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Prayer: Lord, we worship You for Your leading. We praise You for blessing us. We also praise You for the grace You are exhibiting in the young brothers and sisters. Lord, Your church is looking to You. We are waiting on You and asking You to release Your heart’s desire to us so that we may know Your will and touch Your way. We confess that we are unprofitable slaves who lack wisdom and are short in every way. Lord, we really need You. We need You to be our wisdom, our power, our daily grace, and our moment-by-moment strength. The only things that have eternal value are the things that You do through us. We stand against what we are and what we can do. We do not trust in ourselves. We trust in You as the resurrected Lord. We do not want to live in our natural man, and we do not want to do anything by our own strength. Everything we do apart from You is vain and useless. We look to You to operate within us so that we may become one spirit with You and be Your living witnesses. Lord, we are not merely going out to do a work; rather, we are going out as Your witnesses to prove that You are the true and living Lord, who died and resurrected. You denied Yourself and did not live by Your natural life; rather, You lived absolutely in the resurrection life. Care for us that we may live in the same way before You. When we go out, we want to be testimonies of Your resurrection so that the churches we establish will be golden lampstands. Lord Jesus, bless us. We look to You for Your leading that we may touch Your heart’s desire. Amen.
First, we need to consider how many days the saints should spend in the towns or villages for the spread of the gospel. The saints have spent two months spreading the gospel. Every team spent fifteen days in their first town. Some saints remained in the first town, and the rest of the team went to a second town and spent twenty days there. At the end of the twenty days, some saints remained in the second town, and the rest of the team went to a third town and spent twenty-five days there. Hence, every team went out for a total of sixty days. However, we may not be spending enough time in these places. According to our research, it is not good for us to have too few new ones, and it is difficult to care for too many new ones. Consequently, we should gain between forty and fifty people in every town. We need to beget the right number of new ones in order to properly care for the people we baptize. We need to feed, teach, and perfect them. It is therefore best for the saints to spend twenty-five days in every place. This means that all the teams will go out for two and a half months.
Initially, we said that our intention was to establish a church in the two hundred twenty-seven towns and villages that do not have churches. However, based on the observations of the full-timers who went out for the spread of the gospel, we have had further consideration, because certain places have a low population, and the people live far apart. Most of the ones going out for the spread of the gospel are young sisters, and we need to consider their safety in these areas. Consequently, we will probably reduce the number of target localities and not go to all two hundred twenty-seven towns and villages. We will select the more important places and establish churches in them; we can then spread out from these localities in one or two years. Reducing the number of target localities means that the large cities like Taipei will not suffer. Otherwise, we would need to send some of the saints serving in Taipei to the towns and villages. These saints, however, would probably gain more people in Taipei than in the rural areas. Reducing the number of target localities will also enable us to increase the number of days we spend in every town to twenty-five days.
Second, it is not good to take time off during the two and a half months that your team is spreading the gospel. You should remain with your team the entire time. This is the only way we can accomplish the spread. God wants man to work for six days and to rest on the seventh, just as He worked for six days and rested on the seventh day. Hence, you should all consider this matter. Furthermore, when you rest, you should not do anything strenuous. According to the New Testament, the Jews had something called “a Sabbath day’s journey” (Acts 1:12); they did not walk a long distance on the Sabbath. You need to be restricted on your day of rest and not engage in many activities, such as playing ball and running. If you engage in too many activities, you will be exhausted the next day, and instead of having a day of rest, you will have had a day of labor. To rest simply means to rest. It is best not to travel farther than the distance allowed on the Sabbath, but this is not a legalistic matter. Every team can determine the details for their day of rest according to the situation in their environment. It is best to keep the biblical principle, because the matters permitted in the Bible are beneficial, and the things forbidden in the Bible are not beneficial.
Third, the location of the meeting hall in the new localities must be appropriate. The meeting halls should not be close to major streets, because the noise from passing traffic will make it difficult to have meetings. Furthermore, some towns and villages have two sections; one section is elevated, and the other is in a valley. Is it more convenient for the meeting hall to be located in the elevated section or in the valley? If the meeting hall is in the elevated section, everyone will need to walk uphill to the meetings, and if it is in the valley, those who live in the elevated section will need to walk downhill. The valley is a more convenient location. When choosing a location for a meeting hall, we should consider these things.
