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Scripture Reading: John 15:16; Acts 2:41, 46-47; 5:42; 16:15, 33-34; Matt. 18:20; Acts 12:12
The title of this chapter is “Leading New Believers to Meet in Their Homes.” These words are simple, but for two thousand years the church has neglected meeting in the homes. Christianity pays attention only to worship services in a chapel. We have changed our terminology from chapel to meeting hall and from worship service to meeting; thus, we meet in a meeting hall. Strictly speaking, we are doing the same old thing but with a new label, because we focus on meeting in a meeting hall but neglect meeting with believers in their homes. This practice is not scriptural. In John 15:16 the Lord said, “I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” The Lord committed two matters to us: going forth to bear fruit and bearing remaining fruit.
The Lord’s words in the Gospel of John are simple yet profound. In particular, chapter 15 concerning the vine is rather simple, but the mystery of life contained in this chapter is profound. In verse 1 the Lord said that He is the true vine. There are innumerable vines in the universe, but there is only one true, genuine vine that has eternal value, and this vine is the Lord Jesus Himself. He is extraordinary, for He is God and also man. The statement He is God is simple, but it implies that He is the embodiment of the Triune God. God became a man; He had a physical human body. As the embodiment of the Triune God, Jesus possesses divinity as well as humanity. Divinity and humanity are mingled in Him; therefore, He is both God and man. Such a One is the true vine in the universe.
As believers, we are not only the Lord’s disciples; we are also branches in the true vine. This relationship shows that we are joined to the Lord in life. We are connected and mingled with Him as one to have the same life and the same living. The trunk and the branches of the vine have one life and one living. It is not possible for the trunk to have one way of living while the branches have another way of living. The trunk and the branches have one living, which is the outflow of the life that they possess. The practical expression of this outflow is fruit-bearing.
The destiny and responsibility of the branches of the vine are to bear fruit. If the branches do not bear fruit, they are useless and are not even good for fuel. The branches of the vine are good only for bearing clusters of fruit. When I was a young child, there was a vine in the courtyard of our house, and every year trellises were set up for the vine to spread and bear fruit. When there was a rich harvest of grapes, we could see clusters of grapes hanging from each of the branches on the trellises. This beautiful scene portrays the believers as branches of the Lord as the true vine bearing clusters of fruit.
We thank the Lord that by His mercy we believed in Him and were saved. We now attend the meetings with rejoicing. It is wonderful that we can sing, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.” However, the Lord Jesus will ask, “How many grapes are you bearing?” Some of us may be bearing eight or ten grapes, but others may have only one grape, and still others may not have a single grape. This is our condition. If we were the keeper of a vineyard and noticed such a sad condition of a vine, would we not abandon it? The church is the Lord’s vineyard, but do we have clusters of fruit? If we do not have clusters of fruit, what will the Lord do? Someone may say that he has twenty-eight grapes. Although twenty-eight seems like a large number, it is still a count of individual grapes. We should count grapes according to clusters, not individually. Is this our condition?
For the past three and a half years I have been collecting statistical data concerning Christianity in America and Great Britain. This data indicates that for a quarter of a century, from the end of World War II to the 1970s, the membership in the major Christian denominations in America and Britain has been decreasing rapidly. The statistics also show that after World War II Islam is the most prosperous major religion in the world. Four years ago it increased fivefold.
History shows that the spread of Christianity in the previous centuries was related to the spread of imperialism in weak and backward nations. Christianity took advantage of the situation, and the gospel was preached in those countries. In China the Western missionaries were sometimes considered to be higher than the emperors. Before the end of World War II the president of the United States, Mr. Roosevelt, proposed the abolition of all unequal treaties. Due to America’s influence, other countries accepted this proposal. This is how many countries lost their colonies. Great Britain was known as an empire upon which the sun never set, but she lost nearly all her colonies. After some of the countries became self-governing, they closed their doors and rejected Christian missionaries. Therefore, the major denominations gradually lost their fields for overseas mission work.
