When we go to a home meeting, we must learn to detect the atmosphere. In other words, we have to find out the real situation of the new ones and how much they have grown in life. Only in this way can we gradually lead them.
Although there are many points concerning leading the new ones, it is not necessary to practice them all immediately. We should first observe their situation. Then we can lead them accordingly. If the situation manifests the need for a certain kind of leading, and such a leading is possible, we can carry it out. However, if there is no such need or such a leading is not possible, we should wait for some period of time. We do not need to do things in a hurry. We may first lead a home to meet with two or three other homes. If one meeting a week is not sufficient for them, we can increase the frequency of the meetings. Perhaps we can add a Lord’s table meeting, a prayer meeting, or a truth study meeting. This is one side of the matter.
On the other hand, we may feel that the new ones in this home meeting can be brought to a big meeting of the church. However, when we do this, we should not bring people from only three to five of the other home meetings. It is better to join with a number of other home meetings. We hope that when we bring them to the meeting in the meeting hall, we will bring at least twenty homes with about sixty brothers and sisters.
Before bringing them to the meeting, we first should train them by telling them, “Today we are going to see the big meeting in the church. This is the old meeting that we used to have, a meeting of our ‘seniors.’ It is hard for them not to have wrinkles or a certain taste of oldness. On the one hand, we are their younger generation and we should give them support and refresh them. Therefore, when we go, we should not shrink back or be overly reserved. We should refresh the atmosphere. When we break the bread with them, we should wash away the oldness with some ‘fresh air.’ On the other hand, no matter how old they are, they will eventually show their capability in the meeting. When they do this, we, the juniors, should receive from them and encourage each other to go on.” We should learn to do this.
At the same time, all the ones who are leading the home meetings should learn to record in a chart the time and place of the meetings that they lead and the number in the meetings. The responsible brothers can then make a chart of statistics. There may be two thousand homes on the chart. The brothers should consider these two thousand homes carefully and find out to which meeting halls and districts these homes belong. It is best to make separate charts to list the names and numbers in each home meeting for every meeting hall and district and to keep a record of the new home meetings. The responsible brothers of every meeting hall need to keep the chart properly.
It will be good to make such a chart every month. We hope that every month there will be a record of increase and progress for an accumulative calculation. In this way, we can continue to show every meeting hall the result of our home meetings. In the future these results will be given to the brothers and sisters in every meeting hall who will lead the homes. Every church should also have a training to lead the brothers and sisters and perfect them appropriately so that they can go on with this service.
Man is rich in feelings. If we do not see another person often, it is easy not to be irritated with him. People become irritated with each other when they see each other too often. The best way to avoid being upset with someone is to stop seeing him. After getting married, a husband and wife sometimes become upset with each other because they see each other so much, and some marriages eventually end in divorce. We can see this same principle in our contact with people. When we contact one another, we develop certain kinds of feelings.
When we first knock on the door of a home, the person there may open the door to us, but he may wear a cold face. Gradually, however, after knocking on his door a few more times, we eventually will baptize him. In this way, the relationship between us will change. He now will change from wearing a cold face to being grateful. He will feel that not only did we show grace to him and have love for him, but we also gave him the Lord, the truth of the Bible, light, life, and peace. In addition, we continued to visit him every week, especially after his baptism. It is natural that he would develop a certain feeling toward us. Some people develop particularly strong feelings. Some have wanted to give us everything. They prepared dumplings for us, gave us various items, and even suggested going on a picnic together. Therefore, we need to issue a warning about this. It is good to have feelings, but we should not have natural affection. Feelings are acceptable, but natural affection should be avoided. Feelings are a matter of mutual love. We may feel that a certain one is not only a man but now also a brother in the Lord. Not only so, it is we who begot this brother in the Lord. To be sure, we will have feelings toward him. However, this is where it should stop. We should not have natural affection. If we have natural affection, there will be trouble.
In the Old Testament proper feelings can be compared to frankincense in the meal offering (Lev. 2:1). This is what God wants. Frankincense is a kind of fragrance, but natural affection is honey in the meal offering, which God does not want (v. 11). God is pleased with frankincense but not with honey. This is because frankincense will not rot, but honey ferments. This is the type in the Old Testament. In the New Testament the love in Christ can be compared to frankincense, while the natural affection of man is honey, which will ferment and cause trouble. Therefore, when we knock on doors to contact people, we should keep a limit.
However, we need to be balanced. Some have said that no matter how much they knocked on doors, the doors would not open, or even if the doors were open, the hearts were not. For others, however, good news came one door after another. They report that the many doors they knocked on were all open, or that a new home has been brought into baptism and is having meetings. These are two extreme responses, like the weather in the tropics and at the poles. From the results of our study, we have found that the brothers and sisters “at the poles” went out to knock on doors with a cold face. Their faces were expressionless. When people open the door and see a face like an iceberg, how can they avoid being frightened? We should not knock on doors in such a way. When we go out, we have to be “hot.” Even before people come out to answer the door, we should already be smiling and rejoicing. Then when people open the door, they will be heated up. In this way it is normal that we will succeed.
We have to first train our character. If it is hard for someone to be “heated up,” he needs to move from the “poles” to the “equator” to be warmed up by the hot air. If someone knocks on doors in this way, there will be no doors unopened. This is the main point of what we are saying. When we go out to work, whether it is door-knocking or visiting homes, we need to heat people up but not make them too hot. Making people feel too close to us is not appropriate, because when this kind of feeling comes, natural affection also follows. Feelings are acceptable, but natural affection is not.
When we are too hot, we need to stay in the cold for a while to cool ourselves down. We can have a feeling of love for others—we can even go on a picnic together—but in whatever we do, there must be a limit. We cannot fall into natural affection. The reason we are saying this is that we must go on with our work. If we fall into natural affection, the accomplishments through our previous efforts will come to nothing. This is why we must pay very special attention to this point.
(A message given on April 9, 1987 in Taipei, Taiwan)