When you take care of a sinner, you have to find a way to bring him to the gospel meeting. One should not bring too many at one time. Of course, if you bring many, it is also good. But if you want them to be well taken care of, it would be better for one person to bring only three or four. If you bring too many, then you will not be able to take care of them. We do not want to set up a law, but two to four is a good number. Do not bring too many; but this is not to say that if opportunity allows, you cannot bring more. If you can bring thirty or fifty students from school, that is good too. But when you do, you need to immediately ask the responsible brothers to help you find some brothers or sisters who can share the responsibility of taking care of them. Suppose you can take care of only four persons, but you have brought forty. There are still thirty-six whom you are unable to take care of. Therefore, you need to ask the responsible brothers to make arrangements for a few brothers and sisters to help care for them.
Now we must see the way of taking care of the gospel meeting. You have to prepare Bibles and hymnals. You should arrange the four new ones so that two sit on your left and two on your right. No more than two should be on one side. Any more than that would make caring for them inconvenient. When the Bible is read, you need to help them find the verses. When hymns are sung, you need to help them find the hymns. To many, you need to explain the way the pages are laid out. If the chorus of a hymn needs to be sung each time, you need to tell them this as well. You should not consider that everyone is so capable. They may have never sung a hymn or read the Bible before, so you need to help them.
During the time of preaching, if someone does not understand, you need to explain to him in a soft voice. Do you remember the story Mr. Wakes once told while he was preaching in Shanghai? He said that once a British preacher went to Japan and was preaching in a very large public area on a day when many people were there. The preacher’s first words were, “You all know how the Israelites went out of Egypt.” When Mr. Wakes heard this, he immediately ran up to tell him that he might need to spend two hours to explain who the Israelites were and what it meant to go out of Egypt. We have to realize that there are many things that people do not understand. Although we may not be able to spend two hours to explain as Mr. Wakes suggested, we can at least use a couple of sentences to explain to them in our softest voice.
Your greatest job is to help the preaching in the meeting. The preaching of the gospel is not for you to hear, nor is it for you to criticize. The preaching from the podium is for sinners to hear. Many times the gospel has not been preached well, because the brothers did not listen properly. Keep in mind that you are not there to criticize, but to help. The gospel is not being preached for you to hear; the gospel is being preached for sinners to hear. Therefore, when you realize that some weighty words are being spoken or that some words are being spoken with a released spirit, you need to pray quietly while sitting next to them. You may pray, “O Lord, impart this word into the people!” or “O Lord, use this word to save this person!” or “O Lord, use this word to save these two!” It may be that the Lord will give you two because you asked for two. If you say one, the Lord will give you one. If you say five, the Lord will give you five. You strengthen the word being preached with your prayer for the four who are under your care. As you are taking care of them, you are praying. This is what you should do in the meeting, and this is something everyone should be responsible for.
Those who did not bring anyone should take care of the surplus brought by others. During the gospel preaching, all these brothers should sit aside and wait to be assigned by the brother who is responsible for handling the care of new ones that day. Listening to the gospel requires companionship. They listen to the gospel and you attend to them. You need to sit next to these new ones, perhaps two or four of them, to listen with them, even though you did not bring them.
During the preaching, the brothers and sisters should either stand by the door or, if space allows, sit at the back of the meeting to wait to be assigned by the brother who is responsible for handling the care of the new ones that day. If you see several new people come in, you should go and sit next to them to help them. Caring for the gospel has two aspects. On the one hand, we need to bring people, and on the other hand, we need to take care of them in the meetings. Everyone should bring people and take care of those whom he brings. Those who have not brought anyone should also learn to take care of the people that others have brought to the meeting. All the brothers and sisters have to be brought to the point where they all have something to do.