Furthermore, in the United States and in Great Britain the testimony of Christian evangelism is too poor. According to my observation, Christianity has not increased during the past twenty-six years in the United States; rather, it has been decreasing. This decline in numbers is unavoidable. Several gospel giants have been raised up, but they have not rescued the waning situation.
The leaders of the major denominations in America met together a couple of months ago to discuss how to evangelize the world by the year 2000. They concluded that there is a shortage of manpower. The Southern Baptist denomination has over ten million believers. There are close to sixty million believers in all the Protestant churches, and the Catholic Church has more than fifty million members. The United States has a population of approximately two hundred twenty million, and nearly half of them are Christians. Yet when the leaders came together to discuss how to evangelize the world, their conclusion was that they do not have the manpower. Where are the believers? They are going to worship services every week.
Taiwan is the birthplace of my work in the Lord’s recovery outside of China. Hall one of the church in Taipei was built under my supervision. I designed the blueprint. I began the work in Taiwan more than thirty-eight years ago on August 1, 1948. When I visited Taiwan three and a half years ago, I was shocked by the attendance figures. When I left Taiwan for America in 1961, there were over twenty thousand saints in the church in Taipei, and about one-fourth of them were active and meeting regularly. Twenty-three years later, the number in the church in Taipei dropped to a little over ten thousand. When I inquired of the brothers, they said that quite a few had died, many had gone abroad, and others had moved or lost contact with us and could not be located. No matter how many reasons we may have, the unique reason for the decrease in the number of saints is our lack of fruit-bearing.
In the early days I worked in San Francisco in America. In 1958 some brothers requested that I appoint a few elders for the church. At that time there were over twenty saints meeting regularly. After thirty years the church has approximately two hundred saints, including Chinese and Caucasians. This is an increase, but it is very slow. This slow increase is due to our lack of fruit-bearing.
The brothers in Taiwan told me that they have baptized many people and brought many to salvation. Where are all these ones today? Most of them “died” prematurely because they lacked care. Hence, we have two weak points: we do not bear enough fruit, and our fruit does not remain.
These two weak points are the result of contradicting the Lord’s law. The Lord commissioned us to go forth and bear remaining fruit. However, we made the big mistake of inviting people to come instead of going forth. After the previous message a saint testified that his small group had a love feast to preach the gospel. The sisters prepared several dishes, and the brothers gave out invitations to people, but eventually only two people came. Another brother testified that he also prepared love feasts for the gospel, but no one came. These things happen because we have contradicted the Lord’s way.
The Lord’s charge at the end of Matthew is a great word: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (28:18-19). We need to go by the authority that has been given to the Lord. At the end of Mark the Lord said, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all the creation” (16:15). We have acted contrary to the Lord’s law: instead of going forth, we ask and compel people to come. We exert much effort to drag people to hear the gospel. This is our first mistake.
It is true that some people come when we invite them. When I was in Taipei, we invited many people who came and were baptized, but few remained. If a hundred were baptized, they would eventually die one by one until less than five remained. The reason is that they were not given proper care. The new ones did not die immediately, but they died after a period of time. We must give newborn babes long-term care if we want them to remain. If we do not take care of them, we are contrary to the law of nature. This is our second mistake.
In 1984 I noticed that there was no increase in most of the churches in the East and in the West. The churches that had some increase had a very slow rate of increase. This situation in the Lord’s recovery is not limited to one place; it is everywhere. In 1984 we had nearly eight hundred churches in six continents, but there has not been an increase in the number of saints. In other words, we are not bearing fruit, because we do not go forth.
The Bible reveals that we must go forth. The Lord Jesus preached the gospel by coming down from heaven. From His point of view, He came to us. When He preached the gospel in His earthly ministry, He went from Galilee to the land of Judea and from the land of Judea to Galilee. He visited the home of Zaccheus, and He waited for the woman in Samaria. He went with the gospel. Later, the Lord sent out seventy disciples and charged them to go from house to house to look for the sons of peace. This is the principle in the Bible: go to preach the gospel.
