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To go on in the Lord’s new way, the God-ordained way to meet and to serve, requires much study. We have had much speaking and teaching concerning the new way, and we have discovered many crucial points related to it. This speaking has been printed and is available to read. Although we have been going on steadily in the new way, our going on has been too slow. We now need to rise up to practice the new way.
The first step in the Lord’s new way is to contact people to bring them the gospel of the kingdom, which is the gospel of Christ. In order to contact people for the gospel, we should not merely stay home to pray for them and invite them to come to us. We have learned that this is not adequate. One effective and time-saving way to contact others for the gospel is to use the telephone. This way has been used very much by the marketing industry. Some saints have begun to call people to make appointments to share the gospel with them. This is an improved way to contact others. Some people may not be willing to make an appointment, but due to the telephone calls they may come to the Lord’s Day morning meeting. One church has begun to keep a guest book to record many details concerning each new one who comes to the meetings. Once a new one comes to the meeting, the saints will write him a letter or visit him. We should not trust that the new ones will contact us. Rather, we must exercise to contact them by many means.
There are many ways to visit people, and we still need more learning in this matter. If we are going to gain people, we must contact them. If a business receives only three replies for every one hundred brochures they mail out, they will recover their expenses. Likewise, for us to gain even one person out of five hundred contacts would be profitable and worthwhile. We do not expect a large increase. We only expect that each member in the Lord’s recovery will gain one person yearly. Through this onefold increase we will double our number every year. However, according to our study of church history, it is hard to find a church that has had even a thirty percent annual increase.
It is not good to be barren and unfruitful. The biggest commission from the Lord to His disciples is to go and disciple all the nations (Matt. 28:19), and the greatest charge to the New Testament believers is to bear fruit (John 15:4-8), to get people saved. It is not right to be a Christian for many years and yet be without fruit. We should not take any excuse for not bearing fruit.
It is a joy to have some dear ones under our care who are younger or weaker than we are. The people in the world seek amusements to make them joyful. Our joy is Christ, but we cannot enjoy Christ well without fruit-bearing. Without fruit-bearing our enjoyment of Christ is in vain. To have children physically is a joy, but in the eyes of God spiritual children are much more precious than physical children. If we have two or three spiritual children under our care, they will be our comfort, strengthening, encouragement, and daily joy year-round, and we will feel that we know the meaning of our Christian life better. On the other hand, if we do not have anyone under our spiritual care, we may wonder what the purpose of being a Christian is, and the enjoyment of Christ will eventually lose its taste.
We all have to pray, saying, “Lord, I hate barrenness, and I love to bear fruit. If I cannot have two or three of Your children to be my children, I will not be happy. Year after year I always want two or three younger Christians under my care.” We must endeavor to reach the goal of fruit-bearing. Then our Christian life will be meaningful, and our enjoyment of Christ will always be fresh. Whether or not the enjoyment of Christ is fresh to us depends on fruit-bearing as the result, the issue, of our enjoyment of Christ. To abide in Christ is the main charge in John 15 (v. 4a), but this charge is for another charge—to bear fruit (vv. 4b-8). Abiding is for fruit-bearing. It is impossible for a branch to abide in the vine and enjoy all the riches and life-juice from the root of the vine without bearing fruit. The thought that we can abide in Christ without bearing fruit is a self-deceit from the source of Satan. We must condemn this thought. We cannot promote the enjoyment of Christ without fruit-bearing. We should not be satisfied with the enjoyment of Christ in vain. The enjoyment of Christ must have an issue. This issue is not merely the growth of the branch but fruit-bearing. We must have fruit-bearing, and we must have children to care for. In John 15:16 the Lord said, “I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” To go forth is to contact people, and to have our fruit remain is by taking care of the young ones. Without our caring for the young ones, our fruit cannot remain.
If we rise up to bear fruit and care for the young ones, we will realize our shortage. We will realize that we do not have enough growth in the divine life. To be a Christian we need to grow, but we may have been in the Lord and in the church for many years without the proper growth in life. We may have been content merely to come to the meetings without any desperation for the growth in life. We would be bothered if our child had no growth after several years. Likewise, we all have to be bothered about our lack of growth in life. The way some dear saints speak and consider the things concerning the church indicates that they are not only childish but also babyish. They have too little growth in life. The reason we may lack the growth in life but still be content is that we do not care for fruit-bearing and taking care of the young ones. Once we rise up to bear fruit and care for spiritual children, we will discover that we need the growth in life.
Many saints have been spiritually disabled by the lack of growth in life and the shortage of skill. On the one hand, we may lack the growth in life. On the other hand, even if we go to contact people, we may not have the skill to converse with them. To speak to people properly requires much learning and coaching. Without being taught by a “coach,” we will not be able to “play ball.” We will just “play” in the natural way, which is not effective. We need to be coached in every aspect of speaking to people. After being coached for a short time, we will be able to speak very skillfully.
It is not right to be fruitless, but to bear fruit requires skill. Therefore, there is the need of much learning. We must endeavor to learn. We all can use our leisure time to learn something for the Lord. Daily we may need eight hours for sleeping and eight hours for working. This leaves some leisure time. Worldly leisure leads us into sin, but using our leisure time for spiritual matters leads us into fellowship with the Lord. Using our leisure time in this way will benefit us, our family, our relatives, and society.
We must learn how to contact people, how to reach people, and how to converse with people. In the past we preached the gospel in a casual way. We simply invited people to a gospel meeting every several months. We did not need to learn to speak or to preach. A good speaker took care of the preaching in the meeting. This idle way of letting others serve the Lord for us offends the Lord and offends the principle of the Body of Christ. The church is the Body of Christ, and just as every part of our body functions, all the members of the Body of Christ function. Simply to invite people to a meeting is not adequate.
