Those of us who have been in the church life for a number of years may have become old, so we all need to have a new start. I would entreat all of us to drop all of our traditional knowledge and background from Christianity. We should just practice what the Bible teaches. To practice the biblical way, we have to begin every morning with the Lord to get ourselves revived anew (Lam. 3:22-23). We also need to devote ourselves to the Lord. In the recent winter training on Leviticus, we saw from Leviticus 27 that the Lord desires that we devote all that we are and have to Him. Devote is a stronger word than consecrate because it implies making a vow to the Lord. We should tell the Lord, “Lord, I vow to You to devote myself to You for Your biblical way.”
If we are going to devote ourselves to the Lord for His biblical way, we have to visit people. I hope that we would all devote two days a week to the Lord, three hours of each day, for visiting people. The Lord has done so much for us. In return we can dedicate this time to the Lord. We should be able to separate, sanctify, six hours to the Lord every week. We can use the weekends or the weekday nights for this purpose. We need to do this by making a vow: “Lord, I vow to You that from today I will give You three hours, twice each week.” This would be in addition to the regular meetings of the church. We should at least have a prayer meeting during the week and attend the church meeting on the Lord’s Day in order to have the Lord’s table and the speaking for the Lord. If we all would give the Lord six hours a week to visit people for preaching the gospel, we will surely and eventually gain some new ones. If we cannot gain some new ones one week, we will gain some the next week.
We need to visit people with the goal that within one year we will have two remaining fruit for the Lord. Whether we baptize ten or five in a year, we should look to the Lord that at least two of them will be remaining fruit. We can go out twice a week, three hours each time, either to baptize people or to nourish, cherish, and teach them. We can go out to raise the new ones up in Christ and to bring them together as a small group. We need to visit them again and again to continually nourish, cherish, and teach them. The mothers know that raising up children is a “joyful hardship.” It is hard but joyful. After two months of caring for certain new ones, we will love them as our own babes. After one year they will do the same thing that we are doing. In every family, as the little ones grow, they imitate their parents. Whatever we do, the new ones will do. Whatever we speak, they will speak.
The human race is being raised up, not by big gatherings but in homes. In home after home over the whole earth, children are being raised up. This is an example, a type, of the saints being raised up to be the church. The New Testament shows us that it is in home after home that we raise up the saints to be a church. If many of us would rise up to visit people in their homes, I believe the churches would double in a year. I have the assurance that whoever devotes six hours a week to visiting people will have two remaining fruit yearly.
Suppose that fifty percent of the saints who meet with us decide to devote six hours a week to the Lord for this purpose. The other fifty percent might not be able to go out due to their health, their limited physical strength, or their environment, but they can still pray for the ones who do go out. If each one who goes out gains two new ones yearly, the number of the church will be doubled. I hope that many of us will rise up to take this way. I have received reports from many places around the world. Many churches are rising up to take the biblical way, and the results are very encouraging. The biblical way to take for the increase of the church is first, to visit people for gospel preaching; second, to have home meetings with the newly saved ones; third, to have small group meetings; and fourth, to bring the baptized, nourished, cherished, and taught new ones into the church meetings.
If the church meetings are too big, not many of the saints will have an opportunity to speak for the Lord. For this reason, it is good to have meetings of about fifty saints on the Lord’s Day. If there are three hundred saints meeting on the Lord’s Day in a certain locality, they can be divided into six meetings of fifty each. On the Lord’s Day, we can have a meeting for the Lord’s table and use the remainder of the time for the saints to practice 1 Corinthians 14:26. Each one has something, and many of the saints will speak. Twenty saints speaking for three minutes each will occupy one hour. Sometimes the speaking will be shorter, but if it is too short it will not be that rich. According to our experience, three minutes is a good amount of time to speak for the Lord. This time is not just to give a testimony or to praise the Lord but to give a short message. The saints’ speaking in the meetings in this way will be a ministering of Christ to one another, and this speaking will build up the Body organically.
The preaching of the gospel, the home meetings, and the group meetings are steps to prepare people to fully enter into the church life. We have to utilize the Lord’s Day for a church meeting because many people are free on the Lord’s Day. The majority of the saints will be the most free on the Lord’s Day, so we need to have a church gathering, but not with a big group. A big group is mostly good for one person speaking, not for many of the saints to speak. To practice 1 Corinthians 14:26—“each one has”—there is the need of time. It is best to have meetings of fifty to eighty so that many saints are afforded the time and have the opportunity to speak for the Lord.
During the week the saints will be free to go out. The saints who go out do not need to be organized and managed under the eldership. They can simply go out to visit people to get them saved. Then they can go to have home meetings with the new ones and group them together into small groups. In this way people will get saved, and they will be nourished, taught, and brought into the church meetings. The new ones will learn of us in our preaching the gospel, and in the home meetings and group meetings we can instruct them to speak. We can tell them that we do not have pastors or preachers, but all the saints exhort, encourage, and comfort each other. After we meet with the new ones for six months, they will have learned much. What we have fellowshipped is the principle of raising up the saints to form a church and to build up the Body of Christ.
The biblical way to practice the church life can never allow us to be idle or slothful. This will keep us doing something every day for the Lord, and every year we will bear two remaining fruit for the Lord. Some may ask, “Suppose the elders in my locality would not agree with this?” We should respect the elders, but every believer has the freedom in the Spirit that no elder can control. If we feel led of the Lord, we should go to preach the gospel by visiting people. No one can condemn this. Then we can continue to go to the ones that we have baptized to have home meetings with them. We can also go to have group meetings, and bring the new ones to the church meetings. Even if the elders do not agree with what we are doing, they will be happy because we are bringing new ones into the church. If we meet with the same people for many years and never have any new ones among us, we may become bored of seeing one another. A new child in a family makes the family happy. All the elders will be grateful to the saints who bring in the new ones. We should not be discouraged, disappointed, or held back. We must go on with the Lord to bear remaining fruit. The result will convince people.