There must be a beginning point. We must be very definite in our going out to preach the gospel. We must make a budget. We should not be uncertain in any point. Furthermore, we should not have an unrealistically large budget. If we try to go out every day, we will probably fail. For the long run, it is probably best to go out just two days each week. This is a more practical budget for those brothers and sisters who must work at a regular job and for the sisters who have families to care for at home. Set your budget to go out twice a week during two set days, each time for two or three hours. Do it regularly, constantly, and definitely, unless you are too ill to go out. Disregard your emotions and just go out. Budget yourself in this way.
Your going out must always be in a very regulated way. It is good to go in the Body. Visit people as a team. Even if you are going to see one of your close relatives, it is very good to bring one or two saints with you, especially if your relative may know one of the saints. He may have an open ear to such a one.
Once you have baptized two or three, you should consider spending more time with them. It may be that you will not have the way to go out to bring additional new ones to the Lord for a period of time. Instead, you may need to spend all your time caring for your two or three new ones. You probably will need one year’s time in order to raise up a person in the Lord. It is very similar to rearing children. All mothers know that rearing children is neither fast nor easy.
You may begin to realize that the two or three whom you are laboring on are not very promising. You should not drop them, but you have to consider whether or not it is profitable to spend so much time with them. If it is not profitable, you should go out to get two or three more. Laboring in the gospel is like the work of a farmer. When one farms, he must discern the soil, the land. Nothing may grow on a certain piece of land. If this is the case, the farmer must leave it and farm the land that really produces. We still must exercise to be careful because our discernment may not always be dependable.
If we practice this way year round, surely we can bring at least one promising one into the church life each year. It depends upon the degree to which we will give ourselves for such a life. If we really give ourselves for this, it may be that each of us can bring three persons into the church life each year. We do not need to be a full-timer to achieve such a result. It simply depends upon our regular labor. We must labor regularly every week and every year, regardless of the weather or other factors. We must learn to preach the gospel as a child learns to play the piano. Without training, nothing can be learned.
After gaining people we must spend adequate time to nourish, to cherish, and to raise them up as our spiritual children. Paul likened himself to a nursing mother (1 Thes. 2:7) and an entreating father (1 Thes. 2:11). He was both a mother and a father to his spiritual children. The shortage among us has been in not raising up the children. After delivering the children, many times we have forgotten about them. We must take the new way in caring for our spiritual children. Please do not think that such a practice comprises the entire church life. Our going out twice a week for two or three hours should be just a small part of our church life. Additionally, we should attend the Lord’s Day morning meeting, the prayer meeting, and other meetings of the church. Going out to visit people twice a week is just a part of our normal church life.
Endeavor to be trained to go out. Fellowship with the saints in your locality. If you come together as a team, you will find the best way to get people to open to you and the best way to answer their questions. If you do this regularly for one year with a humble spirit and attitude, empty and willing to learn, you will become a real expert in preaching the gospel.
Christianity has been praying for a revival for many years. We should not pray in this way. We should pray: “Lord, raise up one-third of the saints to preach the gospel. Let these one-third make up their mind and pick up the burden to practice this new way as their duty, as a part of their daily Christian life.” If in every church one-third can be raised up in this way, there will be a real revival among us after only one year’s time. This kind of revival is not by emotion but by the fact of fruit-bearing. If two-thirds of the saints can be raised up in this way, we will see at least one hundred percent increase yearly.
A good number of us must make up our minds to take this God-ordained way of preaching the gospel and practice it by forming teams to go out regularly to visit people to bring them into salvation. We must go to them again and again to have home meetings with them and to nourish them, to cherish them, and to feed them. After a while, we will bear remaining fruit as a result of our going in the way ordained by God.
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