During the last one and a half years of the full-time training in Taipei, there have been about eight hundred trainees. Their experiences have helped us in our study of the new way in order to find out some guidelines. We discovered that many people will not get saved unless we visit them in their homes. Many of these people are college professors who are between fifty and sixty years old. These people would not come to a gospel event. However, we can gain them if we go to their homes. Going from house to house is the most effective way to find the sons of peace.
Six months ago more than fifteen hundred saints attended the summer training in Anaheim. Instead of having evening training meetings, we asked the trainees to form groups and go out to knock on doors. As a result, we baptized over thirty-seven hundred new ones, sixty percent of whom were Spanish-speaking people who were formerly Catholics. This news probably spread to the Catholic authorities, because in September and October of last year three hundred Catholic bishops gathered for a conference to discuss how to cope with this situation. As a conclusion to the conference, the chairman said, “Unless a person goes out to knock on doors, he has not yet given himself to the gospel.”
After the ten days of door-knocking during the summer training, we had an elders’ meeting for the elders in the United States. The elders admitted that the training brought great joy to all the saints. Based on the brothers’ fellowship, I said that our practice may be compared to the children of Israel keeping a feast; hence, we should practice door-knocking. Many localities responded to this fellowship. In September the churches in the San Gabriel Valley held a door-knocking festival, and many saints were revived. However, I am concerned that such a fire of revival may burn for only a moment, and then the saints will become colder than they were previously. Although it is good to have a festival, we need to live a normal life.
Six months ago over thirty-seven hundred people were baptized, and at least another eight hundred were baptized through them. Therefore, a total of forty-six hundred people are being taken care of by about seventy saints who finished two or three terms of full-time training in Taiwan. Babies need to be nourished; otherwise, they will die prematurely. As a result of the endeavoring of the seventy saints, about fifteen hundred new ones have remained. Half of them attend meetings about once or twice a month, so their situation is not too good. The other half, however, have home meetings at least once a week. These seven hundred are the best harvest. Through them several new local churches have been raised up. Other new ones have been added to existing churches.
Through the door-knocking festival that was carried out by the churches in the San Gabriel Valley, over one thousand people were gained. Some saints who have been to the training in Taipei went to San Gabriel to care for the new ones. Eventually, over two hundred new ones have remained, and the churches in Monterey Park and in San Gabriel have been raised up. Therefore, within less than a year we gained around one thousand new ones in Southern California. This almost equals the total number of saints in all the churches in Southern California. In less than a year the churches have increased more than twofold. For the past fourteen years we have not had a one percent increase, let alone a twofold increase, or an increase of one hundred percent. Through two door-knocking festivals we gained one thousand remaining fruit even though people rejected the gospel, and there were negative situations. This proves that knocking on doors is the most effective way. Visiting people in their homes is the most excellent way to preach the gospel.
This way is revealed in the Bible, and it is also logical. People do not come when we invite them; they do not want to come. But when we visit them, they are hesitant to refuse. If they refuse to open the door, we still can say a few words to them. It may be easier to knock on doors in Taiwan than in America. According to the statistics gathered by the training in Taipei, only three out of ten doors refused to open to us. Sometimes when someone opened the door, the saints simply stepped inside with smiles beaming on their faces. Once inside, they would sit down and talk with the person for a short while and then bring out The Mystery of Human Life. In less than ten minutes this person would begin to call on the Lord’s name, and in another five minutes he would be baptized. For every twenty doors that we knocked on, at least one person was baptized. In the last year and a half we have knocked on seven hundred fifty thousand doors and baptized forty thousand people. We have knocked on some doors three or four different times. Some trainees knocked on the door of a home that is very close to the meeting hall, and the owner said, “This is the fifth time you have come to knock on my door. I admire your persistence, so I have decided to be baptized. You do not have to persuade me anymore. If I am not baptized, you will come again.” He knows us. Some may say that he was baptized because he was embarrassed to turn us down; therefore, he is not truly saved. However, according to the Lord’s words, we do not have the right to discern between true believers and false believers (Matt. 13:24-30, 37-43). If someone calls on the Lord’s name, confesses his sins, repents, and desires to be baptized, we should baptize him in the name of the Lord (Acts 8:36-38).
