Question: A problem we have been having is that when we go to a home meeting, our new one will ask so many questions about so many things that we have trouble covering any point in a solid way. How can we avoid this?
Answer: If a person raises a number of questions, you should try to answer only one and try to make him understand that it is hard to answer so many questions in one visit. You can tell him that this time you will cover only one question and that you will come back after a few days. If time allows you may cover a second question. You should not try to answer every question. Some questions may be concerning secular subjects like science. In this case we must be honest and humble and say that we did not study that field and cannot answer that question. Even if you know something concerning science, it is better to avoid that kind of question because that will not render much help to the spiritual life. You should save your time and try to concentrate on rendering definite spiritual help.
Question: We have been burdened that the new ones would enter into the preaching of the gospel. Should we promote this, or should we focus on the four practices that have been shared in this message?
Answer: When we go to the home meeting, we must have a purpose. Our purpose is simply to nourish the new ones that they would grow. Therefore, we must have some points within us that we want to impart to them. For instance, every new believer should have the assurance of salvation. That is very good for them. Also, every new one should know that the Lord Jesus is not only the Savior who died on the cross for our sins to redeem us, but also that after redeeming us, He became a life-giving Spirit. Today the Savior, Jesus Christ, is the life-giving Spirit, and as the Spirit, He can enter into our spirit. We have to nourish the new ones with this. Then we have to help them to learn these four basic practices so that they can start to live the Christian life. Without reading the Bible, without praying, without having morning watch, and without attending the meetings, no one can begin the Christian life. However, we cannot decide that in this home meeting we will talk to them about any particular thing. That is too legal. We must have a purpose that we want to carry out. Eventually we can establish these practices as a base, and we can go on.
Gradually, after about half a year, they will reach a stage where they need the help of our teaching. They have been saved, yet they do not know what salvation is. They have been regenerated, yet they do not know what regeneration is. They have been justified, yet they do not know what justification is. Their sins have been forgiven, but they do not know what it means for their sins to be forgiven by God. Therefore, in this stage we have to give them some teaching. For our own help, we should refer to the Life Lessons and Truth Lessons. But we should not teach the new ones in a legal way as if we were using a textbook. We must simply go with a purpose and act according to the need by living in the spirit.
Question: We are not sure whether some whom we have contacted can be gained for the church life. How should we go on with these?
Answer: We made a big mistake in the past. Our contact with people was aimless. We contacted this one once or twice; then we forgot about him. We labored on another one, but after three weeks we went to contact a different one. Then we went to another one. We thought that by this way we could gain more people, but eventually we had no result. Through over four years of study, I learned that our visiting, our contacting, people must be with a very definite goal. We cannot be like a mother who delivers three children and then leaves them to deliver more. This is foolish.
You must carry out the Lord’s work in a definite way. Go to a new city, and visit homes to get some baptized. As long as you have two or three newly baptized ones, stop visiting new homes, and take care of these two or three by feeding them. Eventually you may lose two of these, leaving you with only one new one. This is not enough, so you must try again to gain more new ones by door-knocking. As long as you are laboring on two or three, that is good enough. You must visit them again and again.
While you are working, you must exercise the Lord’s discernment concerning these ones. Then after about three or four weeks, you will realize which of these three are worthwhile for you to labor on further. You may find out that only one of the three is really worth the time you are giving to work on them. Then you should try to get some more new ones to labor on. This does not mean that you would give up the other two completely; you would simply not spend so much of your time on them. By doing this, you can work on certain persons in a definite way and within a year you can gain one or two solid ones as remaining fruit. You may think that this is too few, but actually, this is not too few. If you are a full-timer, you can bring in from five to ten every year by this way.
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