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Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 4:16; Acts 20:28
In this chapter I would like to have a more in-depth fellowship with you regarding the spread of the gospel to the villages so that we know how to act and work when we go to new places.
We all must be clear that the spread of the gospel this time is altogether for practicing the new way in places where churches have never been established. Talking about this is easy, but practicing this requires great wisdom and strength. If we practice carelessly, we will fail. The Lord is certainly with us, but on our side we still need to labor diligently and not be careless.
In the New Testament the apostles encountered many trials when they went out to work. The first thing they confronted was Judaism. At that time Israel was under Roman control, and many Jews were scattered throughout the Mediterranean area. Nevertheless, the influence of Judaism was strong, and it was the strongest in Jerusalem. The church was raised up in Jerusalem fifty days after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Jerusalem must have been filled with an atmosphere that opposed Jesus and the “sect of the Nazarenes.” Furthermore, Peter, John, and the other apostles were Galilean fishermen from the north. Galilee was a place despised by orthodox Jews; it was even called “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Matt. 4:15). In such an opposing and despising atmosphere, Peter and the eleven apostles stood up on the day of Pentecost to speak for the Lord.
Before the Lord Jesus’ ascension He charged the disciples to remain in Jerusalem (Acts 1:4). Even though Jerusalem was filled with an opposing and even threatening atmosphere, the disciples, having received the Lord’s charge, did not return to Galilee but rather willingly remained in a dangerous situation to testify for the Lord. This was not easy. They were in the center of Judaism, yet they were bearing a testimony that was completely contrary to Judaism. They had turned from Moses to Jesus, their preaching had turned from the law to the New Testament fulfillment of the promises, and their practice had also turned from meeting in the temple to meeting from house to house (2:46). At the beginning of the New Testament economy, the early believers still gathered in the temple and preached the gospel in the temple, but the practice of the church life was from house to house. This was a completely new beginning, and the Lord’s authority and signs also accompanied it.
Today we do not have opposition from Judaism, but we have the traditions of Christianity. No doubt, people saw Peter and John as men in Judaism, and they found it hard to separate them from Judaism. Today people also see us as being no different from Christianity. However, when we go to gospelize the villages in Taiwan, we must absolutely put off the ways of organized Christianity. In comparison with Christianity the gospel we preach, the way we take, and the work we do are as different as black and white. Even though we bear a “signboard” of Christ Jesus, there should be a very clear difference.
If we give people the impression that we are about the same as Christianity, we are finished. This would be our failure. In the eyes of men we should be the “sect of the Nazarenes.” In the apostles’ time there was a clear distinction. Saul, who was called Paul after his salvation, was an extremist, being more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of his fathers (Gal. 1:14). Saul zealously persecuted the believers of Jesus, but on his way to Damascus, he met the Lord, had a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn, and soon began to preach Jesus (Acts 9:1-22). He was originally “black,” but suddenly he became “white.” In man’s view he became a member of the “sect of the Nazarenes” (24:5). Such a distinction was inevitable.
When there is a clear distinction, however, a sectarian spirit may be manifested. Within us we should not have a sectarian intention. On the one hand, we are different from organized Christianity, but on the other hand, we should not have a sectarian sense within us; rather, all saved believers are the same. We should not say to others, “Christianity is black, and we are white.” This should not be our intention.
When we go out, we should surely be recognized as being Christians who are different from others; however, we should not put on airs. For example, when we are on an airplane, we should not think that before a meal we must lower our heads to pray or even lift up our hands to show that we are different from others. We do not need this kind of practice. On the contrary, in our speaking, attitude, and expression, we should not intentionally show that we are different from others. However, this does not mean that we should follow others in their worldly ways. If, during a flight, the one seated next to us starts to play poker, it would be wrong to play poker with him, thinking that we have been charged to not be purposely different from others. We should have a proper attitude of not doing worldly things but also of not behaving in a peculiar manner. We should be no different from ordinary people.
