Search
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:46-47; Rom. 16:5a; Acts 20:20; Heb. 10:25
When the day of Pentecost came, the church began with one hundred twenty as the initiation. Then that initiation brought in on the very first day of the church life three thousand, then on another day five thousand. They began to meet not according to the Jewish congregational way of the Old Testament, nor according to the Roman way, nor according to the Greek way. Then who invented the way for the first group of Christians to meet? The Holy Spirit invented the way. We can say this because on that day, the one hundred twenty were filled with the Holy Spirit economically. And no doubt, the three thousand new converts were also filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, whatever they did on that day was initiated by the Holy Spirit. The main thing they did was to begin to meet in the temple for big congregations and in the homes. I like the two phrases in Acts 2:46, day by day and from house to house. It is clear that the way they met had two sides. Perhaps at least three thousand met daily in the temple, a big meeting place. And at the same time they met day by day in the homes.
According to the Greek expression in Acts 2:46, they met from house to house. This indicates that they did not select some houses that would fit their purpose. They met from house to house. They included every house. Today we should have our home meetings entirely according to the Holy Spirit’s created and ordained way...You have to see that at the very beginning the way created by the Holy Spirit and ordained by God was to meet in two ways, in the congregational way and in the home way, not in selected homes, but in all homes. If you are a Christian, if you are a believer, you have to open up your home for meeting. This is the first pattern at the initiation of the church life.
Since the Lord has shown this, I have begun to see all the benefits of this God-created-and-ordained way. If a new one would believe in the Lord, be baptized, and right away begin to open up his home for meetings, this opening up of his home would encourage him and even uphold him. Therefore, we can see that the home meetings are the top way, the super way, and eventually the unique way to meet.
The way to build the church may be illustrated by the building of this hall...[A] brother was directing every group. At that time we had over eighty full-timers whom this brother formed into groups. One group made the stairway, and a group of sisters sanded the handrails on the stairway. They were all grouped together to do a certain part for the building and eventually to put all the pieces together. Now we are enjoying the building.
In the early days of the church life, when the apostles were first raised up by the Lord, they built the church in this way. It was very quick. The church in Jerusalem was built up. Acts 9:31 says, “So then the church throughout the whole of Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being built up.” In a short time they were all built up. Could we say that all the churches in the U.S.A. have been built up? You cannot say that we have been built up because we have never taken the building way. What is the building way? Small groups! Home meetings! (The Home Meetings—The Unique Way for the Increase and the Building Up of the Church, pp. 7-9, 10-11)
According to our study, experience, and observation, I would say that we have found that the home meetings are the unique way for the increase and building up of the church. There are many positive things that come out of the home meetings. In the home meetings, everyone becomes a seeking one, a serving one, a preaching one, a teaching one, and one that spontaneously witnesses for the Lord. We hope to encourage all the saints in the Lord’s recovery to have meetings in their homes.
The Greek phrase [from house to house ] in Acts 5:42 indicates that not one house was missed. They met from house to house. We should not take the way of selecting some promising homes and then having the meetings in those promising homes. This is wrong. Every home of the believers is promising. We need to open up our home. First we can meet with our folks. We do not need to meet with others first. We can initiate our home meeting by meeting with our family members. We who have wives and children all can have a home meeting. We just meet with our folks, with our wife, and with our little children. To set up a meeting will stir up our heart and will fan the flame in our heart and in our spirit. First of all, we will be burned, and then our family will be burned. To set up a home meeting will keep out many evil things from our homes. (The Home Meetings—The Unique Way for the Increase and the Building Up of the Church, pp. 19-20)
If we are clear about the revelation in the Bible, we shall realize that the proper place to enjoy God today is in the local churches. In particular, we need to be in a definite local church that we can say is our local church. Although I love all the churches, I must be honest and testify that no church is as dear and lovable to me as the church in Anaheim because the church in Anaheim is my local church. We should all feel this way about the church in our locality.
