The elders cannot bring people into the service and leave them there. They must pay attention to the function in these ones. For instance, when you bring someone to clean the windows in the meeting hall, you should not merely pay attention to whether he is cleaning them or not. You have to pay attention to his function. If you ask him just to clean the windows, you are misusing him and are damaging him. Some are brought into the service this way, but they soon leave the service. They have no interest in the work, because they have not realized their function. This is the result of inaccurate leading. Not only do you have to bring someone in, but you must observe him while you are bringing him in. You must find out what kind of function he has, and through which kind of service he should be perfected. This is the perfecting of the saints spoken of in Ephesians 4. The perfecting there emphasizes the perfecting of the function. We have to spend time to perfect others.
When the brothers and sisters have realized their functions in the service, the gifts will be manifested. At that time, the elders will have to encourage them to develop their gifts. There is much to say about this encouragement.
You may have to help a person renew his consecration before the Lord. He is a living person and has been brought into the service already. Surely he is consecrated already. But if you have learned the lesson, you will realize that such a one still has some problem with his consecration. There is a problem of degree in his consecration. There is also a problem of nature, of place, and of sovereign right in his consecration. Perhaps he has to learn these lessons over again. We can sense that this brother has life; he is living, and he has been brought into the service. He has some function and some gift, but there is reservation in his consecration. He has only consecrated to a certain extent, up to a point that he cannot get through. Here the elders have to help him pass through the hurdle of consecration afresh.
Some brothers cannot have their gifts realized because there is a problem with their character. A brother's character may be somewhat lazy. If you can make him somewhat more diligent, his gift will take form.
Some people may be holding onto some hidden sin. They are not completely cut off from it, and they have not dug everything out completely. You cannot say that they do not love the Lord or that they are not consecrated. They have been brought into the service, and their function is somewhat manifest. Their gift is more or less evident. But somehow, something is missing. It seems that their gift has taken form, yet it is not mature. After probing here and there, you finally discover that this brother still has a hidden sin. If you help him to take care of this, you will be encouraging his gift to be realized. If you can help him solve the problem of his sin, you will see that his gift will immediately take shape. Perhaps by next week his preaching may become more powerful than that of anyone else.
Brothers, please observe that, although there are many brothers and sisters in all the local churches, the manifestation of the gifts is very scarce! What is the reason for this abnormal condition? It is because the elders who administrate the churches have not done a work that is in depth or to the point. To those who have learned the lesson, it seems that there has never been any work done upon the churches. Everywhere is desolation. There is only a group of people being piled together; everyone merely comes together for the meetings. At most, there is some arrangement as to the time of meeting and some announcement as to the nature of the meeting. You cannot detect any administration that is carried out in depth. Therefore, very few gifts are manifested. If the elders can touch the brothers and sisters to find out if they have life and if they are living, and if the elders can bring them into the service, perfect their functions, and encourage their gifts, you can be assured that there will be many gifted ones in the church.