Search
Scripture Reading: Luke 10:1-6, 16; Matt. 28:19; John 15:4-5, 16
Today we have been called out of Christianity by the Lord to bear a testimony that is according to the Bible. The Bible shows us that the church on the earth is one universally, and it is absolutely in oneness. Therefore, we reject denominational divisions, we reject the clergy system, and we reject religious hierarchy. While we do have the elders’ administration of the church among us, in this administration there is no rule or control. On the positive side, our first step is preaching a pure, high, and complete gospel. The second step is speaking and teaching the pure, high, and complete truth.
What we mentioned above is a summary explanation of the principle. The specific practice includes the following points. First, we need to visit people house by house, that is, knocking on doors house by house to visit unbelievers and leading them to believe in the Lord and be baptized. This is clearly explained in Luke 10:1-6 and 16; Matthew 28:19; and John 15:4-5 and 16. The Gospel of Luke tells how the Lord Jesus Himself, when He was on the earth, sought out people place by place, just as He told Zaccheus, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost” (19:10).
After the Lord Jesus came from the heavens to the earth, He did not come out to minister right away, because He had to wait until He was full-grown. He stayed in Nazareth until He was thirty years old. This is according to the Old Testament, in which a man had to wait until he was thirty years old before he could come out to minister as a priest. The Chinese ancients also said that a man must be “thirty years of age to stand on his own feet.” The Lord Jesus waited until He was thirty before coming out to do the work of preaching the word. The way He preached was not like what is done in Christianity today. Today even we have been influenced by Christianity, preaching the gospel according to that unscriptural way. This way is the way of setting up a meeting hall or a gospel chapel and gathering together a congregation to listen to one person preaching the gospel. We see in the Bible that the Lord Jesus did not preach the gospel in such a way. The pattern in the Bible, which the Lord left to us, is that He came from the heavens to the earth, and when He had grown up and come out to minister, He went to preach the gospel place by place and house by house. For example, He went to the house of Zaccheus (vv. 1-9) and sat beside the well in Samaria (John 4:3-7) to visit and to wait for sinners who were chosen by God.
Actually, God’s coming to man and visiting man in this way did not begin when He became flesh. We know from Genesis 3 that as soon as mankind fell, when Adam and Eve sinned, they began to fear God, turning away and hiding themselves from the face of God. However, God did not let them go. He did not send an angel from heaven to summon the sinners Adam and Eve before Him, as a law court summons people with a warrant for their arrest. God did not do that. He Himself came to the garden of Eden, the place of their fall, and called to Adam, asking, “Where are you?” (v. 9). We can say that the first instance of knocking on doors and paying a visit occurred in Genesis 3 when God came to “knock on Adam’s door.” Perhaps some would argue with us, saying that back then, in the garden of Eden, houses were not yet invented, so there were no doors to knock on. Still, I would say that in Genesis 3 God already knocked directly on the door of man’s heart.
In Genesis 18 there is a story about a man named Abraham who lived in tents. One day when he was sitting at the entrance of his tent under the shade of the tree in the heat of the day, he suddenly saw three visitors coming to visit him. One of the visitors was Jehovah God. Actually, it was the Lord coming with two angels. This was a special visit. Abraham went forward immediately to greet them and received them eagerly, fetching water for them to wash their feet. Furthermore, Abraham prepared for them a feast of cakes and a calf. This story puzzles many Bible expositors. However, Jehovah God and the two angels did feast on the meal there. Not only God ate, but the angels also ate. Whether or not God needs to eat is not for us to decide, but Genesis 18 does tell us that God, with the two angels, ate the calf-feast prepared by Abraham and his wife (vv. 1-8).
Afterward, Jehovah stayed there for quite a while, and when He was leaving, Abraham, as an intimate friend who was reluctant to part with Him, walked with Jehovah to send Him away (v. 16). Genesis 18 recounts how Abraham touched God’s heart in sending Him away. God said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (v. 17). God truly visited Abraham as a friend. The Old Testament says that God saw Abraham as His intimate friend (2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8).
Moreover, in the Old Testament we often see the expression, “The Spirit of Jehovah came upon...” (Judg. 3:10). Again and again the Spirit of Jehovah came to man, to the leaders among the children of Israel, and to all the prophets. His coming was His visiting. Actually, door-knocking is visiting. Knocking is a very courteous and polite term in the Chinese language. Door-knocking is visitors going to people’s houses with much propriety and courtesy. Therefore, when we go out today, we do not bang on doors or trouble people, but we knock on doors and visit people.