How pitiful is the situation of most Christians today! Because they are not in the church life, they are orphans without a home. This was our condition before we came into the church life in the Lord’s recovery. Not only were we orphans—we were wanderers. Before we came into the local churches, we never had the sense that we had come home or that we had reached our destination. But the day we came into the church life, we knew that we had come home. After wandering for years, we had finally reached our destination. Something deep within said, “This is the place.” Many seeking Christians today, on the contrary, are still travelers; they are traveling from one denomination or group to another. But the day we came into the church life, our wandering ceased. The local churches are what God desires today. This is the last station of His revelation. (The Genuine Ground of Oneness, pp. 125-126)
To bring the meetings to the homes is the very heart of the God-ordained way. It will be a great failure in the Lord’s recovery if we cannot bring the meetings to the homes. For the past twenty years in the Lord’s recovery, we have been bringing people to the meeting halls. The more we work in this way, the fewer people we have, and the worse the condition of the homes becomes. More and more our meetings have become a kind of Sunday morning service. In Christianity many people “go to church” to listen to the singing of hymns and to attend the “service,” but their homes are deplorable; their tables may still be scattered with mah-jongg game pieces. In the morning the family attends the service, but in the afternoon the mah-jongg game goes on in the homes. In order to overturn this degraded situation, we must bring the meetings to the homes. I hope that every home will be mobilized, that everyone will become a soldier, and that together we will become an army of the Lord. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, p. 216)
The practice of the saints in the early church was to meet in their homes (Acts 2:46; 5:42; 20:20). To gain the increase, we need to have the home meetings. The church has been dead, passive, and low in the rate of increase because we did not have the crucial way to gain people through the home meetings. We need to have meetings in the new believers’ homes, in the homes of the ones we gain through our preaching of the gospel. If we can only gain people without setting up meetings in their homes, this will be a failure. The most successful way is to gain people’s homes for home meetings. Meetings in the homes will work to the uttermost. (Elders’ Training, Book 9: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (1), p. 10)
* * *
The meetings in believers’ homes can be a fruitful testimony to the neighbors around, and they provide an opportunity for witness and gospel preaching. Many who are not willing to go to a “church” will be glad to go to a private house. And the influence is most helpful for the families of the Christians. From early days the children will be surrounded by a spiritual atmosphere, and will have constant opportunity to see the reality of eternal things. (The Normal Christian Church Life, p. 170)
We need to realize that the way the Lord is taking is to build up His church in the believers’ homes. Once the church is built up in the homes, the homes will be transformed. The husbands and the wives might have been arguing couples, but once they have meetings in their homes, they will stop their arguing. The children will also be preserved from drifting with the current of the age. As a result, the family will become proper and normal. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, p. 245)
The first thing we must do is change our concept. The home meetings are not merely a method. From now on we will neither uplift the big meetings nor despise them. We will regard the big meetings and the home meetings equally. According to today’s situation, you should not consider that to recover someone, you must bring that person to the big meetings in order to be successful. Of course that is very good, but you should not require this. As long as he can come to the home meetings every week, that will be very good. First, lay this foundation in him. Second, the home meetings should strive to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time. In Taipei, there are tens of thousands of brothers and sisters who have not been meeting. The three to five thousand of you who are meeting regularly must all be in the home meetings to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time. Third, preach the gospel widely. The home gospel must go out from the homes. Even the campus work can go out from the homes. The homes are the foundation. If the homes are not strong and even you yourself need shepherding, then who can shepherd? If the home meetings are not strong, even the children’s work cannot be done. For a nation to be strong, the homes must be strong. For a church to be strong, the home meetings must be built up. The homes are the foundation, the base, of all activities. Fourth, keep the people. The home meetings must keep and uphold people and even cause people to want to come back. You have to work on the home meetings to such an extent that they have the power to attract and keep people. Fifth, you need to strengthen the riches in the home meetings. The content of the home meetings must be rich. Sixth, when the home meetings become so rich, the highest goal of expressing Christ will be attained. (On Home Meetings, p. 20)