In our labor in the new localities we need to gain households, because it is difficult for a church with only single saints to be stable. According to the Bible, the practical church life is built up in the homes; hence, we must keep this principle in our work. We must do our best to gain two households with four people in each household. This is better than eight single people. We need to pay attention to this and spend the time necessary to gain families. After a household is baptized, we must spend more time to nourish the family members. We must spend time to perfect every household, just as we perfect and teach individual new believers. Even though a local church with a total of twelve people in six stable households may be small, it will be stable. Furthermore, it is more difficult for an entire household to move than it is for a single person to move. Therefore, there is a need for us to stabilize the households. In every town and village that we go to, we must gain households and maintain a sweet relationship with every family. We will gain many benefits from such a practice. As we go out to the different places to establish churches, we need to remember that the households are the greatest support to the church life.
We spent three terms in the full-time training, one and a half years, to research and experiment how to knock on doors. During that time we spent much time and money, and many people went out every day to knock on doors so that we could know the type of results to expect. In one and a half years we baptized a total of thirty-eight thousand people.
This is a large number of people. These people heard the gospel, confessed their sins, called on the Lord’s name, prayed, and received salvation. However, only the Lord knows whether they will enter the kingdom. When we baptize people, we do not have the full assurance that they will enter into the kingdom. Nevertheless, in one and a half years we baptized thirty-eight thousand people.
We have now left the experimental stage, and we are in the stage of practicing. Consequently, our plans for spreading the gospel must be based on how long it takes us to baptize people. This means that a team of twenty people should spend fifteen days to knock on doors and preach the gospel and ten days to set up home meetings. We should not be excited when we baptize many people, because there is still the problem of how to nourish these ones.
It is easy to beget, but it is difficult to nourish. In the past we baptized people within three minutes. We cannot say that this is wrong, but we must consider the consequences. If we continue begetting new ones, who will nourish them? When the teams go to their first town, there are twenty full-timers on the team. However, only two full-timers remain in the new locality when the team goes to the next town. This means that the many new ones become a heavy burden to the two full-timers. If they are unable to care for all the new ones, some of the new ones will be left to die. Up to this point we have only considered baptizing people quickly; we have not considered what will happen to them after they are baptized. It is a problem for the ones we baptize to be left with no one to nourish them.
Hence, we should not be quick to baptize too many people. In every town the teams should have at least ten days to lead home meetings and not knock on doors. This will enable us to stabilize the newly baptized saints. We must labor to preach the gospel and baptize people during the first fifteen days, but we should not baptize too many people. It is best if we baptize only forty to fifty people. For this reason we should not be too quick to baptize people. Instead, we should speak with them to touch their spirit, and we should listen to them. If a person is a son of peace, we should baptize him immediately.
A person who is baptized too quickly can deny his baptism when we visit him a few days later. In order to avoid this situation, we must learn not to baptize people too quickly. If we baptize only twenty people after laboring for two weeks, we will need to spend more days to gain another twenty people. This may require us to go back to some of the people we have already contacted in order to baptize forty to fifty new ones. Therefore, there must be enough serving ones on every team. This way of laboring is solid.
Some people should be baptized quickly; however, if we are not clear whether we should baptize certain people, we should wait before we baptize them. As the full-timers go out in their teams, we will continue to learn, and we will also adjust our method based on their experience.
Everyone has an opinion, unless he is a stone. It is impossible not to have an opinion, and opinions have their place. We are pretending when we withhold our opinion. However, we must express our opinions appropriately and at the right time, or they will generate unnecessary problems. It is best to wait a day before we express an opinion so that we can be sure that we feel peaceful about expressing it. If we do not have the peace, we should not express our opinion; rather, we should wait until we have the peace.
