In the former way, the old way, we completely failed in three matters. The first matter was the preaching of the gospel. The churches in the Lord’s recovery are not the only ones who have failed in this matter. During the past twenty years, the number of Christians in Christianity and its various denominations in the world has also been declining. This shows us that all the Christian groups are facing the same problem of a lack of impact in the preaching of the gospel. We all must study to find out how to deal with this decrease in number. Consider ourselves for example. During the last ten years what has troubled me the most is the lack of increase in numbers. I have observed the churches in Taiwan and the churches in Southern California, and they are the same. For example, the eight churches surrounding Anaheim had over one thousand people ten years ago, but today, ten years later, the number has not increased and is even below one thousand. The number of saints in the church in Taipei is also decreasing, not increasing. This shows that although the preaching of the gospel in the old way has had a little effect, it has not been successful in keeping and gaining people.
The second item that we have failed in is the home meetings. The Bible says explicitly that the saints were in the temple and were breaking bread from house to house (Acts 2:46). Every day in the temple and from house to house they announced the gospel of Jesus as the Christ (5:42). As a result of the feast, all the saints now have home meetings. However, while those in the various denominations in Protestantism have taken the lead to fail in this matter, we have also been very short in this matter. Hence, in October of 1984 I came back to Taipei and released a series of messages on the propagation and increase of the church. In the first message I mentioned that home meetings are the basis of the building up of the church. I hope that we all would have a new start after this failure.
The third item that we have failed in is speaking. First Corinthians 14 says that when the whole church comes together in one place, each one has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation (vv. 23, 26). Here it says that “each one has,” showing that according to the Bible, church meetings should not be meetings in which one person speaks and everyone else listens but meetings in which everyone speaks for the Lord. Brother Nee told us that church meetings should be full of mutuality. The meetings according to the Bible are not one-sided but mutual, full of everyone speaking and listening to one another. Hence, a proper church meeting should be full of mutuality. Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not abandoning our own assembling together...but exhorting one another.” This verse clearly shows us that a proper church meeting is for everyone because such a meeting is mutual. The Bible does not say that there has to be a message meeting on Lord’s Day morning. Rather, it says that there has to be mutual speaking and listening in the meetings of the church. We have not carried out what the Bible shows us. This is our failure.
In the past our gospel preaching did not have impact, our home meetings were not successful, and our meetings did not have the mutual speaking for the Lord. Our failure in these three matters prevented us from propagating and spreading and caused us to remain in a lukewarm condition. We must see that the old system does not have any retaining value and that we have to rise up to take the biblical way. Everything is difficult at the beginning, but as long as we have a start, it is not too late. Once we start taking this way, we will surely make progress quickly.
When I went to America in 1961, I had to speak in English, and every time I saw the names of people and places in America, I had trouble pronouncing them. Therefore, I bought the best English dictionary and familiarized myself with the names of people and the places where I was going to speak so that when I spoke, it would be much easier. It is not easy to change a person’s accent, concept, and method, but sticking to the old way is a kind of falling backward, so I knew that I had to change myself. If I had not been willing to receive the burden to start the work in America because I was afraid of changing my accent and method, the Lord’s recovery would have been limited to the Far East among the Chinese-speaking ones, and the Lord’s recovery would not have reached America, Africa, Europe, and Australia.
The way we work must be advancing all the time. Without advancing, we will stick to the old way and will remain poor; however, if we are willing to make progress and to change our method, we will be rich. In truth, sticking to the old way issues in slothfulness. It would be very easy for me to release messages in Chinese in America, but in order to speak in English in a way that everyone can understand, I must aggressively look up every single important word and practice speaking it. The effort required to look up words in the dictionary, to read, to memorize, and to study is called diligence. We all must realize that for us to serve the Lord, we cannot follow a routine, stick to the old way, or enjoy ease and comfort. Rather, to serve the Lord we must be prepared in everything and force ourselves to improve. Then the Lord will have the way.