The home meetings are the life-pulse of the church life and the key to the success of the new way. Therefore, we have to apply our full strength to the home meetings.
When we go to a home meeting, we must be living persons with a living spirit. If our spirit is not living, we had better not go. If we go, we will certainly give others an impression of emptiness and deadness, and this is what we must not do. When we go to the home meetings, we must be vital and go with our spirit. If we do not go with our spirit, we should not eat or sleep until our spirit is ready. Otherwise, we should not go at all. If you want to go to the home meetings, you must have the spirit and life.
Since the change of the system in October 1984, it has been our hope to have the small group meetings. However, in our opinion, the small group meetings are not successful, not in only one locality but in every locality, whether in Taiwan, Anaheim, Irving, or London. They have not been successful anywhere. There are two reasons for the meetings not to be successful. First, those who go to the small group meetings are deadened in their spirit. If a person goes to attend a big meeting or a “Sunday service,” it does not really matter whether his spirit is dead or living and whether or not he goes with the spirit, because the leading ones are responsible for the meeting.
This is the reason why we are very hesitant about bringing the newly baptized ones to the big meetings. In the big meetings, some people may be falling asleep, while others may be talking or doing something else. We truly do not want the new ones to see that situation and be contaminated. If all of us still meet according to this old way, we too may eventually give up the meetings because we do not have the spirit and life. This is why we always emphasize that the home meetings must be living. If the home meetings are living, all the other meetings will also be living.
Some people may compare a meeting to a playground in which children jump and laugh; no one there is deadened. For the time being, we may agree to this saying, but even in a playground you still have to have a ball to play with. Likewise, in order to be living in the meetings we have to go with the spirit. It is ridiculous for players to come to the ball court without a ball. Without the ball, it is not possible to have the game. After our study, we have found that in the matter of bringing people to salvation, the ball is The Mystery of Human Life, and in leading the home meetings, the ball is Life Lessons.
Now although we have the ball, we still have another problem. The problem is that we do not know how to play; our playing is not up to the standard. This is what we are concerned about. What the coach fears most is that the ball, the court, the opponents, and everything else are ready, but the players cannot play well. This is a real headache for the coach.
We know that one ball game is different from another. On the court things are always changing, so each player has to receive training. When we use Life Lessons, we are the “players” who have to go through training. After the training, however, the way to play the game is not always the same. It is no wonder that no one among us truly knows how to play. Neither the elders, the co-workers, nor anyone else plays well because we have not received enough training.
The second reason that the small group meetings are not successful is that we do not know how to use the spiritual materials. Since the beginning of the small group meetings in 1984, all the localities have realized that even though the meetings were good, there were no materials for the meeting. For this reason we compiled Life Lessons. Although we have had a very good response from everywhere concerning the materials, when many people use the materials, they either “miss the ball” or “throw it” where others cannot catch it. We still have the problem of not knowing how to use the materials. We can compare this problem to going to the market to buy groceries. People think that if they want to eat chicken, fish, vegetables, or rice, all they have to do is bring them home. They may have never realized that they do not know how to cook the rice. They may not even know where the kitchen knife is. When they see others preparing the water, stir-frying the vegetables, and doing other things, they may think it is simple, but when they try to do it themselves, they have all kinds of problems.
We cannot blame anyone but ourselves for not making good dishes. We think that as long as we have the groceries, we can all cook, open a restaurant, and be the chef. In actuality, everything is not as easy as we imagine. Similarly, we cannot say that because we have Life Lessons, we have a cure-all. Even if it is a cure-all, we have to know the right way to apply it. When we eat, we have to know how to take the food; we cannot put it into our ears or nostrils. Although we all are happy to have Life Lessons, we still have to consider how to use this publication.
We already know where the secret lies. Today we have the ball, the coach, the court, and the players, but how are we going to play? We need to keep practicing. Therefore, all of us full-timers have to be clear that we are engaged in this profession to do two things: to go door-knocking and to lead home meetings.
In door-knocking, we must seek out the sons of peace. This may not be too difficult for us, but neither is it easy. When we first started door-knocking, it was popular among the localities, and everywhere it was so fresh. In Taipei especially, the saints knocked on almost all the doors neighboring the meeting halls. They knocked on the doors of some homes four or five times. This kind of plentiful door-knocking has both an advantage and a disadvantage. The disadvantage is that people may not like it when we keep knocking on their door. The advantage is that although they do not like it, they will admire our spirit and feel grateful for our love toward them. Perhaps when we first knock on someone’s door, he does not open. When we go the second time, he may open the door, but his heart is not open. When we go a third and fourth time, he may open the door and also his heart, but he still will not be baptized. When we go the fifth time, however, he will be greatly touched and think that these people are truly amazing. They were rejected many times, but nothing could stop them from coming, not even the wind or the rain. With this one final contact, his heart is moved. A man’s heart is not made of iron. If we knock on his heart a few more times, he may be softened and moved. Do not think that being rejected will spoil the matter. There is an advantage to it.
After knocking on every door, the situation will hardly be the same as it was before. The response may not be as good. Some may think that there are no more doors for them to knock on. However, in Taipei, for example, there are still many commuters whom we have not visited. Among them there are many sons of peace predestinated by God. Some of them are “sheep”; it is just that they have been influenced by the atmosphere of society and have put on a wolf’s skin. Frankly speaking, God created them and prepared them as sheep. If we knock on doors a few more times, we will be able to pull off the wolf’s skin and find the sheep.
We have not yet penetrated Taiwan with the gospel. It is not until we baptize all the people in Taiwan that we will have penetrated the whole land. We cannot deceive ourselves. The full-time serving brothers and sisters in particular need to be clear about this. To gospelize Taiwan, they should knock on doors not only in the big cities but also in the villages. Sometimes on the same day they may have to knock on the same door three times. In the morning they may knock on the door, but no one answers. Then at noon and again in the evening they may knock again without an answer. Therefore, they may need to go a fourth time. Perhaps no one is home until ten o’clock, so they can go again at that time. We need to be steadfast in door-knocking. Especially in the villages, if we practice door-knocking in the way that we are doing now, we may be able to knock on all the doors in one day. We need to knock on the same doors again and again. Only in this way can we gospelize Taiwan.