* * *
According to the present situation, the first thing that the home meetings need to do is to restore those who have not been meeting for a long time. We hope that all the brothers and sisters will be mobilized to seek out, according to their addresses, those who have not been meeting for a long time and restore them to attend the home meetings. The second thing is to motivate every brother and sister, whether old or young, as long as he has a house, to open his house at least once every two weeks. You should have a gospel meeting in the home every other week. You need to gradually educate and enlighten people in the home meetings, providing them with the gospel materials and encouraging them to speak for the Lord and to open their homes. From house to house, every house should preach the gospel. The third thing is to do your best to keep people coming to the meetings. When a person comes, stick to that one; you must keep him. The responsibility for keeping people cannot rest on the elders, co-workers, or a few people. The responsibility for keeping the people must rest on the home meeting, that is, on all the brothers and sisters. This is a great responsibility for the home meeting. The fourth thing is to strengthen the home meetings. To have rich meetings, you must work the Lord’s word richly into the home meetings. The fifth thing is to cause the home meetings to reach God’s purpose for the church. The Lord desires to gain a living Body to express Him on the earth. (On Home Meetings, pp. 63-64)
When it comes to God’s work, the beginning is always the best. After it is handed over to man, it begins to go downhill. The beginning of Acts was the best. There was the “skating rink” in the big meetings to skate people in. Many skated in. Then there were the meetings from house to house to bring people into the foundation of the church. Once a person joined the home meetings, he was kept. This is God’s wisdom. (On Home Meetings, p. 16)
* * *
We need the young people to go to the campuses, especially those who are eighteen and nineteen years old. All the young people in the church life are useful. This is why we have to work with our high schoolers. After graduating from high school, they all will be on the campuses to effectively contact the freshmen. People over twenty-five have a more difficult time in contacting freshmen. They are not as useful and prevailing as the younger saints on the campus. There is an open door for the eighteen-year-old freshmen to contact other freshmen. A person is most effective when he contacts a person who is his same age. Someone who is eighteen may not easily talk with me because I am much older than he is, but it is so easy for an older man to talk with me. We can talk because we are birds of the same feather. Birds of the same feather can talk together.
The young people’s preaching of the gospel on the campuses, however, should be in coordination with all the saints. Since we may not have that many young ones, we need many homes of the saints for coordination in the gospel work. Every young person who goes to the campus needs a home for his contacts. A young person who catches eighteen new ones should be able to bring all eighteen into the living rooms of the saints. We need living rooms to receive all these new contacts. All the ages can be used. No one is too old. The older saints can open up their homes to these new contacts. Even though the older saints have opened their homes, they can keep themselves in the background and invite some middle-aged saints to serve the new ones in the living room. This is coordination.
The younger you are, the more you should be in the front to take care of the new young ones. The older you are, the more you should be at the back. It would be good for the older ones to buy the groceries, cook the food, and wash the dishes to serve the young people and their contacts. The young ones should go to the campus and the middle-aged saints should serve the young people in the living room. Our living rooms should be filled with the enjoyment of Christ, especially through singing and psalming. Such an atmosphere of enjoyment and mutuality requires a great deal of coordination.
If all the churches practice preaching the gospel in the campus work in this way, we will have a prevailing church life. One of the best ways for the churches to get new contacts is to send our young people to the campus. The best fishing ponds for the Lord’s recovery are the college campuses. We should send our fishermen to the fishing ponds. Then the older saints can stay home to prepare snacks, refreshments, and the best dinners to gather the new contacts at least once every four weeks. The living rooms will catch them.
We need a young army that can be sent to the campuses to bring in more young people, but all the older and middle-aged saints are also needed. We should not be discouraged that we may be too old to go to the campus. The church’s gospel preaching needs all the saints. Because the local churches in the Lord’s recovery are standing on the genuine ground of oneness, we can have a very good coordination. We all need to learn so that we can have the best coordination.
