Question: Recently, before we went to a home meeting, we had some fellowship and felt that we should cover the matter of calling upon the name of the Lord in a solid and thorough way. So we got into the footnote on this matter in Acts 2:21 (note 1), and we also got into the Life-study of Romans where this matter is covered in detail (Message Twenty-three). When we went to the home meeting, six members of the family attended. We began by singing some songs about calling upon the name of the Lord, but we could tell by the singing that they were not entering into this matter. We went on to share with them the importance of calling upon the name of the Lord, not only for our salvation, but also for us to participate in all of the Lord’s riches after we are saved. We got into verse after verse, and after each verse we tried to encourage them to practice, saying something like, “Let’s practice calling on the Lord right now. Lord Jesus!” But we could tell that, for some reason, they simply did not want to call on the Lord. This grieved us because we really wanted them to touch the Lord. So we continued to share, going through the Old Testament and then the New Testament, showing them all the verses related to calling on the Lord. In the end, we felt like we had given a message to some people who did not want to know about calling on the Lord. We spoke the Word of God and not our own word, but we also felt that the meeting was a failure. Our aim was to bring them into the matter of contacting their spirit, but we did not accomplish this. Would you make some comments concerning this case?
Answer: First, what you taught was not suitable for the home meeting. The home meeting is the kindergarten, but you were teaching something in graduate school. Do not have home meetings on such a high level. Do not forget that in the home meetings, you are taking care of babes; you are feeding the newborn babes with baby food. You used the Word of God, but you used too many verses. In most cases, three or four verses is enough. When you feed these little babes, you cannot feed them too much. You should always keep them a little hungry. If you overfeed them, they will lose their appetite.
Second, you must feed babes something with a good flavor, something sweet to make them happy. If the food you offer them is sweet to the taste, they will eat. The first thing you have to learn is how to make people feel pleasant. Do not forget that nourishing must go along with cherishing. You have to cherish them first.
The best way to bring the new ones into calling on the name of the Lord is by singing. You can simply take the lead to sing. Everyone, both young and old, likes singing. Do not explain that much to them; explaining is often sour, not sweet. Singing is very sweet. You must be like a nursing mother, making your little ones feel pleasant by giving them something sweet. It is better if you do not need to use the hymnal. You must learn some short, simple songs and choruses that are easy to sing. You may need to sing a chorus quite a few times. The first time you sing it, the new ones may be surprised. The second time, they may listen and begin to enjoy it. Then the third time you sing it, they may begin to join you.
The principle is this: if you are going to help the newborn babes, you must always try to make them happy, to make them feel good. Then they will take what you give them.
Question: We have been visiting a ninety-two-year-old woman and her daughter. We told them that we would like to come and read the Bible with them. We have gone back to do this several times. On one of these occasions, we sang a song for them and taught them how to sing it. Then we read a chapter from the Gospel of John, exercising a little as we read, and fellowshipped a few things related to that portion of the Word, Every time we visit them, they seem to enjoy our time together, especially the singing, and sometimes we are able to impart something of the Word through our reading of the Bible and fellowship. One time we were able to meet some of her grandchildren, so we thought that their home might be the key to the whole family. What are your feelings concerning this case?
Answer: We all must consider what our purpose is in going out to visit people. We are laboring for the increase of the church. For people to be saved and baptized is easy, but for them to become practical, living members in the church life is difficult. Our burden is not only to get people saved and baptized; our purpose is to gain the proper increase for the church life. Therefore, when you go to visit a new one, you must exercise the Lord’s discernment to know whether or not this one could be brought into the church life easily. If it would be hard for this one to be brought into the church life, we should help him to be saved and baptized, but then go out to labor on others. In this way we will find the best sons of peace for the church life.
Our preaching of the gospel is not merely to get people saved and baptized. Our preaching of the gospel is for the building up of the Body of Christ. Therefore, we must seek out the proper persons who would not be so difficult for us to gain for the church life. In visiting people, we must have the discernment to realize which ones would be very hard to bring into the church life. To spend so much time to labor on such an old sister, even if she could be brought into the church life, is not wise. We have to save our time. To spend this much time in hope of gaining her family is also unwise. There are too many other homes and families on which we can spend our time.
Learn to be wise and not waste your time. You have a fishing pond with thousands of fish. There are thousands of homes to which you can go. In going out to save and baptize people, you must labor with discernment. After two weeks your team may have baptized fifteen. Then you have to consider which of these fifteen are proper persons whom you could bring into the church life easily. You must spend most of your time on these promising ones. Out of these fifteen, you may select six. You should not abandon the other nine, but go to visit them perhaps once every two weeks to keep in contact. However, you must spend most of your time on the promising ones.
We all have to be trained to labor with discernment. We are like farmers with too many pieces of land to farm. Therefore, we must select the most productive piece of land on which to work. If we have only five pieces of land, we have no choice; we must labor on them all. If there are only three families in our city, we have to knock on these doors. But there are hundreds of families in our city, so we must go with discernment. We should also discern which communities are the best to work in and which kind of people are the best to labor on. This does not mean that we despise a certain kind of people or that we do not believe that all sinners need God’s salvation. We are going out to gain proper people for the church life that the Body of Christ could be built up. Our commission from the Lord is not only to save sinners but also to build up the church life in the Lord’s recovery as a testimony. Therefore, we must save our time to work on the most promising ones that we could gain the proper increase for the church.
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