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Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19
Ephesians 4:16 says, “Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” The words out from whom mean out from Christ the Head. Through every joint of the rich supply indicates that the joints are a means of supply; being joined together and being knit together refers to the function of the sinews. Although this verse does not mention sinews, Colossians 2:19 uses the word sinews. Ephesians 4 shows that the function of the sinews is to join and knit the Body together. The joints are for supplying, and the sinews are for joining and knitting.
In addition to the joints and sinews, the Body also has many parts. Each one part refers to the members of the Body. Every part has its own function and its own measure. The measure of a shoulder is large, and the measure of a little finger is small. Nevertheless, despite the difference in measure, each part has a function. The function of a part depends on the measure of that part.
Every believer is a member of the Body of Christ. Some believers are joints, and their life and work are for supplying. Other believers are sinews, and they cause all the members to be connected together through joining and knitting. Hence, in the Body of Christ there are joints for supplying, and there are sinews for joining and knitting. Furthermore, there are also many parts, and each of these parts should exercise their function. If any one part does not exercise its function, there will be a problem with that part, and this will cause the entire Body to suffer loss.
The Bible says that the church is the Body of Christ. Everyone who believes in Christ is a member of the Body. Even though the members differ in measure and function, they must operate in the Body. When we speak, our entire body coordinates, even though our mouth is the part that everyone sees moving. When we make a certain facial expression, many parts of our body, including our ears, our nose, and even our hands, need to act in coordination. If our hands are bound, the tone of our voice will be different, and our facial expression will not be natural. Our entire being will be bound. Hence, we should not think that our hands are unrelated to our speaking or that our eyes and nose are unrelated to our speaking. Whenever we speak, all the members of our body are in coordination and are related to one another. In the same way, the moving and functioning of the entire Body is the new way.
We changed the system because in the old way the hands and feet of the Body were bound. Even the shoulders were bound. Some saints may say that we were not bound, but rather that we were very free in the church life. However, even if we were in the church life for more than ten years, we did not lead anyone to salvation, nor did we take care of anyone. This shows that we were bound. Some saints led people to salvation, but because of the old way the new ones did not receive proper care and “died prematurely.” The most we were able to do was to maintain a meeting life. In the meetings we listened to messages. Even though we murmured that one brother’s messages were eloquent and another brother’s messages were not, we were unable to speak the truth. This is our true situation.
Some brothers and sisters can pray with their companions, but they stop praying when another person joins them. Even though they enjoy praying together, they are quiet when they are in the meetings of the church. Many new believers are also like this. They pray in their home meetings, but they are unable to pray in the big meetings. They fear the large meetings; hence, they do not pray. This shows that in the old way of meeting, people were bound. Even the young brothers and sisters, who are lively and full of vitality when they meet together, do not know how to function when they are in a big meeting.
This fellowship is not to point out our shortcomings; rather, we are examining our true condition. When we stand before the Lord, we want to receive a reward, not suffer punishment.
We have been meeting in Taipei for more than thirty years, but our numbers have gradually decreased. If the system is not completely changed over in the next two or three years, and if our numbers continue to decrease, then in another ten years we will be finished. Hence, we must wake up. If we do not love the Lord, we should give ourselves to love the world, but if we love the Lord, we must give ourselves for this.
We should all consider before the Lord what the church should do. Every member should rise up to function. Even our little finger has a function in our body. The only way for the Lord to advance among us is through the functioning of every member. According to Ephesians 4:16 and Colossians 2:19, the Body grows when the joints function to supply, the sinews join and knit, and the rest of the members operate according to their measure. Hence, the brothers and sisters should not despise their function. We should not say that we are a new believer, our gift is small, we do not understand the truth, or we do not have a function. If we do not function, we harm ourselves, and we hinder the growth of the Body of Christ. Every member in the Body of Christ must rise up to function in order for the Body to grow gradually.
Approximately two thousand of the new ones, who were baptized and were in home meetings over the past eight months, attended the Lord’s Day meeting in all the halls of the church in Taipei. The full-time trainees made weekly visits to more than six thousand new ones and brought these two thousand new ones to the meeting. In other words, over the past eight months, twenty thousand people were led to salvation, and of these twenty thousand, more than six thousand meet with us regularly. Out of the six thousand new ones, two thousand met with us on the Lord’s Day. This proves that the new way of door-knocking and having home meetings is practical.
