Scripture Reading: Acts 2:46; 5:42; 1 Cor. 14:26; Matt. 28:18-20; 1 Tim. 2:4; 1 Cor. 3:6, 9; Acts 14:23; 1 Tim. 3:15-16 Hymns, #132, 548
The Lord needs a new way because Christianity presents us something different from what is revealed in the New Testament. Acts 2:46 and 5:42 show us that in the early days the church met from house to house. In Greek this means that they met according to the houses. Each and every house was a meeting place. This practice is absolutely different from today’s practice in Christianity. In these home meetings, they did three basic things: (1) They broke bread to remember the Lord. (2) They preached Christ as the gospel, as the good news. That means they preached the gospel to save sinners, to bring sinners to the Lord. (3) They also taught. No doubt, they taught what the Lord Jesus had taught the disciples. In Matthew 28 the Lord charged His disciples to go and disciple the nations and teach them whatever they had been taught (vv. 18-20). In the home meetings these three things were going on — the breaking of bread, preaching the gospel to save sinners, and teaching the believers so that they might know what God’s economy is.
In 1 Corinthians Paul refers to the whole church coming together in one place; this refers to the big meetings. Thus, in the early days the way that the church met was in two aspects: the small meetings in the homes of all the saints and the big meetings for the whole church to come together. But even in the big meetings there was not a practice of one man speaking and all listening to that one speaker. First Corinthians 14:26 says that whenever we come together, each one of us should have something of the Lord to share with others. There was no single, particular speaker speaking to a passive audience. This is the practice of degraded Christianity, and this practice kills, annuls, the function of the members of the Body of Christ. Today’s practice in Christianity is not according to what is revealed in the New Testament.
In 1964 besides the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist denomination was the biggest denomination in the United States. The statistics in 1964 showed that the Southern Baptists had over ten million members. The Southern Baptist denomination still ranks second in membership today. The Catholic Church today has about fifty-two million members, and the Southern Baptists have about fourteen and a half million. Although the Southern Baptists increased by four million, their rate of increase since 1964 has only been about 1.4 percent yearly. This is too low.
In 1964 the population in the United States was close to two hundred million. About half of this number, one hundred ten million, were professing Christians. Of this approximately one hundred ten million, about sixty-five million were Protestants, and forty-five million were Catholics. The number of Christians in the United States since 1964 has increased by about sixteen million. Since 1964 the Protestants have only increased by about nine million. This rate of increase is too low. In today’s Christianity there are many activities. There are many preachers and evangelistic campaigns, and there are reports that many thousands of people made a decision for Christ. But eventually, what came out? For the Protestant denominations to increase by only nine million in over twenty years is much less than a one percent rate of increase yearly.
This is due to the killing of the traditional practice of degraded Christianity. The present practice in degraded Christianity is a killing of the functions of the members of Christ’s Body. With an army of one hundred million, one should be able to take over every country on this earth. But what is the use of such a great number of Christians? Where are all the Christians in the offices and on the campuses? In many offices you cannot hear a word concerning God. It seems that all the offices are Gentile offices. Where are the Christians? Their function, their ability, their Christian capacity, has been annulled, killed, by today’s practice in Christianity.
How about us in the Lord’s recovery? We tried our best to leave Christianity, but Christianity would not give us up. We tried our best to leave the practice of Christianity, but the practice of Christianity still follows us. The practice of Christianity is still in our blood, still in our bones, still in the marrow of our being. Do you like to go to a big meeting in a big hall with a good façade where thousands are sitting together with a good, eloquent speaker? Or do you like to go to a little home with seven or eight meeting there with no good speaker? What kind of meeting do you prefer — the big meeting with the façade or the small meeting in the little home? We are all the same in this matter. We like to go to big meetings. But the big meetings with only one speaker and a passive audience have killed the Lord’s move.