Many times on an airplane people ask me about my profession, and I find it very difficult to answer. Some may say that I am an entrepreneur because I am engaged in a universal enterprise. Others may say that I am a professor because I teach people. Still others may say that I am a publisher because I publish many books. When we go to the villages to spread the gospel, the first question we encounter will be about our profession, and we need wisdom in our response.
In going out to spread the gospel, we truly need wisdom in order to carry out the Lord’s new way in various places. We do not despise anyone, but we also cannot trust in organized Christianity, because the truth that is preached in Christianity is incomplete. We do not trust in traditional ways and practices because they are not up to the standard of God’s revelation. We should only hold on to the light that we have received, especially the New Testament revelation of God’s economy. Going out to spread the gospel can be compared to sailing a small boat; if the goal and the compass are properly set, we will have no problem. Our goal is to practice the Lord’s new way and to raise up local churches from locality to locality for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Even though we do not trust in traditional Christianity, we have no desire to continue some of our former practices, because they are harmful to the organic function of the saints. We must practice every point and every aspect of the new way. Out of the more than two hundred places where we are going, there are brothers and sisters meeting with us in more than one hundred seventy of these places. These ones simply have not yet been established as a local church. Consequently, when we begin a new work in such a place, interacting with the saints who are already in a locality is a complicated matter.
In considering this matter, we have made some arrangements. Before we go to a new place, a few co-workers will first go there to prepare living quarters and a place that can be used as a meeting hall. They will also gather the local brothers and sisters to fellowship with them, saying, “We have been fellowshipping about the new way in the past few years, and the church in Taipei has experience in the practice of the new way. Some of the brothers and sisters who have gone through the training in Taipei will come here for the spread of the gospel. They will not only bring the gospel but also the new way. We hope that the churches can lay aside the old practices and be renewed in both their minds and their practices. These brothers and sisters have been under the training of the new way for a period of time, so at the beginning you may not be used to their ways and actions or may even disagree with them. However, please try your best to receive them and let them carry out a gospel work here. When people are saved, please let the brothers and sisters care for them according to the new way. You have been in the Lord for many years. We respect you and your labor in the Lord. However, we need to change the way we work and replace the old with the new.” The co-workers should endeavor to have good fellowship with the saints and explain everything clearly to them in advance.
When the co-workers fellowship with the saints, they may use the example of running a factory. Today in Taiwan we have many factories, and production technology is improving all the time. A good factory will upgrade its machines about every five years. If a factory is still using machines that are five years old, it is outdated and can be easily eliminated. The church life can be compared to running a factory for business. We need to remodel the “factory” and improve our “technology” from the old to the new. Otherwise, we will be out-of-date. We are not changing the truth. The Bible, the truth, salvation, and the Lord Jesus cannot be changed, but our practice can be changed, and it should be changed. The gospel cannot be changed, but the way of preaching the gospel deserves our study. I believe that the majority of the saints will accept this kind of fellowship and pave the way for the trainees.
When we go to the villages for the spread of the gospel, we should not exclude the local saints because we feel that they are old and that we are new. We must not have this kind of feeling. Likewise, we should not form small circles that exclude others in our team. For example, we may be speaking to an American brother in English, but when a few Chinese-speaking brothers and sisters come over, we may talk in Chinese in front of the American brother, even though everyone can speak English. As a result, the American brother may be offended because he has been excluded. When people are with one another, a feeling of being excluded is a very dreadful thing. When we go to spread the gospel and meet the local brothers and sisters, we should never regard them as outsiders. For example, if a few of us, who are happily chatting with one another, suddenly stop talking when a local brother comes over, the brother will feel very uncomfortable. Inevitably, the brother will think, “Why did they stop talking when I came over? Do they regard me as an old brother who is taking the old way?” This kind of situation is very bad because it damages the harmony among the saints.