Two thousand new ones have not attended the meetings of the church in Taipei for the past twenty years. This proves that we can gain people by knocking on doors. The testimonies of the new ones show the working of the Holy Spirit. A few new ones testified that when the brothers and sisters knocked on their door, they were considering how to contact the Lord and come to the church. This was the Holy Spirit working in the same way that He worked when Peter went to the house of Cornelius.
One of the new ones testified that when the brothers and sisters knocked on his door, he was preparing to commit suicide. A person who was planning suicide was saved and baptized. If we did not knock on doors that day, he would have killed himself. Such testimonies prove that the Holy Spirit is working on many people. In the old way we published advertisements in newspapers, sent out invitations, held love feasts, and rented cars to take people to the meeting; however, not many people attended the meeting. Sometimes the people who came did not receive the Lord. However, we have discovered that when we door-knock, people cannot hide from us. Door-knocking is prevailing.
When we knock on a door, the people in that home may not be friendly, but after we speak a few words with them and then read The Mystery of Human Life, they are happy, and their attitude changes. They will eventually be saved and baptized if we pray for them. This can be accomplished only through door-knocking. Furthermore, soon after being baptized, some people bring their entire family and their colleagues from work to be baptized. A newly baptized believer is like a branch that runs over the wall and continues to grow. If we are faithful to knock on doors, the day will come when our brothers and sisters in the Lord will be all over Taipei.
We should not think that we can go door-knocking according to our own method. If we knock on doors according to our own method, no one will be saved. Therefore, we must be trained. We also need to labor on the home meetings. When we establish a home meeting, we should have proper feelings, not natural affection. Natural affection is of the flesh, but proper feelings are of the Spirit. When we meet with the new ones in their homes, some of them will prepare a meal for us, and others will give us gifts to show their appreciation. We must be careful not to do anything that will issue in natural affection of the flesh and not the proper feelings of the Spirit.
In the old way we invited people to the big meetings, but they did not like to come. Hence, even if we baptized one hundred people, only five would remain. However, today we deliver the meetings to people in their homes. The more meetings we deliver to people, the more they taste the flavor of the meetings. Then one day they will come to the meeting hall.
We knock on doors to baptize and gain people, and we have home meetings to nourish and keep them. By these two steps people are gained and kept. From our experience in the church life over the past sixty years, we know that no method is more effective than these two ways. There is presently a desperate need for people to labor on the home meetings, because we have discovered that it is relatively easy to knock on doors and lead people to salvation, but it is not so easy to feed people in the home meetings. Every parent knows that it is easy to give birth to children, but it is difficult to raise them. The full-time trainees have given birth to a large number of children for the church in Taipei. We must consider how to care for these new ones so that they grow up to be healthy.
Last Lord’s Day the full-time trainees brought some of the new ones whom they are caring for to the meeting halls, and everyone rejoiced. Even though we highly commended the full-time trainees, we must speak a faithful word, because the meetings were not up to the standard. The full-time trainees gained many new ones through door-knocking and the home meetings, but when they brought the new ones to the meetings, it was as if they were displaying their babies for the brothers and sisters to see. We forgot to pray, and no one paid attention to the content of the meeting. We admired the babies so much that we forgot to feed the babies.
We must take care of the new believers whom we have gained. We should not merely visit them frequently. We must supply them with God’s word. We can use Life Lessons to supply them. Thus, the key to the home meetings lies in knowing how to use Life Lessons. We should not think that it is easy for people to understand the text. We must be trained in order to know how to use these lessons in the home meetings.
The newly baptized brothers and sisters will come to the meeting halls to meet with everyone one Lord’s Day every month. We hope that the responsibility for the home meetings will be transferred from the full-time trainees to the brothers and sisters in the church. There are two ways to accomplish this. First, the meeting halls can coordinate with the training center so that the local brothers and sisters can go with the trainees to the home meetings. In this way the brothers and sisters will see what the trainees are doing, and they will meet the new ones in the home meetings. Second, the full-time trainees who are more experienced can make arrangements to visit the meeting halls to promote the matter of caring for the home meetings. The elders in each meeting hall should work together so that the main responsibility for the home meetings will be quickly transferred from the trainees to the saints. If we all rise up to receive this burden by consecrating every Lord’s Day plus two or three evenings a week to the Lord, we will be able to take this burden and see the Lord’s blessing.
The new way is becoming clearer as we practice. After we lead a person to salvation, we must immediately establish a home meeting with him. This is our church life. The most important thing in the home meetings is to supply the new ones with the word and to teach them Life Lessons. The brothers and sisters might not do this as well as the full-time trainees, but as long as they do it according to the fellowship, they will be successful. Everything needs practice; if we do not practice, we will not improve. The elderly brothers and sisters should pray for the home meetings. The rest of the saints should fight the battle.
