The inward problem is that if there is not a Lord’s Day message meeting, many brothers and sisters, after being Christians for ten or twenty years, will feel that this is absolutely different from their former habit as Christians. They will feel that being a Christian today is different from what it was in the past. This is also a problem.
Today I want to discuss with the brothers and sisters what we should do concerning this matter. The words that I speak here are only suggestions, not my preaching, because we must see accurately before we can practice.
To this day I have not been able to find the Lord’s Day message meeting once in the Bible. Especially in a local church, you can see that there is no way to maintain a Lord’s Day message meeting. If a local church wants to strengthen the Lord’s Day message meeting, then it must have a worker. Whether you call him a worker or a pastor, it is the same. There is still someone to maintain the Lord’s Day message meeting.
What has our situation become? Among us we do not believe in the priestly system. We are all priests. We do not believe in the priestly system disguised as the clergy system, we do not believe in the priestly system disguised as the pastoral system, and neither do we believe in the priestly system disguised as a system of workers. Hence, if we do not resolve this matter, when we go out, we cannot expect to be able to work in a proper way. We must learn to raise up all the brothers and sisters to be priests. When all come to serve, those among us who are being served will decrease. We must abolish the class of those who are being served. If there are still those who are being served and who expect others to be the priests while they remain simply as God’s people, there will never be a way to eliminate the Lord’s Day message meeting. There will never be a way to have the representation of the Body in that locality, because there will always be those who are passive, who listen to others speak, and who do not speak themselves. If the church wants to be successful as the church and successful as the Body of Christ in a locality, then the entire Body must serve. The service of the entire Body is that all the people, whether five-talented, two-talented, or one-talented, rise up to serve God. Please remember, this is the requirement for a group to become the Body of Christ.
I believe that the way of the church is as follows: Save and gain a person from outside, and after he is saved, immediately put him into the work so as not to produce the habit of listening to messages on the Lord’s Day. We need to change to the habit of working on the Lord’s Day. I believe that our failure over these ten years will be completely changed from today. In these ten years we have taught that it is right for the saints to have the habit of listening to messages on the Lord’s Day; we have not replaced it with something. We did not substitute preaching with working on the Lord’s Day. Today we have found that working on the Lord’s Day is what should be done and what is proper. Because our practice has not been proper, that which is wrong has come in.
If the churches in every locality cause all the one-talented members to rise up and to stand and work, it is very possible that we can return to the situation of the early church. The Lord’s Day mornings should be used to preach the gospel. The Lord’s Day is the time for everyone to be mobilized to save people. You have to gather the new believers and let them know that every Lord’s Day is the day on which all of us are busy. We must preach the gospel every Lord’s Day.
No doubt the church on the earth needs to be fed. I believe in feeding, and I also believe that in China there is no one who believes in feeding as I do. However, I admit that the mission of the church on the earth is not feeding but the preaching of the gospel. Therefore, we need to use every Lord’s Day for the preaching of the gospel, whether in the morning or in the afternoon, but especially in the morning because this is the time when everyone everywhere “goes to worship.” We will have a message meeting every Lord’s Day morning, but it will be for the gospel.
All of the brothers must go out to lead people to the meeting. We can also have advertisements, but we do not stress this. We can use other methods, but we should stress the need for one to invite two and another to invite four. By working in this way, we will immediately see that all will be busy, because all the brothers and sisters will be preaching the gospel and saving people. We should not only do this on the Lord’s Day, but we must go to seek out people and talk with them at other times, and we must also bring them to hear the gospel and seek out new ones to come and listen. If we bring many people, we will have to find others to help care for them. This kind of work in the care of the gospel is the primary work of the brothers and sisters.
If we lead people to believe and be saved every Lord’s Day, it will not be long before the brothers’ habit of listening to messages will be gone. Then the true nature of the church will be manifested. Who are the ones called church members? They are those who listen to messages on the Lord’s Day. But after a period of time, their nature will be changed. Eventually, everyone who goes out to preach the gospel and save people will be called a church member. He who actively goes out to save people will be called a church member, a Christian. There will no longer be a passive habit of listening to messages.