Whether or not we serve full-time in the future, as long as we serve the Lord, we need to do two things. The first is to go door-knocking by using The Mystery of Human Life, and the second is to have home meetings by using Life Lessons. In a restaurant that sells dumplings, some people do nothing else the whole day except make dumplings. Even if they find this boring, they still have to do it because this is their job. Some among us have become “addicted” to going out to knock on doors and baptize people. However, this is just the “honeymoon.” Once the honeymoon is over, they may find it boring, just like the dumpling makers who, after making several thousand dumplings, have no more desire for it. In the future, though, the full-timers should simply go out to “make more dumplings,” that is, to knock on doors to read The Mystery of Human Life with people and to carry out the home meetings by using Life Lessons.
An elderly brother among us said that according to his observation, the co-workers in the past had almost nothing to do except give messages from the podium, fellowship, visit churches, and visit people with problems. Apart from these things, he could not see what else they had done. However, it is different now. Every full-timer must not be idle and has no way to be idle. For this reason, this elderly brother was willing to serve full-time. If we want to serve the Lord full-time, we also should be like this. Seven days a week from the morning until night we should either knock on doors and baptize people or have home meetings to nourish and supply them. The more babies a mother has, the busier she will be. At the present time twenty thousand people have been baptized in our midst. They all need us to go to their home to nourish and take care of them.
Farmers do almost the same work all year long, which seems very tedious. They sow in spring, plow in summer, harvest in autumn, and rest in winter. It is the same year after year. Every proper business is also like this. Every proper business in the world is tedious. Accountants find their job tedious because they deal with figures all day long. Computer technicians may have some pleasure in their work at first, but after doing it for a long period of time, they also will find nothing special in it. Computers are not smarter than the human mind created by God, so this line of work will also become tedious. Being a teacher is tedious, and being a doctor is also tedious. Every line of business is tedious.
Whatever we do is always interesting in the beginning, but after doing it for a long time, we find it boring. Husbands, wives, fathers, and children all become tired of what they do. However, all these tedious businesses are the proper business and proper occupations of human life. Therefore, we must be steadfast in door-knocking and having home meetings. This is the way ordained by the Lord, and this is our proper occupation.
In the past, one church may not have brought even fifteen people to be saved and baptized each year, and even if fifteen people were baptized, perhaps not even five would remain. For this reason, we changed the system. Because of the change of the system, in one recent month we baptized one hundred sixty people. Although we are still inadequate in many areas, this result is sufficient enough to encourage us.
We have estimated that if we gain two thousand people through door-knocking, about one-fourth will remain, which is five hundred people. Every kind of production has a certain amount of loss and damage. In an orchard, for example, not all the fruit is harvested; at least one-third is sacrificed. While the trees are blossoming and bearing fruit, it may hail, or the birds may come and eat a certain amount. Only the fruit that is not damaged will be distributed to the markets for sale. It is the same with the production of cars. Not every car out of one hundred that are produced will be qualified. It may be fortunate if only eighty cars are qualified. Every kind of production has its sacrifices.
Recently when we were making our estimates, we were greatly encouraged. We never thought that the word spoken by the Lord in Matthew 13 and the principle of our estimation under His leading would be the same. In both cases, only one-fourth remain. In Matthew 13 the Lord spoke the parable of the sower. The first fourth of the seed fell beside the way and was immediately taken by Satan. This seed was altogether ineffective (v. 4). The second fourth fell on the rocky places where they did not have much earth. This kind of seed did not have deep roots and withered very quickly (vv. 5-6). The third kind grew a little deeper, but the thorns also came up. Then the anxiety of the age and the deceitfulness of riches utterly choked the word, causing it to become unfruitful (vv. 7, 22). Only the fourth kind, the last quarter, fell on the good earth and yielded fruit (v. 8). This portion of the Word shows us that even when the Lord Jesus worked on the earth, He gained only one-fourth of the people, and three quarters were lost.
We should be encouraged, rejoicing that the Lord has given us this way. According to this estimate, if we gain two thousand people through door-knocking, we will have five hundred people remaining who attend meetings regularly. Among these five hundred new ones who attend the meetings, we can produce one hundred twenty-five who will knock on doors. In this way, by the year 2000 the whole world can be covered and baptized. This is truly marvelous. Therefore, we should not lose heart but should be encouraged in the Lord.