the meetings, we must take a firm stand and let the new ones know that we are just meeting and participating together with them. This is just as if we were playing ball; we play together with them instead of just being a coach to teach them how to play without playing ourselves. Of course, we are more experienced, so sometimes when they do not know how to go on, we must “coach” them at the right time by asking them to sing, read the Bible, pray, or testify. We must always remember, however, to give the meeting to them. In this way they will learn how to meet after just a few meetings and will be able to function in the home meetings.
I repeat, when you lead the home meetings, you absolutely must not have the attitude that you have the approval from the church to go to the home meetings as a teacher, coach, or head. If you go with such an attitude, the home meetings will be killed. You certainly must learn to meet with them and to bring them on as you meet. At the same time you must be careful not to bring the atmosphere of the big meetings into the home meetings. Big meetings should be carried out in an orderly manner. In contrast, home meetings are characterized by their disorderliness, and it does not matter even if the meetings drag on a little. We really must learn to meet with the new ones just like a family and talk about things together, leading and helping them as the need arises but without replacing them. Of course, we certainly must pay attention to the time and avoid meeting for too long.
Sixth, we must learn to sing hymns properly. Because in the past we have not paid much attention to music, the brothers and sisters have been affected and are not able to sing very well. I hope, however, that you would give more effort to learn to sing. When you go to visit new ones, it is best to bring the 100 Selected Hymns, which contains hymns chosen out of all our hymns. We do not want to just learn the hymns ourselves; we must also teach the new ones to sing. Every time we go to see them, we should teach them a hymn. We must teach the children especially, because they learn quickly. The content of the 100 Selected Hymns is rich, so while we sing, we spontaneously teach them certain truths. Thus, we must diligently learn and teach the hymns.
Seventh, we must teach the truth. When we lead the home meetings, the hardest point, which is also the most important matter, is teaching the truth. If we do not teach the truth, the home meetings will not have a center or a foundation. All the points mentioned above are peripheral matters as a preparation. The central point is to work the truth into people. This is very important. The materials concerning the truth among us are plentiful, especially the Truth Lessons, the content of which is particularly suited for use in the home meetings. We still feel, however, that the content of this book is somewhat difficult and a bit too weighty. This is why I encourage the teachers as soon as possible to select some lessons from the Truth Lessons, beginning with the experience of salvation, and compile them into suitable teaching materials to meet the needs of the home meetings.
In the same principle, when we go to teach the truth, we should not consider ourselves teachers. We go to teach, but we are not teachers. The way we teach is to read things with them. We want to give them the impression that we are also students and that at most we are students just a grade or two ahead of them who are learning the truth together with them. Before the home meetings, however, we must first study the message thoroughly and understand its content. Then when we read it together with them, we should not be inflexible but rather use all kinds of ways to read it. First, we must point out the important items and not fear repetition. In this way we will always give them a deep impression. At the same time, when we read a portion that is full of inspiration, we can also ask them to give testimonies at any time or to express their feelings and share something of the light and revelation that they themselves have touched.
Eighth, the content of the meetings must be living. The greatest lack among us is that when we read messages, we are very rigid and not at all living. When we read, at any time we should add prayer and the singing of hymns. We can also give testimonies, share our feelings, or fellowship some light at any time. We should not read on and on until people begin to nod off. If we use the way of fellowship, then we will be free and living. For example, when we read about being released, we can sing the hymn “Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom” (Hymns, #310). In this way the home meetings will be living and enlivening. Everyone will have such a good taste that they will look forward to the next meeting.
Some people may say, “We are not like the full-time serving ones, who specialize in these matters and have time to prepare thoroughly. We have our occupations, so how can we have as much energy as they have?” Yet the Bible shows that all of God’s children have only one occupation, that is, being a Christian. Not only the full-time serving ones but all of us are in this unique occupation. As long as we all have a heart to learn and practice, then we will spontaneously be able to lead the home meetings. This does not require eloquence or a special gift. This is especially the case because we are always learning, so it does not matter if we do make a mistake. Therefore, as long as we are willing to learn and practice, we will ultimately learn the secret.
I would like to encourage the older saints to not consider themselves too old to learn and practice. I am as old as you are. If we consider ourselves old and tired, then we will not want to walk or move, so we will certainly fall ill in a short time. Even though we old people struggle and fight just to live, the more we move, the stronger we are. Therefore, we should all practice going out because this is beneficial to us. If the entire church will pick up the burden for the home meetings and go out to care for others, we will not only be able to meet a huge need but will also make the church full of vitality.
In conclusion, if the church is to grow and prosper until it arrives at the condition of the early church in the Bible, in which saved ones were added to the church day by day, then we absolutely must bring the church life into the homes. In the past, because we had a hard time breaking away from the influence of Christianity, we did not pay much attention to the form of our meetings. As a result, we were slow in our multiplication and increase. Today, however, the Lord has shown us a way in the Bible. What we need to do now is to endeavor to go on according to this new way and do our best to bring the church life into the homes. This is very crucial.
In our actual practice we must go out to lead the home meetings every week. After three months we can conclude our taking the lead and try to allow the new ones to take the lead themselves. But during those first three months we must lead and teach them, causing them to learn and practice until they are able to do what we do. Now there are already some new ones who have been through this perfecting and who are going out door-knocking with us. Some even have the heart to attend the full-time training. This is a very good sign. I hope that after these next three months we will be able to let go of taking the lead in the meetings. This does not mean, however, that we stop going to them. We still must go, but the new ones themselves must take the lead. We will go on this way until we have met with them for a total of six months. Then they can completely “graduate,” and the church life will be entirely in the homes of the new ones, ensuring that the home of every new one has the normal church life and that every new one can practically bear the responsibility of the church life.
Some might wonder how it can go this fast. Yes, it can truly go this fast. We need to turn our concepts. In the past our knowledge was inadequate, but now we are in an age of advancement, and the standard of education has been raised. We must believe that the level of the new ones is also higher. In the past we felt that it was too hard to understand certain hymns, but now the new ones understand the hymns as soon as they sing them. Therefore, when we teach the new ones, we should not think that they will not be able to understand and therefore consider waiting until another time to tell them about certain things. We must realize that once we wait, we might end up waiting forever. We should just speak boldly and believe that they certainly are able to understand. Parents all know that the way to teach little children to speak is to constantly speak when you are around them. After you have spoken much, they spontaneously are able to speak too. If you do not teach them to speak, in just three years’ time they will become mutes who truly are not able to speak. Leading the home meetings is just like this. Do not be afraid to speak about the deeper truths such as the dispensing of the Triune God, God’s economy, and the great mystery of Christ and the church. You must believe that by your speaking again and again, they will be able not only to understand but also to speak according to your speaking.
This time when I returned to Taiwan, I made a special trip to a barber shop that I used to frequent thirty years ago. I discovered that the barbers have changed their speaking. Their conversations are much higher and better than I had expected. This is because society has made progress. The barbers hear and see this progress every day, so spontaneously, their speaking also changes. Thus, when we go to the home meetings, we must also speak the high, deep truths until these high, deep truths become part of the ordinary conversation among us.
