The Christian meeting, that is, the way to meet together, is a very common matter to Christians. In this message, however, we will see something that is not common. What is the proper way for Christians to have their meetings, and where can we find some instruction in the New Testament that tells us how to have our meetings? Is the way of meeting which Christianity takes today the right way? Is the way of meeting which we take the right way?
It seems that 1 Corinthians 14:26 is the only portion of the Word in which we can find instruction on how to have our meetings. As far as I can tell from the history of the church, this verse was discovered by the Brethren in the nineteenth century. The Brethren were raised up around 1828. Not long after that, according to what we can read from their writings, they received light on 1 Corinthians 14:26. From that time on, the Brethren insisted very much that whenever Christians come together, it should not be in the way of a pastor or minister teaching and bearing the full responsibility of the meeting. Rather, all the brothers had to share the responsibility of the meeting, following the Holy Spirit to share something with the others.
However, after many years of experiences I came to the conclusion that even in this verse we do not have the proper way to have our meeting. This verse is more or less on the technical side, giving us some techniques, but strictly speaking, it does not give us the way. What then is the way? It seems we do not have any such instructions. There is nothing in the book of Acts that tells us the way. In the Epistles, Ephesians 5:19 tells us to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. However, this refers more to the Christian daily life. Even though this verse tells us to speak to one another, it is not clear that it refers to the meetings. Therefore, strictly speaking, it is hard to find any passage in the New Testament giving us an instruction for the way to have our meetings.
Is the way of meeting which Christianity takes today the right way? We can quickly answer “no.” We must drop the way of Christianity. It is abnormal, religious, and altogether derived from tradition, and we must give it up. What about our way of meeting today? We also have to admit that our way is not the right way, because we came from the religious way. We have been too much influenced by our background. This is not only the case today. Thirty years ago I personally listened to Brother Watchman Nee talk about this matter. At that time he was trying to do away with the message meeting on the Lord’s Day morning. He challenged us, asking, “What kind of meeting is this?” Yes, we called the Lord’s Day morning meeting the message meeting or the edification meeting, but he said that this meeting was merely according to the traditional way, for church goers to have a religious “service.” He said that there is no scriptural ground for this kind of meeting, so we should drop it. This has been taught for more than thirty years, but still today we have not yet dropped this way of meeting. Oh, we do not know how much we have been influenced by tradition and our background!
Before we can find the way to have our meeting, we have to know what the Christian meeting is. The Christian meeting is a corporate expression of our Christian life. In other words, it is an expression of the Christian life, in a corporate way. We all agree that the most important meeting for us is the Lord’s table meeting. We Christians may give up any kind of meeting, but one meeting we should not give up is the meeting for the Lord’s table. Why do we come together to have the Lord’s table? Someone may say that it is simply to remember the Lord. If we understand the meaning of the Lord’s table only to this extent, our understanding is still religious. The Lord’s table is a testimony, a declaration, a proclamation, in a corporate way of the Christian life. We live and we walk by the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ. He is our life, and we live by Him day by day. Now once a week on the first day of the week, on the day of His resurrection, we come together to testify of this kind of life, to make a declaration, a proclamation, and a testimony in a corporate way to the whole universe that we live by the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ. By this we can understand that the meeting is the corporate testimony of our individual daily lives.
The prayer meeting is also a testimony, an expression, in a corporate way of the Christian prayer life. If all the brothers and sisters did not pray in their daily life, we could not come together to have a good prayer meeting. If we have a proper life of prayer individually, then we can have a proper prayer meeting corporately. By this again, we can see that the Christian meeting is a corporate expression of the Christian life.
This is also true of the meeting for studying the Word. If none of us studied the Word in our daily life, then when we came together to study the Word, we would have to ask a professor or seminary graduate to teach us the Word. This is not a proper study meeting. The proper meeting to study the Word of God must be a corporate expression of the individual Christian life of studying. I study the Word, you study the Word, and every one studies the Word in his or her daily life. Then we all come together to have a corporate expression of our study life.
Similarly, if none of us cares for sinners and does not preach the gospel, who will preach the gospel when we come together for a gospel meeting? In our daily life and walk, we all should preach the gospel and be the Lord’s witnesses to people. Then we may feel the need for a certain day to come together to have a corporate expression of this kind of life. This is the gospel preaching meeting. Again we see that the Christian meeting is a corporate expression of the Christian life.
The testimony meeting is the same. If we never testify for the Lord, then when we come together, we will all come with our mouths shut. Then whom shall we ask to give a testimony? The testimony meeting is an expression in a corporate way of the Christian life of testifying. The meeting for fellowship is also in this manner. If we do not fellowship with one another, how can we come together to have fellowship? By all these examples, we can discover the principle for the Christian meeting. The Christian meeting is the corporate expression of the Christian life.
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