From our research we know that there will be one son of peace for every twenty doors that we knock on. Therefore, as long as there are twenty homes in an apartment building, we will baptize at least one person if we go there to knock on doors.
We should not be bothered if someone refuses to open the door or gives us a dirty look. Instead, we should politely say, “We will come at another time.” Door-knocking does not violate the law; hence, if he calls the police, we will not be arrested. If we visit him again, he may eventually “surrender,” accept, and become a son of peace. This is truly the best way. It is not a wonder that the Bible compares leading people to salvation to fishing. The most foolish way to go fishing is to prepare a lot of bait on the shore and ask the fish to jump out of the water to bite the bait. We must admit that we have been foolish. The Lord said that those who preach the gospel are fishermen, “fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). We should therefore go to the fishpond to catch fish instead of foolishly asking the fish to jump out of the water.
The most obvious benefit to door-knocking is that we bring joy and peace to people (Luke 10:5-6). To door-knock is to be a fisher of men in order to gain all kinds of fish, including big fish, small fish, good fish, and bad fish. We may gain medical doctors and professors and also people who steal. Someone may be contemplating suicide when we knock on his door and lead him to salvation. A couple may be quarreling and considering separation, but they are united when we knock on their door. We have many such testimonies. The testimonies of the forty thousand newly baptized believers are very inspiring. Door-knocking is a great benefit to human society.
Door-knocking should not be done in a light way. We have learned a great deal concerning this. Every time we door-knock, we need to be formed into groups of three people: one elderly person, one middle-aged person, and one younger person. We should also be properly attired. If three husky young men dressed like hippies go out together to knock on doors, no one would dare to open the door to them. However, if an elderly saint, especially a sister, would knock on the door, people would readily open the door to her. Once the door is opened, the younger saint can immediately step to the front and do the speaking. The speaking of a young sister is pleasant to the ears. Even if she does not speak very well, people will still listen. We should also consider what we should say. We should not use our own words; rather, we should say what we were taught in the training and use The Mystery of Human Life. A college professor in his sixties may listen to and be subdued by a young sister speaking in a logical manner. Eventually, he will be led like a lamb to be baptized. Sometimes the wife who has not yet believed will help fill the bathtub with water. Then the brother in the group should do the baptizing. Such a coordination is wonderful and effective.
If we would go out in this way to knock on doors, people will not reject us. Even if they do not accept us, they will still be pleasant. Those who accept us will be very grateful. When we invite people to come to us, we are the ones who are grateful. However, when we knock on people’s doors, they will be grateful because we will deliver the gospel, the truth, and the Bible to them. We are not giving them something insignificant; rather, we are giving them the Lord’s name, His salvation, and the Triune God. These are great gifts. Someone may refuse today, but tomorrow he may consider letting us come in and talk with him. Someone may not open the door today, but the Holy Spirit will work in him and cause him to think, “These people come to preach the gospel; they are giving me Jesus. Jesus is not bad. He is better than Buddha. Moreover, the Bible is the best book, and it contains the highest truths. I should listen to them.” Although he is not clear, he may have such thoughts.
The trainees are rich in experience. When someone opens the door, the faces of the trainees are beaming with smiles. They know that they are meeting a son of peace. There was a newly married couple who had moved into their new home, but they felt that they needed a religion. After comparing the different religions, they considered Christianity to be the best, but they did not know how to join. This couple was so happy when the trainees knocked on their door. The trainees told them, “You do not have to go join a religion. We can come to your home. It is very convenient.” Sometimes a person rejects the trainees the first time but five days later receives them. Sometimes people are so grateful that they give the trainees gifts. There are innumerable testimonies. We could not have such results if we had invited people to come and listen to the gospel.
