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Scripture Reading: Matt. 28:19; 1 Tim. 2:4; Acts 4:31
1. Bring a meeting to them in their homes.
2. Present them the gospel and the truth.
3. Use our publications.
4. Grasp the opportunity to lead them to pray and believe in the Lord Jesus.
5. Assure them that they are saved by calling on the Lord.
6. Direct them to be baptized.
7. Take the chance to make an appointment with them for the next meeting.
In our fellowship concerning the Lord’s up-to-date move, I do not have any intention to stir up a revival. I want the Lord to get an army to fight the battle. If all of us would take the fellowship in this book to join the divine army, the Lord would gain more and more on this earth for the carrying out of His New Testament economy to build His church, to prepare His bride, to bring in His kingdom, and to consummate the age. In this chapter we want to fellowship concerning how to visit people by knocking on their doors.
I want to tell you what is on my heart and why I have been so much burdened with this matter. The Lord’s recovery began among us in 1922. Now sixty-four years have passed. In all these sixty-four years, new light concerning the truth has come to us nearly every year. In 1962 the Lord brought His recovery to the United States. Within these twenty-four years that the recovery has been in the United States, many crucial truths have been revealed to us. The contents of a forty-four-chapter book entitled God’s New Testament Economy, composed of messages I gave in 1984, are the consummation of what the Lord has shown us in His recovery. It would be more than worthwhile for you to spend the time to read this book.
In 1925 I received the vision of the recovery, but I never had the chance to practically enter into it until 1932. I came into the center of the recovery, working with Brother Nee for eighteen years. Then I was sent out to Taiwan and stayed there for over ten years. Finally, I came to the United States and have been here for twenty-four years. According to my observation throughout these past fifty-four years, in spite of how many truths the Lord has released to us, the rate of increase and the speed of the spread of the Lord’s testimony have not been as fast as we expected. When we came to Taiwan from mainland China, within less than six years we had a hundredfold increase. We began the Lord’s recovery in Taiwan in 1949. By 1955 we went up from about less than five hundred people on the whole island to about fifty thousand. But after that time the rate of increase went down, and it never came back. In the first twelve years of the Lord’s recovery in the United States from 1962 to 1974, our rate of increase was quite promising. Since 1974 the rate of increase among us has been very low, and the spread has also been quite slow. On the one hand, this has been due to the opposition. We cannot deny this. Since 1922 on mainland China there has always been a battle fought for the truth because we would not compromise. We do not like to have any kind of mixture, and we would not deviate from the track of the divine truth. This factor has limited and restricted us. It has been hard to get the increase because of this battle. We also have to realize that despite the fact that we have received so many truths, we did not pay much attention to the way to carry out the truths.
We have spent a tremendous amount of time and energy to dive into the truth. In footnote 66 in 1 John 1 of the Recovery Version, there are eight points concerning the definition of the word truth according to the New Testament usage. I spent about two weeks to write this one footnote. This is just one example of how much time and how much energy we spent to get into the truths, but we did not spend that much time to get into the way to carry out the Lord’s recovery. We were very good at “producing cargo,” but we did not spend enough time on “marketing the cargo.” Since October of 1984 I began to pay attention to our marketing, to our way. We would not follow any worldly way, but we want to take the way revealed in the Bible. I came back to the New Testament once more to thoroughly study the matter of meeting. I found out that the God-ordained New Testament way of meeting is in the homes (Acts 2:46; 5:42; 20:20; Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2). On the day of Pentecost, three thousand new ones were brought into the church life, and the same day they began to meet in the homes (Acts 2:46). The Bible says that they met from house to house. House to house means that every one of the homes had a meeting. No person organized, taught, or invented this. It was altogether guided by the Holy Spirit. Meeting from house to house was the Holy Spirit-guided and God-ordained way.
At the beginning of the church life in Acts, the believers also met in the temple, but that was something temporary. God had no intention to ask the New Testament believers to meet in the temple forsaken by God (Matt. 23:38—24:2 and footnote 11 in Matt. 24, Recovery Version). In 1 Corinthians 14:23 Paul refers to meetings in which “the whole church comes together in one place” (cf. v. 26). There are two categories of the way to meet — one is to have home meetings, and the other is to have big meetings. But for so many years we only paid attention to the big meetings and neglected the home meetings.
