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Scripture Reading: Acts 15:39; 1 Cor. 16:12; 2, 4:7, 10, 2 Tim. 4:14-15; 1:15
Now that I am clear about the staying behind or leaving from the training of the full-timers next term, I would like to have a word of fellowship with you, or a charge to you, before this term of training is over. This morning, while I am still here, I will speak a few words of this kind.
First, I think many of you already know that the full-time service that has been among us the last few years is mainly for the saints who have a heart to pursue further. It is especially for the young college graduates. It gives them the opportunity to devote their lives to pursue God, to dive deeply into the truth, and to grow in life. If I remember rightly, I had already felt this way ten years ago when I was having some fellowship with a group of co-workers in the Bay Area in the United States. I hoped that the brothers and sisters in college or graduate school would take some time after their graduation and before their careers to seek after the Lord for at least a year, and preferably two years. During this time of seeking, some training would be given to them to produce some real perfection in truth and life as well as in the gospel and the church service.
The full-time training we have here was originally for this purpose. I know that you all have really gained something in the two years you have passed through, especially those among you who have been trained for four terms. You have not spent your time in vain. You have, to a greater or lesser degree, been affected by the Lord’s truths and cultivated by life. You have also learned a few things about preaching the gospel and serving the Lord. Furthermore, you have had a taste of human life. These attainments have laid the foundation and made the preparation for your work ahead.
Not only so, these two years have given you the chance to decide for yourselves whether you should get a job or be full time for the rest of your lives. It was very difficult in the past to determine whether or not a certain one should be full time; eventually, we could not find a proper way. If we did not let a brother go full time, we feared that we might waste good material; if we let him do it, we were not sure whether he would be suited to the full-time work. Now, we have finally found a workable way. Coincidentally, it ties in with the new way practiced three years ago when I first came back. By handling the training this way, we have produced full-time serving ones; at the same time it has provided the personnel needed for the Taiwan evangelization work. These two goals joined together complement and supplement one another very well. In the past two years what we have done here has exactly met these two needs. Thank the Lord. I feel that we have, to a large degree, reached these two goals.
Some of you will probably go back to a job after this term of training. This does not mean that you will have nothing to do with evangelizing Taiwan. I believe that you who have been trained will have a great share in the evangelization work of Taiwan, even though you may not be full time. The evangelization of Taiwan needs not only a thousand or more full-timers but also thousands and tens of thousands of saints. Since you have been trained, you have gained something; therefore, you can pass on what you have gained. After you are back in your own locality, if the church formally initiates preaching the gospel, you will be able to cooperate with it. Not very long ago I mentioned that if two brothers who are trained and have learned to be elders migrate to a place, applying themselves to what they have learned in the training, through prayer, and by relying on and following the leading of the Spirit, the Lord through them should be able to raise up a church of twenty to fifty saints within six months to a year.
You have been trained here. If you go back to your locality, whether you take a job or continue as a full-timer, you can more or less pass on what you have learned in the training to other brothers and sisters. As long as you rely on the Spirit, pray much, follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to serve and work, and not put the Lord aside or offend Him, in two or three years you should be able to raise up a church of at least twenty to thirty people. This was the original intention in having the young brothers and sisters attend a period of full-time training after they graduate from school.
Brothers and sisters who have been trained and who hope to serve full time their entire life still need to have further testing. In other words, even though you may feel to be full time your entire life, it may not necessarily be so. You can try a few more years and see. Your environment may not allow you, or your folks may not agree. In that case you could get a job. You should still look to the Lord, because one day He may change the environment, and you will be free to be full time again. On the other hand, if you have been full time for a while, and it has been manifested that the gift you have received from the Lord does not warrant full-time work for the Lord, it would be proper for you to return to a job and continue to serve the Lord on the side. This is also very good. From this point of view there is no lifelong preacher system, nor does anyone take preaching as a lifetime profession.
Let us look at Paul’s example. He says in Acts 20:34, “You yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my needs and to those who are with me.” This refers to his profession as a tentmaker (18:3). Paul’s reason for making tents was the lack of care from the churches. His making tents with his own two hands provided not only for his own needs but also for the needs of his companions. Although he had a little job, he did not abandon the ministry that the Lord had committed to him. On the contrary, he was more diligent and more given. If, according to the Lord’s gift, you need to fulfill your ministry in a full-time capacity, you should not take up a job; rather, you should serve full time, circumstances permitting. However, if the church you are in cannot support you, you would still need to support yourself. But this is not to say that you cannot bear the responsibility of the Lord’s ministry. I say this so that you would be clear that among us there is no such profession as a lifelong minister. I hope that you would all understand this.
Through my contact with you during the past three or four weeks, I have come to the conclusion that you, as trainees, could be put into four categories. The first category is those who will return to jobs after the training. As I have already said, this category is according to our original intention in conducting the training. When you joined the training, many of you had intended to return to a job after being full time for one or two years. Hence, when your time is completed, you may leave the training. This is like drafted soldiers being discharged when their service period is fulfilled.
