It is not easy for anyone to leave their old ways and habits. Even without purposely expressing them, a person’s old habits and ways will come out. For a person to build up a new way is not an easy matter. Door-knocking and home meetings are an example of this; no matter how we carry them out, our doing may still be in the old way because we have been in the old way for too long.
In principle, to meet in homes is more difficult than door-knocking. We cannot find precisely from the Bible how the Lord wants us to meet. One thing is certain, though: The Bible clearly says, “According to the spirit” (Rom. 8:5). “According to the spirit” is easy to say, but the phrase according to still indicates a way; this requires us to spend more time to study. We must also be ready to encounter setbacks, disappointments, distractions, and pressures during our process of studying how to have home meetings. We may use the example of children learning to play the piano. Children are very wild at first, playing in the way they want to. Therefore, the teacher must apply strict control and limit the students, teaching them to play with only two or three fingers at a time and to practice at least one hour every day, applying a certain amount of pressure on them. This “pressure” produces an ability in them. Olives do not give oil without pressure; once pressure is applied, the oil comes out. Therefore, do not be disappointed. The secret of door-knocking is to be excited, but the secret of meeting in homes is to not be disappointed.
In order for anything to have results, it is necessary to make estimates and keep statistics. Estimating and keeping statistics are the guidelines of a business. Without estimating there is no preparation. The more estimates we make and the more detailed they are, the more adequate our preparation will be and the more reliable our work will turn out.
For this reason, we need to redo our estimates. First, we will assume that the number of those meeting in the churches in Taipei and in the whole of Taiwan is ten thousand. Of course, the number on our lists is larger than this by severalfold, especially if we include the seven to eight thousand who were baptized through door-knocking last year. Nevertheless, in 1987 we set the base number simply as ten thousand.
In principle, every church should produce one full-timer for every twenty saints meeting regularly, which is five percent of the total number. If we take ten thousand as the base number, five hundred full-timers should be produced. Every full-timer who goes out door-knocking every day for two to three hours is bound to see one person saved and baptized in less than a week. This is what we have already experienced. However, according to our actual church life it is not possible to go door-knocking every week for fifty-two weeks of the year. Sometimes there are trainings and certain church activities, and sometimes a person may become sick and need a few days to rest. Therefore, we can set aside four weeks for time off and still use forty-eight weeks for work. Five working days every week for forty-eight weeks is two hundred forty days. If someone goes door-knocking two to three hours every day, and in six days he gains one person, then in one year he can gain forty people. Forty times five hundred full-timers is twenty thousand. Even this number is very conservative, but the smaller the number we use, the more accurate and realistic it can be. If our standard is too high, I am afraid we may not be able to attain to it.
In regard to how many new ones will remain, we need to apply a significant discount. We know that there are always losses in a factory. We may use pottery as an example. Out of one hundred pots in a batch there may be ten that do not pass quality control inspections due to defects or breakage. These must be discarded, which is a loss of ten percent. Then during distribution there is another quality control check to examine the products. If the decorative design on a pot has a small defect which is detected by a close inspection, it will not be distributed to the regular market but will be sold elsewhere at a reduced price. It is the same with the manufacture of garments and articles of wood. Every industry encounters the problem of loss in the production process. Eventually, perhaps only sixty to seventy percent of the products are up to the proper standard. It is the same with the printing of books. Sometimes there are books with missing or upside down pages; these must be thrown away. In farming, the planting of vegetables and orchards have the same problem. Farmers must account for losses due to pests, floods, a scorching sun, and substandard harvests. After accounting for all the losses, what remains may not be very much.
Based on this principle, in fellowship we have estimated that only thirty-five percent of the seven thousand five hundred people we gained last year have remained. Therefore, if we gain twenty thousand people from door-knocking, the actual number of those who remain will be seven thousand.
Next we must consider the saints meeting regularly in the church who have the heart to go door-knocking. According to our calculation, and using ten thousand as the base number, twenty-five percent, or one-quarter, of the saints go door-knocking once a week. One-quarter of ten thousand people is two thousand five hundred. Counting forty-eight weeks as one year, if each gains one person every six weeks, he will gain eight people per year. Eight times two thousand five hundred saints is another gain of twenty thousand people.
Thus, we have a conclusion. The result of one full-timer’s work equals that of five saints who go out door-knocking once a week. The number of people gained by these two categories of saints is the same. Five percent who go out daily gain twenty thousand, and twenty-five percent who go out once a week also gain twenty thousand. Please remember, though, that there is the discount of sixty-five percent. The remaining number of each category is seven thousand, so the two categories added together make fourteen thousand. Using ten thousand as the base number, after one year of work there is the gain of fourteen thousand, which is then added to the original ten thousand. Therefore, by the end of 1987 there should be at least twenty-four thousand people, which is an increase of two hundred forty percent.
In 1988 the base number becomes twenty-four thousand, which multiplied by 2.4 becomes 57,600 by the end of the year. Using the latter figure as the new base number and multiplying again by 2.4, the result at the end of 1989 is 138,240 people. Therefore, using ten thousand as the original number, after laboring for one round of three years, the total is an increase of 13.8 times.
From 1990 to 1992 is a second round of three years. Using 138,240 as the base number and multiplying by 13.8, the result is just over 1,907,000. Using this as the base of the third and last round, from 1993 to 1995, the result after multiplying by 13.8 is over 26,300,000. By this time the total number has surpassed the population of Taiwan. In other words, Taiwan will be “gospelized.”
The population of Taiwan at present is more than nineteen million. In three rounds of three years each, twenty-six million people can be saved. Reaching this number in only nine years seems very astonishing. We are using only ten thousand as the base number, without including others. Furthermore, one full-timer out of every twenty people and one out of four who goes door-knocking once a week is not a high percentage. Out of the ten thousand saints there are five hundred full-timers and two thousand five hundred weekly door-knockers. This leaves seven thousand others who pray, give, and support those who go out. Three thousand go out to fight, and seven thousand remain stationed. The three thousand who go out to fight are like the three hundred warriors of Gideon (Judg. 7:5-7). These need the prayers of the seven thousand behind them as well as their material supply.
These statistics and estimates are not unrealistic. Out of ten thousand, if three thousand go to the front line and seven thousand remain as support, those who go out can go forward boldly without anxiety. The five hundred full-timers who go out forty-eight weeks, two hundred forty days, door-knocking every day for two to three hours, should be able to gain one person in six days. The two thousand five hundred who go out once weekly also gain one person every six days in which they labor. The statistics for the rate of gaining people in each of the two categories is the same, each group gaining twenty thousand. Assuming that thirty-five percent of these remain, out of twenty thousand we still have seven thousand for each category, fourteen thousand in all. Adding these to the original ten thousand, the total is twenty-four thousand people. Working according to this rate, which is an increase of two hundred forty percent, one hundred becomes two hundred forty, one thousand becomes two thousand four hundred, and ten thousand becomes twenty-four thousand. This calculation of the original base number, the number of full-timers, the number who go out once a week, and the discount due to loss is a very conservative expectation. Even still, after working for nine years, ten thousand can become twenty-six million. This number is astonishing!