The most effective way to preach the gospel is through door-knocking. There is no other way that allows the gospel to be spread so widely as door-knocking. However, we know that because of the actual situations, human conditions, and the age and physical health of the saints, not all of them can go door-knocking. In a similar way, not everyone in a household can serve in the army. Door-knocking may sound quite easy, but it is not easy for us to do. It requires us to pay the price and to not care about our face. When people scold us, we still have to smile at them, and when they slam the door on us, we still have to say good-bye to them. This is not a simple matter. Therefore, our estimation is that it is sufficient for twenty-five out of a hundred saints in a meeting to go door-knocking.
I hope that all the churches would maintain this figure. From the beginning to the end of the year, one-fourth of the saints should go out door-knocking. Whoever wants to go door-knocking should go, and whoever does not want to go should not go, but he should not criticize those who go. Those who go door-knocking should not despise those who do not. Just because you go door-knocking does not mean that you are wonderful. Those who do not agree with door-knocking should not oppose it. Door-knocking is for the preaching of the gospel, and there is nothing wrong with it. If a church wants to double its number, one-fourth of those who are meeting should go out door-knocking. We must establish this kind of living in the local churches. If some do not agree, we should not condemn them. If some try to persuade us not to speak about this, we still must speak about it because this is the burden that we have received from the Lord, and we must be accountable to the Lord.
The Bible records that after man’s fall God came to knock on man’s “door.” God came to the garden of Eden to find Adam and said, “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). This is door-knocking. The Triune God came to man. He did not sit in heaven and blow a trumpet, saying that He was seeking Adam, but He came to Adam. God not only knocked on Adam’s “door,” but He even was incarnated to become a man. While He was a man, He particularly went to a cursed city, Jericho, to visit a tax collector, a sinner who twisted the law in order to obtain bribes. It was not Zaccheus the tax collector who found the Lord Jesus, but it was the Lord Jesus who went to the tax collector (Luke 19:1-10). Moreover, the Lord also went to Samaria for a sinful woman (John 4:1-26). On that day after He found her, many more believed in the Lord (vv. 39, 41). The Lord also sent out His seventy disciples to people’s houses, saying that peace would rest upon the sons of peace who deserved it (Luke 10:1-6).
In the Bible the Lord Jesus not only visited people by Himself, but He also sent out His twelve disciples, and then the seventy, two by two. I believe that those who were sent by the Lord Jesus were not elderly ones in their seventies or eighties but young people who were in their twenties or thirties. Therefore, we do not say that every saint in the meeting has to go door-knocking. Only one-fourth of those who are meeting should go door-knocking. If we apply this principle, in less than twenty years almost every door in the whole world will have been knocked on. I hope that all the churches will build up this habit of preaching the gospel by door-knocking. If you cannot do it, do not force yourself to do it, but I also ask you not to oppose it or pour cold water on it. Rather, I ask you to bring this matter to the Lord in prayer, and pray for those who go door-knocking.
Our meetings should include home meetings, small group meetings, and district meetings. Every morning in the homes the husband and wife should practice to have a family propagation group by pray-reading two verses. Then the whole family will be blessed. If we have this kind of living, when we bring a person to salvation, we will immediately lead him to have a home meeting and help him to establish a family propagation group. Then we may combine three to four neighboring families to have a small group meeting. Furthermore, we will have to arrange, according to the actual situation, environment, and time, to have a more important meeting on the Lord’s Day as our district meeting. We should take fifty people as the standard number of people for this meeting. If there are too many people, then we should divide into two districts. In this way everyone will be able to function, and at the same time, the care will also be more thorough.
We have to do our best, starting with the foundation. We should start with the family propagation groups in the home meetings, enjoying the Lord every day, fellowshipping with the Lord, and living an overcoming life. After the home meetings are raised up, then we should labor on the small group meetings. We do not have to plan to speak or listen, but we should simply go to the meeting. If we are those who live in the Lord, we surely will be able to speak when we have to speak, sing when we have to sing, and read when we have to read. The next meeting is the district meeting. If there are fifty people, there must be ten who are more able to serve, and these ones should speak. But those who do not usually speak should not think that since there are speaking ones already, they can continue to not speak. Never think this way. You should try your best to speak for the Lord. If you speak, I speak, and everyone speaks, we will give thanks to the Lord.
All the trainees should particularly be aware that when they speak, they should not put on airs or have a superior attitude because they are someone from the training center. Rather, they should speak in a spontaneous way and in a way that is comfortable to those who are listening. I believe that the saints are willing to take this word and are clear that what we are doing today is a great thing for the Lord’s sake. If this matter can be carried out among us, then the overseas churches will be able to follow.
We are doing this not because our work did not have the way to proceed or because we needed to change the outward look of our work and begin anew to change the system. Actually, our work has been very much blessed by the Lord throughout the years. However, our way of meeting was not scriptural. This has been a big loss for us, and this is something that we owe the Lord. This is why we are changing our meetings. If we are not willing to take this way, the Lord will suffer a great loss, and we ourselves will suffer a great loss. Our family, the gospel, and the church will all suffer loss. For this reason, we all have to rise up and endeavor to take this new way. Whether we are participating in the home meetings, the small group meetings, or the district meetings, we have to start from ourselves—we must be those who are revived. It is not difficult to be revived. As long as we kneel down before the Lord every day, call on Him, come near to Him, enjoy His word, and live and walk in the spirit, this will be sufficient.