Today we need to consider another important subject. It is the most central lesson in the elders' overseeing of the church. This lesson is the administration of the church.
The administration of the elders is the overseeing, the management, the building, and the leadership of the elders. The elders' oversight, administration, building, leadership, and management of the church all refer to the same thing. However, in this lesson, we prefer to use the word administration.
There is much to say concerning the elders' administration of the church. If we think that administration only signifies the building up of the saints, we will only think in terms of the building and will not realize that it also includes the management of the church. Conversely, if we think that administration only covers the matter of management, we will not realize that it also includes the building up of the saints. But if we say administration, everything is included in a general way. Within administration there is both management and building; it includes everything. The words leadership, building, and management each refer to only one thing respectively. But the word administration immediately conveys the idea of manifold responsibilities. This is why we like to use the word administration. The elders' administration of the church is in many areas. In the terms of the secular world, it has many departments.
There is one goal in the elders' administration, with three areas of service. There are also various matters of coordination that have to be considered. Let us now consider them one by one.
Regardless where the church appears on this earth, it has only one goal: to be a testimony of Christ and to express Christ among humanity. When Christ is lived out and expressed through His people, there is the testimony of the church. This is the goal for which the church exists on earth today. The reason God wants to have a church in the universe is for it to express Christ in this way. The reason God establishes churches in all the localities is that Christ may be expressed by the saints in these localities. This is the goal of the church. It is also the goal of the elders' administration of the church.
The elders must realize that our meeting here does not represent any particular truth or any Christianity movement. Among all the organizations in Christianity, some represent the truth of baptism; they label themselves the Baptist Church. Others represent a Pentecostal movement; they call themselves the Pentecostals. But brothers, we have none of these intentions here. Rather, by the Lord's mercy, we desire to recover the testimony of the church on earth. We only wish that God would have more mercy on us and recover the testimony of the church so that the Son of God, our glorious Christ, will be expressed. The churches in all the places should maintain one testimony and emphasize one goal, which is that Christ be lived out and expressed among the brothers and sisters.