We must be clear that the big meetings cannot build up the church. In order to build up the church, there must be the small groups, and to build up the small groups, our concepts and ways must be changed. We cannot take the old way of Christianity any longer. The way of one man speaking and everyone else listening is definitely wrong; such a thing is not in the Bible. First Corinthians 14:26 shows us that when the whole church gathers together, it is not that one man speaks and everyone else listens; rather, it is that each one has a psalm, a revelation, a teaching, a tongue, or an interpretation. It is mutual; it is reciprocal. Everyone who comes to the meetings must learn to speak for the Lord, and everyone must open his mouth to speak forth Christ.
In order to achieve this, all the responsible brothers who minister to the children of God must labor diligently. For a pastor to take the old way today is very easy; all he has to do is to meet together with his congregation every Sunday and prepare a sermon for them. But to help everyone to seek after the Lord, fellowship with Him, read His Word, digest it through pray-reading, and then speak for and speak forth the Lord is not easy. This requires a great deal of laboring.
In order for the churches in the Lord’s recovery to be strong, we cannot depend on one man preaching in the big meetings. There must be the diligent labor to speak for and speak forth the Lord. The leading brothers must especially take the lead to labor in the Word (1 Tim. 5:17). If a mother has five children, she should not expect to have very much rest. There must be a great deal of laboring every day. She has to take care of every aspect of the family. In addition, she must bear the responsibility of teaching and nurturing the children, so that every one of them will grow up to be proper and decent, with a clear mind and a healthy body. For a mother to do this is not easy; she must put all her efforts into this work.
If we love the Lord we must realize that the way of the Lord today is in the building up of the small groups. We cannot take a short cut. We should not be misled to think that tongue-speaking and the so-called Pentecostal gifts is the way. If we love the Lord and we love the church, we must pray much before the Lord. In our prayer there must be thorough confessions. Whenever we sense in our prayer that we have sinned or been defiled, or have done anything wrong, we must confess and repent of our sins one by one. If necessary, we need to go to others to deal with all our unrighteousnesses, so that our conscience can be without blemish. Whenever we come to the Lord’s Word, it is as if we are coming to the Lord Himself, fellowshipping with Him face to face. If we would practice this way, the word of Christ will surely be constituted into us, and our daily experience and enjoyment of the Lord will become our words. When we come to the meetings, surely we will have a lot to speak. If we speak and express ourselves in this way all the time, we will be edified, and others will be built up. We must labor diligently in this way.
We need to use the Word of the Lord frequently in the small group meetings. We are not replacing the Word of God with the Life-study messages. Rather, we are using the Life-study messages to open up and unlock the Bible to us, so that we can have a deeper understanding of the Bible. Hence, in the small group meetings, on the one hand we need to read the Word of God, and on the other hand we need to receive some guidance and explanation from the Life-study messages, so that those who attend the meetings may be further enlightened in the Word of God and be nourished through the reading of the Word.
When we read the Life-study messages, we will find that there are passages which are not so important. The function of these passages is to connect the main points together. They can be read over quickly. Other passages contain the main points of the message. They should be read repeatedly and with emphasis. You should not feel that you need to read every single word in a lifeless and legal way. Instead, you should read the Life-studies in a living way. At times some terms in the messages may be unfamiliar; you may want to explain them briefly while reading them. We call this expound-reading. At other times you can pray-read; at the end of a paragraph you can stop to pray for a short time. You can also give testimonies to strengthen and confirm the words that you read. Then there are times when you can sing-read; when you come to a passage that touches you, you can put the words to a short tune and sing it together.
We must come to the small group meetings with preparation and much practice. Before we come to the small group meetings, everyone should read the message first at home. We should read through the main points, and we should pray and be prepared before the Lord. In the small group meetings, everyone should be diligent. Those who are somewhat taking the lead in all the small groups should all the more be prepared beforehand. Since you take the lead, you should be the first to be diligent. This is the situation in a good family. If the mother takes the lead to be diligent, all the children will follow her example and be diligent. In this way, the whole family will be busy and everyone will have his part of the work. I hope that you all will take this word and put it into practice in your daily life, so that the Lord may have a way among us in the building up of His church.