The responsible brothers should not merely preach a message once from the podium and then consider the job over. It is your responsibility to motivate the brothers who are with you to work. This is what you need to accomplish; this is the way today. If you do not have this, you have no way. If it were the same as before, with only one message preached per week, then everyone would be a preacher resting six days and working one day. God worked six days and rested one day; today we rest for six days and work one day. No wonder all of the preachers have become lazy! Therefore, every one of you needs to labor every day, and you also have to cause all of the brothers to serve. Brothers, the question is not whether you have done the work, but whether you have done it and have a way to cause others to do it as well.
On the one hand, your job is to do the work yourself, and on the other hand, it is to lay hold of others to do the work and then follow up on them. After you go down the mountain, I will write letters to ask you how many people you oversee in a week. We cannot have an elder who does not oversee. Today if I hire ten laborers to work on the mountain and assign one brother to supervise, I do not expect the supervising brother to pick up a bamboo basket and carry it. I want him to supervise. He should not say, “Not one of the ten would carry it. Therefore, I carried it.” If the brother were to say this, he would not be worthy to be a supervisor. He would be useless. We have the ability before God to make sure that others carry the load. We have the ability before God to make them work. If you can cause six or ten brothers to serve, there is the church. Do not complain to us, saying, “Why should we stress this matter?” The reason is that if we do not work in this way, there will be no church. You may go out to preach to two or three people and may continue doing so. True, you have your own work, and I cannot disregard it. Yet you also need to lead other brothers and sisters to do the work. Never go astray from this way. If you do, you are wrong.
We need to bring every brother into this way. In matters pertaining to the gospel, let them preach the gospel and let them share in the care for the gospel. You need to take care of the new believers. You need to lead them to do the work and to take care of practical affairs. Do not turn matters over to them and consider the job done. You need to follow up on them until the work is finished. You need to continue watching over them to see how they are doing. You need to ask, “Do you have any problems? If you do, I am here to help you solve them.” In this way, you will see the church come forth.
For the church to come forth, there is the need for people to come forth. The day will come when you see the church serving and the entire church preaching the gospel. Then I would say that God’s way of recovery on the earth has begun and then He will have the church on the earth. Otherwise, Christianity has been taken captive to Babylon, and to this day it has not returned. Today there are still those who are passive. Today there are still some who are the mediatorial class—on one side is God and on the other side is man with a mediatorial class in the middle through which people must pass before they can serve. I do not know whether or not you have seen this. This is the whole problem.
Therefore, the service office is the instrument with which the brothers take care of affairs. From it you can obtain information and find out about different situations. The deacons and deaconesses have things recorded there. Based on their records, you can see what is the situation of the church today. You can observe the brothers and sisters, oversee them, and tell them what they should do. Tell the lazy ones that they must labor. Tell the proud ones that they should learn humility. Step by step, bring them to be attentive to what they do. Brothers, have you seen what is called the work of God? It is not merely a matter of preaching from the podium. We recognize that we cannot do away with the ministry of the word; this ministry is very precious. But you also have to bring every one of the brothers and sisters to serve. When that time comes we will thank God that He has a way in China.
In the beginning you need to tell the deacons and deaconesses that when the brothers and sisters come to ask questions, they need to be courteous, polite, and not cold when replying. All of these matters are your responsibility. You need to go and carry it out and not let it go by carelessly. You need to be firm and at the same time meek, not letting things go by. You need to learn to serve in these matters; do not be afraid of troubles. You need to tell them, “He who transcribes must transcribe well; he who records must record accurately. If there is a little inaccuracy, you are responsible. Therefore, when the brothers need to retrieve what you have recorded, it will be easy. You should not handle it carelessly. This is God’s work.” When you handle things in this way, the lazy ones will have to resign. We do not work only six days and rest one day; we work every day, seven days a week. Many people are lazy because they put aside other things and use all of their time to study the Bible. Once you are careless, of course, you have nothing to do. If you mean business before God, you only need to invest an extra hour, and then the church will be built up one day earlier. If you invest an extra hour, pay attention to one more person, ask one more person—today you ask five brothers, and tomorrow you ask ten brothers, “Have you done your job?”, then, I tell you, the service of the church will be raised up one day earlier. On the one hand, we need a very good system and we need arrangements, and on the other hand, we need a record book to write everything down. Finally, you who are the responsible ones need to follow up on people. Although there is a business office and a system set up there, if you do not adequately follow up on people to do the work, it is useless. Never be slack; cause them to see that every one of us needs to serve. One day you will see that all of you have a habit of overseeing each other. Affairs should be taken care of properly; there should not be only one brother doing things there. Learn to go on together.
If you are clear about God’s purpose, you will bow your head before God and worship Him, saying, “Lord, have a way among us so that You can go on!” You can see that there is only one purpose for all the children of God, that is, to serve Him. Otherwise, there indeed is a problem. May God give us the grace.