First Corinthians is the unique book regarding Christian meetings (11:17; 14:23, 26, 34, 35) revealing that the Christian meetings are to build up the church (14:4-5, 12, 26). We should keep this thought in our understanding whenever we take the lead to help the home meetings. Our purpose is not just to save sinners or to edify the new believers. Our ultimate purpose, our final goal, is to build up the church. From the beginning, we must have this understanding, and with this understanding we will impress people. Whatever we are will impress people. If you are a happy person, your happy face will impress people. If you are a sad person, your sad face and sad appearance will impress people. We must learn to impress people by what we are, what we think, and what we understand. What we understand is that we are here to build up the church. Our standing is to build up the church. Thus, in every kind of activity, whether preaching the gospel, edifying the saints, or going to the meetings, our goal is to build up the church.
Many times we do not need to mention the term church. We should simply do whatever we do with the realization of the building up of the church. Then whatever we do, whatever we say, and whatever we are, will impress people, and all of the new ones will be brought into this same realization concerning the building up of the church.
We build up the church in the church meetings by the Spirit’s gifts, the Lord’s ministries, and God’s operations (1 Cor. 12:3-7). We enjoy the Spirit’s gifts by enjoying Christ and, following our enjoyment of Christ, we call upon His name. During our day, in our daily life, we need to enjoy Christ all the time. Then we need to practice calling on the name of the Lord according to what we have enjoyed of the Lord. By these two things we will have the gift.
The gift comes out of the growth in life, and the growth in life comes out of our enjoyment of Christ. If we do not enjoy Christ, there is no growth in Him. However, the more we enjoy Him as our life supply, the more we grow in life, and the more we grow in life, the more the gift is produced. The gift is an issue of the enjoyment of Christ. This is different from the so-called Pentecostal teaching, but it is completely according to the Bible’s revelation. The so-called Pentecostal gift that comes suddenly does not last long. There is the need of the gift as an issue of the growth in life. When there is the growth in life, that growth produces a certain gift.
A baby boy has very little gift because there is little growth in life. He needs some measure of growth in life which develops his gift. As he grows day after day, month after month, and year after year, the growth in life brings the gift. He begins to speak, crawl, stand, and walk. These are all gifts brought in through the growth in life. Growth brings the gift. We must help the new believers to enjoy Christ, to grow in Christ, and by this growth and calling on the name of the Lord, the gifts will be produced. When the gifts are produced, the new believers simply need to function. When they function, they accomplish the Lord’s ministries by preaching the gospel to save sinners and by ministering life to edify the saints for the building up of the church life. The result is not just that sinners are saved or saints are edified but that the church is built up.
The Spirit’s gifts, the Lord’s ministries, and the operation of God should be manifested among all the attendants in the meetings, including the meetings of the new believers. Therefore, we do not go to a new believers’ meeting and only teach them to pray or teach them with the Life Lessons or Truth Lessons. This alone is inadequate. We must be a person who enjoys Christ daily; then as we take the lead among the new believers, they will follow us to enjoy Christ. We must become callers, learning to call on the name of the Lord Jesus all the time. As callers, we set up an example for the new ones, and they too will follow us to call on the Lord’s name. As they call, they will get into the Spirit. Then whenever we come together with them, the gifts will be manifested among them and the functions will follow. Thus, the operation of God will be accomplished.
God’s ordained way for Christian meetings is to have two different sizes of meetings: small and large. The smaller size is to be held or practiced in the believers’ homes. Do not despise the small meetings. You may only meet with another couple or with parents and their little child. Apparently, such a small meeting seems insignificant. But you have to realize that human society is composed of small homes with small families. A community or society of millions of people comes from small families. No human society can be built up without the small families in their small homes. In human society big gatherings are not held that regularly. Instead the husband, wife, and children come together in their own home every day. If every family is strong, the community and society will be strong.
In the past we followed Christianity’s way to esteem the big meetings. When we held big meetings, we felt good and happy, and we felt that we had something of which to boast. But when we had a small meeting of only three or four persons, we were disappointed. Within the last year in Taipei, however, nearly three thousand new home meetings have been established. Each home meeting is composed of about three or four. If you look at a single home meeting, it seems that it is too small and insignificant. But when you put them all together, they mean a great deal.