The regular meeting of the responsible brothers is a very important item of their training. In this meeting show them how to do the work. If you go to a place and live for three months (those who travel often for the work need to pay special attention to this), you need to arrange a time to gather all the responsible brothers together, perhaps on Friday or Saturday for an entire day or half a day, to help them take care of the affairs of the church. You should put all the weekly affairs of the church together for fellowship and prayer. During that time you should not receive people. The first half of that time is the time for you to take care of affairs before God. Lock yourselves inside the room as those who have run into a cave and shut themselves up. During the first half, no one should be allowed to come in. No one should even be allowed to come in to report things to you. Let the brothers and sisters know that this is the time the responsible brothers are dealing with things before God, and no one should come in. They can knock on the door only if the house is on fire and only when the fire has burned to the floor; even then they still should not come too early. This is the time the responsible brothers are dealing with matters before God, just as Moses and Joshua were doing on the mountain. You need to take proper care of the affairs there.
After the affairs are taken care of, go and inform the deacons that certain matters need to be taken care of this week. You need to go personally and assign the things. Certain matters are to be announced to the saints, and certain matters should be assigned to the brothers for them to carry out.
In handling the affairs of the church, you must be able to manage first and know how to watch and oversee second. Do not be passive. At least in the early phase be active; oversee and manage. When the brothers and sisters become strong, you can ask them to take care of the affairs of the church. This is how the church should be. In the first phase do not put things in their hands right away. When you go out, always give yourself to the responsible brothers in each locality, and they should in turn give themselves to the local brothers.
Always make the meeting of the overseers very solemn. Charge them to shut themselves inside during this period for two or three hours before God and not receive any brother nor talk about anyone. Bring the things of this week before God item by item to see how they should be done. After these things are taken care of, certain matters have to be made known to the brothers, and certain matters have to be made known to the deacons. Afterwards, set aside two or three hours for receiving the local brothers. If there are more people, set aside more time; if there are fewer people, less time. During this time, if the brothers and sisters want to look for the elders of the church, they will be able to find them. Not only would one elder be there, but all the elders would be there.
In the early phase, you should take care of this meeting of the overseers in an active way. In the later phase, you should cause the brothers to become active, and they should go forward. In that meeting you should show the responsible brothers how to deal with affairs and what scriptural basis you have to deal in such a way. Encourage them and also restrict them. You should be observant. Whenever you see that something is wrong, you need to say, “Brother, this is not allowed!” When you see that something is right, you should say, “Brother, this is right!”
Therefore, when you go out this time, you should be very busy. Put yourself into the work and also encourage others to participate. You need to labor until the day comes when all the brothers and sisters come forth to serve, all the saints participate, everyone serves God, and everyone is a priest. Then you will truly see what the church is.
I do not know whether or not you have seen this way. You have to understand this way. The way depends on you. You should give yourself to a number of people, and they in turn should give themselves to all the brothers and sisters. All the brothers and sisters then go out. To practice this is the way of the church. If there is the office of eldership in the church but the brothers and sisters are passive, then please remember that at this time it is no longer a church but a denomination. Therefore, brothers, when you go out to work, if you cannot reach the last step, the final step of causing all the brothers and sisters to rise up to serve God and bear responsibility in church affairs, you have totally failed, because that is not the church. Please remember the way you should take: you should give yourself to the elders. Then you need to show the elders that no matter how hard they try, they are too few to be able to handle the affairs of the church properly. They are only overseers and should not try to do everything themselves. They should not replace the church to do everything; rather, they should oversee the church to do everything. It is not a matter of doing it by themselves, but a matter of overseeing, watching, encouraging, and teaching them to do it, and causing everyone in the church to participate. At such a time you have the reality of the church.
When the responsible brothers in each locality are gradually manifested, or when any locality already has responsible brothers, they should meet together. Every week the responsible brothers in a locality should meet. When that meeting is strong, they will be able to lead the brothers. This is a very important matter. The meeting of the responsible brothers is the source of many things. Many things can be initiated from that meeting. When people come to that meeting, many problems will be solved. After the brothers have taken care of many situations before God, the second half of the meeting is the time to receive the saints. Then the saints will realize that these overseers’ meetings are not light or unimportant. Therefore, we need to walk the way ahead of us properly before God. We need to maintain this meeting of the overseers before God. Take care of this meeting properly so that everyone can receive help one by one.
Read 1 and 2 Timothy and the Epistle to Titus again. See how God charged them to lead. You should learn from these Epistles how to help the elders and cause them to realize that they should not replace the whole Body, but that they should put themselves in the Body and let the whole Body do the work.