The instructions I am giving now concerning the new way are different from what I spoke in Taiwan. In Taiwan I charged you to visit people and to get them baptized immediately. But today I do not encourage you to get people baptized in a quick way. Also, when you visit people, do not speak too quickly to them concerning the Bible, God, Christ, or salvation. If you do, people may think that you are too religious and that they cannot come up to your standard. They may be turned away by your enthusiasm. In your first visit with someone who has been recommended to you, do not stay very long; the shorter the visit, the better. A short visit will give the one who is visited a good taste, so that he will welcome another visit. Do not spoil the taste of those whom you visit. On the first visit, do not speak too much concerning spiritual things.
As you visit a second or third time, you may begin to say something concerning Christ. You may need to go a few times before you are able to get a person saved. The principle is: the slower, the better; the slower it is, the safer it is. The slower the pace is, the more certain it is that you can gain that person.
We have said that if we could get one real fruit in a year through our contact, that would be a great matter. It may even be possible to get one person every three months. Generally speaking, one gained in this way may be steady.
Baptism also should not be done in a quick way. Try to avoid baptizing people in a bathtub. This does not mean that it should not be done at all; it depends on the situation. Actually, any place where there is water—a baptismal tank, a bathtub, a pool, a river, or the sea—is good for baptizing people, but when you go out to visit people in a regular way, you do not need to baptize people in their bathtubs in a hurry.
When a new one is saved, it may be best not to speak to him immediately concerning the church. You should continue to meet with him in his home or in your group meeting. Then, as the Lord leads, speak with him about the church and bring him to the church meeting.
I would also propose that, if possible, the church set up special meetings for the new ones periodically, one for the Caucasians, another for the Chinese-speakers, and another for the Spanish-speakers. You can bring your new ones to the special meetings. Several groups can bring their new ones to such a meeting. In that special meeting, the first thing to do is to give them a short message concerning baptism and baptize the new ones. Because they are baptized in a baptistry with a number of people surrounding them, they will feel very stately. There should be a joyful celebration with many praises to the Lord for their baptism. Everyone should shake hands with the newly baptized ones. After this you can have the Lord’s table with all the baptized ones and fellowship with them about the Lord’s table. If we practice in this way, we will surely be able to bring Caucasians into the church life.
In the practice of the group meetings, as much as possible the Caucasian saints should not be grouped together with the Chinese saints. Even someone who is not Caucasian by race may be Caucasian in principle because either he was born in America, he speaks typical American English, or his spouse is Caucasian. This is only a principle; it is not absolute. Whatever way allows us to have a success, we will take that way. In principle, all the Caucasian brothers and sisters should group with Caucasians. They should go to visit Caucasians, not Chinese or Spanish. The rate of increase among the Chinese may be higher than among the Caucasians. For example, we may be able to gain ten new ones among the Chinese within two weeks, but it may take three months to gain two Caucasians. Still, this labor is worthwhile. Let the Chinese saints group with the Chinese and go to visit the Chinese. Let the Spanish saints visit the Spanish, and let the Korean saints visit the Koreans.
In a larger church that has a Chinese-speaking meeting, there should also be a Chinese baptism meeting in the way that I described earlier. In the beginning, such a meeting may not take place every week. But eventually, such a special meeting for baptism and the practice of the Lord’s table with the new ones should be conducted every week. In a place where there is only one baptistry, the different meetings by the different groups could be scheduled for different times. Of course, this is just a general idea; for the details we need to pray.
According to the New Testament there are apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers (Eph. 4:11). For the long run the group meetings may need special, spiritual shepherding or teaching. After a few months one group may increase to more than fifteen. At that time the group can divide into two groups. All the brothers who formed the group initially can teach and shepherd, but we cannot expect that the new ones will be able to go very fast. Therefore, we must consider the need for shepherding and teaching. Eventually, when we have many groups, there will be a great need for shepherds and teachers. We must study the situation and pray very much about the coming days.
When the number of group meetings is very large, the care for the groups cannot be done in a general way. Although I hate to use the word leaders, after much consideration, I find it difficult to avoid the need for leaders. According to our present practice, we have only elders, but if the number of groups in a locality grows to be a big number, the relatively small number of elders will not be able to take care of the entire church.
In the long run there will be a great need, but at the present time we must take the initial step to form the groups in a simple way. In the new start with the group meetings, the remaining aspects of the church’s present practice can remain the same. While we are practicing the new group meetings, we should still maintain the regular meetings of the church.