Thus far, we have seen that to carry out this New Testament ministry we must first get into this ministry. After getting into it, we must have some proper way or the best way to help the saints in the recovery to get solidly educated in this New Testament ministry. I believe that when all the saints in the recovery have received the proper education they will spontaneously become good ministers to carry such a ministry to the outsiders, to the unbelievers, and to the other Christians who do not meet with us. I feel that it is crucial for us to find out what the best way is to help the saints in each local church to get into the same things which we ourselves have gotten into.
I believe that this will affect the way of our meeting, so we have to consider or reconsider the way of our meeting. We must find the best way to turn our meetings into meetings of education. The saints who are meeting with us all the time need to be educated. Based upon our experience over the years, we must admit that in the matter of educating the saints we have not been very successful. A number of the saints have been meeting with us for years and years, but they still have not gotten into the basic intrinsic element of the Lord’s recovery. We all have to admit that from the point of view of educating the saints with the basic truth our way of meeting has not been so successful. We surely do not appreciate the way today’s Christians have their meetings. Many of us, including myself, have attended Christian meetings from our youth. For many years I attended the services, heard the sermons, and went to Sunday school, but nearly nothing got into me. However, something of the Bible stories and of the traditional Christian practices surely got into me, and I became that kind of Christian. Actually, no truth, no life, no Spirit, or no reality had ever gotten into me. I believe that we all have to admit that a good number of saints have been meeting with us year after year, yet if you check with them today, you would discover that not much intrinsic element of the divine revelation has been really wrought and constituted into their being. Not only in the matter of life but even more in the matter of the truth not much intrinsic element has been wrought into the saints. I am really concerned that not many among us can present particular truths in an adequate way.
I recently discovered that at least some of you probably have never read over fifty Life-study messages. This is according to my observation and some information which came to me. Occasionally information came to me spontaneously which I did not expect. Actually, to some extent, I did not like to hear these things. I am not a person who desires to hear others’ situations. However, I must say honestly to some of you that by your direct contact with me, I realized that you had not read many of the Life-studies. If you had, you would not have talked to me in the way that you did. I have the full confidence in the working out of the Life-study messages. I do not believe that anyone who had read between two hundred and five hundred Life-study messages could have talked to me in that way. Your talk to me exposed yourselves. Let me give an example from my experience in learning English to further clarify this matter. I learned English mainly in writing and not in speaking. Since I came to America, you all can testify that by my speaking over the years I have improved in speaking the English language. By my speaking all of you can realize where I stand and how much labor I have spent in learning how to speak the English language. In like manner, when you come to me, your talk exposes to me where you are as far as the truth is concerned.
Under the Lord’s mercy I came to this country with a particular commission, a particular burden, to bring the Lord’s recovery to the top Christian country. I fully realized the responsibility and the hardship involved, yet I would not avert from this commission, and I came with a burden to present the truth. After a few years of being here in the United States, I fully realized that the truths were not properly or adequately understood in a deeper way in this country.
Brother Nee indicated to me definitely that the United States was hopeless concerning the Lord’s truth. He said that superficiality and worldliness were the two main factors for this. He indicated that Britain and Germany were solid countries, but that the United States was loose and too worldly. Also Brother Nee never agreed for any young saints among us to come to the United States. He never encouraged this. He indicated that if anyone wanted to go out to study, they should go to England. I received such an impression from Brother Nee and I came to the United States with a burden. I found out, of course, that the situation was not exactly the same as what Brother Nee had told me. I found out that the people here are not that superficial and are not that loose. However, I did discover that not many of the deeper truths were really understood by the seeking Christians in a solid way. As a result my burden was to bring the Lord’s recovery to the United States. After staying in the United States for two years, I had a burden to present the truth, trying my best to hold conferences and to visit many cities. From 1962 to 1974 I went to many places presenting the truth. By 1974 I realized that merely to present the truth with subjects and certain topics would not be an adequate way. Therefore, I began to bear the burden to put out Life-study messages on the books of the Bible in a very good sequence.
The highlight of all the conferences was in 1973. Before this time the highest attendance we had at a conference was approximately twelve hundred, but in the summer conference of 1973 the attendance went up to over three thousand. Suddenly the number more than doubled. So many coming to the conference helped me to make the decision to change from a conference way to a training way. There is no control with a conference because it is open to the entire public. We cannot reject anyone who wants to come to a conference. A training, however, is in the nature of a school, and there is the need for people to be registered. By 1974 there was the need to put out the truth according to the sequence of the books of the Bible, and there was also the need to have some registration to control the attendance so that the standard of those attending would not be so low. Therefore, the decision was made to have annual trainings twice a year. We have seen to some extent that the registration for the training has been a kind of restriction. The standard has been raised up and the atmosphere in the meetings has been very much adjusted and improved. You also realize that in the trainings I have the freedom to say things to you that I would not have in a conference.