When responding to mail, I often put my letter in an envelope without sealing it. Sometimes I wait two days before I mail a letter, and during the night I consider whether my wording was appropriate and my answers were proper. This is a great protection. I may wait even three days before mailing certain letters. During this time I pray and ask the Lord whether the decisions I made in the letter were correct. It is not wrong for us to have opinions, but we should not be too quick to express them. It is best to wait for some time. The Lord’s Spirit will lead us inwardly, and we may even receive a confirmation in the environment.
We may feel that something is right and good, but if we are too quick to express our opinion, we may get a wrong result. According to a Chinese proverb, we should hold back half a sentence and not speak it even though what we want to say is at the tip of our tongue. Another proverb says, “Diseases enter through the mouth, and misfortunes issue from the mouth.” Proverbs 10:19 says, “When there are many words transgression does not cease, / But he who restrains his lips is prudent.” If we do not exercise restraint when expressing our opinions, we will get into trouble. We should, therefore, do our best not to speak too much, and we should not speak too quickly.
A co-worker who does not speak is being pretentious, or he is being a politician instead of a faithful, coordinating member of the Body of Christ. Members who coordinate faithfully must speak the truth and say what they have seen. However, they should be careful when they express themselves. For example, if we have an opinion while we are in a meeting with others, it is best for us to express it slowly or not at all. Most of the time we are wrong when we express our opinion quickly. Therefore, instead of expressing our opinion, it is best to wait. However, if we are clear, we should speak, but we should not be abrasive in our tone. Our speech should be seasoned with salt (Col. 4:6).
In their fellowship the brothers said that some sisters are too strong. Strong sisters are a lesson to the brothers. Our way of dealing with any situation is the cross. In Genesis 45, when Joseph’s brothers were returning to Jacob, Joseph charged them not to quarrel on the way (v. 24). To quarrel is to argue, and when we argue, we express our opinion. The best way to overcome our opinions is to refrain from speaking, no matter how strong and stubborn others may be. The sisters may be strong when they express their opinions, but after two hours they are no longer strong.
However, the sisters need to remember that they are sisters. The Bible says that the man is the head of the woman (1 Cor. 11:3). Hence, the sisters must always remember that no matter how strong they may be physically, they are still sisters. Therefore, they should be gentle and exercise restraint when they speak. Instead of speaking eight sentences, they should speak only five. If the sisters can also lower their tone when they speak, others will not feel that they are too strong.
Some brothers are faithful and diligent to take the lead. Sometimes they are not polite in their dealings with those around them, because they want everything to be perfect. This can cause them to be controlling and to rule over other saints. However, according to the Bible, the elders should only oversee; they should not lord it over others (1 Pet. 5:1-3). Hence, the brothers should only oversee and not rule over the saints. To rule over others is to lord it over them, to exercise lordship, and to enslave the saints. These things are wrong.
On the one hand, the sisters should cover their heads; on the other hand, the brothers need to take the lead. However, the brothers should lead the saints without ruling over them. The Bible says that the brothers should take the lead, and the Bible also says that the sisters are weaker vessels (3:7). The brothers must always be considerate of the sisters as weaker vessels, because they have weaknesses that the brothers do not have. Their weaknesses are according to God’s creation. Hence, it is good for the brothers to consider how the sisters were created when they touch any matter related to the sisters. Even though the sisters are also human beings, they are different from brothers. They are different in their constitution and their nature. The brothers should not deal with the sisters as if they are dealing with brothers. In everything the brothers do, they must recognize that the sisters are weaker vessels.
We can hit a board of wood many times without breaking it; however, a pane of glass will break the first time we hit it. In the same way, it does not matter if a brother hits me, because I will not break. However, when we deal with a sister, we must first know her condition before speaking with her. In conclusion, it is proper for the brothers to take the lead, but it is wrong for them to assume the headship. There is only one Head—our Lord Jesus.
During the time when we were researching how to knock on doors, as soon as a person was baptized and changed his clothes, we would rush out the door to baptize the next person. This is no longer our practice. It is best to spend some time to nourish a person immediately after he is baptized and then go back to visit him the next day. We need to visit the new believers many times during the first month, because it is easy for them to become sick or to die prematurely. It is best to use the first thirty days to stabilize the new believers.