From 1949 to 1955 when I was in Taiwan, we greatly used the small group meetings. That was one of the factors of the hundredfold increase within five or six years. But from that time onward gradually up to October of 1984, when I went back to Taiwan, the small group way was nearly put aside unintentionally. The saints in Taiwan had come down from the top of a mountain to a valley, not on a steep slope but on a very flat slope little by little over twenty-nine years. The decline was unnoticeable because the church in Taipei still had a large number. When I left Taipei, there were over twenty-two thousand saints. Through all the years of having mostly big meetings, by 1984 the church in Taipei had only eleven thousand left. This factor caused me to search the Scriptures again concerning our way of meeting. I found out that the home meetings are the God-ordained way to meet.
There are many established local churches on this earth, and the cargo, the merchandise, of the Lord’s precious truths is with us. But how can we spread the church life and distribute the truth to so many hungry seekers? We do not want to take any worldly way or any human-invented way to do this. We must take the home meeting way. The entire globe is under a serious famine of spiritual food comparable to the real famine at Joseph’s time when only his storehouses were full of food (Gen. 41:56-57). In the same way we must honestly testify that our storehouses are full of food that can meet the need of the present world.
Since 1974 we began to have the life-study on the New Testament. Now we have printed Life-study messages covering every book of the New Testament in addition to Genesis and Exodus in the Old Testament. Our Recovery Version of the New Testament has been printed, and its footnotes present the truth, minister the life supply, solve the common and hard problems in the New Testament, and open up the books of the Bible. We have also published many books full of spiritual truths within the last twenty years. Now is the time that people all over the globe are waiting for the truth. Our responsibility, our obligation, is to distribute, to send out, the truth by home meetings. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons practice going to others’ homes with heretical teachings, but our way to visit people by knocking on their doors is very different from their way. What I will share with you is the result of our experience in Taipei for the past one and a half years. During this time we have discovered and learned a lot.
First, when we are going to knock on people’s doors, we must learn one thing — we are not going out to invite people to our meeting. We are going out to send a meeting to their homes. When we go to them, we bring the meeting to them. Some dear saints have been absent from the church meetings for years. If we asked them to come back to the meetings, it would be hard for them. Out of one hundred, maybe three or five would come back. But the new way we have found out is so easy. If you go to visit some saints who have been absent from the meeting for five years, you can go to them and have a meeting in their home. Then they would ask you to come back again. Right away in a backslider’s home, a meeting is set up. They are happy to have home meetings in their homes by your going there.
In the past we had big gospel meetings with gospel campaigns and conferences, but very few were really caught by the Lord. Now we found out that it is so easy to knock on the doors and establish a home meeting in another person’s home. To knock on people’s doors and invite them to our meeting is to practice the old way. When you open up your mouth in this way, you will lose. You will receive no for an answer most of the time. Our intention is not to bring people into the church life in this way.
In Taipei we scheduled that from 1985, within five years five hundred new full-timers would be produced every year. Right away the Lord did something in Taipei since these full-timers took the new way to visit people. The news came back that hundreds were baptized. At first all the elders were happy, but after two or three months they became disappointed. They said, “Where are the baptized ones? We supplied all the full-timers to go out to baptize people, but thus far we have not seen one coming to the church meetings. Also, the more full-timers we supply, the more of them we lose. At the church meeting time they do not come to the meeting but go out to baptize people. Therefore, our number is reduced in the church meetings.” I told the brothers not to be in so much of a hurry. When you sow, you apparently lose something, but your labor needs a period of time for the fruit of it to be seen (Psa. 126:5-6). When you have a harvest, you will be happy. We all would like to have a quick harvest. Tonight I sow, and tomorrow I reap. Then everyone is happy immediately. But we must realize that a quick harvest only yields artificial things. It takes time for real flowers to grow into many blossoms, but factories can produce artificial flowers overnight by the thousands. Constantine the Great did something like this when he accepted Christianity and made it a state religion. Millions of unbelievers became “Christians” by Constantine’s edict, without having to be born again. The millions that became “Christians” were artificial believers, not genuine believers.
We need to exercise patience. We should not expect to reap quickly. We have to go out to sow like the Lord Jesus did. We need to read the four Gospels again to see how much the Lord sowed. At one time He fed five thousand (Matt. 14:14-21), and at another time He fed four thousand (15:32-39), not including the women and children. The Lord sowed Himself into thousands of people, but eventually in Acts there were only one hundred twenty in the upper room (1:15). Those one hundred twenty were the cream of the result of the Lord’s work after three and a half years. In His resurrection He showed Himself to over five hundred disciples (1 Cor. 15:6), but not all five hundred were there in Jerusalem — only one hundred twenty. We have to follow the Lord to sow, the more the better. Do the best to sow. Sooner or later whatever you sow will become your reaping.