For this reason many trainees who have gone door-knocking have become “addicted.” Every night they must go out to knock on doors and lead two or three people to be baptized; otherwise, they feel as though they are missing something. They have tasted the joy of preaching the gospel. There is an elderly sister who is eighty-five years old; she goes out to knock on doors in coordination with the younger saints. Because of her age, manner, and attire, every door opens for her. After entering the house, the young sister speaks, the elderly sister sits to the side and prays softly, and the middle-aged brother nods his head. This is the secret to our practice of door-knocking.
One very important point is that those who go out must rely on the Holy Spirit. Before going out to knock on doors, the trainees must spend twenty minutes to pray, thoroughly confess their sins, and ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit. This brings blessing to their door-knocking. We have the real things—the truth and the gospel. Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses do not have the real things. Therefore, our door-knocking will be effective.
After leading people to salvation through door-knocking, we should immediately set up a meeting in their home. This is to nourish them after begetting them. What we practiced in Taiwan was mainly an experiment in order to learn what was effective and efficient in door-knocking. Three terms of research have proven that door-knocking is effective and efficient. We gained more than forty thousand new ones, but only a little over six thousand have remained, because we do not have enough saints to take care of them. The other thirty-four thousand are not false ones; they did not remain because they were not cared for. Therefore, we should not baptize too many new ones, nor should we walk away fifteen minutes after someone is baptized. We have begotten too many babies and are unable to take care of them. Hence, we need to consider our capacity to nourish the new ones. We should not beget so many new ones if we are not able to feed them. Otherwise, they will die, and they will not be left with a good feeling.
Begetting fewer for the sake of caring for them does not mean that we need to extend the time of “delivery.” We still need to practice leading people to be baptized within fifteen minutes. Prolonging the time does not necessarily mean that people will be saved. The shining of the light of the gospel and the strength of the power of the Spirit can cause a person to be saved and baptized within fifteen minutes.
We should not leave immediately after leading someone to salvation. We need to sit down with him and his household for one hour to edify him. First, we should lead him to sing a hymn concerning the assurance and joy of salvation. Then we should ask him to pray and teach him to call on the Lord’s name. We may say, “Our Lord Jesus is the eternal God, but in order to save us, He became flesh and died on the cross for our sins. Then He was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. Today He entered into you as the Spirit. We thank the Lord that He created you with a human spirit. When you repented and confessed your sins, your conscience was enlivened, and you were washed by the Lord’s precious blood. As a result, the life-giving Spirit entered into your spirit and is mingled with you as one spirit. Our pneumatic Lord has a name. Whenever we call on His name, we will enjoy and experience Him. The way to call on His name is to use our spirit and call from deep within, ‘O Lord Jesus!’ This is like taking a deep breath. Then you will feel comfortable, at ease, peaceful, and joyful.” After leading someone to be baptized, we must stay for an hour to teach him basic truths and help him to exercise his spirit. This will make him stable.
We must “strike while the iron is hot.” We should not wait a week before going back to visit a new believer. Rather, after three days we should go back and teach him to read the Bible. After another three days we should teach him to sing hymns. It is best to visit a new believer ten times during the first month. This is the way to make him stable. After the first month we can visit him once a week for half a year. This will establish him. Within the first six months we need to teach him how to call on the Lord’s name, to speak for the Lord, to testify, to read the Bible, and to receive light from the Lord. We should not bring him to the meeting hall or to the Lord’s Day meetings. Rather, we need to set up a meeting in his home. We should gather his family, his spouse and children together and help them to function in the meeting. We may even ask the little ones to pray and to sing. By functioning in this way, his family members who are not yet saved will be saved. This kind of home meeting is a church meeting.
