Another matter presents a very difficult problem when attending a gospel meeting. Before the meeting starts, we see five or ten rows of people just sitting there. Some might have come one hour early. There are two places in which the passage of time is particularly long: one is hell and the other is the church meeting. When a person goes to hell, he feels that the time there is very long. When an unsaved person comes to a church meeting, he also feels that the time there is very long. He is not saved and he feels that the time is long. He may come quite a while before the preaching of the gospel starts. If he leaves, he does not feel right, and if he just sits there, he feels like he is in a fog. This hour of waiting is very unbearable. Sometimes I do have a deep feeling concerning this matter. I saw some who brought new ones to the meeting and had them sit there row by row, waiting for some period of time. Some had to wait for half an hour, some an hour. If you looked at their faces, they were just like those whom the Lord Jesus saw, who were “cast away like sheep not having a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). What do you expect them to do? If you ask them to go home and come back again, there is not enough time. If you have them sit there and wait, they have nothing to do. Therefore, before the meeting starts, you also need to take care of them.
Never allow the unbelievers to sit together by themselves. From the very beginning you should always seat two or four of them next to one believer. The ones who do this work must be equipped with full armor by having tracts, printed gospel messages, and Bibles ready for the literate to read, and they have to talk to those who cannot read well or are illiterate. In any case all the brothers and sisters should be there taking care of them. If you let them sit there without anything to do, they will become cold even if they were like hot water at the beginning. Therefore, you have to learn to sit among them.
There is no way for this work to be done without everyone serving. You need to show the brothers and sisters that everyone is a priest; hence, everyone should have things to do. If this is the case, immediately you will see that all the gospel meetings in every place will be quite prevailing. This is the church preaching the gospel. We must pay special attention to this word. It is the church that is preaching the gospel. All the brothers and sisters are working; they all are priests and they all have come to serve. If this is not the case, there is no church. So do not boast that you have the local church in such and such a place. Where is the church today?
Let me repeat something that I have said for many years. I have a particularly deep feeling about this today. The number of people serving determines the number of people in the church. In a locality the number in the church is the number of people serving. The number of priests determines the number of God’s people. You should not turn it around and say that the number of God’s people determines the number of priests. This is wrong. The number of priests determines the number of God’s people. The number of serving ones determines the number of God’s people.
When I was in England, I met a brother who was very knowledgeable. He said that there were many members with a function and there were also many members without a function. But I said that in the Bible all the members have a function and that there are no members without a function. If there is a member without a function, it is probably the appendix. When he heard that, he laughed. Many people think that some members have a function and that other members do not. Can you tell me which member does not have a function? Where is the member that does not have a function? In the whole body the only member without a function is the appendix, and you should not consider that it refers to you by coincidence. The appendix is the member of the body which is most frequently removed. Please remember that all the members have a function. May we see today that the number of members with a function is the number of members in the Body.
We have to change our way of thinking. Today we must see that serving means that the whole church serves and preaching the gospel means that the whole church preaches the gospel. To serve as priests involves everyone. The number of brothers and sisters serving determines the number of members in a locality. The number of people serving determines the number of brothers and sisters in the church. We should always determine the number of brothers and sisters in the church based upon the number of serving ones. Hence, there should not be one thousand or five thousand brothers in a locality and only a few serving. Among us we cannot tolerate any members being functionless. We cannot have even one member without a function. Please remember that as a member of the Body of Christ, you have a function. It is impossible for you not to have a function. If you do not see this basic principle, you will not do the work well. Brothers and sisters, frankly speaking, you cannot do the work. That is not the New Testament; that is deformed Catholicism with the system of priests. We do not have a system of priests; rather, we are a body of priests. Everyone is a priest.