There are now three thousand five hundred people meeting in the church in Taipei, of which one thousand five hundred go door-knocking and are in home meetings with the new believers. Two thousand saints meet regularly in the meeting halls. We fellowshipped with the elders concerning the need to strengthen the meetings for Truth Lessons and the Lord’s table meeting held in the halls on the Lord’s Day. We also need to strengthen the prayer meetings and the small group meetings. Some of these meetings are for fighting the battle, and other meetings are for defending what is ours. We must establish home meetings in the homes of the new ones. Then when the time is right, we should bring two or three home meetings together for a meeting. This is a small group meeting. There might even be the need for a new district meeting. Several groups can come together and find a large building within their district to use as a central meeting place for that district. We can also have joint meetings in the meeting halls.
Eventually, the Lord will give us a large meeting hall so that once a month we can all meet together. If the Lord gives us 80,000 or 100,000 brothers and sisters in the church, and the large meeting hall can only seat 20,000, we can take turns using the large meeting hall. For example, the first session can use the hall from 8:00 to 10:00 on the Lord’s Day morning, and the second session, from 10:00 to 12:00. There can be a session in the afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00 and another from 4:00 to 6:00. There can also be a session from 7:00 to 9:00 in the evening. If every session has 20,000 people, we can handle 100,000 people in five sessions. If there are more people, we can have another session on Friday night. We can also use the large meeting hall every day. The meeting halls can arrange their meeting times so that the saints can meet together frequently.
We must not rely merely on the speaking brothers; rather, we must all rise up and work together. According to my calculations, if we all rise up, in less than ten years all the people on the island of Taiwan will be our brothers and sisters. Whether or not such a glorious situation will come to pass depends entirely on us. If we work together, we will be successful, and the result will be pleasing to the Lord.
If the saints in the Lord’s recovery will promote door-knocking and the home meetings, we will eventually knock on every door on the earth. We believe that this way will bring the Lord back. The gospel of the kingdom must be preached to the whole inhabited earth before the end will come. There is no other way to preach the gospel to the whole inhabited earth apart from knocking on people’s doors and having home meetings. Many of the new ones testified that they began to knock on doors after they were baptized. Some are even attending the full-time training. This proves that if we work faithfully, the children we beget will be like us. Even though it is somewhat more difficult for those who are pioneering the new way, the ones we bring to the Lord will follow us. They will be Christians who knock on doors, have home meetings, teach Life Lessons, sing hymns, and pray.
If we were to hire preachers, we would not be able to hire enough preachers to meet this need. Even if we were able to find enough preachers, they would kill everyone’s function. We cannot continue the method of Christianity and hold big gospel campaigns, because that method does not beget many spiritual descendants. Even though our way appears to be very slow and difficult, a great deal can be accomplished by taking small steps. If all the saints coordinate together through prayer, knocking on doors, and leading the home meetings, in a few years Taiwan will be gospelized.
Whether we are successful in gospelizing Taiwan depends on our willingness to spread the gospel. As long as we are willing to pray, confess our sins, deal with the natural man and our flesh, be filled with the Spirit, and go door-knocking according to the methods of the training, we will gain people. If one thousand five hundred saints each bring one person to salvation every day, in one month we will gain forty-five thousand believers. Of course, we must still take care of our families, our jobs, and our daily living. As long as we do not lack clothing, food, and the necessities of life, our needs are taken care of. We should not be too rich or too poor in our outward appearance. We should be neat and proper so that people do not pity us. We should give our children a proper education and care for our households. After caring for these things, we should give whatever time and money we have to the Lord.
This does not mean that all the saints should drop their jobs and serve the Lord full time. The elders do not need to be full time; on the contrary, they should take good care of their professions, manage their households well, and care for their own children. However, they must give every Lord’s Day and two or three evenings per week to the Lord to knock on doors and be in home meetings. The young people should not think that they will ruin their future by giving themselves to the Lord in this way. If they use their time well, they will do well in their studies. There are many testimonies that prove that young people who love the Lord in this way will be top students.
We must live a balanced life before the Lord and make a budget. We should budget our money, and we should also budget our time and our strength. If the elderly saints do not budget their strength, they will not accomplish anything. I also budget my strength. When we live this kind of life, people outside the church will know that our speech is not common, our clothing is proper, and our homes are furnished simply and elegantly without being luxurious and wasteful. This will glorify the Lord. The new way is practical, and it enables us to receive the blessing. Our society and our country will also be blessed by it.
