Search
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:42, 46; 5:42; 1 Cor. 14:23, 26
In this chapter we need to speak about the gains and losses associated with the small group meetings and the big meetings. After considering the practices of others and reconsidering our experiences in the past thirty-six years in the church in Taipei, we have compared the gains and losses from these two ways of meeting — small group meetings and big meetings — and we have been very much enlightened.
God’s wisdom surpasses everything. God’s works are created and accomplished by Him; they have no need for any improvement. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out, and the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit outwardly, speaking and ministering Christ. Consequently, three thousand were saved, and the church was established and began to meet (Acts 2:1-4, 14-21, 41-42). According to the record in Acts 2 and 5, a way of meeting was initiated by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit led the saved ones to begin to meet according to their practical situation. Acts 2:46 says, “Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart.” Furthermore, verse 42 says, “They continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.” Here we see the clear picture that the church meetings included both big meetings and small gatherings. There were big meetings in the temple and small gatherings from house to house. In the meetings in the temple Peter surely spoke, but in the meetings from house to house, many people must have been sharing what they heard in the temple.
Verse 42 says, “They continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.” The teaching that the believers spoke must have been Peter’s first message to the Jews. The concepts of the Jews, who held on to the things of the Old Testament, were changed because of Peter’s message; it turned them from the Jewish practices in the Old Testament to God’s economy in the New Testament. The believers continued steadfastly in speaking this message and did not speak of the things taught by Moses and Elijah in the Old Testament. They continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles, with everyone speaking from house to house.
Verses 42 and 46 are windows through which we can see the content of the small group meetings. The believers met from house to house, and everyone spoke. They did not speak their own things, but they continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles, speaking what Peter had spoken. At that time three thousand people were probably spread out over several hundred houses, and in every house there was speaking. This speaking was not done by a small number of people going from house to house; rather, everyone in every house spoke. Within one to two days Peter’s speaking was propagated through a multitude of speaking brothers and sisters.
On the day of Pentecost three thousand people were saved after Peter’s speaking. These three thousand continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles, speaking from house to house. In contrast to the example of these speaking ones in Acts, we have people who have been meeting with us for more than thirty years who still cannot speak. No one can deny that the small groups have recovered some people, but there are also obstacles. In the small group meetings the capable ones often hold back, while others speak nonsensically. As a result of this, there is little appreciation for the small group meetings.
In my garden a part of the lawn was not growing. When the brothers came to replace the old grass that was not growing, I thought that they would buy sod and replace the grass in the entire area, as if they were putting in a new carpet. Instead, they added new clumps of grass here and there. Nevertheless, after two to three months the new grass had spread out, and there was green grass growing everywhere. In a few years the grass will have no place to spread. Then it will crowd itself out and become old. This experience applies to the church.
When we scattered some new clumps of “grass” in Taipei, we did not have the assurance that much would grow. However, history shows that the church spreads through propagation. For example, we were very worried about the small number meeting in Yung-he. To our surprise, the church in Yung-he has more people than hall one of the church in Taipei. However, the church in Yung-he must continue to spread so that it does not become old.
Today there is too much old grass in the church in Taipei, which is crowding out new growth. In 1949 we met first in hall one. The following year new meetings halls were built. Immediately after this subdivision, small groups were established. Many clumps of grass were scattered, but they grew very fast. Later, we were distracted, and a group of young people were influenced by dissenting opinions. In these circumstances the Lord led me to the United States. Since I arrived in the United States in 1960, over three hundred churches have been raised up in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia.
There are six hundred fifty churches on the whole earth. Approximately three hundred fifty are in Asia, and another three hundred were raised up after I went to the United States. This is a great benefit to the West. However, we have suffered a loss in Asia. Since Brother T. Austin-Sparks came the second time, we have imperceptibly and gradually gone downhill in the twenty-eight years from 1957 to 1985. The church in Taipei has nearly degraded into Christianity’s way of meeting, the way of emphasizing big meetings, while the meetings in homes and small groups have been disregarded and put aside.
From 1949 to 1957 we highly regarded the meetings in homes and small groups, but from 1957 we did not pay much attention to them. We hoped that the big meetings would be attractive and that the number attending the big meetings would increase. We gave message after message, expecting to raise up some capable speakers. This was the way of one person speaking and all the others listening. However, this way did not bring in many and retained even fewer. After twenty-seven years of labor the actual number of those attending the meetings is lower than it was over twenty years ago. This is an historical fact. In these twenty-seven years many were baptized, but few were retained.
