In this message we will continue to fellowship concerning the home meetings.
As you labor in the home meetings, you will realize that the new believers under your care need to be led into the practice of the church life. You should not forget that the goal of gaining people is to bring them into the proper church life for the increase of Christ to build up the Body of Christ. Do not wait too long before bringing the new believers into the practice of the church life. Actually, from the day you baptize the new believers, you should begin to direct them into other meetings of the church. If possible, it is best to direct the new believers into the church meeting on the Lord’s Day because that meeting best represents the character of the church life.
Immediately after baptizing a new one, we should bring him into the church meetings and give him some impression concerning the church life. After this initial visit, we should charge him again and again in subsequent home meetings to meet with the saints and with the church. We should help him to realize that Christians are like sheep of a flock. As sheep cannot live apart from the flock, Christians cannot live apart from one another and should come together often.
To have meetings in the new ones’ homes is only the initial stage. While we are having home meetings in their homes, we still should endeavor to bring them out of their own homes into other meetings of the believers, such as the small group meetings or the larger meetings of the church. We should help them to build up a practice of meeting with the saints and with the church.
We have to take the lead to bring the new believers into the practice of preaching the gospel. First, we baptize them, and then we feed them in the home meetings. While we are feeding them, we should help them to have a burden for their relatives. We may say to them, “We brought Christ to you, and now we encourage you to bring Christ to your relatives.” As we accompany the new believers to visit their relatives, these “warm doors” will be open to us. We must lead the new believers to visit their relatives, helping them to realize that this is another part of the practice of the church life.
From the very beginning, we should also lead the new ones to take care of other saints. In raising children the best parents always lead their children to do the same thing that they do. While we are caring for the home meetings, we should gradually lead our new ones into the practice of the church life. The practice of the church life is first, to preach the gospel to gain new believers; second, to meet with the saints and with the whole church; and third, to take care of other saints. From the beginning of their Christian life, the new believers should be brought into the habit of caring for other believers.
We should concentrate on these three things in helping the new believers. Yet we should know that each of these three things is not very easy to practice. They may seem to be easy, but they are somewhat difficult. We all must learn to practice these things to bring the new ones into the proper church life.
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