In the New Testament age the Lord Jesus came. He was the Jehovah God who sought for Adam in the garden of Eden; He was the One who visited Abraham beside the oaks of Mamre in Genesis 18; He was also the One who came upon and visited the prophets throughout the generations. Now He was not visiting man merely in His divinity or in His Godhead, but He Himself put on a body of flesh and blood, putting on our humanity and becoming even as we are, to visit man who was on the earth. On the earth He preached the gospel from place to place for three years, but not once did He send out invitations for people to come. He went to visit people Himself; He went to where they were. In His divinity and Godhead He was omnipresent, yet after He became flesh, He was very much restricted by space. If He was in Galilee, He could not be in Jerusalem; if He was in Jerusalem, He could not be in Samaria. He was very much restricted by the flesh. For this reason He sent out the twelve disciples (Luke 9:1-2), and later He took another step and sent seventy others (10:1).
The Lord’s sending out the seventy is recorded in Luke 10, particularly in verses 1 through 6 and verse 16. In the past we did not see the light concerning visitation from house to house in this passage. In verse 3 the Lord Jesus said, “I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves.” The Lord sent the disciples as lambs in the midst of wolves, so when we go out to knock on doors and visit people, do not be afraid of their rejections or their reproach. We need to be alert because not all the people we visit are wolves; there are sons of peace among the wolves (v. 6). Today there are millions and millions of sons of Adam on this earth, but among them some are the sons of peace, who were born in the world yet chosen and predestinated by God before the foundation of the earth.
In the past we preached the gospel by the way of gospel meetings. We set up love feasts and spent much effort in inviting people to come. When they came, they felt that they were doing us a favor and “saving our faces.” Sometimes they would refuse to come even when we had tried our best. This was not the way of the Lord Jesus. The Lord sent seventy people two by two to go out and visit people (v. 1) and to stay in people’s houses (v. 7). Upon entering a house, they would not speak of the weather or of the world situation, but “into whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house” (v. 5). They are the sons of peace, and the Lord is the Lord of peace. The Lord came to the earth to bring peace to men. When the Lord Jesus was born, the angels praised God, saying, “Glory in the highest places to God, and on earth peace among men of His good pleasure” (2:14). The men of God’s good pleasure are those chosen and predestinated by God. They are the sons of peace. The Lord was born in the world to bring peace to men on the earth; He also sent out the disciples that they would go with His peace.
Furthermore, the Lord told the disciples in Luke 10:16, “He who hears you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” This means that the Lord comes with the Father; the Lord and the Father are one, so the Lord’s going is the Father’s going. We also have become one with the Lord, so our going is not merely our going as representatives of the Lord, but it is also our going with the Lord; the Lord goes with us. Therefore, when we go, we bring the peace of the Lord with us; the Lord is the peace bringer. There is a prophecy in Genesis 49, which says, “Until Shiloh comes” (v. 10). Shiloh means “one who brings peace.” Christ came to bring peace to those whom God has chosen on the earth. Today we need to cause this peace to reach those whom God has chosen, not by inviting them to come but by being sent to go to them. We go with peace, and this peace is the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus said that if the people in a house are worthy of peace, if they are chosen and predestinated by God and are men of God’s good pleasure, they will surely receive us with joy and rejoicing. Otherwise, they will reject us, and this rejection is a proof that they are not the sons of peace.
Every one of you who has gone door-knocking before has had this experience: When someone opened the door, you would often know whether or not this one was a son of peace. You could tell upon first sight that some were not the sons of peace. Why? Because the way they answered the door was like that of tigers ready to devour their prey. Not only would they reject you; they would even yell at you while sending you away. This is why when some went door-knocking, their hands would tremble and their knees would knock, deeply fearing that once the doors opened, they would be yelled at and would lose their composure. Because of this we should know that reproaches are inevitable, but they are worth it. Even the Lord Jesus was reproached by men. When we go door-knocking, we all should be prepared to be yelled at. However, we know that there will always be some sons of peace among those who open the door to us, if not one out of ten then perhaps one out of twenty; if not, then certainly one out of thirty.
Today the work of Christianity is exactly the opposite. It asks people to come instead of going to people. Although we have come out of Christianity, we are still under the influence of the poison and the atmosphere of Christianity. In the past we too have not seen this way of going out to visit people and seeking out the sons of peace. We did not see this even when we were conducting the life-study trainings. It is not until this time, during the writing of the footnotes of the Recovery Version of the New Testament, that the Lord has shown us this light from the Gospel of Luke.
