What shall we do with the locality where the center of the work is? I believe that the local church at the center of the work also needs to have these several kinds of meetings. However, if the locality where the center of the work is desires to maintain a Lord’s Day meeting, I am not personally against that. I do not know how you brothers feel. This is one issue that I wish to discuss with you. Perhaps we will reverse the situation. Formerly, we preached the gospel once a month; now once a month we preach a message to the brothers, or if there is a strong ministry of the word, perhaps we will select one day out of the week and use it specifically for preaching a message. Perhaps, we will preach the gospel every Lord’s Day morning and have the ministry of the word in the afternoon.
My personal feeling is that we do not need to immediately eliminate the message meeting in the locality where the center of the work is. I have spoken about this previously, but it was not clear. What I am saying is that our direction has to be accurate. Then we can work gradually, step by step, until the brothers and sisters see that the Lord’s Day is the day for our service, particularly the service of the gospel. The situation from locality to locality is not the same. We should not immediately endeavor to stop having the message meeting; rather, we should observe the situation and make arrangements gradually to lead the brothers into this way. At a certain point we will see that working can replace listening to the messages.
When we read the book of Acts, we must see that at that time there were not as many ministers of the word as we have now. At that time God’s children probably paid more attention to preaching the gospel than to listening to messages. However, today it seems that the basic factor of being a Christian is listening to messages rather than preaching the gospel. Therefore, I hope that we can see this way very accurately and thoroughly. We must lead the brothers in every locality into this way. We must carry it out to such an extent that all the brothers and sisters are preaching the gospel before taking care of other matters. If this way can be carried out, the number of those saved in the past will not be comparable to the number that will be saved. At the same time, there will be no need to maintain so many workers in every place, and we will also begin to see churches rising up.
I thank God that Romans 12 says that he who exhorts should attend to exhorting and he who teaches should attend to teaching, but Romans 12 does not say that he who listens to messages should attend to listening to messages. If those who listen to messages attend to listening to messages, then the church will be brought to naught. There is no such thing as attending to listening to messages. To listen to messages is not a function of the Body. We need to ask God to give us grace so that every child of God may rise up to serve and preach the gospel.
When you practice this, I hope that you will hold fast to your direction. It is your own responsibility before God as to how you will turn your way around and how much time it will take. You must take good care of the saints in order to lead them into this way, not quickly dropping one thing and quickly picking up another. There should be no such thing. You must always preach in this way and work in this way. If you come to the point where the brothers and sisters have risen up, then make the change. You must see that the Lord’s Day morning is their busiest time. It is not a time for old and young, men and women to come hand in hand to listen to a message. Rather, it is a time for everyone to come to preach the gospel.
The work in every place today has not been carried out well. It is in the initial stages. However, the vision is before you. From now on you need to work in this way every day. Only after we reverse the direction will we be right. If all the brothers and sisters have not yet risen up, you must continue working until they all rise up to work and preach the gospel. It should always be the church that serves and preaches the gospel. This way is right, and this is the New Testament church.
Please remember that Catholicism is the church in captivity in Babylon. Many Bible readers admit this. As the children of Israel were taken captive to Babylon, the church was also taken captive to Babylon. Protestantism came back from Babylon, but they did not build the temple. Even though many came back from Babylon, the temple was not there. Today you and I must be those in church history who rise up to build the temple. We are a people like Nehemiah, building the temple and learning to raise up God’s church again in this age. Many have come out of Babylon but still have a Babylonian appearance. Even today they still do not look like the church. Catholicism is very structured. Protestantism is less structured, but being less structured is still not the church. In order for there to be a local church, the church must preach the gospel and the church must serve. Within the next few years, I hope to repeat these two phrases ten thousand times: The church needs to preach the gospel and the church needs to serve. Only then is it the church; otherwise, it is an incomprehensible gathering, very much unlike the church.
Brothers, in the beginning it will indeed be hard. But you need to see the vision accurately and clearly. What is the church? Being the church requires that we preach the gospel as the church; being the church requires that we serve as the church. Therefore, responsible brothers and sisters, you need to gather together often to discuss and to pray: “O Lord, how can we cause all of the brothers and sisters to rise up?” Our way is not that we ourselves always put our hands to the work, but that we cause others to work. It is wrong for us to take care of everything while the brothers and sisters do nothing. It should be that we work with the purpose of leading them to work. If we work in order to induce them to come out and work, this is correct. They must be busy. We should place each one of them, making arrangements so that everyone is preaching the gospel and serving. At that time we will realize that this way is correct.
I think that in the local churches the service in the word is already adequate. These few points are sufficient to meet the local need. Concerning the mutual edifying in 1 Corinthians 14, if the local brothers are strong, the Saturday night meetings will be strong. If the local brothers are not strong, the Saturday night meetings will not be strong. I think every child of God must admit that the strongest supply of the word was that which was among the Brethren a century ago. This is something amazing. Why was the supply of the word so strong and so abundant in the last century? It was because they were working according to the principle of 1 Corinthians 14. The Holy Spirit had freedom there. Even though they had much insignificant speaking, they also had much substantial speaking. Without this principle they could not have had what they had at that time. Therefore, during the Saturday night meetings, even though many who should not speak will rise up, there will also be the opportunity for those who should speak to speak. Once the Holy Spirit has the freedom, you can expect the Holy Spirit to speak in the church and operate in the church. The church must always be in the freedom of the Holy Spirit.