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Concerning the new way, we have a saying with two simple phrases: “The new way produces the new man; the new man walks the new way.” Simply speaking, the new way is to have us carry out what the Lord has commissioned. The Lord’s commission to us can be divided into four main items: the gospel, the truth, life, and the church. In order to carry out these four items, we have found a most scriptural way through our more than sixty years of experience in the Lord’s recovery and the practices of all the different Christian groups in the past two thousand years. This way is ordained by God and confirmed and led by the Holy Spirit, and it is a most effective way.
In the past two thousand years there were some who practiced this way, but regretfully no one took this way as the unique way. This time, in changing the system, we will take this way as the prescribed way.
First, we need to go door-knocking, leading people to salvation. Door-knocking is truly a very feasible way. One person among us even gained and baptized one hundred twenty people in just over two months. This is tremendous.
Second, we need to lead people to know the truth. This truth is not what is generally known — the common, superficial, and shallow truth. This truth concerns God’s eternal economy, which is God in His Divine Trinity dispensing Himself into His chosen people by passing through all the processes so that they may be regenerated, sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified and so that they may be the members of Christ and become the Body of Christ as God’s corporate expression on the earth. This is the truth we are talking about.
After knocking on doors and preaching the gospel, we must go on to establish meetings in the homes of the newly baptized saints and begin to teach them the truth. This truth is the essence of the Bible, the center of the Bible, and what is according to God’s heart’s desire, yet this truth is mostly neglected among Christians. Some people touch only the surface of the Bible when they read the Scriptures, thus concluding that the Bible is a shallow book and contains nothing of great value. However, I have studied this book from my youth to this day, for over sixty years. The more I study the Bible, the more I have come to know its mysteries and sense deeply its utter preciousness, because this book talks about God’s eternal economy.
The word economy is a great matter. There is in God an economy, which is to dispense Himself, by passing through all the processes, into His chosen and redeemed people, that they may be one with Him and become the Body of Christ, expressing God on the earth. Whether going out door-knocking or going to people’s homes to lead the meetings, we need to learn this truth in a thorough way. Not only should we know and understand it, but we should study it to the point that we can teach others as if our tongue were the pen of a ready writer. Every newly baptized brother or sister, after attending such meetings for six months, can also become one who teaches others. In this way many people will soon come to know the truth of the Bible. This is only a guide, to lead all the newly saved ones to read the Bible in a good way and understand all the truth in the sixty-six books of the Bible. This is the commission of the truth of which we speak.
Third, we need to lead people to grow in life. Truth brings light, life, power, and spiritual things, comprising all the riches of God. Therefore, when we teach the truth to others, spontaneously they receive the supply of life and grow in life. The life mentioned in the Bible is the uncreated, eternal life of God. This life is neither outside of God nor apart from God; this life is God Himself. In other words, this life is the Spirit, and the Spirit is Christ. Therefore, when we minister life to others, we minister the Spirit to them, and we minister Christ to them.
The eternal life is the Spirit, and it is also Christ. Today we have all received this life. Hymn #377 in the Chinese hymnal says, “Glory! Glory! Christ my life to be; / Glory! Glory! The Spirit leadeth me.” However, we cannot stop here. We need to see that the purpose of God’s imparting His life to us is that we may be regenerated, transformed, and conformed to the image of His Son and become His church, His golden lampstands that appear in every place, shining on and enlightening the world.
Fourth, we must raise up the ones who have been baptized, edified in the truth, and have grown in life to be the church. Generally, people see Christianity as a religion. However, in the Bible religion is not a positive term (Acts 26:5); it is a negative term. In other words, the Bible depreciates religion. In that case, is the so-called Christianity a religion or not? This must be viewed from two perspectives. The Christianity that is orthodox and scriptural is not a religion. Although people attach “anity” to it, in reality the Bible does not reveal a religion; it reveals Christ. According to the Bible, we believe in Christ, not Christianity.
This Christ is a living person. He is the embodiment of the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Today He has passed through death and resurrection and has become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, so we can breathe Him and be filled and occupied with Him. When we meet, He is with us, and He operates in the meeting in various ways, giving grace to every brother and sister. This is the Christ we preach, believe in, worship, and serve. We are not a religion, nor are we the so-called Christianity. We are a group of people who enjoy Christ and serve Christ together.
