The small group meeting is different from the home meeting. After people are saved and have been led and fed for a while, they should come together. Their meeting together is the small group meeting. Do not wait too long to bring them to the small group meetings. At the same time you are feeding them, bring them to the small group meetings.
The Chinese are taught from their youth by their families that they should speak little. Therefore, the Chinese never like to open their mouths in public. It is very difficult to get the sisters to speak in the meetings; therefore, we have to encourage them to open up. When Christians come together, as long as they open their mouths, there is the benefit. It always helps when things are talked out and fellowshipped among each other.
Perhaps one sister sees another sister coming to the meeting. She may say, “Sister, please pray for me. This morning I hurt my shoulder.” By then, two other sisters may come in. This sister may tell the other two about it. The two may say, “Let us pray!” In this way, they start praying for the troubled sister. This is prayer concerning physical needs. Sometimes the prayer can be about spiritual needs. One brother may feel that he just cannot break through in prayer. Another brother may say, “Have you committed any sin, or have you loved the world? Is it due to sin or the world in you that your prayer is blocked?” Before he finishes his words, a few sisters may pray, “Lord, enlighten our brother that he would see within.” Once our mouth is open, spontaneously, there is the fellowship; and once there is the fellowship, spontaneously, there is the mutual prayer for one another.
When brothers and sisters fellowship and pray together, there is the mutual care and shepherding.
Some may ask in the meeting, “What is the meaning of bearing the cross?” Among the seven or eight persons present, each may say a little. One brother may say, “The cross was the tool of execution for the most severe criminals in the Roman Empire.” Another may say, “When the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, we were all crucified with Him. Hence, we should remain in His death, and should not come down from the cross. This is the meaning of bearing the cross.” This way of speaking allows everyone to learn the truth.
In Acts 20 Paul said, “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and to teach you publicly and from house to house” (v. 20). “For I did not shrink from declaring to you all the counsel of God” (v. 27). “Wherefore watch, remembering that for three years, night and day, I did not cease admonishing each one with tears” (v. 31).
“Whom we announce, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man full-grown in Christ” (Col. 1:28). Paul not only hoped that the saints would grow in life, but he warned and taught every man in all wisdom, that they might be presented full-grown in Christ to God.