In serving the Lord we should be upright and transparent in our speaking. Since we speak only of the Lord and of the gospel, we should not be concerned even if the devil comes to listen to our speaking. There is no need to be concerned about others hearing what we are speaking. In society it is easy to form parties. No one needs to teach us how to do this because it is common to differentiate between those who are with us and those who are “outsiders.” However, when we go out to spread the gospel, we must reject this tendency. Otherwise, we will cause trouble and clash with the local saints in the new places.
As soon as we clash with the brothers and sisters, they will say, “You are controlling us too much. We were here originally. After receiving a little training, you have come like an army to invade our territory.” Even if they do not say this outwardly, this will be their feeling inwardly. We should not think that this is not possible, and once it happens, it will be very difficult to carry out a work there. To avoid this kind of situation, we must never regard the brothers and sisters as outsiders. We should not differentiate between “us” and “them.” Neither should we say words like “You came first, and we came later.” There is no “you” or “we”; there is only “we.” We must be careful and not take this matter lightly.
When we talk to the local saints, we can take the initiative to seek their help and ask them how to preach the gospel there. This is not to practice hypocrisy but to genuinely learn from them. Perhaps they would say, “The people in this town are not well educated. When you talk to them, do not talk too deeply, and do not speak to them in a scholarly tone; otherwise, they will not understand.” This is a very good suggestion, and we should speak accordingly. This will also make the local saints feel warm. Otherwise, they will be somewhat wary of us, thinking that we are far above them, like a Pharisee coming from Jerusalem to observe them in Galilee (cf. Mark 7:1-5; Matt. 15:1-2).
I anticipate that we will have three kinds of thoughts that we must guard against when we go to the villages to spread the gospel: first, we are from Taipei; second, we have been trained at the training center; and third, we have come from the church in Taipei, a big church. We may not admit this, but this is truly in our blood, and it will be exposed if we are not careful. Despite my earnest exhortation concerning this, when we actually contact the local saints in the new places, we may be provoked by a certain matter, and words may slip out of our mouth, such as, “You country folks!” As soon as we say this, we will cause trouble. If we continue, saying, “You should remember that we are from the city,” we will only make matters worse. These two short sentences can stop all our work. This must be avoided. In big matters we may not cause trouble, but we almost always run into trouble in small matters. Therefore, when we contact the brothers and sisters and even when we are preaching the gospel, we should avoid causing others to feel that we are from a big city and have received a high education. We should try our best to accommodate the people whom we contact. In this way we will be able to lay a good foundation for our work.
Among the brothers and sisters whom we contact, a number have been in the church life for a few decades and even have some insight, but they have learned things according to the old way. When they make suggestions, we cannot be so humble and do nothing, inwardly saying, “The training told us to accommodate them, so we should follow whatever they say.” If we do this, our work will produce something odd, something that is neither new nor old because we have not held the “rudder” tight, have not set the “compass” correctly, and have deviated.
This is not easy. We need wisdom so that we neither hurt or offend the saints nor work according to the old way, much less establish churches according to the old way. On the one hand, we cannot appear to be different or distinct from the saints in various localities, but on the other hand, we cannot work according to the old way. This will be the first test that we face when we go to the countryside to spread the gospel. Whether or not our work can continue depends on how we deal with this matter.
When we go to spread the gospel in various places, we will also come across Christians who meet in the denominations. We do not have any parties at all; therefore, we care only whether a person has believed in the Lord; it does not matter if he belongs to a denomination or has been baptized by sprinkling or by immersion. If he really believes in the Lord, he is regenerated, and we should receive him no matter which group he belongs to. We should not let him feel as if we regard him as an outsider. Even if he comes to hear the gospel but then goes to meet in a denomination, we should not say, “He has forgotten his roots. How can he come here and then leave? We will no longer fellowship with him.” We should not give people the feeling that we are separating ourselves from them.
