If one of your children was bitten by a dog today and ran home to tell you, "Daddy, Mommy, I have been bitten by a dog," would you pat his back and say, "Just pray, the Lord is almighty"? You would not do this! Of course, you have to pray, but you must face the real situation also. Sometimes a child may come home and say, "I lost my diary on the way home from school. I need to buy another one." You cannot say to him, "Just pray." This is not the way to manage a home. When a problem arises with the children, you have to open up a way for them, and you have to help them solve the problem. This is only a simple illustration.

The church is the house of God. There are many brothers and sisters. Some are old, others are young. Some are deep, others are shallow. Some have experience, others are without experience. Some have problems, others have difficulties before the Lord. These brothers and sisters are continually confronted by problems. If the elders do not try to solve these problems, there will be no problem, because all the brothers and sisters will know that the elders cannot solve problems, and they will not come to the elders. But if you really know the way to manage a church and will really take up such a burden, the door to your house will be daily jammed with people. One brother will come to you with his marriage problem. Another brother will come to you with a problem at work. One sister may come to you with her problem of education. Another may come with a problem of studying the Bible. Still others may come with a problem in prayer, or a problem with their calling; they do not know if they are called, and they do not know how to answer God's calling. All these people will come to you. As a rule, the more the brothers and sisters come to the elders, the better it is. If the brothers and sisters do not come to the elders, I am afraid it means that the elders have lost their job. To have lost your job means to have become unfaithful in your ministry. If you are not unfaithful to your ministry, you will find that every day there will be brothers and sisters coming to you. This is because they have many problems. I am simply elaborating on one of the sixteen points of coordination that I have mentioned. The elders have to practice this in a practical way. They have to help the brothers and sisters to bring together all the problems and to solve them together. In this way, they will bring the church to a proper condition.

Brothers, I can give you my testimony. When we were first raised up by the Lord, we were led by the Lord to realize that the whole of Christianity has been deformed and has departed from the Lord's way. It has lost the original position that the Lord ordained for it and has lost its original nature. This is why, when we first began to meet, we threw away everything we saw in Christianity. When we came together, we did not know anything. We did not know how to meet, and we did not even know how to pick a hymn in the meeting. We began to probe a little at a time. First we probed the way to meet. Then we probed the way to pick the hymns. Up to a certain point, the management of the church became a big and serious question. At the beginning we had only six or seven people; everyone had a strong desire to go on, and there did not seem to be the need for much management. But gradually, we grew to eight, ten, twenty, and then thirty. By that time, we preached the gospel. When some were saved, we baptized them. Gradually, we increased from fifty to one hundred, and one hundred to two hundred, and the number became larger and larger. By that time, a serious question arose: how were we going to manage all these brothers and sisters?

At that time we could not find any reference book on the subject of church management, nor could we find a place to learn from. There was no place to ask for help. Later we turned ourselves back to God and spent much time to probe through actual experiences ourselves. We have probed for over ten years. It was not until 1944 and 1945 that we became quite clear concerning the matter of church management.

I have repeatedly said that the main element in church management is to bring the brothers and sisters step by step into the coordination. Because of the limitation of time, we were unable to consider this matter in detail. Now let us consider some directions in our coordination.