We must have a big change in the way that we meet. We cannot continue to meet as we have in the past, with a rigid and formal big meeting on the Lord’s Day morning for everyone to come and listen to a message, a meeting in the evening for the Lord’s table, a meeting for prayer on Tuesday night, and sometimes a meeting on Thursday night. We must be flexible and focus on the homes. After a new one is saved, we should not compel him to attend the church meetings; instead, we should immediately set up a meeting in his home to nourish, to teach, and to perfect him. Although this time should be flexible and according to the new one’s convenience, we must meet in his home at least once a week. Such a practice will keep the new believers from dying prematurely.
If we love the Lord, we should respond to this fellowship. First, we should consecrate ourselves to the Lord and set aside a definite time, two to three hours a week, to go out door-knocking. This time should be used either to lead people to be baptized or to meet in the home of a new believer. After our initial contact with a new believer, we should meet with him ten times in the first month and once per week thereafter. We should do this every week for one year. After twelve months the new one will be established. Then he will beget and teach others in the same way that he was begotten and taught. This will make him remaining fruit.
When my grandson was born, he weighed less than six pounds. When my wife and I went to the hospital to visit him, we did not believe that he could grow up properly. However, because of his condition, he received special care and has grown up quite well. Today he plays football at school and excels in academics. Therefore, it does not matter whether a baby is weak at birth. If he receives proper care, he will grow up healthy and strong. Likewise, a person may not seem clear at the time of his baptism. However, after he comes out of the water, we should edify him. We need to teach him that the Lord Jesus is the life-giving Spirit and that he has a spirit with which he can call on the Lord’s name. We should also help him to practice. After three days we can visit him again and teach him a new lesson. If we give him ten lessons in this way, I believe that he will live and grow strong even if he was weak in the beginning. However, regardless of how good a person’s situation is, if we abandon him immediately after his baptism, he will die within a couple of months.
We need to correct our previous mistake. Instead of inviting people to come and listen to the gospel, we should deliver the gospel to their homes. Instead of dragging people to the church meetings, we should set up a meeting in their home, delivering the church meeting to their home. Most of the new believers are not used to the way that we meet. Some of them might have family restrictions or other situations that prevent them from coming to the church meetings. If we compel such ones to come to the church meetings, we may damage them. However, meeting in a new believer’s home would be very convenient. If he is very busy, we can accommodate his situation and spend fifteen to twenty minutes to fellowship with him. For example, two sisters may go to the home of a new one, who is a housewife, when she is in the middle of cooking a meal. One of the sisters can help the new one in the kitchen, and the other can fellowship with her. In such a situation it would be hard for the new one to make excuses. This can be compared to putting food into someone’s mouth. In most situations the new one will accept it. If we nourish and take care of the new ones in this way, at least eighty percent of them will remain.
I hope that the elders and the saints in all the churches will be stirred up by the Lord to live a revived and overcoming life and also to build up three matters: preaching the gospel by knocking on doors and visiting people, setting up meetings in the homes of the new believers in order to nourish and help them weekly, and teaching the new ones to call on the name of the Lord, to read the Bible, to pray, to sing hymns, to speak for the Lord, to testify, and to function in the home meetings. We must not follow the custom in Catholicism and Protestantism of having one person speaking and everyone else listening. Instead, we should lead the new ones to build up the habit of speaking for the Lord in the home meetings, the group meetings, and in the larger meetings of the church. If we would practice this, the new ones will be established.
If there are one hundred saints meeting in a church, only twenty of them need to go out and knock on doors. However, this does not mean that only twenty people should devote themselves to door-knocking. Some may be able to go out only once every three weeks, and others may be able to go out twice a week. The elderly ones may not be able to go out at all because of their health, and some elderly ones may be strong enough to go door-knocking. This would be very helpful. If twenty people can go out every week, they can be formed into seven teams. They should be able to knock on at least twenty doors in one and a half hours and find a son of peace. If they find a son of peace, they will have to spend an hour to edify him. Therefore, they would spend a total of two to three hours.