There are one hundred brothers and sisters going to the villages to spread the gospel with twenty people on a team. In the coming two years thirty more will be added every two months for a total of three hundred sixty in two years. Including the original one hundred, there will be a total of four hundred sixty members involved in the spread of the gospel. According to our statistics, two-thirds of them are sisters. This is not an easy situation. I do not say this because I value men more than women but because men and women are inherently different. After studying the way to spread the gospel in the villages, the brothers have decided that a gospel team should spread the gospel in a locality for fifteen days. Then two from each team should stay behind and continue to serve there while the other eighteen go to the next place. Because there are many sisters, sometimes two sisters will be left behind; thus, there is a concern for their safety. If we gain fifteen new ones in fifteen days, we have to consider whether it is appropriate to leave behind two sisters to care for these fifteen new ones. This has nothing to do with valuing men more than women, but since two-thirds in the gospel teams are sisters, there will truly be some difficulties in our arrangements.
I do not want to discourage the sisters, and neither am I asking them to not spread the gospel; I am simply presenting a problem. The sisters should not be bothered because of this, but when we go out, we should not forget who we are. Are we a young person, a middle-aged person, or an elderly person? Are we a brother or a sister? If we remember who we are when we work, we will deal with people properly when we meet them.
After a gospel team has stayed in a certain place for fifteen days, the team leader should decide which two should stay behind. The team should sit down and fellowship to see who has a burden to stay behind, and then the team leader should make a final decision. The team leader needs to exercise wisdom and consider carefully. He needs to consider how many have been brought into the church life during the fifteen days of labor, how many are brothers, how many are sisters, how many are elderly people, and how many are young people. Furthermore, he needs to consider how many of them are stable and how many of them are still unstable. Based on the situation of the new ones and the local saints, he has to decide who should stay behind. If two sisters are left behind, he can consider asking some older local sisters to live with them. In this way the problem of safety can be solved. If there is a couple in the gospel team, they should not be separated; they should stay together to care for the new church.
If two brothers are burdened to stay behind, it is not appropriate to leave them behind if most of the new ones are sisters. If, however, there is no other choice but to leave two brothers behind, the team leader should find some local sisters who are older to be bridges between the newly saved sisters and the two brothers. We must always exercise wisdom and coordinate with the local brothers and sisters in order to have a way.
It is important to remember that we should not treat the local brothers and sisters or the believers who meet in the denominations as outsiders. In the same way we should not treat the newly saved ones as outsiders just because they are new and are not as experienced as we are. Rather, once new ones are baptized, we should treat them as our own. An attitude of treating everyone the same will be very helpful in our contacting people and leading the saints in the church.
A gospel team cannot simply depart after fifteen days, leaving everything in a new place to be taken care of by the ones who remain. Before a gospel team departs, we should do our best to properly arrange every matter concerning the newly established church so that every item of service would have an initial framework and an initial model to build upon. Only in this way will it be easy for the two who stay behind to work and lead. I am fellowshipping these points concerning practice because all these points require our learning.
Today, when a person starts a new job in any profession, he can probably become familiar with its requirements in two or three months. However, in the Lord’s work it is not so easy. Even though I have been doing the Lord’s work for almost sixty years, I still feel that I have a lack in many areas, that I have much to learn, and that there are still many needs that I do not know how to address. Therefore, if we wish to be useful in the Lord’s move, we need to learn in every aspect. Unfortunately, our training is not long enough, and we have not had the time to take care of many details. Therefore, I hope that after we have gone out to work for half a year or a year, we would come back for a one-week training. Of course, we cannot have all four hundred sixty trainees come back at the same time; rather, they should come back in groups, perhaps sixty each time, to have fellowship with the co-workers so that the brothers will know their situation.
I would also say to the co-working brothers: We should send out our young trainees as if we are marrying off our daughters. We cannot forget about them after sending them out; we must care for them. We need to fellowship with them from time to time and make arrangements and adjustments according to their actual situation. The health condition of the trainees and different outward circumstances are all factors that should be taken into account in considering our arrangements.