We should not preach the gospel in an individualistic way. We also should not invite people to our homes or serve them dinner in an individualistic way. We should do everything corporately in the Body. This needs much fellowship and coordination. If we have the faith to apply the truth in the Bible, we will have the power, and if we have the coordination in the Body, nothing will frustrate our preaching. Our preaching will be powerful and prevailing. Then we will gain many young people for the Lord’s recovery in this generation. (Preaching the Gospel on the College Campuses, pp. 15-16)
* * *
The young people in the church can invite others to the homes of the middle-aged ones and of the young couples. All these homes need to be open and ready to receive the young people. When they come in, serve them something to eat and drink. This will touch their heart. In preaching the gospel we do not need any gimmicks. We should simply pray, preach the word, and open our homes. It is difficult for the young people both to go to the campuses and to prepare their homes to receive others. We need the youngest ones to go to the campuses, the oldest ones to pray, and the middle-aged ones to prepare their homes. Day and night the homes need to be ready. (The Spirit and the Body, p. 108)
* * *
We should endeavor to bring [the new ones in the small groups] into the practice of the church life. We can charge them to go and visit people in the same way that we reached out to them. We may go out with them and bring them one by one into the same practice. Eventually, this small group becomes our practical church life. It is a miniature of the church in which we are. Actually, the church life will be carried out practically in the group meeting.
In a larger meeting of, for example, two hundred, we can only do things in a general way and give a general word of fellowship. All of the detailed items of the church life, however, should be carried out in the group meetings. The fellowship, the intercession, the mutual care, the shepherding, and the teaching will all be realized in the group meeting. Then the entire church will be brought on through the small groups. In a church of two hundred saints, there may be twenty groups of ten or twelve who can even do a more thorough work than the elders. If a church desires a continual increase, they must make use of the groups.
My main burden is that all of us need to have our own group meeting. In Hebrews 10:25 the apostle Paul told the saints not to forsake the assembling of themselves together. We may forget everything, but we should not forget our own group meeting. All of the mothers know that they could never forget their own children. If we would take care of a group meeting in this way, the church where we are will be a great success.
In particular, the older sisters among us should pray in a definite way to become involved in their own group meeting. They can pray for this group as a whole and for each new member by name. The sisters must pray particularly for each group member a few times each day. Our prayer must lay the tracks for the locomotive to run on. So we must not pray in a general way but in a particular way.
Because we labored in a general way in the past, we do not have the adequate fruit. Today we must first concentrate our effort to bring a few new ones to be baptized. The second step is to have home meetings with them in order that they may be cherished and nourished. In a short while we can group them together to form a group meeting of two or three. As I have indicated previously, the most important thing today is to have our own group meeting. This can be considered as our own assembly (v. 25). (Talks concerning the Church Services, Part 2, pp. 62-63)
We need to have a proper view of the church life. When we arranged the specific services, we pointed out that the students should attend the meetings at the hall that is closest to their school. Therefore, when a student gets saved, we have to do our best to encourage him to do this. We should introduce him to the hall that is closest to his school. In this way he will become one of the saints belonging to that hall. This will also make it convenient for the students to come together for fellowship after school. Of course this matter will not be very easy to work out because the junior high students and the high school students have very tight study schedules. Most of them also live at home and must go home after school. It is also hard for them to go out during the weekends. Regarding this point, we must be flexible and know how to adjust according to the need of the situation.
For example, first we must bring them to the Lord’s table meeting. It would be best if they could attend the Lord’s table meeting on the Lord’s Day. If they cannot do so (for example, if their parents would not allow them to come), then we can arrange to meet at an appropriate time during the week after school and lead them to break bread at a saint’s home near the school. We have to learn to lead them to remember the Lord properly. Whether we do this or not will make a big difference. We need to lead them to come together to break bread and teach them to understand what the breaking of bread is and what its significance is. This is part of their church life.
Therefore, in order to adapt to their situations, we could have a meeting to remember the Lord on a weekday in the early evening at a saint’s home near the school and lead ten or twenty of them to break the bread. By doing this, we will bring them into the church life and make that meeting a part of the church. This will give them a deep impression. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, pp. 43-44)