In Matthew 28:18-19, after His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus came into the midst of the disciples and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” The Lord indicated that He was the Lord of heaven and earth; heaven obeyed Him, earth obeyed Him, and even all the nations obeyed Him, so now the disciples should “go.” The Lord does not want people to come; He wants us, His disciples, to go. Go and do what? The Lord went on to say, “Disciple all the nations.” It is a tremendous thing if we are willing to go, for we go with all authority in heaven and on earth. The context of these verses tells us very clearly that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth, so we should go.
When we go to people, we should not fear their rejection. When we go, we should be full of faith, declaring to Satan, “I come with the resurrected Christ, full of His authority in heaven and on earth.” Many who go out to visit people and preach the gospel testify that the ones they visited were all very submissive. Some of the ones who were visited were college professors and some had received higher education, yet they were willing to believe in the gospel when they heard the speaking of the brothers and sisters. When the brothers and sisters said, “Now you should be baptized. Please go and change,” they immediately said yes and were joyfully baptized. Sometimes even we were astonished, unable to believe that they were as submissive as lambs, doing whatever we asked them to do. What is this? This is the ascended Lord being with us. His authority follows us always. This is the message of Matthew 28.
In the past when we read John 15, we greatly emphasized that if we abide in the Lord, the Lord will abide in us (v. 4). But we have overlooked the purpose of the abiding. The Lord said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit” (v. 5). This shows that the purpose of abiding is that we would bear much fruit. Verse 2 says, “Every branch...that does not bear fruit, He takes it away.” This word shows that we are the branches of the Lord Jesus, yet if we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off from Him. To be taken away is to be cut off, which means that the branch is cut off from the vine and loses all the enjoyment of the riches of the vine, no longer being supplied by the vine’s life-juice. This is very serious.
Before seeing the new way, an elder in a certain locality told us that he had never brought one person to salvation in his more than ten years of being an elder. In other words, he did not bear a single fruit. How could such an unfruitful person enjoy all the supply in Christ? Nevertheless, he felt quite good about himself because the Lord was abiding in him. We dare not to pass judgment on him, but at least we know something is wrong with unfruitfulness. We all know that in order for the branch to enjoy the riches of the vine, it must be joined to the vine and express the splendor of the vine, which is to bring forth fruit.
In verse 16 the Lord Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” In the Greek the word rendered go is a strong word. Regretfully, we fail to notice it when reading the Bible. We seem to not see the word go, as if the Lord had only assigned us to bear fruit. The Lord went on to say, “That your fruit should remain.” We all know that it is not easy for a person to believe in the Lord and be saved and baptized, and it is even more difficult for him to remain. For example, one time we baptized more than a hundred new believers, and we rejoiced greatly within, but after half a year less than five out of the hundred remained. We were quite perplexed inwardly. It seemed that the fruit was not solid enough since they were lost after a short time. This was like a child dying prematurely after he is born. How could this be?
Now, in taking the new way, we have come back to the Bible to properly re-read these related verses. As a result, we see in John 15:16 that there is the word go. The Lord wants us to go forth and bear fruit. If we do not go, we cannot bear fruit. Going is the prerequisite for fruit-bearing. Go means we should go to all the nations, going to them house by house, and then our fruit should remain. We are becoming more and more clear concerning this point. When we go door-knocking, we are “going forth.” Then we baptize people and establish a meeting right away in their home. This home meeting is a shelter. Establishing a home meeting in their home is to establish a shelter to cover this home, and by this the fruit remains naturally.
Today medicine is quite advanced in the United States, so much so that even a premature infant born at five or six months is able to survive. That was certainly impossible before, but now in the United States there are, in fact, such cases of successful survival. This is done by immediately placing the newborn infant in an incubator. This incubator is his shelter, which enables him to survive. Our mistake in the past was to let go of people as soon as they were baptized, like a mother who neglects her child after he is born. How can this child remain if he is born but not cared for? Therefore, we must establish a meeting in people’s homes right after we have baptized them. This home meeting is an “incubator,” ensuring the survival of the newborn infant. We should see this clearly.
In our past church life, we neglected the meetings in the homes of the saints and relied mostly on the meetings in the meeting hall. This is not according to the Bible. Acts 2:42 and 46 clearly show us that on the one hand, they met in a big meeting place in the temple, and on the other hand, they gathered in the homes. Verse 46 speaks of being in homes, or “from house to house,” which, if house is to be used as the unit, can also be “according to house.” Therefore, some translations render it as “from house to house.”