When you go, you must first get yourself prepared. The best way to get yourself prepared is to pray to contact the Lord, not to pray for your going out, not to pray for the gospel work, but to pray to fellowship with the Lord. Let Him enlighten you so that your entire being will be brought fully into light; let Him shine in you, upon you, over you, and through you. In the light you will see all your shortcomings, all your weak points, all kinds of sinful things. Spontaneously, you will make a thorough confession. The more you confess, the more you will be filled by the Spirit. To prepare yourself for going out to visit people by knocking on doors, you should be filled with the Spirit. Acts 4:31 says that after praying the believers were all filled with the Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. For the brothers and sisters to go out to knock on others’ doors may be quite threatening, but if we get ourselves prepared by being filled with the Spirit, we will have the boldness.
I want to stress one thing — when you go to knock on doors, do not invite people to come to your meeting. You must forget about this. Also, when you go in, do not talk to them too much. You may speak two sentences of greetings, and then tell them you want to present the gospel or the truth to them. You have to pray that the Lord would give you the instant utterance, speaking the same thing to present the gospel and the truth but by different utterance with different people. When you talk to an older man, you should use one kind of expression, and when you talk to a young lady or young boy, you have to change your utterance. You must look to the Lord and follow His leading. He will give you the words. Then you will find out whether your contact is saved or not. If he is saved, you do not need to repeat the gospel, but you surely have to present the truth. If he is not saved, you should present the gospel with the truth. You should not divide the truth from the gospel. Again I say, do not go to people to invite them to come to your meeting, but present the truth to them and bring the meeting to their home.
When you begin to present the gospel and the truth, you should not speak your own word. The more you speak your own word, the more impact you will lose because your contacts do not know who you are or what your status is. When you speak something, they may not have much confidence in it. But if you present them a proper, printed book, they will be impressed. In general, people respect books because a book should be written with much consideration and scholarship. When you present a book, they would respect it, especially when you present the Bible. The Bible is a famous and highly regarded book. Mostly everyone, even the opposers, would recognize that the Bible is a great book. If you present them a short portion of the Bible and say something in brief according to the footnotes in the Recovery Version, this will surprise and impress them. They will feel that you are a person who knows the top book in this world, so this will stir up their respect and give them confidence in what you present.
When you go out, you must have a Recovery Version and the rainbow booklets, which contain a slightly edited version of the Life-study messages. The most important publication for you to bring is the booklet entitled The Mystery of Human Life. Using this booklet is the best way to catch people. This booklet is also good for those who are saved, because so many saved ones never got to know what the mystery of human life is. If you use this, you will catch them. In Taiwan thousands have been brought to the Lord through this booklet. You do not need to read the whole booklet with them. This booklet talks about four keys to the mystery of human life. Just use one key with those that you visit. People respect books, and they respect the Bible even more. You must open up the meaning, the revelation, of the Bible to people in a short time. Then show them a footnote in the Recovery Version, and let them read it. This will catch them.
Salesmen know that if they talk too much, they will lose their sale. Basically, they impress people with their product in as little time as possible. When the person says that their product is good, that is the time for them to close the deal. They do not talk any further. We found out the same thing in presenting the gospel with the truth to people. When we are reading from The Mystery of Human Life with someone and they respond positively, that is the time for us to lead them to pray and to get them baptized. But the more you talk, the more the person may want you to leave.
Most people will be polite to you since you are so polite to them, going to visit them voluntarily and showing them a book. If you ask them to read one paragraph of The Mystery of Human Life with you, they would say that it is very good after reading it. At least they would say that it is good. When they say this, you should say, “Let’s pray.” Don’t ask, “Would you pray?” If you ask this, surely most of the people would say no. No one trains their little children to say no, but they spontaneously know how to say no. A knowledgeable mother would never ask the children, “Would you eat this?” She would tell the children to eat it, leaving them no choice. If she asked her children whether or not they wanted to eat something or drink something, they might say no most of the time. Thus, we should not ask our contact any question. Just say, “Please read this.” He will be polite and may be honest enough to say that what he read was very good or good. When you say, “Let us pray,” he will follow you to pray. Once the word good comes out of his mouth, that is the golden opportunity to lead him to pray. Just lead him or her to pray by repeating what you say to the Lord. His prayer may initially be something not real, but after praying two or three sentences, it becomes real. You could lead him to pray something simple, such as, “Lord Jesus, thank You that You died for me. Lord Jesus, I call on Your name. Lord Jesus, I love You, and I receive You as my life right now.”
