Our experiences in the past and our experiments in the recent years have led us to conclude that, although the church life should be organic, by the Spirit, in the Spirit, and with the Spirit, still there is the need for some arrangement. This understanding has been strongly confirmed by the last seven and a half years. During these years I taught that the church life should be organic, without any arrangement under any leadership. However, concerning the practice of the God-ordained way, the coming out has not been as satisfactory as it should be. This may show that there is the need to have the leadership in a proper way.
According to what principle should the groups be formed? We should not form the groups merely according to geography or according to the saints’ age, and we surely should not do it according to preference. The way of choosing according to self-interest always brings in death.
In the beginning we can set up the groups with seven or eight members. Then, within a year each group should double, at which point they should be divided, one group of sixteen becoming two groups of eight.
The most necessary requirement for grouping together is intimacy. After a number of weeks the seven or eight members of a group should become one person in a thorough intimacy. Then, within this inner circle of intimacy the group should practice the fellowship and also the feeding. Gospel preaching is not something to be practiced in the inner circle. The matter of fellowshipping requires a great deal of study and practice because we either do not have fellowship, or we merely come together to gossip. Actually, gossip is not fellowship. It is full of leaven and corruption. We need to avoid any kind of gossip.
We also need to practice intercession, that is, to pray for one another. Intercession depends on and is based on fellowship. Following intercession we need to practice the mutual shepherding and caring for one another. Shepherding is implied in the caring for one another. Then we should practice teaching one another in mutuality. This kind of teaching is very similar to feeding. We should not have just one man teaching; rather, we should practice mutual teaching through mutual inquiry and mutual answering. If we allow only one man to teach, the rest will not be able to practice prophesying. The way of mutual teaching is a foundation of the practice of prophesying. In the group meetings we need to build up all these things.
We will need approximately four months to practice all these things. Then we will practice the last item, the matter of going out to visit people for the gospel. For this we need much practice. We need to study in order to know people’s need and to find out to whom we should go. Altogether, we will need approximately five months to form the groups, to be trained, and to practice. I believe that if we will do this, when we go out we will be effective.
If possible we may keep the principle that we will visit people only by recommendation. We need to ask the saints to give us the names of their relatives and acquaintances. Some recommendations can even be made by correspondence. Then we can arrange to call or contact the recommended ones.
Even though gaining Caucasians is somewhat difficult, by all these ways I believe that we can do it. No one can blockade us. According to our present practice, it is possible for those in organized Christianity to blockade us. Actually, they have blockaded us already in Orange County. If we will take the way of groups, I believe that we can jump out of the blockade.
The matter of bringing the new ones into contact with the church should be carried out according to the situation. We may feel that certain new ones are ready to attend a church meeting after only a short time. Some new ones may even ask to come to a meeting. I hope that the church meetings will be greatly improved. I believe that the Lord’s present move to form the groups will inspire and uplift the church life.
In the forming of the groups we need to take care of the matter of age. Those who are too old should remain at home to pray for the groups. We may liken the practice of the vital groups to the forming of an army. Not every citizen is suitable to join the army. We need to let the church know that the vital groups are like an army. Those who are burdened are encouraged to participate, but they need to consider whether their joining of the groups will help the groups or not. If not, it is better if they remain home and pray for the groups.
For the first stages of the teaching in the groups, it may be profitable to use the Life Lessons (see Life Lessons, published by Living Stream Ministry). The forty-eight Life Lessons will be sufficient for one year. In order to use these lessons properly in the group meetings, we will need much training. We should not let the group meetings go on without any guidelines; there must be some regulation.
The length of the group meetings should be approximately ninety minutes, or at the most two hours. We can divide the meetings into four sections, each section lasting about twenty minutes. The first twenty minutes should be for fellowship, and the succeeding twenty-minute sections should be for interceding, shepherding, and teaching, respectively. The group meetings will not be like the general church meetings; rather, they will be somewhat like an army. We can train all the members of the groups, but we may not be able to train all the members in the church life. Some may not be able to receive the training.
When Brother Nee wrote the three volumes of The Spiritual Man, he was seriously ill with tuberculosis. He wrote those three volumes in approximately one year, in 1926 and 1927. After he finished, he was exhausted, and he was prepared to die. At least in part his serious illness was due to his labor in writing that book. Then one day Brother Nee was healed by the Lord through a genuine divine healing. According to my knowledge, in his work for the Lord Brother Nee rarely had any peace; on the contrary, he was continually struggling and fighting against all kinds of troubles.
All the serving ones must learn to be diligent, doing everything with diligence but not doing anything in haste. To serve the Lord, we must be like soldiers in the military service. Once a person enters into the military service, he is put under regulations twenty-four hours a day. From the time he rises in the morning to the time he goes to bed in the evening, everything is regulated. In the Lord’s recovery, if we do not exercise and conduct ourselves properly, we will be spoiled. According to our present way of doing things, if the recovery were a commercial business, we would not succeed. In the field of commerce, everything is a battle. However, in the recovery we may not have any sense that we are in a battle. It seems that in everything we take it easy. This is not right. In the spiritual sense, in the Lord’s work we should be like those who are competing in business in order to make a profit (Luke 19:13b).