I also want to remind the young people to pay attention to hygiene and health. When I was young, I did not consider these things, and I had a serious stomach problem and a lung problem. After I became sick, I received much help and guidance, which have had a tremendous impact on my health today. I hope to give you a little help in these matters. Otherwise, once you go to the villages, a team member may have a stomach problem, then another illness, and thus, be sick all the time. Then the member’s sickness will occupy the time of the one who stays behind with him. Furthermore, other team members may become sick after the first one recovers. If this occurs, there will be no way to carry out the work.
We should always take preventive measures to head off any trouble. Practically speaking, we should not eat too casually. If we do not eat at set times with set amounts, and if the pace of our eating is not regular, we will have stomach problems in the long run. We should learn to rest every afternoon; it is right to labor diligently for the Lord, but we also need to learn to rest. Always set aside a time for rest. The Chinese character for tuberculosis contains the Chinese character for labor in it. This is very interesting because if we labor too much, we can expose ourselves to tuberculosis. I am very thankful to the Lord that I learned to take care of my body after I fell sick in my early years. I recovered from my lung problem in 1946, and even though I have labored every day for the last forty-two years, I am getting healthier and healthier. We must learn to take care of our bodies; only then will we be useful in the Lord’s hands for a long time.
When we go out to work, we must always be watchful of our words, conduct, and teaching. In this way we will save both ourselves and those who hear us (1 Tim. 4:16). In Acts 20:28 Paul said to the elders in Ephesus, “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers.” When we go out to preach the gospel and establish churches, we are serving in principle as overseers of the flock. Therefore, we must take heed to our every word and every action, especially our attitude, because this has much to do with the effectiveness of our work. First, we need to learn to interact with the local brothers and sisters; second, we need to learn to interact with Christians who do not meet with us; and third, we need to learn to interact with all people. The way we speak and our attitude must be suitable for the people we contact. When we meet higher-class people, we need to speak in a higher-class way, and when we meet relatively lower-class people, we need to learn to speak properly and not put on lofty airs.
Concerning the arrangement of the serving ones, the team leader and team members must have thorough fellowship and make arrangements according to the actual situation before leaving a place. We cannot possibly consider every detail here, but we must understand each situation and take care of every aspect thoroughly. Furthermore, we must learn to listen to other people’s speaking.
Finally, as a supplemental point, we must learn to coordinate with others and learn to not be particularly close to anyone among those who are going out for the spread. In other words, we should not form parties. We should not say, “A certain brother and I understand each other very well; it is best to put us in the same group.” This will annul our function. Whomever the Lord arranges for us to be with, we should simply coordinate with him; we should never lose our temper or act on impulse. People in society always try to keep others from advancing, but we should never do this in our coordination.
Among us there should be no special relationship between individuals; among us we have only one coordination and consider everyone equally. When the four hundred sixty trainees go out, they should all love one another and make no distinctions based on personal affinities, because they all are brothers and sisters, and they all are spreading the Lord’s gospel together. Only such an attitude will enable our service to be long lasting. Otherwise, even if we do not have physical sickness, we will have problems coordinating with others, which is another form of sickness. If a person always has issues with others to the point that he cannot be sent here or there, we will have to give up and stop sending him out. Then, even though he loves the Lord, his service will not last long.
Furthermore, we should not make a show of ourselves or seek out the limelight. We should do our best in everything, but we should let the older ones cover us. It is better to let others take the lead. We should respect those who are older than us in the church and let them take the lead. In this way they will become our protection and covering. This is contrary to our nature. By nature, we like to take the lead and be a hero, but this is not the attitude that we should have in the Lord’s work.
We have heard many messages on the cross, but we may know only the doctrine of denying the self and living in resurrection. These doctrines cannot remain only in books; we must apply the cross both in serving the Lord and in every aspect of our daily living. This will result in everyone just being a fellow member in Christ and in one coordination, having no parties or special relationships.