The contents of these meetings from house to house are first, the teaching of the apostles, which is the teaching of the truth; second, the mutual fellowship; and third, the breaking of bread and the prayers. This means that the breaking of bread was in the homes, the prayers were in the homes, the teaching of the truth was in the homes, and the mutual fellowship was in the homes. In verse 46 we are shown that they were “breaking bread from house to house.” Acts 5:42 says, “From house to house, they did not cease teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.” We can see that the teaching of the truth and the preaching of the gospel can all be done in the homes.
In Acts 12 we see that Peter was persecuted and put into prison by Herod, and then prayer was being made fervently by the church to God concerning him (v. 5b). After Peter was released from the prison by the angel, he went to the house of a sister, where there was a considerable number assembled together to pray (v. 12). Putting these two verses together, we see that the fervent prayer of the church was made not in a meeting in the meeting hall but in the home of a saint, and the home was the home of a sister. All of these verses prove that the early church life was in the homes of the saints. They taught the truth, preached the gospel, fellowshipped with one another, broke bread, and prayed in the homes. Beginning from now, our church life should be absolutely according to the pattern in the Bible, following the footsteps of the early saints. After we baptize people, we should immediately establish a home meeting in their homes in order to teach them, lead them, and help them. In other words, they should learn to know the truth, preach the gospel, have mutual fellowship, and pray and break bread in the homes. In this way the saints are able to come to the full knowledge of the truth.
Apparently, teaching the truth in home meetings where all may participate in the fellowship does not have the prevailing atmosphere of the big meetings, yet it is very practical. Big meetings are too big. Dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people come together to listen to one person speaking, and after listening, they forget almost everything, not having much concern for what they heard. However, when we are in a home with perhaps only three or five people, everyone learns the truth together, each one focuses and pays attention, and everyone answers each other’s questions. The result of learning in this way is that the truth is impressed deeply within each person. Therefore, in purpose or in result, saints can come to the full knowledge of the truth only by meeting in the homes.
Furthermore, this issues in the functioning of each saint as a member of Christ. In the big meetings one person speaks, and everyone else listens, and after listening, everyone feels good and appreciative, yet hardly anyone functions. In the past the so-called service in the church life was mostly cleaning, ushering, or making bread, as some sisters do, and preparing the cup, as some brothers do, or at the most, sharing and giving testimonies at the end of a message meeting. Actually, the supply of the members of Christ is first, that everyone preaches the gospel; second, that everyone teaches the truth; and third, that everyone helps the newly saved ones to meet in the homes. If every saint would do this, the gospel will be widely preached, the number of saved ones will increase, and the believers will be equipped with the truth practically.
The above three points are lacking in practice not merely in the denominations but also among us. Therefore, beginning from today, our church life must take this step: After a person is saved, he should be able to preach the gospel, and after a period of time he should be able to teach the truth. Then he should be able to care for other newly saved households. The purpose and result of these practices are tremendous, giving each saint the opportunity to function. If we meet only in the meeting hall, with one person speaking and everyone else listening, whether we have three hundred people or five hundred, only a few will “monopolize” the meeting, and all the other saints will have no opportunity to function. We truly hope that every brother and sister will function. Everyone must have opportunities, even an abundance of opportunities. This is our goal.
Finally, we need to see that the more we practice this, the more we love the Lord, and the more we love the Lord, the more we pursue Him. Then the result of pursuing the Lord is growth in life. In this way we are able to live out the testimony of Christ, not merely the individual Christ but even more the corporate Christ, which is every one of us living out Christ. In other words, we are the church; all the saints become one corporate entity, and all live out Christ. Our bearing the testimony of Christ is that which the apostle John spoke of: “I John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus...because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 1:9). When people see us, they will know that we are bearing the testimony together.
Moreover, each and every saint should come to the full knowledge of the truth, as 1 Timothy 3 says, “The house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth” (v. 15). The church should uphold the truth. We are striving toward the day in which every home has a home meeting, everyone is learning the truth, and as a result everyone is able to teach the truth. In that day we can declare to Satan, to the angels, and to mankind, “The church is the pillar and base of the truth on the earth.” Therefore, on the one hand, we love Him and pursue Him, growing in life; on the other hand, we live Him and bear a good testimony for Him, having the reality of the truth.
