Some brothers and sisters may ask why our meetings are held in districts. First, it is according to the teaching in the Scriptures. In the Bible large local churches, such as the church in Jerusalem, met in different homes, which served as district meetings (Acts 2:46; 5:42; 12:12). Our problem is not that we fail to practice according to the biblical principle but that our district meetings have become too large. Because every district meeting covers a wide area, we need to readjust so that we may have the proper situation for the practice of the district meetings of the church.
Second, we need to see that the church of God on the earth is a matter of expression and that it cannot be separated from human community. There is only one church because there is only one God. There is only one Head of the church; hence, the church as the Body of Christ can be only one. However, it is impossible for all the saints of God to be one church in respect to time, space, and church administration. As a result, in His Word God gives us the principle of locality. The definition of locality is a place where a human community gathers and resides. Every city forms a place where people gather and reside, and it is the boundary of the local church, as ordained in the Bible.
To state it less precisely, the church of God lodges in human communities, or societies. The church is of God and not of the world (John 17:14, 16). It is separated from the world (15:19; 17:19), yet it remains in the world (v. 15). Today the city of Taipei is a large city, and within it some have been saved and regenerated to become the church; hence, in Taipei there is an expression of the church. These saved ones, who become the church, are separated from the world by God; nevertheless, due to physical limitations, they continue to exist in communities, living and walking accordingly. Hence, we can say that the church lodges in human communities.
The Bible shows that in God’s ordination the unit for the expression of the church is a city, or locality, the same unit in which people gather and reside. For the church there is no greater or higher unit, nor is there a smaller or lower unit. Within a community the basic constituent is the individual. Actually, it is probably more accurate to say that households are the basic unit within communities. This is because the majority of individuals do not live alone but share a house with others. Hence, a city or locality takes the home as its basic unit. As far as the city, or locality, is concerned, the home is a very important unit. In the Bible we see that the local churches were the center of the believers’ living and actions. Hence, the churches took the city, the place where people gather and reside, as the unit of their expression. However, these local churches met in many different homes, just as a city, or community, is divided into many homes.
We need to see that there is a difference between spiritual homes and physical households. For instance, there may have been two thousand households of saved ones in Jerusalem, but there could not have been exactly two thousand spiritual homes. Rather, a number of households probably joined together to meet. For example, Acts 12 says that there was a spiritual home in the house of Mary, the mother of John, and that a considerable number assembled together and prayed (v. 12). From this we see that a spiritual home includes not merely those within a single household but also neighboring households; therefore, once a physical home becomes a spiritual home, the number of people included is much greater than those within the household.
We practice the district meetings according to the principle in the Bible, that is, to gather people from one area of a city into a spiritual home. At present, there are six district meetings in the church in Taipei. In principle this is right, but in practice there are too many people in each meeting. In other words, it appears that the spiritual homes include too many saints. At present we are trying to change not the terminology or the principle but the practice. According to the findings of our study, we want to subdivide the districts even more. This will be more convenient for the brothers and sisters, and at the same time it will give them more opportunity to develop their gifts. In addition, we want to broaden the administrative authority by delegating more authority to the various district meetings so that the brothers and sisters may be kept in an orderly condition.