This time the Lord has led us to have a number of weeks of special weekly conference meetings. Because of this, my spirit is leaping. I am especially happy when I see so many young people attending these meetings. In October 1984 we were led by the Lord in Taiwan to see how Christians should meet. At that time the Lord opened up to us all the verses in the New Testament concerning the matter of Christian meetings. We had a thorough study of this matter. As a result, the Lord showed us that at the beginning of God’s New Testament economy, that is, at the beginning of the New Testament age, the Holy Spirit led the first group of Christians, those who were freshly saved at Pentecost, to have two kinds of meetings. On the one hand there were the big meetings, and on the other hand there were the small meetings in the homes. The big meetings were held in public, while the small meetings were conducted from house to house (Acts 2:46). At the beginning of Acts, the believers had the big meetings as well as the house-to-house meetings. Not one house was excepted or excluded.
Strictly speaking, it is not easy to have the big meetings. The reason is that not everyone is gifted or has the spiritual capacity to conduct a big meeting. On the day of Pentecost, the leading ones were Peter, James, and John. But according to the record in Acts, it seems that only Peter took the lead in the big meetings. However, in the small home gatherings there is no need for the spiritual “giants.” To use an illustration, the big meetings are like preparing a big feast; not everyone can make such a preparation. But the small home meetings are like home cooking; everyone can do it, and comparatively speaking it is easier than preparing a big feast.
On the other hand, it is a simpler matter to have a big meeting. As long as you have a spiritual giant you can have such a meeting. However, the small meetings are not that simple. If you are alone, you might be satisfied with burnt or uncooked food. But if others are with you, it would not be adequate to offer them this kind of food. For a big feast, you only need to hire a few good cooks with a few helpers, and you will have many delicious dishes. But it is not easy for every home to have that same kind of cooking.
At the time of Pentecost, there were the big meetings and there were the small meetings. The believers met in every home. This was an entirely new move of God. All of God’s move is perfect and complete. But as soon as it falls into man’s hand, there is degradation and regression. From the record of the Bible and from history, we can see that the way Christians meet has always been on a downward course. In the book of Acts we have the creative move of God. This was a beginning initiated by the Holy Spirit. In this beginning there were the big meetings and the small meetings, and the standard was high. But gradually there was a downward trend. By the end of the first century and the beginning of the second century, the emphasis had shifted. Virtually no more attention was paid to the small meetings, and all the attention was paid to the big meetings.
When the big meetings became prevailing, the students of theology were forced into existence. This is because without these students of theology, no one could preach, and if no one could speak in public, the big meetings could not be maintained. For this reason many theology students and preachers were produced. This just matches the natural concept and the way of organization. From that time on, the big meetings began to replace the small meetings, and gradually a clergy-laity system like that in today’s Christianity came into being.
At the time of the reformation, Martin Luther did not touch this matter. He only saw one aspect of the truth. Two centuries after Luther, at the time of Count Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren, the matter of church meetings was touched. We might say that this was the beginning of the recovery of the church life in the Lord’s recovery. However, at that time they did not see the importance of the small home gatherings. Another century passed, and in the nineteenth century the Brethren were raised up by the Lord in England. They were more advanced than Zinzendorf in the matter of the recovery of the practice of the church life. But if you read the history and writings of the Brethren, you will not find much evidence that they emphasized meeting from house to house. Most of their meetings were held in their meeting halls.
Sixty years ago when the Lord raised us up in China, we saw something concerning the home meetings, but what we saw in the beginning was not very much. It was not until a number of years later that we saw the importance of this matter. However, while we were in mainland China, there was very little practice of home meetings. The church in Shanghai did not subdivide into two “home” meetings until 1934. Although the term suggests something close to a home meeting, actually the two meetings were in two different districts of Shanghai. One was in Hu-si, and the other in Jia-bei. From Home One in Hu-si to Home Two in Jia-bei there was a tram ride of over one hour. At that time we met every other week in the two “homes.” But actually they could not be considered as two home meetings; they could only be considered as two meeting halls in two different districts of Shanghai. They were not meetings in homes.
When we went to Taiwan, there was a further progression. Not only did we have meeting halls in every district, but under each meeting hall we had the small groups. However, we still had not moved the small groups into the homes. Some small groups began with meetings in the homes, but gradually they also moved to schools or other larger facilities. There was not the serious practice of meeting in the homes. And in less than ten years even this kind of small group meeting gradually deteriorated. By October of last year, there were no small groups left.