In this chapter we will continue our fellowship on how to bring the saints in our locality into the truth so that they will get a solid foundation in the Word. We have seen that the first aspect is the personal aspect. Each saint must have a proper, daily, regular diet of a few verses in the Bible with the notes of the Recovery Version accompanied by the Life-study messages. Now we must go on to see the second aspect, the meeting aspect.
We should never forget that the basic factor for our meetings should be the Spirit. The meetings should be in the Spirit. They should be full of life and full of living prayer to bring in a living atmosphere which is full of freedom for everyone to function. We must keep and have these few basic factors in all of the church meetings—full of the Spirit, full of life, full of prayer, full of a refreshing atmosphere that encourages people to function, and full of freedom for people to function. The elders and all the ones who take the lead in any kind of meeting should bear the responsibility to pray for this. An elder should not come to the meeting without a proper time of prayer for the meeting. Every elder should come to the meeting after some prayer for the meeting and come into the meeting with a praying spirit. That makes your meeting different.
To be an elder is not a small thing. The children may just sit down at the table and expect something to be served to them. The mother, however, cannot practice in this way. Before sitting down she should have done a lot of things. Then the entire family can feed on a proper meal. Furthermore, when the church reaches a certain size, at least one or two elders should be full time. This becomes a scientific principle because when the elders are too busy or too greatly occupied with their business or with their jobs, it is hard for them to bear the responsibility of the church meetings adequately. I do not mean, however, that you prepare yourself to come to the meeting to dominate, to control, or to conduct. This is wrong. Do not prepare yourself to come to the meeting to conduct the meeting or to control the meeting. You must, however, prepare yourself to come in to bear the meeting. The meeting is just like the ark in the ancient times. The Levites bore the ark on their shoulders just like the palanquin in the Song of Songs. The elders should be those bearing the palanquin of Christ. This makes a difference. The church meetings should not be just a Bible-study class, but full of the Spirit, full of life, full of prayer, full of the fresh atmosphere, and full of freedom for everyone to open their mouths to speak forth Christ. This must be basic.
If we could bear a meeting in such a way, I would propose that we look at the situation of the present condition of the church in our locality to determine what the present need is. The Lord may lead you to pick up a certain book such as John, Matthew, or Mark. In the church meetings it would be good to continue on a certain book and to go through it chapter after chapter. The principle for the meetings is the same as with your personal study. Some elements, of course, must be very different from our personal study. Undoubtedly, we have to pray-read the basic verses in the meeting, but the leaders and the elders should not let the pray-reading go too long. If the pray-reading is too long at the opening time of the meeting, it kills the meeting. Therefore, the pray-reading at the beginning of the meeting should not be over fifteen minutes. Open the meeting either by singing, by praising, or by reading plus pray-reading. It is better to pray-read for fifteen minutes and at the most twenty minutes. Do not go further. If you go further, the long opening kills the remainder of the meeting.
After the pray-reading, sometimes the saints may have the leading to share something. This is good. You must give them the time and the liberty to share something. However, the elders should always be in control of the steering wheel of the car or the rudder of the sailing boat. The elders should always do this, but they should not control the meeting. To control the meeting is one thing, but to keep the steering wheel in your hand is another thing. This means you would not let the car go outside of the lane to get in an accident.
To put the steering wheel or the rudder in your hand you must first get the message into you, and you must get into the message to pick up certain crucial points. During the meeting you have to weigh the situation. If thirty minutes have gone by and it seems that there has been nothing solid to nourish people, you should “put out a dish.” To put out a dish means to minister a certain crucial point which is rich, refreshing, enlightening, edifying, and building. In principle, however, you should not occupy the entire remaining time. Just serve the saints one dish and let them continue. See what will come out. Many times something will come out in a very positive way. Then you can observe the meeting for another twenty minutes. If the meeting is going on in a good way, let it continue. If you have some more crucial points do not put them out. You may have some more dishes, but keep them for the next meal, for the next meeting. Let the saints testify freely in a rich way. If the meeting still has not been uplifted after twenty minutes, then you need to minister another crucial point, to serve them with “the top dessert.” Sometimes you do not need to serve any dish because the sharings in the meeting are very rich and refreshing. You do not need to annul this kind of rich, refreshing sharing. Rather, you have to pray, “Lord, go ahead. Lord, go ahead.” Do not think that you have something. Even if you have something, keep it for the next meeting. In other words, the elders should always be ready to make up the lack in the meeting.