From the result of our practice in recent years, we can see that our training is successful. Door-knocking and visiting people is truly the best way to gain people for them to believe in the Lord. Some have baptized forty-one new ones in three and a half months. According to the statistics, more than sixty people were saved and baptized every day. This is unprecedented in the history of Taiwan. Among the more than seven thousand new believers gained, we have established over two thousand new home meetings. Originally there were four hundred home meetings in the church in Taipei, and now there are over two thousand new home meetings, so together the two categories add up to about two thousand five hundred home meetings. The two thousand new home meetings were established in the last three and a half months. This proves that this new way — door-knocking house by house, preaching the gospel, and leading people to believe in the Lord and be saved — is not only feasible but yields great results.
We all know that it is easier to succeed in something if it is done by a professional. We may use growing trees as an example. In my back yard there are two trees, an apricot tree and a peach tree. Dispositionally, I am a neat person. I like to fix and arrange things in a proper order, so one day I pruned the two trees so that they were neat and tidy, pleasing to the eye. However, one year went by and then two years, and the trees did not bear any fruit. Then a third year went by, and they still did not bear fruit. I wondered what the cause might be. I thought to myself that perhaps the soil was the problem.
There was a young sister who lived in a nearby city, whose father managed an orchard. She grew up in the orchard and knew about planting and growing fruit trees. One day when she came with others to my house, she chuckled when she saw the two trees, which were as neatly pruned as if they had gotten a haircut. She was too embarrassed to say anything, so I asked her directly, “Young sister, do you know why these two trees are fruitless?” Then she told me that I should not have pruned the trees as I did. I should not have cut the branches that were drooping downward, because the drooping branches are the fruit-bearing branches. The branches I cut off were the fruit-bearing branches, and the branches I left uncut were the unfruitful branches. I then realized that I was quite foolish, thinking myself to be very capable and feeling that my work was aesthetically pleasing. In actuality, I was entirely unprofessional. This was my personal experience.
After we started to practice door-knocking and had good results, many places responded to the report and began to do the same, but the outcome was a failure. They thought that door-knocking was just knocking on doors. How difficult could that be? How could anyone not be able to do it? Although everyone can knock on doors, no one produced any result. Actually, successful door-knocking involves many details. People let certain brothers and sisters come in when they knocked on their doors, but after they entered, it seems that it would have been better for them not to say anything, because the more they talked, the more the people resented them. Therefore, some have practiced door-knocking for a period of time but became disheartened and finally stopped. Eventually, everyone was discouraged, assuming that the new way does not work. That is not true. In actuality, door-knocking requires training.
Some overseas saints testified that previously they went door-knocking in their locality without any results, so they did not want to do it anymore. However, some among them came to Taiwan and received training, and after they went back, they taught the saints in their locality and began door-knocking again. The result was tremendous, so they were all very joyful. Now in a little church of only one hundred people, everyone goes door-knocking with good results. Why? It is because some trained ones went back to them and led them to practice it together. The same is true in many places; all the saints in these places have been greatly encouraged.
We have found a principle: It is difficult to succeed in anything if we rely on the natural way. Rather, we must do things according to the “professional” way in order to succeed. Door-knocking has its finer points. After a number of months of studying, we have learned a few things. When we knock on a door, if after ten seconds no one answers, we should knock and wait again; then after waiting again for half a minute, do not wait any longer. If a person opens the door, we should determine within three minutes whether or not he is a son of peace. If he is a son of peace, we should stay, but if not, we should leave right away. Sometimes a person has been a God-chosen son of peace, but when we went to knock on his door on a certain day, he was not in the right mood. He may have just fought with his wife and still had a stomach full of anger, so he could not hear our speaking to him about Jesus. Therefore, we need to observe closely; perhaps we should come again another time.
These are the principles the brothers and sisters have learned from going out in the training to knock on doors. After knocking on a door, we should decide to leave or stay within three minutes; we should lead one to pray within ten minutes and make sure he is saved; and we should lead him to be baptized within another ten minutes. In other words, we should spend no more than twenty minutes in a home. It is unsuitable to stay any longer. Our former old way supposes that the more we talk, the better it is. Actually, sometimes the more we talk, the more problems we have. During our visit we should do our best to not use our own words. It is best to use the booklet, The Mystery of Human Life, in which are four keys that are more than adequate to meet various needs.
