As we have been speaking about the young people being useful in the hands of the Lord, the older brothers and sisters may have been bothered concerning their own usefulness. Because of this we need further fellowship concerning the function of the middle-aged and older saints. (For a fuller treatment of this subject, please see All Ages for the Lord’s Testimony, published by Living Stream Ministry.)
In general, there are more middle-aged brothers and sisters in the recovery than young people. Therefore, the middle-aged saints have more to do in the church than the young ones. The young people need to go to the campuses, but the middle-aged saints do not need to go anywhere. They are already in the “fishing pond,” and the “fish” are all around them. The young people are full of energy and should “sell all” to go to the campuses, but the middle-aged saints do not need to go out. There is no need for them to go to the “seashore,” because the fish are in their own backyard. The middle-aged saints are more useful than the young saints in caring for the church as the Lord’s testimony.
In any nation the young people under thirty years old are good to be sent to the front lines to fight, but in general the middle-aged ones are not good for this purpose. Rather, the middle-aged persons are useful in carrying out the governmental affairs at the various levels of country, state, and city. A country cannot survive if it has only young people to send out to fight but no one to carry out its affairs. In this sense, the persons of middle age are more important. However, because I have been emphasizing the young people in the Lord’s present move in His recovery, many middle-aged saints may have become disappointed, puzzled, and frustrated, supposing that they are useless. This is absolutely not the case. The family, the nation, and all society depend mainly on the middle-aged persons. Likewise, the Lord’s recovery needs the young ones to go out to fight the battle, but the recovery stands and runs the race mainly through the middle-aged ones. Nevertheless, after the young people hear this, they should not feel less important and decide not to go out for the Lord’s interests.
Humanly, older persons like to keep things in their own hands. The older some are, the more insight and experience they gain, and as a result, they do not trust the younger generation. This problem came to light in our recent migrations. Before the summer of 1970 there were very few local churches in the United States, but all the migrations that began at that time were successful. There was a kind of explosion, and within three years there were over forty-five churches. Beginning from 1974, however, the spread of the churches reached a blockade. This was due to the middle-aged brothers keeping everything in their hands, causing the younger generation to be unemployed. This is why the Lord has now given us the burden to perfect the young people and encourage them to function.
From now on none of us should keep things in our own hands, trusting no one else. Since 1962 I was burdened by the Lord to begin the recovery in the United States. According to the common way of preachers and missionaries, we could have taken several ways to carry this out. First, we could have raised up a single church in Los Angeles, remained there for many years, and increased our number to become very large. Certainly, every one would have considered this to be a success. Second, we could have remained in Los Angeles for only a few years and then gone to other major cities successively, remaining in each one for a few years to establish the church there. This way is better than the first, since the total number of those meeting would be greater, and there would be several churches instead of one. The third way, however, is the way of migration, which is the way we have taken. This has spread the churches over the whole country, and several thousand brothers and sisters are now meeting together. Most of the spreading was accomplished through the migrations from 1970 to 1973. After that time, however, the spreading stopped because certain middle-aged brothers kept everything in their hands.
To be in the Lord’s work is not easy. We must do things diligently day and night, yet we must also not exercise control over the things that are in our hands. This gives others the opportunity to do the things and to learn. We may compare this to a driving instructor. He must be alert so that when danger comes, he can apply his hand to help the situation; however, after that he should let go again to let the car be in the hands of the learner. Then instead of having one chauffeur, there will be hundreds of drivers. Some have criticized me by saying that I control the churches. I certainly do not have the ability to do that. How can one person with two hands “drive a thousand cars?” At most, I am only a “driving instructor.” All the dear saints who have been with us for many years can testify from their conscience that I keep nothing in my hands. Not even the church in my own locality is in my hands, and many churches have not received a direct speaking from me for many years. I say this to illustrate that we should keep nothing under our control. Every age is useful for carrying out the Lord’s work.