From 1949 to 1957 there were many small groups, and they retained people. Once we began to practice the small groups, many people were brought into the church. Nevertheless, the supply to the saints was not strong, because there were not many who were capable of even a little speaking. This was the weakness of the small group meetings. Let us compare profit and loss. The advantage of the small group meetings is that it is easy to bring people in and retain them, but the small group meetings have the weakness of an insufficient supply. This weakness, however, can be remedied. In the United States there are many schools with thousands of students and many teachers. If every teacher had to be exceptional, there would be no way for a school to advance; however, even a capable teacher cannot replace a thousand ordinary teachers, each of whom is teaching twenty-five students. The ordinary teachers are more than able to provide a worthwhile education.
The Lord’s wisdom is great. From the beginning, the church had big meetings in the temple and small group meetings in the homes. As soon as a person was saved on the day of Pentecost, he began to speak in the homes (Acts 2:46-47). This start established a good pattern. In contrast, when someone is saved among us, he remains silent because we do not believe that it is possible for a person who is saved one day to begin to speak the word of God the next day. Although the newly saved ones cannot speak as well as the experienced ones, they can practice speaking in the small group meetings. In this way everyone will learn to speak. Normally, anyone can learn a language. Even the most uneducated person can learn a language. If we are willing to learn, we will have no trouble speaking. Yet in spiritual matters we say that we do not know how to speak, even though we are saved, have the Spirit of the Lord, pray, read the Bible, attend meetings, and listen to many messages. Our habit of not speaking is a loss that is related to our reliance on big meetings. The big meetings have killed the function of the saints and deprived the saints of their heritage. In a big meeting with three hundred people, it is not possible for everyone to speak, much less give a message. But if we divide into thirty groups, thirty, fifty, or even sixty saints will be able to speak. Although they may not be able to speak in front of three hundred people, they can speak to ten people. Over a prolonged period of time, the big meetings have killed the function of the saints.
An elderly person will become sick if he stops walking for a few days, but he will better avoid sicknesses if he walks several thousand steps every day. An elderly person can improve his health by exercising through practice. We do not speak in the meetings because we do not practice speaking. The big meetings have killed the saints’ opportunity to practice. There is an old Chinese saying that three ordinary people can outperform a genius. If we rely on only one speaker, no one else will speak in the meetings, and no one will prepare anything for the meetings. Everyone will come to a meeting with a mouth waiting to be fed. If we do not give our children the opportunity to practice speaking when they are little, we should not blame them if their speaking is not very good when they grow up. If a father gives a lecture every time he opens his mouth, his children will grow up as if they were dumb. I would rather have a father speak less and the children speak more. Very often the so-called gifts kill many other gifts.
I am very concerned that over the past twenty-seven years the number in the church in Taipei has decreased rather than increased. Every aspect of the church in Taipei is stable, and there is no excuse for our lack of increase. In Taiwan the society is highly developed, education is widespread, the economy is prosperous, and public safety is well maintained. All the conditions for growth have been met, but there has been no increase in the church. This must mean that we have missed the mark. For a businessman, a profit indicates that his employees have worked well; a loss indicates that they have worked poorly. People who open factories and businesses count money, but in the church we count people. In the business world making money does not prove everything, but in the church the number of people means everything.
Without an adequate preaching of the gospel in the church, there will be no increase; without proper shepherding, the church will not retain people; and without sufficient edification, our number will not increase. Only an increase in the number in the church can indicate that the church is doing well. If our number is decreasing, there is no ground to say that we are doing well. If a woman is healthy, yet she cannot give birth to a child, her health is not optimal. From our statistics we can tell whether or not the church is healthy; the number of people means everything.
Our burden is not to drop the big meetings. Rather, we must learn how to meet in the way that was present in the initial stage of the church, with big meetings in the temple and small meetings from house to house. Both ways of meeting are equally important. When I first promoted the small groups, I spoke of three hundred people meeting in a meeting hall. When this many players are on one court, the majority will not be able to play the game. Now that we have started the small group meetings, one meeting place can become more than thirty places. When each place, each court, has eight to ten players, everyone can be on the court and play. In the long run, when everyone comes together to play on just one court, nearly everyone is on the sidelines. With thirty small groups, however, there can be thirty courts, and even those who do not know how to play will have a court. Everyone needs to be able to practice in order to play. Practice makes perfect.
