The saints who are teachers are all burning in spirit after three days of training and feel that their attendance at the training has been very beneficial. However, the working saints in general may not have the time to join this kind of training. Hence, for those who are not able to join the training, there is a convenient way that will enable them to be part of the propagation and increase of the church. This way is through the establishing of different kinds of propagation groups.
If you are a housewife, you may establish a housewives’ propagation group with the ones in your family as its members. If you are working, you may establish a working saints’ propagation group, or if you are a teacher, you may establish a teachers’ propagation group. If you are a student, you may establish a young people’s propagation group, or if you are a full-timer, you may establish a full-timers’ propagation group. Thus, no matter what career, profession, or status you have, you may establish your own propagation group with the brothers and sisters around you. I hope that the brothers and sisters would be able to function organically in different kinds of propagation groups to propagate life.
Three years ago when we changed the system in Taipei, the first thing we did was to shift our attention from big meetings to small group meetings. In one of our meetings when everyone was burning, we declared, “Heaven may fade, and earth may flee, but small group meetings must never be missed.” At that time all the saints responded favorably to this change. However, after observing the present situation three years later, we have found that almost none of the saints go to the small group meetings. This is truly pitiful. Therefore, now we need to begin the groups again in a way so that our small groups would not be something arranged or divided according to districts. Rather, they would be something spontaneous—whoever wants to meet in a small group would come together. The small group meeting must be something spontaneous.
We all know that the hardest thing regarding the changing of the system is the establishment of the small group meetings. Because we have been influenced by the traditions of Christianity for many years, we emphasize the big meetings, and many people have already formed a habit of not speaking in the meetings. Once this habit of not speaking is cultivated in the saints, it is hard for them to open their mouths again. Therefore, everyone relies on the speaking brothers. When the small group meetings were first established three years ago, the condition of the groups was very good. Every hall decided who should go to which group according to the division of districts on the map and according to the information cards that the saints had filled out. At that time there were four hundred small groups in Taipei with close to four thousand people. We stressed again and again that no one should be the head in the small group meeting but that everyone should speak. Ultimately, however, no one took the lead, and no one spoke in the meetings. Gradually, no one wanted to go to the small group meetings. Starting from today, we should allow the saints to freely choose which group to be in. If someone thinks that the small group meeting that he attends is good and he is willing to continue there, then we should not stop him. But if someone thinks that the small group meeting that he attends is not good and he does not want to go, we should not force him to go there. No matter what way we choose, we must see the importance of the small group meetings.
One brother said that whenever he hears the word meeting, his heart sinks, but whenever we talk about propagation, his spirit becomes buoyant and enlivened. Thus, when we go to a small group meeting, we should not say that we are “going to a meeting.” Rather, we should say that we are “going to propagate.” Our small group meetings are for propagation. Suppose there is a brothers’ house that has twelve brothers. These twelve brothers do not need to keep every single regular meeting in the brothers’ house. Instead, they may be divided into three to four propagation groups, propagating gradually from the brothers’ house to the outside.
I hope that we all would say amen to these suggestions regarding the propagation groups and would carry out the groups accordingly. We all should spontaneously establish various propagation groups and actively propagate life. May we all pray, “O Lord, may You bless us and our fellowship. We truly believe that this is Your work. We ask You to burn our entire being. You are a consuming fire. We ask You to burn us so that we would be neither cold nor lukewarm but that we would all be burning and boiling hot. O Lord, visit us and hear our prayer.”