After they pray, you must have the boldness to assure them with a verse that they are saved, and the best verse is Romans 10:13 — “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” You have to give them this verse and assure them with this verse that they have been saved. Do not ask them if they are saved. If you ask them, they would probably say that they do not think, believe, or feel that they are saved. Your responsibility is to assure them that they have been saved. Let them read Romans 10:13.
Then read to them Mark 16:16, which says, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” After they pray and have been given the assurance that the Lord Jesus lives in them, you need to say, “Let us be baptized.” Do not ask them if they would like to be baptized, because you would receive no for an answer most of the time. This is why I say to direct them to be baptized.
According to our experience in Taipei, by using these principles the saints were successful eighty percent of the time. Generally, your contacts will follow your directions. You may be speaking to the husband of a family concerning getting baptized, and at the same time direct the wife to fill up the bathtub with water before he has even decided. Sometimes the wife would even tell the husband to be baptized even though she has not yet decided to be baptized. In Taipei the saints always went out in groups of three or four. While two or three would be baptizing the husband, a sister would be fellowshipping with the wife. After the husband was baptized, then she would say to the wife, “Let us be baptized.” Most followed this direction. You may be concerned about bringing in some false ones. But you must realize that at the beginning everyone seems to be false. After you preach the gospel to a person, after he believes and is baptized, and after some prayer, this false one becomes a real believer. He is now one with you.
After you direct someone to be baptized, take the chance to make an appointment with them for the next meeting. Do not ask them if you can meet with them again. This gives them the ground to refuse you. You need to talk with them to induce them to meet with you again. Many times they would ask you if you would come back again. Take this opportunity to make an appointment with them that fits in with their time schedule. When you visit them the next time, you will present more truths, and they will get more help. Eventually, you can take the opportunity to make appointments for regular meetings in their homes weekly. Some of the homes that you visit will have already been prepared by the Lord just as the Lord prepared the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:17-33). When Peter went to Cornelius’s house, everything was ready. From the time that you knock on the door until you make an appointment for another meeting should take about twenty minutes.
I would propose to all the churches that the leading ones should take the lead to practice this, to get some experience either in some homes or in the meeting hall. Then based upon what you have learned in this practice, go out strictly according to all these instructions. I believe that you will “close many deals.” Go and do it.
We expect all the full-time trainees to go out every day to knock on doors. We are also expecting them to baptize one person a week as a result of this labor. Fifty door-knockers will bring in two thousand six hundred yearly. If you do not practice what I am fellowshipping with you, this may seem like a dream. But if you practice this, it is not a dream. Twenty full-timers who knock on doors every day of the week should bring in about one thousand a year. After my study and investigation, I have the full assurance that this is workable. Ten full-timers could bring in forty every month and four hundred eighty new ones in an entire year. It is worthwhile for some to drop their jobs to be the “door-knockers.”
I would also like to say a word to the elders. Do not merely be an elder in the church service office. Go out to knock on the doors. If a full-time elder would take my word to knock on doors every day, he could bring in fifty-two a year. Suppose you would go seven days a week for about two hours every day. Within these two hours you could knock on at least ten doors. Out of these ten doors perhaps five will open to you. This means thirty-five doors will be opened to you per week. Out of these thirty-five, you can surely baptize one.
We must admit that in the past we had the wrong way, so we wasted much of our time. We had big gatherings for gospel preaching. We labored much and invited people to gospel feasts. When someone came to our feast, this was a great gift to us. We were so grateful that they came, but eventually they disappeared. There was not much increase in the past due to our way. Again I say, if you drop your job to go knock on people’s doors for one year, you will bring in fifty-two. I am hoping that in 1987 we will have five hundred full-time workers in the United States. With each one of these full-time workers knocking on doors for two hours each day, seven days a week, within one year we can have an increase of over twenty-five thousand in the United States. We need the persons, and we need the right way. What I am fellowshipping with you is the right way to practice to get the increase. May we all go to practice this.
Not everyone can drop their job, but everyone should be able to go out two hours a week. Seven weeks of this kind of labor equals one full week of a full-time worker’s labor. Through this kind of labor, you could bring in at least one every seven weeks. This amounts to a brother bringing in seven every year. If you went out two hours every week, every year you could bring in seven. This means that the churches will have a sevenfold increase. If there were one hundred saints in your locality willing to practice this, you could have seven hundred new ones after one year. With the money-making full-timers there could be a sevenfold increase, and with the job-dropping full-timers we could have a fifty-two-fold increase.
As a conclusion to our fellowship in this chapter, it would be good to sing Hymns, #473. We all need to take the charge in stanza 3 of this hymn to rise up and strike the holy bargain — the fragment for the whole. “All things are yours when you are His, / And He and you are one.”
