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The fellowship in this chapter may be considered as advice, not as a charge or a law. We need to exercise much wisdom regarding the way we live our Christian life in our locality after we have seen the light concerning the new way.
We should neither impose the new way on others, nor should we promote it. The best way to carry out the new way is to live as an example. To preach the gospel by visiting people in their homes is altogether scriptural. I do not believe that any of the saints would oppose this. It is possible that some might not be happy to preach the gospel in this way, but we should not impose this on them. It is up to the saints whether or not they would take this way. We trust in the Lord for His doing.
You also need to endeavor to practice the new way as the Lord leads according to the limit of the circumstances. You may be in a local church that does not practice the preaching of the gospel by visiting people in their homes. On the one hand, you should not impose this on others or promote it. On the other hand, you can carry out your burden for this on your own. You can follow the Lord’s leading to fellowship with one or two others who would be burdened to go with you to preach the gospel according to the God-ordained way. The Lord will surely lead you to some sons of peace.
In the old way, we were inviting the people, the “fish,” to come to us, and they would not answer our invitation. That was the reason we did not gain many people in the past. But in the new way we are going to the fish, and we have the assurance in the Lord that we can gain some. If you can gain one new one every three months, you will gain four in a year. This is a good number. But you have to consider how many new ones you and the other saints in your locality are able to take care of. If six in a locality of only fifteen saints are burdened to preach the gospel by visiting people, they can gain twenty to thirty new ones in a year. Actually, if they went out every week they could gain more, but I do not think that this is wise. If we deliver many babies and are not able to care for them, this is not good. Thus, we have to apportion our manpower and our time. The best way for us to take is to gain one or two new ones every three months. Then we will reap some for each of the four seasons. As we take care of them, they will grow, and after a year they will be raised up to do what we are doing in the gospel service to the Lord.
If we take this way quietly without promoting it or imposing it on anyone, we will not offend anyone or stir up different opinions. We must do our best not to stir up any turmoil, debate, or argument. The saints will not oppose or criticize you if you preach the gospel by visiting people and set up weekly home meetings with the new ones whom you gain. If the church in your locality does not practice the new way, you should do your best to attend the regular meetings of the church, at least on the Lord’s Day and if possible the prayer meeting. Then you could reserve one evening a week to either preach the gospel or care for the new ones in their homes. Actually, these home meetings are church meetings in the eyes of God. Do everything in your locality in a loving, nice, and wise way. This is what it means to practice the new way as the Lord leads according to the limit of the circumstances.
Do everything in humility with forbearance. Never do anything arrogantly. If we are doing a good work to preach the gospel and raise up the home meetings, we should not have a proud spirit or attitude. If we are living in and with the Divine Trinity, none of us can be proud. We always have to be humble and forbearing. In any situation we should not overstep the limit the Lord has given us.
Do not make a division or draw a line between who is positive for the new way and who is not. Even in our talk we may say that a certain brother is not for the new way. This is not good, and we should never utter anything like this. We should not have the concept that only the saints who are positive for the new way are in the recovery. A brother in a local church who does not agree with the new way is still in the recovery. We who are positive for the new way should not despise or look down on anyone who is not positive. We hope that anyone who does not agree with the scriptural way will not oppose it. Opposing can stir up dissension, and dissension will issue in division. This will be a damage to the Lord’s Body. Even a little dissension may kill the blessing of the Lord in the church life.
Even if the church in your locality does not practice the new way, you still have to submit yourself to the church. If your local church does not practice the new way, and you grasp the chance in a meeting to promote it and preach or teach about it, this is not proper and indicates that you are not submitting yourself to the present practice of your local church. What you say depends on the leading of the Spirit. The church in your locality may not practice the new way, yet the spirit, attitude, and atmosphere of the church allows you to fellowship about the new way or give a testimony of your practice of the new way. This is different from promoting, preaching, or teaching. You have to see what the atmosphere in the meeting is and know the attitude and the spirit of the entire church. You may have the sense that it would be good to give a testimony of how you go to visit people, who has been saved, and how the home meetings have helped the new ones. If the atmosphere in the meeting and the spirit and attitude of the church are against this, do not give such a testimony. If the church in your locality does not like to practice according to the scriptural way, submit yourself to their present practice. Even if the church does not like anyone to say anything about the new way, do not say it in a meeting. This does not mean that you cannot talk in your home with the saints. You have the liberty to fellowship with some of the saints in their homes, but do this with a pure motive. Do not have the attitude that since the church is opposing the new way, you will do something secretly to tear down and overthrow the present practice and bring in the new way. This is altogether not good. The Lord does not carry out things in this way.