We must pay attention to another principle. When going out to visit people, the new trainees should not speak at first but should simply learn in a good way. Whether you are an elder, a co-worker, or an apostle, you must become an apprentice. As long as it is your first time to go out, do not speak too much, but watch and learn. An elderly brother, who is an elder, heard about this training when he came back to Taiwan at the end of last year, and one day he joined the training. He knew about this rule and was willing to abide by it. He had been in the church life for many years, so naturally he was full of knowledge and felt that he had many things to say. Moreover, seeing that the young people knew only to read a section from The Mystery of Human Life tempted him very much. That certainly was not easy for him. In the end, however, he too saw that door-knocking has its finer points.
One time this elderly brother went out with the door-knocking brothers and sisters, and they entered into a couple’s home. Initially, the wife stayed in her room and did not want to come out. A young sister spoke to the husband, and just when she felt that she had spoken enough and he was ready to be baptized, the wife came out. The young sister felt that the wife should be taken care of, and since she thought that the elderly brother should know what to do after being with them for a day, she asked him to help the husband to be baptized. Then the sister went to take care of the wife. Because of her care for the wife, the wife was baptized. However, when she turned around, the elderly brother was still talking with the husband about baptism. Right away this sister went over and talked to the husband, and after just a few words, he was also baptized. This elderly brother finally saw that door-knocking indeed requires training.
Previously there were more than forty thousand baptized brothers and sisters on the island of Taiwan. With the addition of the seven thousand brought in through the trainees’ door-knocking, the total comes to almost fifty thousand. Among the original forty thousand, one out of four goes to meetings regularly. Therefore, the total number of regular meeting-goers adds up to about ten thousand people, of which at least four thousand are in the church in Taipei.
With these ten thousand as the base number, if one out of twenty is a full-timer, there should be five hundred full-timers. Actually, today there are more than six hundred full-timers on the island of Taiwan. According to percentage, though, there should be five hundred full-timers per ten thousand people. According to the experiment in the training, if each of these five hundred full-timers goes door-knocking every week, five days a week and two to three hours per day, one person is guaranteed to be baptized per week. In this way fifty-two people can be gained within a year of fifty-two weeks. If we adjust the number slightly, they can gain at least forty people. Therefore, if these five hundred full-timers each gains forty people every year, together they will gain twenty thousand.
If another two thousand five hundred go out door-knocking only once a week for two to three hours, they will each be able to gain and baptize one person per month, according to the above calculations. We may estimate that each one of them gains at least eight people per year. Two thousand five hundred multiplied by eight gives us twenty thousand people. Added to the twenty thousand gained by the full-timers, the total number of people is forty thousand. In this way the number of people who attend meetings regularly will increase by another ten thousand, increasing from the original ten thousand to twenty thousand.
Therefore, our goal is to baptize forty thousand people on the island of Taiwan this year. In order to carry this out, we need five hundred full-timers plus two thousand five hundred who will go out door-knocking weekly. Now that I have put the burden upon you, I will no longer let you live your days in ease and comfort. We all need to strive toward this goal. If some cannot keep up, we need to urge them on. If some disagree, we need to believe that the Lord whom we serve has a way, and since He has begun a good work, He will complete this work Himself. If we disagree, then we have fallen behind and are not up to date, and in so doing, we disqualify ourselves.
Therefore, each one of us needs to be trained. It would be valuable if we could spare even just two nights per week. Never say lightly that anyone can go door-knocking; going door-knocking and gaining people to be baptized is not as simple as it seems. We may use playing the piano as an example. Anyone can push down the keys and make a banging sound, but no one can play a melody without adequate training. Therefore, today whether you are an elder or a co-worker, whether you are young or old, you need to be trained in a good way. There are many who have been in the church for many years who find it difficult to follow along and learn, but I am sorry to say that we have no other choice; this is our only way. Those who can take this way will keep up. Those who cannot take it have to ask the Lord for the grace to not be alienated from this way.
Whether or not the new way will be successful depends on the elders. Therefore, the elders must have thorough fellowship, striving together with one soul for the gospelization of Taiwan. In the past some localities did not understand our practice and wondered why training was needed. Now they all are clear that door-knocking is not as simple as it seems. The success rate of merely following the practice is quite low, and such success does not last. Success can only come out of being trained in the training and continuing steadfastly in the principle of the new way. If we spread this message quickly to the entire island and to the whole world, and everyone is able to practice accordingly, we can expect the whole world to be gospelized in the near future.
(A message given in a conference on February 1, 1987, in Taipei.)