For this reason those whom we baptize must be visited at least ten times in the first month after their baptism. Otherwise, they may die prematurely. During the past decades we baptized many people, but most of them died prematurely and few have remained, because we did not learn this lesson. The Lord Jesus said, “I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16). The secret to bearing remaining fruit is to nourish them. This can be compared to a baby being fed milk immediately after it is born. After we baptize someone, we must nourish him immediately and then continue to nourish him during the next thirty days.
Someone asked whether a brother and a sister can coordinate together. This must be avoided. Even though this does not break the law, it violates the principle in the Bible. We must not allow the single brothers and single sisters to have too much personal contact. It is best for them to have as little contact as possible. There should be a distance between the brothers and the sisters. This has been our practice for many decades. We do not approve of two members of the opposite sex being alone together in a room, especially if the door is closed and the room has no windows. This is forbidden. Hence, we should not think that it is a matter of convenience for a brother to give a sister a ride in a car in order for her to do her shopping. It is fine for a brother to accept a ride from a brother and for a sister to accept a ride from another sister, but it is not acceptable for a brother and a sister to ride together alone in a car. It is absolutely against our principles for a single brother and a single sister to do anything together. We must maintain this testimony.
People who have not received the Lord are not concerned when a man and a woman walk together or do something together, but when a brother and a sister walk together, they lose their testimony. However, this does not mean that unbelievers do not have standards concerning male-female relationships. Hence, they criticize the Christians who behave as they do. They know that the morality of Christians is very high and that Christians cannot be like other people. We cannot necessarily do things that other people do, even if it is legal. Some legal things are not up to our standard of morality.
We must not allow a brother and a sister to do things by themselves alone. A husband and wife can go out together, and no one will say anything because they are married. But there should be a distance between a brother and a sister who are not married. Just as the meal offering could not be mingled with honey (Lev. 2:11), the brothers and sisters must have a living testimony.
This is especially important when we go to the towns and villages to preach the gospel, because the neighbors are watching us. They know that we are a group of people who are preaching Jesus, so they will watch us. Therefore, the married saints must have a proper relationship so that other people can see that Christians are different. Male-female relationships are an important aspect of morality. In human ethics and morality the relationship between a husband and wife is crucial. The Bible condemns anything that damages the marital relationship. Nothing damages God’s creation and the man God created more than improper relationships between males and females. We must remember this.
Even though I am an old man, I would never allow a sister to take me to get my hair cut when I cannot find a brother to take me. I would rather delay an errand than go against this principle, even though I am already elderly. May we all pay attention to this matter. We cannot avoid contacting people when we serve the Lord; hence, we must maintain a proper testimony when we contact members of the opposite sex. Otherwise, in our service to the Lord, we will encounter problems. We must be very careful in this matter. This especially applies to the brothers. The brothers must remember to keep their contact with the sisters pure and in the light. They should not fall into a situation in which others can criticize them in this area.
Today some women do not seem to have any sense of shame. Shamefacedness is a virtue, and females must have some sense of shame. It is part of the God-created female disposition. It is wrong for a female, especially for a girl who is eighteen or nineteen years old, to be flirtatious or to wear clothing that does not cover her. Women should have a sense of shame. The sisters must remember that they are sisters and that they need to be preserved.
More than fifty years ago the China Inland Mission sent many people to China. They sent at least ninety young sisters from England. These young sisters were met by an elderly Western sister in Shanghai whose commission was to help them preach the gospel in China. In those days the young women in the West liked to wear modern skirts that were shorter than the old-fashioned skirts, which were long and reached the floor. This elderly sister would invite the young sisters for afternoon tea and snacks. After tea this elderly sister would spend time to speak with the sisters. While she was speaking, she would continually pull at her skirt below her knees. After pulling at her skirt a few times, the young sisters began pulling at their skirts, because they realized that their skirts were short and did not adequately cover them.