In our meetings there may not be much livingness. We do not have a proper “noise” in the Christian meetings. There should be a proper noise where everyone speaks, everyone prays, everyone praises, and everyone gives thanks. Why do we come to the meetings so silent? Outside the hall, we were not that silent, but when we got to the door and walked into the hall, we became silent. We learned this from Christianity. The Psalms tell us to make a joyful noise unto the Lord (66:1; 81:1; 95:1-2; 98:4, 6; 100:1). Why would we not walk into the door and say, “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! I’m so happy this morning. I’m enjoying the Lord, and the Lord is with me. Don’t you know, brother, that Christ is in me? Hallelujah!” Why would we not clap our hands (47:1)? Sometimes we should even dance before the Lord (149:3; 2 Sam. 6:14). I do not mean that we should be outwardly excited in a natural way like many of those in Pentecostalism, but we Christians are living persons. We have all been made alive, and we have a living One within us. We are dealing with a living One, praising a living One, thanking a living One, and walking together with a living One. Why should we be so silent?
Do you know how much Christianity has been constituted into your Christian being? Our Christian style of worship and of practicing the church life was not built by the Spirit according to the Word. It has been constituted with Christianity. Even before one has become a Christian, he has received a certain concept concerning how to be a Christian. According to many people’s concept, to be a Christian is to “go to church” on Sundays at 11 o’clock. Also the church must have a big meeting with a good choir and with a good, eloquent speaker to stir up people’s interest. This is according to the constitution of today’s degraded Christianity.
But the new way we see in the Word is that all the members of the Body function (Eph. 4:16; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:15-17, 21-22). In the small meetings in the homes and even in a big meeting when the entire church comes together, everyone should function. Everyone should speak. This one has a hymn, that one has a revelation, and another one has a teaching. We have found out that in the new home meetings of newly baptized believers, it is so easy for them to function. Their children even function in the meeting. The little ones read the Bible and may take the lead to sing, and everyone speaks.
Today on this earth we cannot see that the Body of Christ is fully and thoroughly expressed. Wherever Christians meet together, what is seen is something organized and arranged with a schedule. There is hardly any livingness or flow of the Spirit. Everyone who comes to the meeting gets settled. They are so active in their homes, but in the church meeting they feel that they need to be formal, silent, and passive. We should be motivated by the indwelling Spirit in our meetings. The Motivator within us is the living Christ. When we come together with a small number, we should function. Whenever we come together with a big number, we still should function. We have something to say, something to pray about, and something to praise and thank the Lord for. We even have something to shout about. We can all say, “Praise the Lord!” We should be happy and joyful in the Lord (Phil. 4:4).
Our burden and our vision is that on this earth groups of Christians will meet in a living way with no big speaker and not according to forms or organization. In many denominations they merely put the numbers of the hymns to be sung on the board, but some should always come to the meeting with a hymn. The New Testament presents to us a picture of the church meeting; that is, whenever the church meets, either with a big or small number, it meets in a living way according to the leading of the living Spirit. We hope that this could be repeated on this earth. We want to have this started from the newly established home meetings.
There is the need of a change in our view. We must drop the old Christianity practice, and pick up the new way. The new way is:
We need to go out to visit people by knocking on their doors. Within the past three months, seven hundred full-time trainees in Taipei have knocked on the doors of about one hundred fifty thousand homes in the city of Taipei, which has over five hundred thousand homes. Nearly one-third of the homes in Taipei have been visited. To knock on doors and get people to believe and be baptized within twenty minutes has really worked. Do not think that this only works in Taiwan. It also works in the United States. One brother told me that for twenty years he did not bring anyone to the Lord. But after he began to practice door-knocking in the new way, he baptized seventeen: eight during a short visit to Taiwan and nine in the United States. Another brother in the United States who had not brought anyone to the Lord in five years baptized fifteen by going out to knock on doors.
Then we all have to know the truth and teach the truth to the new converts in their homes. If we spend thirty minutes a day to study the Truth Lessons, within four years we will get ourselves so acquainted with all the main biblical truths. Then spontaneously, we will be qualified to teach others in thousands of homes. Eventually, thousands of homes will be set up for small-group Christian meetings, and there will be the need of thousands of teachers in these home meetings.
