The matter of Christian service has been a big problem among Christians for many years. Most Christians have a desire, intention, and aspiration to serve the Lord. Once genuine believers begin to seek the Lord, they immediately consider how to serve the Lord. Through my own experience, I have discovered that nearly every Christian worker has his own concept concerning Christian service. It is unusual to see two or three Christian workers who agree concerning the way to serve the Lord. They usually have different views and concepts. This is the reason that there have been many divisions among Christians throughout the centuries. These divisions have come about not only because of different views and concepts but also because of improper motives and intentions. These differences in view mixed together with improper motives and intentions result in confusion. In order to be rescued from this confusion and mixture, we must come back to the Bible. The Bible must be our standard.
The New Testament strongly charges us to go out to reach people for the gospel (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15). Once we preach the gospel and people are saved and baptized, the question which must be answered immediately is: "How should we take care of the new believers?" To find out what we should do with the new believers once they are saved and baptized, we must come back to the Word. We should not leave the new believers as orphans. Our conscience would not allow us to do this. We must take care of them. In the past, however, we mainly trusted in the church to take care of the new ones. We may have felt that as long as we brought the new ones to the church meeting and baptized them in the church meeting hall, the church would bear the burden for their care. Yet the church, broadly speaking, was unable to bear the burden of caring for the new believers. We may have baptized many over the past ten to fifteen years, but not many were cared for after their baptism. As a result, many had no way to go on with the Lord in the growth in life.
Many years ago, Brother Nee initiated a new beginners' meeting in the church in Shanghai in order to meet the need of the new believers. He prepared a series of fifty-two lessons for new believers, and I was the first one to teach these lessons in Shanghai. But eventually, these new believers' meetings ended in failure. The subjects which Brother Nee prepared were marvelous, and the teachers who taught the lessons were also good. However, not many of the new believers came to those meetings. Eventually, the new beginners' meetings were filled with older believers. The need to help the new believers has remained over the years, but the way to meet this need was not uncovered until recently.
From October of 1984 until today, I have considered the matter of our Christian service continually. The conclusion of my study and experience is what I have presented to you as the new way. This new way includes preaching the gospel by visiting people, feeding the new ones in their own homes, perfecting the believers in the group meetings, and prophesying in the larger meetings of the church. The group meeting is the proper way to take care of the new believers, but your understanding of the group meeting may be very different from mine. We may have the same terms or terminology, but our understanding of these terms may be completely different. It is also possible to have the same understanding, but our practice may be very different. Some have considered that the group meetings should be formed by the leading ones in the church, who then charge the saints to care for the meetings. This, however, does not work. This is like someone who forms a family by adopting a few children, and then asks another person to be the father of the family. The proper way to form a family is by a man and woman getting married and having children. These children will be born of, through, to, with, and for the parents. The parents with the children form a real family.
It is the same in the group meetings. The groups should be formed by the saints coming together with those whom they have baptized. A group of saints may have been working together in the gospel for a period of time. Since they have been working together, spontaneously, they will have the burden to come together to have a group meeting with the new ones they have gained. Thus, the group meeting is not formed by anyone in an organizational way; it is composed of the saints with their spiritual children in Christ. A group meeting formed in this way has a great possibility of success, but the success of the group meeting does not depend upon only one item. There are many other items in the group meetings. Therefore, do not expect to have a quick success. There are many things to learn.
To learn is one thing, but to practice is another thing. We may have been taught certain things, yet if we do not practice them, we are unable to realize the full benefit. A person may be taught how to play the piano, but if he does not have the patience to practice, he will not be able to play the piano properly. We must learn in the group meetings, and we must also practice. To practice we need to learn, and to practice requires patience.