If every team is able to gain a new one per week, that would be fifty-two new ones in a year. If we reduce the number by twenty percent, every team would have forty new ones, and there would be a combined total of two hundred eighty new ones, which nearly equals three times the number of saints in the locality. If we reduce the number further to half by subtracting the undependable ones, there would still be one hundred forty new ones, which still exceeds a twofold increase. Such a rate of increase would be wonderful. After gaining the new ones, we need to make them remaining fruit. The way to preserve them is for sixty out of the remaining eighty saints in the church to rise up and care for the new ones. These sixty may be divided into twenty teams to nourish and teach the new ones.
Thus, in a church with one hundred people, eighty would be active, and the remaining twenty might be inactive because of sickness, weaknesses, or other legitimate reasons. It would be easy for eighty people to take care of a hundred and forty new ones. After a year, at least one hundred people would remain. This is to have a twofold increase yearly. This is the easiest and the most profitable way. I am confident that we will succeed. If we would take this way, we would need a little over twenty-five years to save and baptize all the people in the world. This is an extremely great matter. It would not be a repetition of our last ten years of barrenness. If we are willing to put our effort into practicing the new way, after twenty-six years the whole world would be evangelized, and everyone would be saved and baptized. This would deal a fatal blow to Satan.
The practice of the new way does not come from our imagination. It is according to the pattern shown in the Bible. In Acts 8 the disciples were scattered abroad because of a great persecution. Prior to the persecution, the church in Jerusalem had brought in three thousand and five thousand new believers at two separate times (2:41; 4:4). Many more were brought in at various other times. There were thousands of believers in Jerusalem. They all enjoyed gathering together and were not willing to go out to other places. Therefore, persecution was raised up, and consequently, the believers, not including the apostles, were scattered to various places (8:1). These believers went out announcing the word of God as the gospel (v. 4). I do not believe that they found a meeting place and invited people to come and listen but that they preached the gospel by knocking on doors from house to house to visit people, just as they did in the church in Jerusalem (2:46; 5:42).
Immediately after a person was saved, he met from house to house (2:41, 46). In the homes they practiced fellowshipping, praying, breaking bread, announcing the gospel, and baptizing people (v. 42; 5:42). This was the regular life of the early saints, and as a result, “the Lord added together day by day those who were being saved” (2:47). This was the way ordained by the Lord, and He confirmed it with blessings. In Taipei we are now practicing this same way, and even though we are limited, we have seen the same result: new ones are being added to the church day by day.
Immediately after we lead a person to believe in the Lord and baptize him, we must spend some time to edify him and then set up a meeting in his home in order to teach him the fundamental truths. This is the first step in our practice. The second step is to have a home meeting with him once every three or four days in order to lead him to practice and learn to exercise his spirit, to pray, and to call on the Lord’s name. If possible, we should go to his home ten times in the first month and after that meet with him once a week.
We should teach the new ones to call on the Lord’s name from deep within their spirit, not softly. Such an exercise is not only helpful to the new ones but also beneficial to us. Many of us have been saved for years, but we often call on the Lord habitually and softly; hence, we are not released. If we would call loudly with our spirit, “O Lord Jesus! I love You!” we would feel different within. We should not lead the new ones by teaching them our old and ritualistic ways. We must give them the proper practice and help them to exercise and release their spirit in order to receive the genuine, spiritual supply.
Such a supply is not a psychological effect but a spiritual fact, just as the benefit that we receive from our physical deep breathing is not something psychological. Regrettably, Christians have lost the practice of calling on the Lord’s name. The Greek word for call on is epikaleomai, which means “to call out loudly, to call by name.” Some Christians think that we do not need to call loudly, because the Lord Jesus can hear us when we call softly, and He knows all our needs. On the one hand, this is correct, but on the other hand, there is a great difference in our experience between calling loudly and calling softly. Hence, if the environment permits, we should exercise our spirit to call on the Lord loudly from deep within when we get up in the morning. This will have a great effect on our living throughout the rest of the day. Therefore, the first things we need to teach the new ones are to exercise their spirit, to pray, and to call on the Lord’s name.