Then you need to grow in life, to experience Christ in a daily way, so that you could have an accumulation of the full experiences of Christ being life to you. Then spontaneously wherever you go, whatever home you go to, you have something to minister to them as the life supply.
You also have to learn to know the church in a full way by having the practice of the church life in a practical way in the homes. This is not just the burden of a few elders. This has to be the burden of all the dear saints.
We must cooperate with the Lord to carry out these four things — knocking on people’s doors to get them to believe and be baptized, teaching them the truth, ministering life to them that they may grow in the measure of Christ, and helping them to practice the church life. Then the Lord will have something on this earth to prepare His bride for His coming back.
We have finished the study of the first step in Taiwan, that is, to knock on doors to get people to believe and be baptized. We will continue the training in Taipei for another four months to study these further steps: how to teach people the truth in their home meetings, how to minister life that they may grow in Christ in their home meetings, and even to bring their home meetings into the full practice of the church life. We know that the Bible is full of truths, but it is not easy for us to teach others so many truths. We must find a way to teach them the truths so that they may come to the full knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). Then truth will produce life. The truth will become their life supply, and they will grow in life in order that they may have the full measure of Christ. Then they will be ready to be built up together as local expressions in their localities. This is our burden today, and we believe that this will prepare the way for the Lord to come back to receive His bride. Pray for the perfection of these further steps.
I hope that through this fellowship all of us would receive a vision of the Lord’s move on this earth today. What has delayed the Lord from coming back thus far has been the practical degradation of today’s Christianity. The practice of today’s Christianity is the big factor that has delayed the Lord’s coming back. Where is the hope that the Lord could have a way to come back? The religious system of Christendom is a hopeless case. The Lord must have a people who would be willing to let Him have a free way to get what He wants. We hope that we could be this people.
We need to preach the gospel to save sinners not by superficial or superstitious gospel preaching. In today’s gospel preaching there is much superstition. Some preach the gospel with positive thinking, telling others that they have to believe that they will be successful in their business. Then they will be rich. This is superstition and even a cheating. To tell people that if they believe, they will go to a heavenly mansion prepared for them when they die is a superstitious teaching. We cannot find such a thing in the Bible. I believe that there is a physical heaven where the Lord Jesus is. But to tell people that they will go to a heavenly mansion when they die is a superstitious preaching.
We must preach the high gospel, the gospel on the highest plane, telling people that man was made in God’s image to be His vessel to contain Him, that man has to take God as his life to live by Him so that man might be God’s expression, representing Him on this earth. This is why God created man with a spirit, so that man has an organ to receive God the Spirit. This must be our preaching. In our practice in Taipei we charged all the trainees not to go out to preach any other kind of gospel but to present this gospel of God’s economy contained in the booklet entitled The Mystery of Human Life. Thousands have been brought to the Lord through this booklet.
There are many encouraging testimonies of the present way to knock on people’s doors. One brother who visited Taipei for about ten days was really captured by the Lord’s new way. Soon after he arrived, he was looking to buy some film for his camera and asked a policeman for directions. The policeman accompanied him to the stadium where we were having a big conference. He went through The Mystery of Human Life with this policeman, baptized him, and set up a home meeting. All this took twenty minutes.
Then this brother went out door-to-door for the first time with a gospel team to an afternoon home meeting. The husband was not saved and was too busy, but in eight minutes they went through The Mystery of Human Life, and the husband was saved, baptized, and ready to leave for work. The same night this brother helped to save and baptize an eighty-three-year-old man. This man’s wife had died twelve months earlier. She was saved and baptized many years before at hall one in Taipei, but the husband did not believe in having to go to the meetings. He was really released in his baptism and rejoiced at not having to come to the hall to meet.
