Our lack of care is the reason for the low attendance in the meetings when there are so many brothers and sisters. If we consider this matter from the perspective of gospel preaching, our situation is because we pay attention only to saving sinners. We are not interested in how they meet and serve in the church after they are saved. However, the gospel is spread not merely by preaching but by the multiplication of life. The measure of life in a church determines how far the gospel can go. From a broader perspective, there are many people in Christianity who pay attention to preaching the gospel. They have a slogan that they want to evangelize the whole world, to spread the gospel over the entire earth. Some among them have even said, “We do not know anything else. We only know to preach the gospel, and our only desire is for the gospel to go out and save people.” Apparently, this word sounds very touching and reasonable, but at the same time, it fits the taste of typically zealous Christians. Many Christians may not respond if we speak to them about other matters, but they will respond if we speak of being zealous to preach the gospel.
However, the facts prove that those who focus on the zealous preaching of the gospel do not have much result. This is because there is no container after the gospel is preached to hold and retain the result. Since there is no container to hold the result of the gospel, the advancement of the gospel is affected. Thus, even after many years the so-called gospel movement in Christianity has never succeeded. Strictly speaking, the gospel does not go out by preaching; the gospel goes out by growing. When the life of a church grows to a certain degree, the gospel spontaneously goes out. Therefore, we cannot pay attention only to the spreading of the gospel while ignoring the increase and growth of life. We will be unable to spread the gospel widely or promote any activities of the gospel if we focus merely on spreading the gospel, ignoring the increase and growth of life. This is true from both the spiritual perspective and from the perspective of facts and logic.
Many years ago we seriously warned the saints that we cannot focus only on preaching the gospel and ignore the increase and growth of life. If we do this, one day the gospel will be hindered, and we will be unable to move forward. For example, if a local church that is young and has only a limited measure of life focuses simply on preaching the gospel and helping people to be saved, they will only be able to beget children who are like them. Those who are young in life will only be able to bring in ones who are young in life. This is one aspect.
Those who are brought in through our zealous preaching will not receive much supply or be sustained by the fellowship in the meetings. They are just as newborn babes who will die without proper feeding or care. For this reason, outside the church we do not bear much testimony before men, and inside the church the brothers and sisters are discouraged in the matter of preaching the gospel. This will continue until the preaching of the gospel comes to a standstill. Therefore, we have repeatedly cried out, saying, “If a church does not pay attention to preaching the gospel, let it be, but if a church focuses on preaching the gospel, we must begin with life, spreading outward from life.” This will keep us from repeating the mistake of Christianity—having activities of the gospel without the foundation of life and having the fruit of the gospel without the support of life.
Twenty years ago, Dr. John Sung led thousands of people to repentance and belief in the Lord in China; however, not many of them remained. This is because there was not a strong church to hold them. This can be compared to drawing water from a well; if we do not have a container large enough to hold the water, it will be poured on the ground and will gradually return to the earth. Gospel movements bring people to salvation through a kind of gospel revival, but if people have no place to go, and no one is responsible to feed and take care of them, they will be lost. This is a great problem.
We must have a place to store water after it is drawn up from a well. The condition of gospel preaching in Christianity is that there is no appropriate place to feed the saved ones. Sending new ones to some denominations can be compared to putting hot food into a refrigerator. If a newly saved and burning believer is sent to meet in a denomination, after a short time he will become cold and return to where he was before his salvation. This is because the meetings there can be compared to a refrigerator.
The low attendance in our meetings proves that our church is weak in life. Our life has not come up to the level of the move of the gospel, and our life cannot hold the result of the gospel. We have gained two hundred baptized ones, but we do not have the capacity that is needed to support two hundred people. This can be compared to parents who beget twelve children but do not have the ability to raise them. There is a begetting ability but not a nurturing ability. Since the parents have no consideration as to how to raise and educate their children, they can only stand by as their children grow and die on their own.
This is the reason that the attendance in our regular meetings drops after we hold a special conference. Our neglecting the growth of life while focusing on the spread of the gospel brings us to a dead end. Therefore, we need to catch up in the matter of life. I hope that all the churches would pay attention to the growth in life so that we can match the move of the gospel. We must see that only the increase of life can retain the result of the gospel.
According to church history, the growth in life in the church was the origin of the spread of the gospel to China by Western missionaries. The growth of life in the church in Western countries produced a group of Christians who were sent by the Lord to preach the gospel in China. These Western missionaries were the issue of the growth of life in the church in the West, and the issue of this growth in life brought the gospel to the coast of China. However, this gospel later stopped, and no matter how much people tried to push it forward, it could not go on. Thus, life needed to grow in China in order for the gospel to continue. This can be compared to sowing a seed. People brought the seed here from America. We now need to sow the seed into the earth and let it grow so that it can fall into the earth again. The process of growing and falling, falling and growing, is the real spreading of the gospel.
Seemingly, the gospel goes out by preaching, but actually, the gospel goes out by growing. This is also true among us. After we came to Taiwan, we were very busy preaching the gospel the first few years, and the brothers and sisters had a strong desire and burden to preach the gospel. However, today gospel preaching is weakened because our life has not caught up—our life does not match the result of the gospel.