Once you sense that an argument is rising up, you should stop what you are saying. If five saints are gathered together in a home, and two or three of them are opposing, do not talk about the new way. Under the Lord’s sovereign arrangement, these opposing ones may leave. The others might be stirred up by the Lord to ask you some questions about your practice of preaching the gospel by visiting people in their homes. Then you can give them a report about what the Lord has been doing, and they will receive some help. We do not need to fight or struggle for anything. We realize the Lord’s new way is profitable, scriptural, and workable, so we practice it without promoting. Yet if there is the opportunity, we can fellowship with the saints and leave the result in the hands of the Lord. We should never debate, argue, or fight with anyone concerning the new way, but we should carry the new way out in a living and building-up way according to the Lord’s instant leading and arrangement.
Sometimes some of the brothers who were so positive for the new way spoke with a divisive tone. This is unwise and not good. We should avoid and reject anything that would even build up a tendency toward division. Our words and our deeds could be considered by others to be divisive. We must be wise and take care of the oneness of the Body of Christ with a sweet harmony. How can there be harmony among a group of people when some of them are positive for the scriptural way and some are not? It seems that there is a kind of disharmony that is already existing. But to keep the oneness of the Body of Christ with a sweet harmony depends on us. By our behavior, speaking, and actions, we can adjust the situation and recover the harmony. We are brothers with the same faith, and we are in the church life in the same recovery. This is our base for oneness. We are harmonious for the one purpose of having the Lord’s recovery to keep the testimony of the oneness of the Body of Christ. We should not expect that we can all be the same in everything. Therefore, we should not try to unify the situation.
Some of the younger saints may have been trained in the new way, but when they returned to a church that did not practice the new way, they would not function. They attended the church meetings in a cold way. This is wrong. As long as you attend a certain meeting, you have to go along with the practice of that meeting. You must endeavor to function, not according to your preference but according to the present flow in the meeting. Go on with the saints to show them that you are really one with the Lord’s Body in your locality. As long as what is going on is not idolatrous, divisive, or sinful, you must endeavor to function in all the meetings of the local church in your locality according to the flow of the present practice of your local church.
We need to exercise prevailing prayers for the Lord’s new move and for all the churches with all the saints to be graced with the heavenly vision and the bountiful supply of the Spirit. We must realize that there is an old traditional way of meeting and serving existing on the earth among the Lord’s children. We have already pointed out that it is hard to change something habitual. It would be hard for someone who is used to eating with a fork to switch to eating with chopsticks. The traditional way of meeting and serving is nearly a two thousand-year-old habit. If we try to change this habit in an unwise and quick way, we will stir up much unhappiness. The old way has been built up in Christianity for centuries, and we have it with us to some extent in the Lord’s recovery. We have to expect that some will feel unhappy when we want to take away the old way and replace it with the new way. Thus, we have to pray for ourselves and for all the saints that we may see the heavenly vision.
When I decided to make this turn in 1984 to bring in the new way, I realized the hardship that was involved. I also realized that it would be very, very hard to have a new start. When Brother Nee began to fellowship concerning the scriptural way about fifty years ago, we realized then the difficulty involved in carrying it out because of the strong habit built up to meet and to serve in the traditional way. After reconsidering and studying the New Testament, we believe that we have received a vision from the Lord concerning the scriptural way of meeting and serving for the building up of the Body of Christ. Related to the preaching of the gospel in the new way, I would not say that visiting people in their homes is the unique way to preach the gospel, but I have to say that it is the best way, the most prevailing way, the most effective way to bring people to Christ. This vision has burdened me. We have to pray that the Lord would work out something. Whenever the Lord has something to do, He needs His people to cooperate with Him through prayer. We need to pray that all the churches with all the saints would have the heavenly vision and the bountiful supply of the Spirit. Then the saints will join the new way with a heavenly vision by the bountiful supply of the Spirit.
We should not be cut off or kept apart from the churches and the saints. We need to keep fellowship with the churches and the saints in the concern of the Lord’s new move. We should have much fellowship with one another. We have to fellowship with the churches in Australia. We need to have some communication with the saints in New Zealand. The church in Chicago publishes a newsletter with testimonies concerning the effectiveness of the Lord’s new way. This is very good. One testimony in this newsletter tells of a Catholic priest who some brothers met as they were visiting people in their homes with the gospel. This Catholic priest prayed with the brothers and was baptized. He left Catholicism and is now a good brother meeting with the local church. I hope that many churches could publish something to let the saints in other countries and continents know how the Lord is moving in their localities. This may nourish, support, and contribute some help to all the saints, even to the saints outside of us in the denominations.
