The God-ordained way lasted a very short time. Right after the departure of all the apostles, this way began to wane and by the second century, according to my knowledge of church history, was altogether given up. The church by the second century picked up the congregational way according to the worldly way. As a result they needed the big evangelists. They formed monasteries, ancient seminaries, to train people. Today Christianity’s existence depends upon the seminaries. Without the seminaries, where could they get preachers? There would be no place to get the people trained to preach or teach. Then all these trained and taught preachers and teachers became the clergy. Then through clergy, hierarchy has been built up. This is today’s organized Christianity, and this is the organizational way of today’s Christianity. We all hate hierarchy and reject the clergy-laity system. But unconsciously even today to some extent clergy creeps in among us.
I am afraid that even while we have been talking about meeting in the homes we do not have a meeting in every home but rather in a selected way. Some might have said already, “We don’t have that many big speakers, do we?” To have a big hall with a big number of people coming together with a big speaker is the Christianity way to worship God today. They do not see how the home meetings are needed. This God-invented way was altogether lost by Christianity.
Zinzendorf, three centuries ago, began to practice the church life. It was quite good in a sense. But Zinzendorf did not say anything about the home meetings. Then after Zinzendorf, one century later, the Brethren were raised up in England. They paid much attention to the way to meet. They wrote books on this. When I was young I was with them for seven and a half years. I never heard the term “home meeting.” Every week I attended five meetings among them. All the time I went to that one meeting hall. They only met in that one meeting hall. They never met in any other’s home. The Lord in these days has shown us the lack, the loss, and the damage we have been suffering by missing the home meetings. The big speakers with big congregations could only bring in people. There is no way for the big congregations to build up the saints.
The way to build the church may be illustrated by the building of this hall. When we built this hall I gave a rough design and the brothers made the drawings. Every day in the early morning, I was watching and observing. One brother was the purchaser. He collected all the materials. Trucks of materials came. If we had only one brother to collect and pile up all the materials on the ground for nine years, they would be ruined. To collect the materials is one thing, but to get all the materials built together is another thing. Look at this building today. In this hall you cannot see one individual piece of material. You can only see one building.
Another brother was directing every group. At that time we had over eighty full-timers whom this brother formed into groups. One group made the stairway, and a group of sisters sanded the handrails on the stairway. They were all grouped together to do a certain part for the building and eventually to put all the pieces together. Now we are enjoying the building.
In the early days of the church life, when the apostles were first raised up by the Lord, they built the church in this way. It was very quick. The church in Jerusalem was built up. Acts 9:31 says, “So the church throughout the whole of Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being built up.” In a short time they were all built up. Could we say that all the churches in the U.S.A. have been built up? You cannot say that we have been built up because we have never taken the building way. What is the building way? Small groups! Home meetings!
The big speakers are useful. Peter was useful. Peter spoke to the big congregations and his speaking brought in thousands of people. But that was only one side. There was another side. They met in their homes, in their houses, from house to house. There was no time for them to train preachers. There was no time for them to learn the truth. They had heard only one message and that message was their New Testament. On the day of Pentecost their New Testament was so short, just one message given by Peter in Acts 2. But everybody heard that, everybody learned of that, and everybody spoke that. On the day Peter spoke the message they all got baptized. Then I believe that night they went back home and began to meet, repeating what they had heard from Peter. I believe this shows that everybody can teach and everybody can preach.
If you open up your home for meetings, you will feel there are some things there that need to be cleared up. However, if you do not open up your home, you will leave those things there, maybe for three years. You will come to the big congregations without any feeling about those black, dark things. If you would open up your home, you would consider before you lose your temper with your wife. You would think that after half an hour all the saints will come to meet. This is just something on the negative side, but there are a lot of benefits, a lot of blessings, on the positive side. When saints come into your home they all come in with God; they all come in with Christ; they all come in with a lot of prayer to bless your home. One will step in and say, “Lord, bless this home.” And another one will say, “Bless this family. Lord, remember them all.” The Lord will answer the prayers, and there will be much blessing for you. You may say you are so weak, but if you will open up your home, many will come in who are not so weak. You may be poor, but those who come are rich. The home meeting will rescue you, strengthen you, and enrich you.