According to the Bible, it is a shame, not a glory, for the fallen human body to be exposed. It is a shame, not a glory, for a person to expose his back or chest. In the Old Testament times women even covered their heads. Today women in Islamic countries cover their entire face. In principle, it is better for less of the body to be exposed. When we cover ourselves, we cover our shame. After the fall man’s first sense was to be ashamed of his nakedness; therefore, Adam and Eve made loincloths to cover their shame (Gen. 3:7).
When we go out to spread the gospel, we must be careful. We are all co-workers. In our service it is difficult to avoid contact between brothers and sisters; therefore, we must understand the situation and maintain these principles. Brothers must remain in their position as brothers and not be loose in their speech. Sisters must remember that they are females and keep the feminine virtue of shamefacedness. In this way the Lord will preserve us.
If the people listening to our gospel are materialistic and despise spiritual things, we should not press them. When we go out to preach the gospel, unless we have much assurance, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Lord’s leading, it is best not to force people. The worldly people know that material things are worthless, and some religions even teach separation from the world. Hence, there is no need for us to teach this. The people we speak to may have a successful business, or they may be mature and already know that material things are worthless and that they should not be occupied by them. Hence, it is best if we do not speak about these matters.
Even if we have a clear leading and the spiritual authority to speak a serious word, we still must be careful how we express things. For this reason it is best to be positive and preach the Lord Jesus. With a new one we can read Philippians 3:8, which says, “I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.” There is no need to touch the fact that the new ones are materialistic and not spiritual. We should simply speak the truth to them and give the word of the truth the opportunity to shine in them and enlighten them. This will help them.
We should not consider saving people through knocking on doors as the most important item in our work. Instead, we should consider that visiting people to care for them and to nourish them is the most important item. We should not think that when we baptize a person, we have gained him. Baptizing a person is the same as giving birth to a child. We cannot say that our job is finished after a child is born. We must keep him alive by nourishing him. Hence, we must consider caring for people and nourishing them as the crucial items in our work. Wherever we go to spread the gospel, we must pay attention to these items.
If the new ones have the time, we should do our best to spend much time to speak to them. The more time we can spend with them, the better. In principle, those who work for the Lord should have time for the new ones. We should not be in a situation where we do not have enough time, especially since we are going to the towns and villages to speak to people. If a new one is available, we should be happy to spend the time to speak to him, even if we end up speaking to people from six o’clock in the morning until six o’clock in the evening. The people in the towns and villages are usually not very educated, but we should not despise them and think that the truth is too deep for them to understand. We must not have such a concept. It is also wrong for us to teach only deep truths. In speaking the truth, we must be progressive and not despise anyone. We must respect everyone. In order for people to be edified when we speak, we should speak normally, without adding deep points or speaking shallowly.
When a person says that he is already a Christian, we should learn how to use one or two sentences to find out if he is really saved. If he is genuinely saved, we should check to see if he is open to receive us. If he is not open, we should let him go. If he is open, we should meet with him, just as we meet with a new one in order to nourish and care for him. If we feel that he is not genuinely saved, we should treat him like a gospel friend and help him receive salvation.
We must also strengthen the Lord’s Day meetings. If the entire team of twenty people is exercised in a meeting, the meeting will be strong. If we are not strong, we should not expect the new ones to be strong. Hence, whether or not the meetings are strong depends on us. This is very important. In a period of twenty-five days we will have at least three Lord’s Day meetings with the new ones. We should be a pattern to the new ones in every meeting to help them function in the meetings in the future. We must not be loose in any meeting, and we should bear the responsibility in the meetings. When every team member functions, the meetings will be strong.
In addition, when we go out to knock on doors, we are the Lord’s witnesses. In Acts 1:8 the Lord said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” We are the Lord’s witnesses. When we preach the gospel, we must begin with Jerusalem as our center, pass through Judea and Samaria, and then go to the uttermost part of the earth. We begin with the center and gradually make our way to the circumference. This means that when we knock on doors, we should take the meeting hall as our center and begin in the areas around the meeting hall. We should not skip the homes that are nearby and look for people who live farther away. Only after we preach the gospel in the areas around the meeting hall, which is our Jerusalem, should we go to Judea, then to Samaria, and finally to the uttermost part of the earth. In this way we will preach the gospel to every part of a town or village.
