Prayer: Lord, we do look unto You for Your further leading concerning the group meetings. We need You to lead us step by step. Lord, we fully realize that there is the need to do something, yet we do not know what to do. We are fearful of the matter of the leadership, and we are fearful of falling into a mechanical situation. Lord, we look unto You for Your rescue. Show us something practical that we need for our going on. Lord, thank You for Your recovery, which has been with us for over seventy years. Thank You for Your revelation. Thank You for opening Your Word to us. Even until today the Word is still open. Lord, thank You for Your speaking. Thank You for Your oracle in the recovery. Dear Lord, we are in a position of not knowing how to go on in taking care of the increase, the spreading, of Your recovery. We look unto You, and we trust in You in these days. Amen.
In this message we will have further fellowship concerning the group meetings. The matter of leadership in the groups is very practical. It will be very difficult for us to have the proper practice of the group meetings if we have no leadership at all. However, we do not want to have any organized leadership in the groups. When I went to Taiwan in 1984 I told the saints that we do not like to have any kind of arrangement or official leadership in the church life. For many years before that time we strongly regarded the leadership and uplifted the eldership. It is unavoidable that the elders or some leading ones arrange to sit in the front in the meetings to make it easy for them to take care of the meeting. That is the only reason that they sit in the front. George Müller, who founded an orphanage in England by faith, was a very godly man. Along with John Nelson Darby, he was one of the top leaders among the Brethren. He was accustomed to sitting at the back of the meetings and did not like to come to the front. However, today we feel that it is more convenient for the leading ones to sit in the front of the meeting. This has been the reason that the elders sit in front. Actually, we should not be legal. The fact that one is an elder does not mean that he has to sit in front. Some of the elders do not need to sit in front. Some, however, sat in back before they were appointed to be elders, but once they became elders they spontaneously came to the front. This indicates that there is a concept within us that makes the leadership something.
In Matthew 20:20-28 and 23:6-12 the Lord charged the disciples not to desire the leadership among them. In 23:8 He told them that they were all brothers. Sometimes when a husband was made an elder, his wife celebrated it. When I spoke on Matthew in 1977, I charged the sisters who were wives of the elders not to consider themselves the “first ladies.” The Lord charged us to be slaves, not lords (20:25-27; 23:11). A wife of an elder is not a “first lady” but a wife of a slave. I was forced by the situation among us at that time to speak so strongly in this way, and that speaking cleared up the situation.
The wrong concept of the leadership is abominable in the eyes of the Lord. In the seven and a half years of study that we have had concerning the group meetings, we have taken the basic principle of not arranging or organizing anything. The group meetings must be organic. Likewise, we have taken the principle of having no official leadership. I said repeatedly that in the group meetings everyone is a leader. However, those who initiate and form the groups must provide some practical leadership.
Many of the brothers have accepted my word warmly, yet no one has done something to have a definite beginning in the practice of the group meetings. Until now I have been like a coach who only gives instructions but does not play on the playing field. I have waited for others to pick up my word and pick up the burden, but I have not seen the results that I expected to see. This has forced me to take the Lord’s laboring way and help the churches to begin the group meetings. Without the group meetings there is no way for the spread, the increase, and the multiplication.
The recovery is a family with more than seventy years of background and also with a present situation. Although the number of saints is not large, at present there are approximately thirteen hundred churches in the Lord’s recovery around the globe. Today we are very clear and definitely burdened to have a new beginning in practicing the group meetings to care for these many churches. After the group meetings are formed, we must go out in a simple way to gain people. After we beget the new ones, we need to feed them. Then we need to perfect them. To perfect people is mainly to teach them. For this we have the Life Lessons (see Life Lessons, published by Living Stream Ministry), the Truth Lessons (see Truth Lessons, published by Living Stream Ministry), and many other publications. By using these materials properly we can build up the new ones within one year to do the same things that we do. However, not many of us know how to feed and teach the new ones. Because of this, we cannot see the new ones being perfected.
In order for the brothers and sisters to form the groups, they must be trained. Not everyone is qualified to form a group meeting. Forming the group meetings may be compared to playing the piano. Anyone can press the keys on a piano, but not everyone can play the piano. To play the piano there is the need of training. We have released many points concerning the group meetings, but the saints may still not know how to carry them out. If we practice the group meetings in a natural way, we do not need to train the saints. However, in order to practice the vital groups in the biblical way, we will need many meetings to train the beginners, the co-workers, and those who have volunteered, to form the groups. If we allow the saints to form the groups freely, without any training, the groups that are formed may not be proper. In order to form the groups properly, each group may need to have one or two leaders.
We may say that in principle we do not need man’s teaching since we have the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:27). In principle this is true, but in actuality it is not that way. The apostle Paul was filled with the Spirit, and he had much experience of the Spirit. Besides the organic work of the Spirit, however, he also took care of the arrangement in the work. In 1 Timothy he told us how to establish the elders and the deacons (ch. 3). He did not say that as long as the Spirit is in us and we love the Lord and pray much, the Spirit will lead us to know who the elders and the deacons should be. After Paul preached the gospel in several cities, he returned to visit the churches and appointed elders there (Acts 14:21-23). Although Paul practiced this way, he did not write concerning the appointing of elders and deacons in the early days of his ministry. His teaching concerning this matter was given later because by that time he had learned that wherever there was no proper appointment of elders, there would be some confusion or trouble in the church.
Paul’s practice and teaching indicates the principle of incarnation: the Spirit works, but He works through man. We must definitely and clearly depend on the Spirit for His organic work, but on the human side, we still need some kind of training and arrangement. To allow the volunteers to go out to get a companion and form group meetings on their own will not work well. An initial training of the saints is very important because out of it the groups will be produced in a proper way.
First, those who volunteer for the vital groups should be formed into groups, and then they should be trained and regulated. This will provide a foundation. Each of these groups may grow and divide into two groups within half a year or at most one year. This is a one hundred percent increase according to the number of groups, although not according to the total number of saints in the church, because not all the members of the church will be in the groups. We expect that one third of the church will be in the group meetings.