From another perspective, according to its transmuted condition, Christianity is truly a great religion. The biggest party in Christianity is Catholicism, followed by Protestantism. Within Protestantism are many sects and denominations as well. We do not represent such Christianity; we represent the church of God. This church is the living Body of Christ, constituted of all who have the eternal life of God. In order to carry out these four main items — the gospel, the truth, life, and the church — we have to rely on the Holy Spirit and the words of the Bible, with much prayer and redoubled diligence and labor. Then again, these things are very general. We see that the results of our more than sixty years of experience, in addition to the practices of all the different groups in Christianity in the past two thousand years, are indeed unsatisfactory. In order to carry out these four main items today practically, each one of us must practice door-knocking, visiting people, preaching the gospel, and going to people’s homes to teach the truth and minister life.
None of these matters — door-knocking, visiting people, teaching the truth, and ministering life — are simple. Bringing people into the Body of Christ to live the church life is even more difficult. All of these things need time and manpower. Therefore, after repeated study and consultation with various sources and with much prayer, we deeply felt that in order to carry out these four main items, we need to produce one full-timer out of every twenty people from among those who meet.
Currently, the church in Taipei has over ten thousand names on the list, but there are only four thousand regular meeting-goers. From among these four thousand, we should be able to produce two hundred full-time serving ones. One full-timer should be produced out of every twenty people, and the other nineteen should endeavor to support this one.
According to our observations and experiences, we believe that since all the full-timers spend most of their time meeting on the Lord’s Day, they do not have to go door-knocking on that day, but they should go door-knocking every day of the rest of the week. For these six days, they do not need to go door-knocking eight hours each day. They need to go simply for about one-third of eight hours, two and a half hours or three hours at the most. Six consecutive days of door-knocking per week would guarantee one person being gained and baptized every week. In this way a full-timer’s labor will be able to bring in fifty-two people through door-knocking during the fifty-two weeks of the year, and two hundred full-timers will be able to bring in ten thousand four hundred people, which rounded down is ten thousand people.
Next, one out of every four people who meet regularly should go out at least once a week to knock on doors, visit people, teach the truth, or fellowship with people and minister life to them, each for two hours. Four thousand people meet in the church in Taipei, so there can be one thousand part-time serving ones going door-knocking every week. To be sure, door-knocking in this way every week for two hours, at least one person will be saved every two months, or every eight weeks. In a conservative estimation one person can gain six people per year; one thousand can gain six thousand. This, added to the people gained by the two hundred full-timers, gives us sixteen thousand people, which is the quadruple of four thousand. This requires us to carry it out together.
“Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying, / Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; / Weep o’er the erring one, / Lift up the fallen, / Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save. / Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying; / Jesus is merciful, / Jesus will save” (Hymns, #921, stanza 1 and chorus). The elders should take the lead to rescue the perishing. From now on, the elders will not sit in the offices in the meeting halls, but they will go door-knocking every day. One experience of door-knocking is different from another; there is little value when a careless person goes door-knocking, but there is much value when a dignified and noble person goes door-knocking. Therefore, it is weightier when the elders go door-knocking. According to what the Bible says, elders should not be “as lording it over your allotments but by becoming patterns of the flock” (1 Pet. 5:3). To this end, the elders should be the first to go door-knocking to be the patterns of the flock.
If every twenty people produce one full-timer and every four people produce one who goes door-knocking weekly, then with four thousand people as the base number, Taipei will be able to gain sixteen thousand people in a year through door-knocking — a fourfold multiplication. If we continue in this way, Taipei will have gained two million seven hundred thousand through door-knocking by 1990. Let us wait and see, but please do not be a bystander. Every twenty saints produce one full-timer; every four produce one part-timer; the elders take the lead in preaching the gospel; and all the saints pray with one accord and endeavor to provide financially. If we do this, the Lord will have a way.
I firmly believe that the gospelization of Taiwan can be fulfilled in five years under the leading of the grace of the Lord. According to various observations and general experiences, we do have the full assurance that we can gospelize the whole of Taiwan. Therefore, we have to pray for the gospelization of Taiwan within five years. Starting from January of next year, the four hundred fifty full-timers will begin to move on this island. There are two hundred fifty from overseas in this term of the training. Out of these two hundred fifty, one hundred eighteen signed a petition requesting me to allow them to stay in Taiwan for at least a year. Some even requested to stay until Taiwan is fully gospelized. It would also be effective if only the native saints went door-knocking, yet it would definitely be more effective if every team included a foreigner, especially an American. Sometimes the same words are not as easily received when they are spoken by a Chinese person as when they are spoken by a foreigner.
Therefore, the gospelization, truth-ization, and church-ization of Taiwan in five years is a promising prospect. I hope that the saints in all the churches in different localities would say Amen from deep within to the Lord’s new move today and cooperate through prayer, with no one dissenting or speaking something different. Thank and praise the Lord that He gave us a unique way that succeeds into eternity!
(A message given in a conference on November 23, 1986, in Taipei.)