I believe that you all have received something, either in truth, life, the gospel, or the church service. You all have made some initial progress. This will affect you for the rest of your Christian lives. An educated person is different from an uneducated one. As long as you have been trained, you are different from those who have not been trained. Nonetheless, you should not be proud of this when you return. You must learn to be humble and to seek the Lord’s leading in a proper way. Regardless of whether you are welcome or not, you should demonstrate your usefulness in a positive way. You should become a pattern to the saints and an indispensable member of the church. Hence, do not forget the calling and the commission that the Lord has given you when you return to a job.
The second category consists of those who will return to their own locality to be full time. This is also very good. Although we hope that in the overall evangelization work of Taiwan the church in Taipei can first reach a certain degree of success, it is all right to return to your locality if they have a need and wish to have you back. When you return to your localities, you should coordinate with the local saints in humility according to your training and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Then, what you have gained in the training will spontaneously be passed on to the brothers and sisters, and the church will be affected in a positive way. This will afford the Lord a way to go on.
The third category includes those who are willing to stay in Taipei and to serve full time, and the fourth category consists of those who will continue in the full-time training. We may say that these two groups are of great importance to the church in Taipei. Consequently, you must do your best to go forward and to learn further while you are here in Taipei. I hope that you will not neglect the pursuit of truth, the growth in life, the training and learning in the gospel preaching, or the church service.
Do not think that since you have been trained, you know everything. It is good that you know how to use The Mystery of Human Life to preach the gospel, but that alone is not enough. When you go out to preach the gospel in the future, you will discover other needs. Therefore, you must continue to learn. It is the same with respect to conducting home meetings, group meetings, and district meetings. You need to do your best to learn. I know that you are not very experienced and that the training center has not provided you the adequate guidance. Even I myself am still researching. There is much to learn here. In a home meeting you must learn how to supply life, how to open up the truth, and how to help others to touch the Spirit, enjoy the Lord, read the Word, and testify for Him. In the group meeting you must learn how to lead people to share mutually, care mutually, and learn to speak the Lord’s word. In the district meeting you must learn how to help people to function organically, to prophesy and supply mutually, and to build up one another. All these have their own specific and particular ways. It matters very much whether or not you know these ways. Hence, all of you need to learn properly.
I hope that you will stay in Taipei for at least one or two more years. On the one hand, you can contribute to the evangelization of Taipei. On the other hand, it is a great opportunity for you to learn. If you remain here for two more years, you will be useful whether in this country or in a foreign land.
Finally, I would like to share one serious matter with you. I have also been a young man. I know all the young people dream that since they have given themselves to the Lord in a full-time way, the Lord’s recovery will surely have a bright future. As soon as the army advances, victory will be everywhere, and the evangelization of Taiwan will be a great success. On the one hand, the revelation of the Bible tells us that the white horse, representing the gospel, will conquer again and again (Rev. 6:2). Yet on the other hand, we must go through much warfare. The evangelization of Taiwan will undoubtedly be accomplished, but it will be through much struggling and striving. We must see that in the whole process of the evangelization of Taiwan, there are fightings and strivings all the way.
The verses quoted in this chapter prove to you that Paul’s life was a life of struggling. First, in Acts 15 we see that Paul and Barnabas were originally intimate co-workers, often fighting alongside one another. They won a victory in Jerusalem for the Lord’s truth. Shortly after returning to Antioch, they intended to visit the brothers. Yet there was a dispute between them concerning whether Mark should be brought along. The dispute was so intense that they each went separate ways (v. 39). This was no small blow to Paul. Then came the difficulty in the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 16:12. This difficulty somewhat had to do with Apollos. So Paul urged Apollos several times to go with the brothers to rectify the situation there. But he was absolutely unwilling to go and would go only when the opportunity presented itself. This incident really put Paul in a difficult situation.
In 2 Timothy 4:14 and 15 Alexander frequently persecuted Paul and greatly opposed the apostle’s words. Paul’s co-worker Demas also abandoned him, having loved the present world, leaving for Thessalonica (v. 10). In the end, even all who were in Asia turned away from Paul, forsaking his ministry and teaching, which they received from him (1:15). These difficulties, persecutions, and forsakings were all a warfare to Paul.
Even though Paul met so many difficulties, persecutions, and forsakings, he was all the more strengthened in the grace of Christ. Paul labored, struggling according to the operation which operated in him in power (Col. 1:29). By the time he was to depart from the world, he declared, “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7). Consequently, he could charge Timothy to “Proclaim the word; be ready in season and out of season” (v. 2). This means that whether the time is convenient or not, whether we are welcome or not, and whether there is opposition or not, we all should be firm and steady and should strive to proclaim the word.
We should “sail on” like Columbus who, not fearing storms or difficulties, went straight toward his goal. From this day on, we all must have such determination in the Lord. Regardless of others’ opposition and criticism and in spite of others’ apostasy and backsliding, we will labor and strive in the way that the Lord leads us. I believe that these words are an inoculation to you against many negative things. Today, before the Lord returns and the kingdom comes upon the earth, there will still be warfare. In Ephesians, the book that reveals the church, Paul says in the conclusion that the church is a corporate warrior for executing God’s eternal purpose. At present, the church is waging a war against spiritual enemies, wrestling against the authority of darkness. May we all strive and struggle in this war until a full victory is won. I believe that these words will equip you. I hope that you will bring them back and will pray and fellowship about them.
