If you are willing to labor, the work will be blessed by the Lord, and the number will increase continually. Right away you need to come up with new ideas again, such as building a meeting hall, subdividing into districts, and establishing responsible ones for the districts and the groups. Many troublesome matters will follow. Also, from this kind of endeavoring the three major items of service will be produced. Since there are so many coming to the meetings, and so many matters to take care of, there needs to be a business office. After you have come up with the idea of a business office, you also need to come up with ideas on what to do, who should take care of the things, and how to take care of the things. Only then will you be able to meet the need of the three major items of service. You can imagine how much energy it requires!

In 1950 in Taipei, when I was discussing with another brother the guidelines related to the business office, we came up with at least a few hundred items. To take care of matters properly, to match the need of the three items of service, and to cooperate with the need of the meetings, and, on top of that, to be spiritual, and to have people edified once they enter the business office, this is not something that can be achieved with two or three words. The elders must labor continually and arrange everything with their own hands. Otherwise, with a large local church, not to say one with three or five thousand in attendance, even one with three to five hundred in attendance, it will not be easy to carry out the service. Not only will the service not be easy to carry out, but it will be impossible to produce new ones to come into the service. The reason for this is that there will be no opportunity for them to come in to learn to serve. Therefore, you have to manage to a point where all the services are continually turning, with the new ones turning toward the services all the time. The more people are saved, the more districts there will be; the more districts, the more business affairs there will be; the more business affairs, the more responsible ones and serving ones there will be. In this way, the whole thing will keep on turning. Here in Taipei, we have turned out thirty-four districts and one hundred eighty district responsible ones. If these one hundred eighty brothers and sisters would be like what was just described, and if they would endeavor according to the Holy Spirit in all the districts, I believe in five years there will surely be more than one hundred districts. By that time, just the responsible ones for the districts alone will come up to five or six hundred. You should not worry whether the Lord will bless; the question is who will coordinate with Him. The principle of the Holy Spirit is always for the heavens to send the rain and for man to till the ground. The question is who is going to till the ground and how to till it. There is a lot involved in the question of the person tilling the ground and the way to till it. All these have to do with the business arrangements in the services.

If you would continue to come up with ideas, gradually you will see that Taipei is a center of education. Among these many high schools and universities, there are countless high school students and college students. How can you bring the gospel in among them through the brothers and sisters who are students? This is a big business. You can imagine how many things, matters, and persons you would need to carry out this task. After laboring this way for one to two years, at least one or two hundred young people will be gained by the Lord. This kind of effect and the future result cannot be estimated. The church grows up in this way; it is coordinated and built up in this way.

Under this kind of management, everyone will fear God, everyone will have a godly living, and everyone will live in the Holy Spirit. If so, can the church be without the Lord's presence? What limit will there be to the blessing? Furthermore, this unlimited blessing will cause these responsible ones to endeavor more. Like the northerners playing with snowballs, the more they roll, the faster and bigger the snowballs become. Due to human limitation, sometimes the snowball may stop for a while. However, after the responsible ones learn some more deeper lessons before the Lord and are dealt with more, new activities will begin, and the snowball will roll again.

As far as being a human being, a person needs to be educated and to learn the skills. However, when he has his own family, he needs to learn to manage his home. The same is true with the church. Besides pursuing spirituality individually, preaching the gospel, and taking care of people, if you are concerned for God's heart, and desire to be useful in God's hand, you must also pursue the way to manage the church. If you want your spirituality to have a direction, your fellowship with the Lord to be useful, your preaching of the gospel to have an issue, your care of the saints to have a result, you need to realize that all these hinge upon the management of the church. Short of proper church management, all these will fall apart and become disintegrated. As soon as there is management in the church, all these will be coordinated together and will produce an integrated, solid, and useful church. Therefore, I hope that the elders would labor more on the matter of management. This is the present urgent need of the church.