The next evening this brother’s team knocked on two homes. In the first home, the husband, wife, and a visitor were saved and baptized, and a home meeting was set up within thirty minutes. In the next home they were going through one of the keys in The Mystery of Human Life, when three young men came to visit the daughter of the family. They sat down, and these men along with the daughter and mother got saved. The mother, daughter, and one of the young men were baptized. The other two young men walked off because they had to wait to be baptized. But the one who was baptized said he would make sure they would attend the next home meeting. This took forty minutes.
Before this brother’s return from Taipei to his own country, he went to three home meetings. The third home meeting was in a small house where four professional young men shared accommodations. The four had been saved the week before, and two had been baptized. One of the unbaptized ones was home, and at first, he rejected baptism. This brother’s gospel team read two verses from The Mystery of Human Life, and he was baptized in five minutes. Then he signed up to go full time. His occupation is civil engineering. When this new one’s roommates returned home, he instructed the other unbaptized one to be baptized. The saints suggested that the newly baptized one baptize his friend, which he did. The whole household, including this brother’s gospel team, was beside themselves, rejoicing and dancing before the Lord! As a result of this experience within such a short time, this brother wants to come back to Taipei and give his future to the ministry, to labor until the Lord’s return.
Another brother practicing door-knocking in California shared a positive testimony of his gospel team’s leading a woman to believe and be baptized. Despite her asking many distracting questions, this brother always brought her back to The Mystery of Human Life, and within a short time she believed and was baptized. They also made an appointment with her for a weekly meeting in her home.
We trained the trainees in Taipei to do two things: (1) They had to follow all the instructions of the training. When they went out, they could not speak their own word or listen to others’ speaking. Whatever the ones they contacted would speak, the trainees would still speak what they had been instructed to speak with The Mystery of Human Life. (2) Every time the trainees went out, they had to get themselves cleared up before the Lord. They were taught to confess to the Lord thoroughly to get filled inwardly and outwardly with the Holy Spirit. They had to go out as persons filled up with the Holy Spirit. When they went out in this way, they had the authority. The Lord was with them. This is why all the listeners were so obedient to their speaking. Whatever they said, their listeners followed. There was the power, the authority, of the ascended Christ.
In doing anything you need training and discipline. Going out to visit people by knocking on their doors needs two things: (1) You need the training. Do not do anything in the old way or in a natural way. You must do things according to the instructions of the training. (2) You must be filled up with the Holy Spirit. You must get yourself cleared up; then when you go out, you go out as one filled with the Holy Spirit.
All of us need to bring this fellowship to the Lord and pray that He would show us what He wants to do today on this earth. He wants to have a new start, absolutely different from the practice of today’s Christianity.
We hope that all the churches around the globe in the Lord’s recovery will practice to have one out of twenty saints as a job-dropping full-timer. If your church has one hundred saints meeting together, five full-timers should be produced. The other nineteen should endeavor to supply this one full-timer. The job-dropping full-timers should not sit in the church office to do desk work. They should go out two to three hours a day, five days every week, to visit people by knocking on their doors. Also, all the churches should practice to have one out of four saints who would go out to knock on doors once a week for two to three hours. If there are one hundred saints in your locality, you must have twenty-five weekly door-knockers.
We have estimated according to our experience that one full-timer going out five days a week for two to three hours to visit people’s homes by knocking on their doors can get one person baptized every week. This is reasonable and very conservative. Within fifty-two weeks a full-timer will get fifty-two baptized. The one out of four saints in the church who go door-to-door part-time for two or three hours every week can get one baptized within eight weeks, or two months. Then every year such a weekly door-knocker will get six baptized.
If there are one hundred saints in your locality, five should be job-dropping full-timers who knock on doors five days a week, and twenty-five saints should be weekly door-knockers. The five job-dropping full-timers can gain two hundred sixty within a year, and the twenty-five weekly door-knockers can gain one hundred fifty. This yields a fourfold increase. Half of these new ones may be a failure, but you are still left with a twofold increase in a year. If half of this amount is discounted, the church would still have a one hundred percent increase of solid, living, remaining ones. This is reasonable and very conservative, but you need to practice it. The Lord said that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to Him, so He charged us to go and disciple the nations (Matt. 28:18-19). We do not necessarily need to go out to disciple those in faraway countries. We can go out to disciple our neighbors. Why would we not first disciple the families in our city?
