Another two years passed, and their meeting was moved from the hilltop back to the plain. Geographically speaking, it went down, but spiritually speaking, it rose up. Thank the Lord that from that point on, the work in Tsingtao had a little beginning. By the spring of 1942, they had over one hundred thirty meeting already. After two months of meeting and a few baptism meetings, they added two hundred more. By the end of that year, the number became six to seven hundred. By then, the work really opened up. Our brother did not have any special gift, but he learned the lesson of patience. He stood there, and his standing caused him to gain a result. This is the patience I am talking about.

Please remember that in order to oversee the church there is the need to exercise authority, and there is the need to be the authority. But there is also the need to learn a serious lesson, that is, to abide in patience. Only when you abide in patience can you never lose hope in the church or in the brothers and sisters. Even if the brothers and sisters become worse than they are now, and even if they do not seem to have any turn, we should still visit them and should still pray for them and care for them. No matter what their condition is, we will not lose hope. We continue to have such a heart towards them. This hope is the authority. Theoretically speaking, you cannot say that this is authority. But practically speaking, this kind of patience is definitely authority transformed.

For example, it may be that I help a district meeting for three months, but there is still no improvement. However, I am not disappointed. This does not mean that I am unconcerned. I am indeed very concerned in my heart. When I pray before God, I would shed my tears, but I am not disappointed. After half a year, there is still no improvement, but still I am not disappointed. A sister who serves in the business office may not even be able to write a letter of recommendation, and it may be fruitless for me to teach her to do so. Yet I am not disappointed; I continue to teach her. This is what I mean by patience. A brother cannot clean the windows properly, but you still charge him to clean them, because you have the patience to withstand this incompetent cleaning. On the one hand, you charge him to do it. On the other hand, you bear with him. What does it mean to be impatient? To be impatient is to have an attitude that a person should clean only if he does a good job, and if he does not do a good job, he should not clean. What is patience? Patience is to say that although someone may be incompetent in the way he cleans, still you ask him to come to clean. Not only will you not send this one away, but you will keep him even if he wants to leave of his own accord.

I definitely know that the elders in many places are politicians. They never have any patience. For example, a brother may have been serving as a deacon for two months, and he is found to be unsuitable. What should be done? It so happens that this brother becomes sick and has to take a leave of absence. The elders may say, "Since he cannot come, we will not force him to come any longer." This is to be political. The elders do not want this brother to come anyway, but they are too polite to ask him not to come. If you have learned the lesson of patience, you will not do this. You will say to this brother, "Brother, you are sick, and we will pray for you. Come back to serve after you are well. It is true that we are not satisfied with what you have done in the past two months, but we encourage you to come again." If you visit him, you pray with him, and you tell him not to be discouraged to serve again, and when he is well, you teach him again, you lead him on, and you have patience with him time after time, by the second or third year, he will have learned. You have to know that by that day, he will have come under much authority. Your patience has perfected this man. In the end, this patience becomes the authority. After two months of observation you may judge him unqualified and may try to get rid of him through some political maneuvering. But in the end whatever is hidden within will be manifested without. When others detect the political flavor in you, they will not be able to submit to you, and your authority is finished. Hence, we have to be an authority in patience.

It is right that elders in the church should not lightly choose brothers and sisters to take up responsibilities or to coordinate with them. But once you have invited someone to bear a responsibility or have invited someone to coordinate with you, you have to be patient. Even when there are failures and mistakes, you should still be patient. You have to be unceasingly patient. The elders must serve as the authority in patience.