In this message, I will fellowship first concerning the present situation among the churches in the Lord’s recovery and then present some definite steps which are needed for practicing the New Testament priesthood of the gospel.
To build up any nation there is the need of people. With only a handful of people, a nation cannot be built up. God wants to gain a large number of people for His kingdom. Some may disagree, saying that in Luke 12 the Lord referred to His disciples as a “little flock” (v. 32); but that was when the Lord Jesus was on this earth before His death and resurrection. He had not yet gone to the cross to die, to accomplish redemption, and He had not yet been resurrected. At that time He had only a handful of people with Him, mainly only twelve; so it was right for Him to call them a “little flock.” But after His death and resurrection, He spoke to them differently. He said: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (Matt. 28:18-19). To disciple all the nations is to gain them to establish a kingdom. For this kingdom there is the need for a large number of people. Therefore, on the day of Pentecost, about three thousand were added to the church (Acts 2:41). Shortly after Pentecost, “the number of the men came to about five thousand” (4:4). Then in Acts 6 it says that “the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied exceedingly” (v. 7). We must consider how our own situation compares with that revealed in the Bible.
We are here as a testimony of the Lord’s move on this earth in His recovery. Today in the United States, there are more than two hundred churches. This number is quite high, but very few local churches in the United States have over two hundred members. In southern California alone, there are twenty-five churches, but each church has only a small number of saints. We have had such a small number for nearly twenty years. During this time, the lack of increase in our numbers has been quite bothersome. This lack of increase has been not only with the churches in the Lord’s recovery, but also with all of Christianity. When I came to this country in 1958, I was told that half of all Americans were Christians. Today, after thirty-one years, it has increased just a little. The leading ones of the big denominations are bothered by their lack of increase. In Great Britain, nearly all the big denominations have been decreasing over the past fifteen years.
Within the last few years in the United States, the Southern Baptists have begun to take the way of door-knocking in their preaching of the gospel. They have done this because they realize that the way they have been preaching the gospel has not been working so well.
One of the brothers recently showed me a newspaper article which said that twenty years ago in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a church was raised up with seventeen people. But now they have ten thousand members. In twenty years, they increased from seventeen to ten thousand members. The article indicates that they did this by door-knocking, by visiting people in their homes.
In doing anything, if there is no profit or improvement, the way must be wrong. None of us should be self-content with the present numbers in the churches. Fifteen years ago the number of saints in southern California was bigger than it is today. This lack of increase troubled me to such an extent that I turned my whole attention to this matter in October 1984. At that time I purposely went to Taiwan to study this matter. Gradually, I found out that our way is wrong. Christianity’s way is wrong, and our way is also wrong because it has somewhat come out of their way. Although some improvements have been made, our way has been and still is in the same category as that of Christianity’s. In the matter of the gospel preaching, there is not much difference between our way and theirs.
I am sharing this because I am burdened that we all would wake up and no longer be contented with the present situation in the churches. We should be tired of coming together and seeing the same faces in meeting after meeting. We need some new members. If there were a lot of new ones in this meeting, everyone would be excited. The reason so few are saved and baptized among us and the reason that most of the baptized ones do not remain in the church life is because our way is wrong.
What has been the result from our old way? We all have to admit the fact that we have not had the proper increase in the churches. Some local churches were much larger in the mid-1970s than they are today. This is a shame to the Lord, and we should feel shameful. We should not be contented, and we should not deceive ourselves. It is a shame for us to remain in the recovery, day after day and year after year, with little or no increase. My burden is that we would all wake up and rise up to practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel to gain people for God’s kingdom.
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