In this chapter there are a number of specific things that I wish to discuss with you.
First, let me speak about the change of our system. Since October 1984, the main goal of our changing the system was to recover the home meetings as they are revealed in the Bible. The Bible clearly says that every saved person is a member of the Body of Christ. Every member can function in the Body. This Body of Christ is the church. When I stand before you to speak, apparently, it is my mouth that speaks. But actually, it is my whole being which speaks.
If I put on an artificial nose, you can tell immediately that it is not real, because there is a difference between something artificial and something real. Artificial things are dead, while real things are living. If a person is living, he is simply living. Even when he is not moving, he still bears a living expression. If I were to stand before you, although I may not be moving, you could see that my nose, mouth, and face all bear a living expression. A brass or wooden statue is not like this. No matter how much it resembles a real person, everyone knows it is false as soon as it is placed before him.
A person has many members in his body. Whether the livingness of these members is strong or weak depends on whether his physical strength is full or lacking. If I am full of strength, then I will have a powerful appearance. On the other hand, if I am sick, I will have little vitality. Today the life of the Lord Jesus within us is powerful. We become His members through His life. In principle, we who have the life of Christ and who become the members of Christ’s Body should be full of life and vitality.
But the condition of most Christians today is exactly the opposite. The problem is that the clergy-laity system has killed most of the functions of the saints. When they meet, the only active ones are the clergy. When it is time to sing, there is the song leader; when it is time to preach, there is the preacher; when it is time to pray, there is the prayer minister. It seems that in this technological age even religious worship has become a matter of division of labor; every person just takes care of his own part. This kills the function of the Christians. In changing our system, what we are doing is to change our meetings back to the biblical way. According to the Bible, in the meetings every saved one should preach the gospel. Acts 5:42 says, “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.” They met from house to house, teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Here, to preach is to speak. On the day of Pentecost three thousand people were saved. Later another five thousand were added. After they were saved, these eight to ten thousand people met from house to house. At that time they probably had not been saved more than a month, yet they all began to preach the gospel and teach Jesus as the Christ. It is clear that in the beginning, when the Lord raised up the first church on the earth, everyone spoke; everyone was a speaker. On the positive side, the word of the Lord went out. On the negative side, this prevented any leader from being produced.
If everyone speaks in a meeting, no one can be a leader. On the other hand, if in a meeting you do not speak and I do not speak, but only one speaks, then that one becomes a leader. The more he leads, the better he becomes at leading. After a while, he will become an expert. At first he takes the lead only in the small meetings; gradually, he leads the big meetings. At first he leads in only one locality; gradually, he leads in a whole region. This is the way the clergy-laity system is developed. Dear brothers and sisters, speaking from our conscience, are not the co-workers among us a kind of clergy in our eyes? It is difficult for us to treat the co-workers as ordinary brothers, because the concept of clergy-laity has been deeply rooted in us already.