I believe all the churches can increase at least onefold yearly. I also believe it will be very easy to have a twofold increase. We have been very slow and low according to our rate of increase because we have been influenced, captured, and kept by the practice of today’s Christianity. We must drop this! We all should pick up the Lord’s new way and pick up a new view of the practice of the church life.
You have to consider whether you should be a full-timer or not. If you have the burden to drop your job, you should fellowship with the leading ones and with your fellow brothers and sisters to see whether you should be one of the twenty to be a full-timer. Then at least one out of four should be a very prevailing, weekly door-knocker. This has to be under the elders’ supervision to get something properly done. If we would do this, we will have the increase. In the past twenty-three years the highest rate of increase we had was about forty percent. But in the last ten years, due to the defamation of some books, the rate of our increase has been just about three percent.
According to what we have practiced in Taipei recently, we can gain a solid increase if we are willing to take the new way to be trained to be full-timers and to be weekly door-knockers. Endeavor to be either a job-dropping full-timer or a weekly door-knocker. If you cannot go out for some reason, pray for this matter and stand for it. Because of our experience and the encouraging statistics, we expect to evangelize the entire island of Taiwan within five years. Now there have been over seven thousand baptized in Taipei and over two thousand new home meetings set up by the trainees within three months. The full-time trainees now have to endeavor to take care of the newly baptized ones and the newly established home meetings.
If we take this way, the Lord will have a living testimony, not a church life in big halls but the church life practiced in many homes. Every home will become a station of the gospel, a station of the truth, a station of life, and a station of the church life. I hope to see that each one of these homes would be a station to spread the gospel, the truth, life, and the church life. Many of the new ones whom the Lord has gained in these homes began to knock on doors immediately and spread the gospel to their relatives. This kind of preaching is much more prevailing and effective than to hire preachers. Christianity kills the preaching capacity of all the saints. The saints just donate some money; then they use the money to hire some preachers. But now the new way is to stir up every saint to be a very prevailing, effective preacher in their homes. Every home will be a “gospel chapel,” and every member of that home will become a preacher.
I hope that all the saints’ homes will be stations to spread the gospel, the truth, life, and the church. Many of those in the new homes in Taipei have immediately become Christians in this way. One home has brought in over a hundred new ones within a short time. Among these ones many have their homes opened up to be stations of the gospel. There are many “gospel chapels” full of preachers. This is the new way.
We have to forget about the old way — to donate money, to hire seminary graduates to preach the gospel for us, and to form a kind of mission to go out to other countries to disciple the nations. Let us disciple our neighbors first. Then we can go out to other countries.
We have also charged our new trainees to learn other languages. All the trainees have to learn English and Greek. German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean are other languages of instruction. Many who are learning Spanish are preparing themselves to go out to the Latin American countries. Eventually, many full-timers will go throughout the world to spread and propagate the Lord’s new way.
I hope that all the churches would pick up the view to have a revolutionizing change, dropping the old practice of today’s Christianity and picking up the Lord’s new way.
(Tune: Hymns, #904) 8.8.8.8.D.(A)
“The new way brings forth the new man.
The new man walks on the new way.”
Lord, give this new vision to us,
To all of the churches today.
And as we begin this new year,
Make every new day a new start,
Make us the new persons in You:
New spirit, new mind, and new heart.
We’re walking in newness of life
And singing a joyful new song;
In newness of spirit we serve;
This new one accord makes us strong.
We’re drinking the new life divine;
Oh, how this new wine our heart cheers!
The new man will walk this new way
Until the new city appears.
New man, new creation, new way,
New vision, new spirit, new light,
New year, and new month, and new day,
New mind, and new heart, and new sight,
New garment, new wineskin, new wine,
New blessings, and new covenant,
New mercies, and new life divine,
And completed New Testament!
