We have to admit that over a period of time, we gradually drifted back to the practice of deformed Christianity. Eventually, the elders among us nearly replaced the saints. All the things of the church were in the hands of the elders and on the shoulders of the elders. The eventual result of this practice was that everyone was fired and replaced with a clergy. The saints were not replaced with Christ but replaced with the elders among us. I am concerned that although the way among us has been changed, our old practice actually still remains. The things concerning the building up of the Body of Christ are still mostly in the hands of the elders.

I would like to give a testimony of my experience in this matter. After the Second World War, the central government of nationalist China moved back to Nanking. In 1946 the saints in Nanking invited me to come and visit them. Eventually, they asked me to move there with my family to stay with them. I moved there in 1947. They had a meeting with me, which could have been considered as a meeting to initiate me into the service of the church there. I told them in the first message that I had a heavy burden to come to Nanking. Then I said that I was going to unload my burden and transfer it from my shoulders to their shoulders. While I was with them, I did this.

The elders should realize that the way that our Head, Christ, takes to build up His Body is to use all of His members. In Matthew 25 there is a parable about the Lord's slaves. Some have five talents, some have two talents, and others have one talent. The Lord treasures the one-talented ones. The problem among us is that we trust too much in the five-talented and two-talented ones. By trusting too much in these two categories of people, we spontaneously and unconsciously annul the one-talented ones.

The God-ordained way which has been brought into the Lord's recovery in these recent years is prevailing to recover the functioning of the members of the Body of Christ. This way annuls the clergy-laity system. Actually, this way revives and resurrects the "laity." Through the God-ordained way, the clergy is buried and the laity is resurrected. I am concerned, however, that in some of the churches the eldership is still replacing the saints. In a certain locality, many new ones may have come into the church. They may be full of joy and rejoicing, but after five years they may become calm. They become calm, and the leading brother who helped them becomes more active. If such a situation is to be resurrected, the so-called clergy must be buried, and all the saints must be resurrected.