According to the progress of a new one, we should lead him to attend the small group meeting with other believers in his neighborhood. This is the third step. If he is at home alone, it will not be easy for him to stand firm. The brothers and sisters whom he blends with in the small group meeting will become the best help for him. They can have mutual care and supply. This can be compared to burning coals. It is not easy for one or two pieces of coal to catch on fire. Even if they start burning, the fire will not last long, but it is easier for four or five pieces of coal to burn strongly. Such a practice is not legal; it is organic. We need to lead a new one according to his situation; otherwise, bringing him to a group meeting may “kill” him.
The basis of the group meeting is first found in Matthew 18:20: “Where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.” This indicates that as long as there are two or three gathered together, they can have a group meeting. In Acts 12 Peter was kept in the prison, and “prayer was being made fervently by the church” (v. 5). The saints were not gathered together to pray in a large meeting as we do today; they prayed separately in many homes. Therefore, after Peter was rescued out of the prison, he went to the house of the mother of John and told those assembled there to “report these things to James and the brothers. And going out, he went to another place” (vv. 12, 17). This is proof that in those days the saints met in many homes for prayer. Those were small group prayer meetings.
When we go to lead the new ones, our spirit must be living and uplifted. This is the fourth step. Only when we are living can we cause those whom we lead to be living. Only when our spirit is uplifted can we enliven others and cause their spirit to be opened and fanned into flame. If we are depressed and downhearted, we will cause the new ones to be discouraged, and they will be unable to touch the spiritual reality. We must be living in our daily life. Then we will be joyful and exulting, either singing, praising, or calling. Consequently, we will bring the spiritual atmosphere into the new one’s home and enable him to touch the spiritual reality and gain the supply. Perhaps when we visit him, he is not happy, or he is quarreling with his wife. But through our visit he will be supplied, enlightened, and comforted, and he will obey our leading and teaching and thus begin to sing and to pray. Hence, the home meetings depend on the kind of persons we are. If we are living, the dead will be made alive, but if we are dead, the living will become dead because of us.
The churches in all the localities should have a complete, genuine change of system. We should no longer live according to the old manner of life, which is to invite people to come and listen to the gospel. Instead, we should go out every week to visit people. Furthermore, we should not invite new ones to come to the church meetings and listen to messages; rather, we should deliver the meetings to their homes. Formerly, we always invited people to come to a big meeting and listen to a wonderful message. If they did not obtain something when they came to the meeting, their appetite was spoiled such that they did not come again. As a result, we lost them. Now we need to repent and have a thorough change in our way. Instead of asking people to come to the meeting, we should deliver the meeting to their homes. Every week we should deliver the meeting to others. After a few years we will raise people up and establish them. Then according to their situation, we can gradually lead them to have group meetings and attend district meetings. Furthermore, we should also encourage them to function in the meetings.
The church in Taipei has been practicing home meetings, group meetings, and district meetings. There are about fifty people in a district meeting. When the number in a district meeting exceeds a hundred, it needs to subdivide. The advantage of such a meeting is that we can know one another through mutual care, fellowship, and intimate contact. Moreover, such a meeting also provides the saints with opportunities to function. After a new one has been led in the home meeting and has learned how to sing, to pray, and to speak, he will spontaneously be able to open his mouth and fellowship or testify in the group meeting and in the district meeting. Hence, there will no longer be the need for someone to give a message in the district meeting. Everyone can prophesy, and the prophesying will be enjoyable.
The God-ordained way revealed in the Bible is not to invite people to come and listen to the gospel but to go and knock on doors in order to visit people. Furthermore, it is not to invite people to come to a meeting of the church but to deliver the meeting to their home. If we lead people in the fundamental truths and help them to exercise their spirit, they can live the church life without being brought to the church meetings. A new believer may require us to spend six months to a year with him before he can become remaining fruit. But if we do this, the church will definitely increase twofold yearly. This is a tremendous rate of increase. May we all see this and take action.