When I first went to Shanghai in 1933, Brother Nee called the brothers together and said that our way of meeting had not been completely freed from degraded Christianity; that is, we had not recovered what is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 14:26: “Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation.” Brother Nee said the word has in Greek does not mean that we are going to have or that we will have but that we already have something in our hands. He said that has refers to what we have gained in both knowledge and experience from our daily fellowship with the Lord and in our daily reading of the Word. With such experience we will surely be able to speak something when we come to a meeting.
Later, I realized that Brother Nee was saying that our meetings should be similar to the feasts celebrated by the children of Israel when they brought the produce of the good land and bullocks and sheep from their herds and flocks. Because they labored all year, they were able to bring something from their herds, flocks, and fields to the feast. Some brought bullocks, some brought sheep, some brought new wine, and some brought produce, but everyone brought something. This should be the normal situation in our meetings, but our meetings have not come up to this point. We still need to endeavor.
At that time Brother Nee mentioned that we needed to set up a way for our meetings to jump from degraded Christianity to 1 Corinthians 14:26. Subsequently, he started a brothers’ meeting for the brothers and a sisters’ meeting for the sisters. In the brothers’ meeting there was no chairman or preacher, but they were charged to practice 1 Corinthians 14:26 together. From its beginning until 1949, when we had a brothers’ meeting in Taiwan, this meeting was never successful. When the brothers came, they came empty-handed and just sat down. Since no single person was leading the meeting, we just sat and looked at each other. No one had anything to say. Eventually, someone suggested that we give testimonies, and in the beginning there were a few testimonies, but gradually all the testimonies were exhausted. These meetings were not rich and had little meaning.
We could not get through in the brothers’ meeting in Taiwan because we had never built up a habit of speaking in the meetings. A habit is accumulated from daily experiences, but we were accumulating experiences only related to one gifted person speaking and everyone else listening. Through many years we developed a habit of listening to someone preach; thus, we ourselves did not have a habit of speaking. When the small group meetings began, none of us were used to speaking. This only gave an opportunity for talkative ones to rise up and speak nonsense.
Today, by the Lord’s grace, we must study how to uplift the standard of the small groups. I hope that those who can supply others will no longer remain silent and quietly observe. I hope they would understand that this is their meeting, their court on which to play ball, and their place to function and minister. I hope that they would turn from being an objective spectator to bearing the burden for the meeting. If this is done, the content of the small group meetings will be strengthened.
We need to build up the small group meetings as the foundation of the church meetings. The life pulse of the church depends upon the small groups. The building up of the church also depends upon the small groups. If the small groups are successful, the church will be strong. There is a Chinese saying that in order to have a strong society and a strong nation, the homes must first be kept in good order. Keeping one’s home in good order comes before ruling over the nation and bringing peace to the world. The same applies to the church. It is impossible to have strong church meetings if the small group meetings in the homes of the saints are not strong. This will force us to rely on spiritual giants. When a “Gideon” comes, the church will seem to be strong, but when he goes, the church will be even weaker. When a “Samson” comes, the church will seemingly have a revival, but when he goes, the church will be down again. This is an abnormal situation, just as the age of the judges was an abnormal situation. It should not be this way among us. We should not take the way of relying on spiritual giants to lead the meetings.
We should strengthen the small group meetings in every home. We should concentrate our efforts to bear up the small group meetings. We should not speak when we are not sure that our speaking is from the spirit or that it will supply Christ. When those who should not speak stop speaking, then those who should speak and are able to supply and bear some burden will speak. Thus, there will be no guests, no spectators, and no one who does not bear some burden in the meeting. In this way the small group meetings will become strong.
The Southern Baptist Church is one of the largest denominations in the United States. They retain people mainly by relying on their practice of Sunday school. They employ the principle of using small classes in their Sunday school. They do not first come together in one place; instead, they divide into classes of about thirty to fifty people. Every Lord’s Day they meet in small classes and use the same material. Through these small meetings, they are able to retain people much more than with their big meetings.
If, in the past fifteen years, we had turned our attention to the group meetings and not stressed the big meetings, I fully believe that our number would have at least doubled. May the Lord have mercy on us. We need to pray for this matter in order to adjust our habit of relying on gifted brothers. Everyone should function to bring out Christ so that the group meetings would not be low or empty. This year, 1985, is an experimental year. Let us all go into the laboratory to work. I believe that we will find a way. We cannot rely on our thirty-five years of history, keeping old things and being unwilling to go on. Our number is not increasing, and we need to wake up and be like a businessman who changes his ways when his business is not making money. Let us please pray for this together.
