Let us first speak concerning the supply of the word. Then we will come back and talk about the way of the church.
Regarding the ministry of the word, for now we will use the following arrangement: We will have fifty-two topics for the regular year. In addition, we will have one or two topics on the side for use in the leap years. Please remember, when we are strong in the matter of preaching the gospel, many will be saved. Once many have been saved, there will be more trouble for the church because all kinds of people will come in. All kinds of fish will be pulled into the boat; therefore, we will need to take good care of them, providing the new believers with edification once a week.
We do not plan to change the topics for the meeting for edifying new believers. Every local church in every locality will speak the same topic on every Thursday or Friday. Tsingtao will do this; Shanghai will do this; Foochow will also do this. Every locality will be working in the same steps. From now on we do not plan to modify the topics used in the meeting for edifying new believers. It will not be one way this year and another way next year. We desire that every group of new believers that comes in would receive the same edification by being brought together in each locality every Thursday or Friday. We need to spend an entire year to touch all the main matters in the Word of God and the way to be a Christian. In this way there will be no lack with respect to the supply of the word for the new believers. Do not be afraid that something might be lacking if there is no Lord’s Day message meeting. At least with respect to the new believers, there will be no lack; the supply will still be there.
I hope that the brothers who go out to work will not change these topics, but simply work accordingly. If you want to change, let us wait until our next gathering to discuss how to make adjustments. Today I believe the topics which we have selected are already prevailing enough and sufficient to supply them.
Once we have the work related to the gospel, plus the fifty-two topics for the edification of the new believers, I believe it will be very easy to meet the need of a local church regarding the matters of the faith and our conduct. In this way the brothers will not need to search everywhere for food.
If you are living, then these things will be living. If you are dead before God, these things will become like publicly recited prayers; they will become dead things. If all of you are living, then even that which is dead will become living. If all of you are dead before God, even the living things will become dead, even a book as living as the Gospel of John. In the same way, if you are living, I believe that by speaking the things we have arranged year after year, both the words and the anointing can be repeated. The words can be repeated, and the life can also be repeated. In this way you can edify the new believers.
Now you have seen that there are two meetings. The first is the Lord’s Day morning gospel meeting, stressing gospel preaching for saving people. Once some have been saved and brought in, you must pay attention before God to give the new believers a clear leading in the word. The Lord’s Day morning supply of the word is related to the gospel. The supply of the word on Thursday or Friday night is related to edification.
Some may ask how we should supply the older brothers, and many other brothers and sisters among us, with the word. This is the purpose of the Saturday night meeting, the meeting for the exercise of the spiritual gifts. This meeting is conducted according to 1 Corinthians 14. In this meeting each one has a word, has a revelation, has a hymn, has a prayer.
If today some feel that the meeting for edifying new believers is not sufficient, please remember that every Saturday night you can let several able ministering brothers take care of a stronger and fresher meeting. Every Lord’s Day morning we have to preach the gospel and every Thursday we must have the meeting for edifying new believers. Perhaps every Saturday night we will have an additional meeting according to 1 Corinthians 14, in which we can supply God’s children with God’s word. Either one, two, or three can speak. The Saturday night meetings have to be very living, not like today’s Lord’s Day message meeting, which is maintained in a dead way. Today maintaining the Lord’s Day message meeting is quite hard even for a worker because if he has a word, he must speak, and if he does not have a word, he still must speak. It is also very hard for a local brother to maintain because, similarly, if he has a word, he must speak, and if he does not have a word, he also must speak.
But if we do not maintain the Lord’s Day message meeting today, the brothers and sisters will be scattered. It is as if we use the Lord’s Day morning meeting to bind the brothers and sisters together. I hope that what binds them together from now on will not be the Lord’s Day message meeting, but the gospel preaching work. What will bind them together is everyone testifying, everyone preaching the gospel, and everyone saving people. If we get them accustomed to working, and they move to another locality, they will feel that they cannot do without the opportunity to work. We must give every brother the opportunity to work, lead everyone to have a habit to work, and lead everyone to have a habit to preach the gospel. Then we will have a church in a locality that is very stable.
For example, in a locality on every Lord’s Day morning, there will be a gospel meeting with different brothers taking turns to be responsible for one or two months with some arrangement before God. That will be a corporate gospel preaching, corporately leading people to be saved. When someone is saved and receives the Lord, you then may bring him to the Thursday night meeting. After being there for a year he will have received his basic edification. Those who are burdened for the word and those who have a burden before God and are not passive will stand up on Saturday nights to speak.