We should first establish the principle that all of God’s children are priests who should serve God. With this principle in view, let us see how we can lead all the brothers and sisters to be priests in a local church. In other words what kind of arrangement should we have in the spiritual work so that all the believers can participate in the spiritual things, both the new believers and those who have known the Lord for many years? We need to see which spiritual things in a local church can be taken care of by the brothers and sisters.
In the beginning in Foochow and also in Shanghai, we arranged a few matters which were to be done by all the local brothers and sisters. First, there is the preaching of the gospel.
Second, after a person has heard the gospel and received the Lord, we should go to visit him, bringing him into the right way and showing him how to become a Christian.
Third, there is the visitation of new believers. How should we render help to those who have come from other religions, have believed in the Lord, have come to the right way, and have been baptized?
Fourth, in the church there are still many other needs. Some believers have difficulties in their families; some have sicknesses; some suffer in poverty; some have funerals or other special occasions in their families. There are all these kinds of situations among God’s children. These people also need the service and help of the church. We can categorize such services as the visitation of those in special situations. This is another thing which all the brothers and sisters can do.
Fifth, there is the care for the brothers and sisters who have moved away and for those who have moved from other places. I have always felt that this is a very important matter. If brothers and sisters move away to other cities, even though they have a letter of recommendation, we should still take care of them afterwards. We also need to take special care of those brothers and sisters who have come from other places.
These five items are sufficient for our consideration of spiritual matters.
The first thing we need to pay attention to is that among the ministers of the word established by God in the church, one is called an evangelist. However, Paul told Timothy that he should do the work of an evangelist (2 Tim. 4:5). When we compare these two, we see a very important matter, that is, God has established a category of people in the church called evangelists; but to those who are not evangelists, the command of the apostle is that they should do the work of an evangelist. In other words, those who are evangelists should preach the gospel, and those who are not evangelists should do the work of an evangelist. An evangelist is a gift specifically established by God. If God has given you the gift to be an evangelist, then you should concentrate on preaching the gospel to bring people into the church. However, if you are not established by God as an evangelist, the Lord’s word is that all of God’s children should do the work of an evangelist.
In other words, concerning the work of preaching the gospel, he who can do it should do it, and he who cannot do it should also do it. The evangelist, who is one who can do it, has to do it. Those who are not evangelists, that is, the ones who cannot do it, should do it also. This work should be everywhere. Young ones such as Timothy should do it. In fact everyone in every place should do the work of an evangelist.
For this we have to encourage all the brothers and sisters to spend time going out to do the work of preaching the gospel. We should never allow them to be lazy and forget about sinners and should never allow just a few to do the work of preaching the gospel. It should be made known to all the brothers and sisters that everyone is a priest and that everyone should serve God. There is a service that is called the service of the gospel. In spiritual work and spiritual service, there is one item called the work of an evangelist. We must help the brothers to pay special attention to this point.
Caring for the gospel is something that we should practice before God. I hope that all the brothers and sisters can bear the responsibility of caring for sinners in the work of preaching the gospel.
This responsibility starts with bringing a person to the meetings until he is baptized. You need to show the brothers and sisters how great their responsibility is in bringing a person from home, from school, from a hospital, or from an office to the meetings. They should keep bringing him until he has been led to know the Lord, has received the Lord, and has been baptized. This is what should be done in the care and visitation of the gospel.