Prayer: O Lord, the church needs a revival, and we all need a new start. Even tonight give us a new start with our fellowship. We desire that all the conversations will be altogether new. Deliver us from our habit, and deliver us from our memory of the past. Lord, do cover us with Your prevailing blood against all the fiery darts from the enemy. We want to be free. We want to be new persons. Lord, grant us mercy and grace that we all may be willing to renew our consecration to You. Lord, have such a mercy on us all.
In grouping the saints together in the vital groups, many factors need to be considered. One of the most important and difficult factors to consider is the character of the saints. Our character includes our disposition and temperament, among a number of other things. If the forming of the groups is left to the saints by themselves, without any arrangement through the elders, it may be difficult to complete the process. Thus, I believe that it would be better if the elders would meet together to consider the saints and group them together. Depending on the situation, some of the elderly saints, those who would have a difficult time participating in the practical group activities, can be formed into a prayer group. The prayer group is the top group. Nothing is as good as prayer, and nothing is as needed as prayer. The grouping done by the elders should not be a matter of legality. The saints should have the right to ask for some improvement according to their feeling in the Lord.
Out of all those who volunteer to participate in the English-speaking groups, the majority should be Caucasians. We are burdened to get the Lord’s recovery into the typical Caucasian American society. The Caucasians, mainly the descendants of the immigrants from northern Europe, are the typical Americans. America is built as a democratic country with many peoples. Many of the churches in the Lord’s recovery in America are composed of people from different racial and ethnic origins, all of whom speak English. To reach the typical American community, the Caucasian saints are particularly needed.
When I first came to the United States, I purposely decided that I would not work among the Chinese. I tried my best to work only among the local American people. At that time the immigration quota for the Chinese race was set at one hundred five persons per year. Eventually, the immigration quota was revised, giving the Chinese a quota of twenty thousand a year, ten thousand for Taiwan and ten thousand for mainland China. As a result, tens of thousands of Chinese came to America, a number of them from the churches in Taiwan. Still, I hesitated to take care of the Chinese-speaking work because I realized that if we had more Chinese faces in the meetings, that might disappoint the Caucasian attendants. In 1983 Brother Abraham Chang, realizing the situation, came to me and said that we needed to take care of the Chinese saints because so many had come to America, and many were being lost because of the lack of care. Therefore, from that year I began to take care of the Chinese-speaking saints. However, by doing this we gained on the Chinese side, but we lost on the English side. From that day until today the rate of increase among the Caucasians has been reduced.
At this time we need to concentrate our energy and our manpower to get into the Caucasian community. Therefore, in forming the groups, as much as possible we need to form groups composed of Caucasian saints. It is true that God does not regard persons (Acts 10:34), but the Caucasians regard persons. We are not “selling our cargo” to God; we are selling our cargo to the Caucasians. They may not buy our cargo. Therefore, we must do something particular to gain the Caucasian people. For the sake of the Lord’s interest, we should not take the easy way.
It is better to form the Caucasian saints into Caucasian English-speaking group meetings. The remainder of the English-speakers can be included in general English-speaking groups. Concerning the older ones, it would be very good if they would intercede for the groups. If they would be faithful, I would propose that all of them pray particularly for the groups for one hour each day. There is a need for this. All the members in the groups need to pray. We need much more prayer.