In October of 1984, the church in Taipei began to change the system, and there was a scene of newness replacing the old, particularly regarding the method of our work, the church meetings, and the service. Not only was there a change in appearance outwardly, but even more there was a change inwardly, in the intrinsic nature. One year later it reached a certain scale. Then after another half year, in order to meet the need, we officially began the Full-time Training and the practice of going out to knock on doors, bringing people to be saved, and baptizing them. This was the first step of the new way.
In 1986 we baptized 7,100 people within one hundred days, and about a month later we baptized more than 1,100 people, totaling over 8,200. This figure is a proof that this new way is indeed effective. One brother from the United States testified that within those one hundred days he baptized one hundred twenty-nine persons, a brother from Malaysia said that he baptized one hundred twenty persons, and a brother from Anaheim said that he baptized over eighty persons.
In recent years, therefore, wherever there are churches in the Lord’s recovery throughout the earth, localities have responded to this move of door-knocking, bringing people to be saved, and baptizing them. Regrettably, though, no one has fully known how to do these things. In the initial stage of the Full-time Training, all the practices in the training were not publicized. Because this training was for the most part in the experimental stage, without our firm assurance, we were reluctant to spread these unconfirmed results. We feared that once they were spread, they might create preconceptions which would not be easy to change afterward no matter how we tried. Hence, the training was originally meant not to be publicized, but it soon became an open matter, and everyone started to go door-knocking.
Generally speaking, knocking on doors is very easy. Who does not know how to do it? It seems that even a child can do it. On the other hand, some who saw this practice “blew cold wind,” saying, “What is the difference between this door-knocking and the Mormons’ door-knocking?” Apparently, the Mormons’ success is founded on door-knocking. Where then is the differentiation? This is a particular point of concern—one kind of door-knocking is in fact vastly different from another.
In the past when a few localities in the United States began door-knocking, it was not very effective. However, some among them joined the training and returned to be “coaches” after the training, teaching others how to knock on doors. As a result, they have reaped the benefits. In one particular locality fifty saints went out and baptized more than forty people within three days, and some even set up home meetings. This opened the eyes of many to see that there is a difference between being trained and being untrained and that one kind of door-knocking is different from another. Thus, different localities in the United States hoped to come to be trained. Not only the elders wanted to come, but even those being trained to be elders, with others also who had a heart to pursue the Lord in the churches, all wanted to come. For this reason, we set up short-term training sessions, adopting an allocation system to assign fifty seat numbers for each locality. Each seat number was shared by one group of three persons. One training session lasted four months, which is one hundred twenty days in total. Thus, each of the three persons could participate for forty days. The first one came for the first forty days, occupying a certain seat; then the second one came, and after that the third. In this way, if there were ninety-five elders and fifty-five of those learning to be elders, all one hundred fifty could join the training. I believe that they were able to make an impact in different places after they returned from the training.
One elder who joined a two-week training session learned some secrets and practiced according to the new way when he returned. He testified that he had been in the church life for over twenty years, being an elder for fourteen or fifteen years, but had not brought one person to the Lord. At this time, however, he baptized seventeen persons within four months and another four persons in a following month, totaling twenty-one. All of these twenty-one persons were his fruit of only five months. There is no comparison between not bringing one person to the Lord in fourteen or fifteen years and baptizing twenty-one people in five months after practicing the new way. This showed us that the new way was absolutely effective, even lovely in the eyes of many people. Recently, of the number that came from the United States to be full-time trainees, less than sixty returned; the remaining ninety-two stayed to continue with the training. Leaving their hometown was not an easy thing, but it was wonderful that once they came, they did not want to leave. That is why we say that the training is lovely.
Our research concludes that to succeed in the new way there are two principles: first, to produce one full-timer out of every twenty saints, and second, that one-fourth of the number who meet should set aside two to three hours to go door-knocking, four weeks a month, fifty-two weeks a year, continuously week by week. As long as we practice this principle, we will see the result. A church with a base number of one hundred people can produce five full-timers. If these five go door-knocking five days per week, two to three hours per day, they each will baptize at least one person a week. This should not be difficult; everyone should be able to do it. In this way, one person can gain one a week, which is approximately fifty a year. Thus, five persons can gain two hundred fifty in a year.
Besides the full-timers, among the basic number of one hundred there are another twenty-five “job-holding full-timers.” They can go visiting once a week, two or three hours each time continually for four weeks in a month. (Among one hundred saints who meet, after deducting five full-timers and another twenty-five who go out once a week, there are still seventy saints on reserve. Therefore, in reality only thirty saints are mobilized.) According to our estimation, each of the twenty-five should be able to baptize one person in four weeks. Thus, in the fifty-two weeks of the year, three hundred people can be brought in, which, added to the two hundred fifty gained by the full-timers, increases the total to five hundred fifty. Adding this to the original base number of one hundred, the grand total is six hundred fifty people. To add five hundred fifty to one hundred is a five-and-a-half-fold increase.
Calculating further from the first and second years, the total by the third year will be over sixteen thousand people. From one hundred as the original base, the number will exceed sixteen thousand after working for three years. Using a more conservative calculation, we simply may say that ten thousand can be gained in three years from a base of one hundred people, which is a hundredfold increase. One hundred can become ten thousand in the first three years, from 1987 to 1989. Then using ten thousand as the base, another hundredfold increase in the three years from 1990 to 1992 will produce one million. Therefore, if beginning from 1987 we all truly practice according to this new way, one hundred will become one million in six years.
Using again one million as the base and another hundredfold increase in the three years from 1993 to 1995, the total number will be one hundred million. Then after another hundredfold increase from 1996 to 1998, the total will be ten billion, which is twice the present world population of five billion, one-fifth of which is in China. Thus, twelve years takes us through four rounds of multiplication: the first turning one hundred into ten thousand, the second turning ten thousand into one million, the third turning one million into one hundred million, and the fourth turning one hundred million into ten billion. In this way, we can evangelize twice the number of people on the earth. As such, this way is too good; in only twelve years we will be able to see the result of evangelizing the entire earth.
Perhaps some will ask if this is too quick, too ideal, and not practical. For their sake, we can calculate in another way. If there are one hundred people meeting in a church, and these one hundred all go out to knock on doors every week, each person should be able to gain one person to be baptized every two months. By the third year, there will be close to five thousand persons, which is a fiftyfold increase. After several more rounds there will be five billion, the total world population. This is very wonderful indeed!