Today there are many localities where the Saturday night meetings cannot be strong because all the brothers are passive, even though many are gifted with a ministry. If there is no pressure on them, as with the Lord’s Day meetings which force them to go before God, then every Saturday night meeting will be a time to relax. If all the brothers relax, bearing no responsibility, how can the meeting be strong? If no one bears the burden, how can the meeting be strong? We should not allow anyone to be passive! Who then would take the initiative? The meeting according to 1 Corinthians 14 is not a meeting where everyone shirks responsibility; the meeting in 1 Corinthians 14 is a meeting in which everyone bears responsibility. For one person to bear the responsibility is wrong; for no one to bear the responsibility is also wrong.
Now I want to talk about how the responsible brothers in each locality should carry out the Saturday night meetings. The Saturday night meetings are the same as the other meetings in that the responsible brothers should pray together. Before every meeting the responsible brothers should arrive at least half an hour early to have some prayer. It should be the same with the gospel meetings, the meetings for edifying new believers, the prayer meetings, and the bread-breaking meetings. The responsible brothers should always be there half an hour or fifteen minutes early to have some prayer and preparation. Especially for the Saturday night meetings, you may need a little more time. You should usually arrive fifteen minutes early, but for this meeting you need to arrive half an hour early. You have to ask the responsible brothers to come for half an hour of prayer first, and then you need to help them to the extent that even if others have not prepared, they would be prepared. The responsible brothers can enter into the meeting only when they have the assurance before God. There should be no responsible brother who can simply remove his hat and rush into the meeting. Every responsible brother must first have some preparation before he can go in.
There are many localities with many unspiritual persons who want to occupy the podium. You need to pray much for them so that they would not come in and control the podium. Those that enter in should be the ones who have a genuine burden before God, those who are fearful of having a poor meeting. Hence, you need to pray beforehand and then take good care of the meeting so that it may be uplifted.
The responsible brothers should especially pray regarding the Saturday night meeting. You need to ask whether there are brothers among you who are particularly burdened. This does not mean that the ministering of the word is limited to responsible brothers. However, we must admit that the responsible brothers should bear more of the responsibility in ministering the word. The elders are for serving the church, and even though they are not for the ministry of the word, they should be apt to teach. Therefore, when all those who are apt to teach are gathered together, they should ask whether anyone has a special burden before God that night, whether there is a particular burden (even though everyone should be burdened), and whether there is anyone with a special word to say. Every time you come to the Saturday night meeting, there should be at least a few responsible brothers who are not passive. When the responsible brothers are passive, everyone becomes passive.
I am amazed that often three to five brothers are ministers of the word before God, but they think that they can open up the Saturday night meetings for other brothers to speak. When the meeting does not turn out well, they shake their heads and say that the meeting was not good. If the mouth does not speak and the nose goes to speak, it is no wonder that the voice is not clear. This is often the problem. When it comes to the fellowship meeting or a meeting according to 1 Corinthians 14, many brothers who can bear responsibility do not do anything, yet they criticize. This is a strange thing.
The supply of the apostles’ word is the supply of the ministers of the word. The gospel preaching and the edifying of new believers in the regular meetings should be sufficient for the brothers to have the habit of serving in the gospel and edifying the new believers. If we desire a stronger supply of the word, then we need meetings such as those in 1 Corinthians 14. This is the case in a local church. Then what is the responsibility of an apostle? During a certain time, when a brother passes by a certain locality, he should stay for a few days as Paul did when he passed through Troas and stayed for seven days. You may stay there for a few days, a week, or a month and hold a conference. Perhaps a local church or several local churches in the area may join together two or three times to get some special help.