We cannot expect that there will be many excellent speakers among us. It may even be that in a certain local church there are no good speakers. However, that church must still do something to bear fruit. Not everyone can be a good cook, but everyone can cook something. No family can survive simply by inviting good cooks to cook for them. Such a family will eventually starve. Everyone can cook. After cooking for a certain time, we will learn to cook well. If we cannot cook well, it is because we have not practiced. To depend upon a great evangelist for fruit-bearing is wrong. There are not many big evangelists among us, and those who may be such persons should restrict their functioning in order to let all the saints exercise their function. It is not good for a shoulder to function in a way that annuls the function of the other members. The annulling of the functions of the members is a paralysis in the Body of Christ. We have to keep every part of the Body active and functioning. Then the Body will be healthy.
We should be bothered about our shortage of increase. If we are not bothered today, one day we may be troubled by the Lord Jesus. This is a serious matter. When we go to see Him, He will ask us about our fruit. According to the parable in Matthew 25:14-30, the Lord has delivered His talents to us, and one day He will come and settle accounts with us. In this parable the one with five talents and the one with two talents gave an account of what they had done, and they received a reward. The one with one talent, however, received a punishment. One day we will have to give the Lord an account. Whether we will receive a reward or a punishment depends upon what we do in this age. To be a Christian is not a small matter. Much preparation is needed for us to meet the Lord. We must go out to gain people, telling the Lord, “You gave me one talent. Now I would make another talent for a profit.”
We have to rise up. We have no choice but to be Christians. Therefore, we must be normal Christians, not abnormal and disobedient. In society, if a person does not get an education, he will cause himself to suffer. He has to study and make good grades. Then he will be a better person and will live a better life. In the same way, we must rise up to learn something related to fruit-bearing. When we do so, we will discover that we need the growth in life, and we will grow. By this, our prayer will change. Previously, we might have only known how to pray in an idle way. We did not mean business in our prayer. However, when we rise up to mean business with the Lord, we will pray desperately with much meaning. We may even fast, not according to a teaching but according to an inner compelling.
To have the proper group meetings requires much learning. We should not take the easy, natural way to meet, in which several people come together, sing a hymn, pray, and testify in a natural way. We must pick up the skill of fellowshipping and learn how to stir up others to fellowship. As we have pointed out before, in the group meetings we should have fellowship, prayer, care, and shepherding. To speak these four words is easy, but we need to learn how to practice these things organically in a living way and how to stir up others to cooperate to practice them with us in the meetings. I believe that in the churches there will be small groups full of organic fellowship, organic intercession, organic care for one another, and organic shepherding. That will be very enjoyable and a great encouragement to all the believers. Everyone enjoys having a free talk with their friends. If we have a pleasant free talk, everyone will enjoy taking part in it. The group meetings are a few people coming together to have such a pleasant talk. Coming together in this way makes everyone happy. Eventually, everyone in the group will know everyone else. This kind of meeting is a joy. However, we have to learn how to have such a meeting. We have spoken sufficiently on this subject. Our need today is on the side of practice.
To come together in the small groups is also to come together to teach and to be taught. Without teaching we can never carry out the central goal of the group meeting, which is to perfect the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). If we do not know how to teach and receive teaching, we cannot attain to the goal of the group meeting, and our meetings will be too low.
In the practice of the new way, to teach is not merely to open the Bible or a particular book to point out certain truths. This is too legal, dead, and vain. To teach in the new way is mostly to answer practical questions. We should let all the attendants of a group meeting know that everyone is free to raise any kind of question. A new one in the meeting may raise a question concerning the origin of the Bible. The attendants in the meeting must supply some answers, and in order to do this, they must have some learning. For this reason we have published many books, including one that tells us where the Bible came from and how it was composed (see Lesson One in Truth Lessons—Level One, volume 1). The books that we have published are real and practical and meet our needs. We should spend our leisure time to read them. By doing so we will accumulate a good store and a rich deposit of the proper spiritual knowledge. Then we will be equipped to attend the group meetings. When any question is raised, we will have something to answer. In our answering of questions, there may even be new light and new discoveries from the Bible.
All the saints should be equipped. In this regard, we hope that none of the saints in the Lord’s recovery will take the way of traditional Christianity. Every saint must be knowledgeable. Everyone must be able to teach, and everyone must know what to do in the small group meetings. We must render care to others, but if we do not have the growth in life and are not knowledgeable concerning spiritual things, the things of God in His economy, we will not be able to care for the younger ones. In order to attend the group meetings and take care of the younger ones, we have to endeavor to become qualified, perfected, and equipped. Endeavoring to be equipped in this way is a lifelong matter. We should not stop learning. Rather, because we mean business with the Lord, we should be desperate to learn.
No one is too old to bear fruit and take care of the new ones. The older saints among us can at least pray and care for the older ones among their relatives, neighbors, and friends. We need to have two or three younger ones under our care constantly. We should pray for them and take care of all their needs, including their physical needs. There are many ways that we can care for the saints. As we care for the saints, the Body of Christ will be cared for and spontaneously built up. Our care for others should not be in the way of traditional Christianity, in which a meeting is established with a gifted one as the speaker. This kind of care is not genuine. If our care for others is like this, we will not have a good report when we go to the Lord to give an account to Him. At that time He will not listen to our excuses. Rather, He may ask whether or not we heard or read these messages concerning fruit-bearing. To hear these messages may be a profit to us. However, to hear these messages places us under an obligation. Now that the Lord has shown us the God-ordained way, we have no excuse. We have to bear fruit and take care of the young ones. This is a serious matter, and this is related to God’s economy. If we all do our part in fruit-bearing, God’s economy will be fulfilled.
