It is difficult to have the small meetings. Consider the church in Taipei as an example. Last October we divided the church there into 399 small groups. If the meetings of these groups were to be conducted by gifted preachers, we would need 399 preachers. A simpler way would be to consolidate the small groups into twenty-one meeting halls. By having only twenty-one speakers, the problem would be greatly simplified. This is the reason why all the denominations must have seminaries. However, this way of organization is not found in the Bible. We cannot take the way of the denominations, emphasizing only the big meetings, with only a small number of people who can deliver messages. This way is appealing only to the natural taste. We must see that although the big meetings can gather and stir up people, they cannot build them up.
The meeting hall in Anaheim did not come into being suddenly. It was not that there were piles of material lying around, and one day suddenly they all came together to become a building. The design of that hall was first drafted by me personally. Then it was handed over to the brothers to lay out the architectural plan. Every day I came to supervise. Truckloads of material came in, but there was the need for some to do the fine work of building all the wood, stones, and steel together. Only then would there be the building. If we only gathered the material, but there was no one to build, then after all these years of rain and wear, the material would all be ruined.
For this reason we say that the work of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was absolutely right. God is the Creator, and whatever He has created is good. There were the big meetings under Peter’s leadership, which attracted the three thousand and then the five thousand (Acts 2:41; 4:4), and there were the homes into which these new ones were added. It was in the homes that these believers as building materials were practically built together. It is not sufficient merely to gather the materials together. That is easy to do. But to put the materials together to form a building is not the work of one man. There must be many small groups working together. Only then will the building be gradually completed.
The big meetings can gather the people, but how can they be built up? Many evangelists can bring thousands of people to the Lord, but where is the building? At most, these evangelists have caused sinners to become believers. But all the materials are piled up, and there is no building. This principle may also be applied to us. Among us, group after group of people have been saved and baptized. But today we have lost contact with many of them. Not many have remained and been built up together. I believe many of the saints in the Lord’s recovery have a desire to seek after the Lord. But my question to you is, how many of us are built up together?
History shows us that up till today there is very little building in Christianity. What has been accomplished through all the centuries is only a work of revival. The entire history of Christianity is a story of revivals. It is like the book of Judges. Every time a spiritual giant such as Samson was raised up, the Israelites were revived. But when the spiritual giant died, the revival was buried with him. This is the problem in Christianity. The way of Christianity is the way of big meetings. But God’s created way of meeting, as recorded in the first few chapters of Acts, was to have small meetings as well as big meetings.
The foundation of the building of the church is in the small meetings. It is not in the big meetings. We need the big meetings to gather in the building material, for without the material there can be no building. But the job is not completed when the materials have arrived. There is still the need for the fine building work. Just as an airplane requires both wings to fly, these two sides must have a proper balance. To have big meetings alone is like having only one wing; it is impossible to fly that way. To have only the small meetings would likewise be inadequate. Only when we have both the big meetings and the small meetings can we take off with both wings. The same is true in God’s creation. We all have two legs, two hands, two ears, and two eyes. In a similar way, we need both the big meetings and the small meetings.
The big meetings can attract the people, but only the small meetings can build people up. Our present need is to find a way to improve the small meetings so that they will become rich, strong, fresh, living, attractive, and able to uphold all the saints. The small meetings are the foundation of the building of the church; this is an unshakable law. If we do not keep this law, we will not have any building. It is easy to gather materials, but it is not easy to build them together. In Christianity we only see the gathering in of the material; we do not see the building. However, we ourselves have made the same mistake. For this reason, we all must have a change. We all need to be balanced. It does not mean that we do not need to go out and gather people in. It only means that we should not gather in at the expense of sacrificing the building.