Dear brothers, all of us must have such a new concept, a new sense that we are the owners of the church. The church being God’s kingdom is based upon the church being God’s family. It is impossible for the church to be strong without the family being strong. For the family to be strong, every saint needs to be an owner. The co-workers are only household slaves. The one who serves you is not the master. You are the master of the church. On this point, we must not allow fallen Christianity to influence the atmosphere and flavor among us, by making us uplift preachers, elders, and ministers, and to forget that the real masters are the saints. Tonight we are here to do our best to change this concept. If we cannot change this concept, then we are still in the realm of fallen Christianity. We need to see this exceedingly great light. We love the big meetings, but the big meetings are not for the big meetings. The big meetings are for the producing of saints, from which the individual saints are to be built up into a family.
Acts 14 records that the Apostle Paul went out to Iconium, Lystra, and other places, preaching the gospel in every place. Probably in less than a year he went back to establish elders in every place. Those who became elders were all “baby” elders who had been saved for less than a year. The apostle’s ultimate concept was to cause the saints to remember clearly that he, the apostle, had no intention of building the church upon himself. He preached the gospel that people might be saved, he established churches in every place, he appointed some to be elders, and then he turned over each local church to the elders of that locality. Parents have a mistaken concept and feeling of always considering their sons and daughters as children. The fathers always feel that their sons cannot do this well and cannot do that well. The mothers always say that their daughters cannot cook. They feel that the daughters do not know how to do it; therefore, they should let the mothers do it. As a result, these sons or daughters actually do not know how to do anything; everyone is like a handicapped person. But under Paul, the “babies” became elders.
In the New Testament the Lord never appointed a leader to lead. He did appoint twelve apostles, but He did not appoint a chief apostle, nor did He appoint one to call a meeting. In Acts 6 the church appointed seven brothers to serve tables, yet among these seven we cannot find out who was the leader. When the time came for Paul to appoint elders, he did not name a “chief elder.” In the practice of the church life, our concept is that among five elders there must be one who is the chief. However, this concept is different from the divine concept, and it is also different from the biblical concept. This concept is to return to the Old Testament. In the Old Testament God’s people were under the divine rule. In the Holy of Holies God revealed His heart’s desire through the Urim and the Thummim, and then it was passed on to the people through the high priest (Num. 27:21). During those days, there was no king in Israel. Nevertheless, the people wanted to imitate the Gentiles and were willing to have a king to rule over them. Their thought of asking God for a king offended God very much, because that meant that they denied God as their King (1 Sam. 8:4-7). They wanted a visible king, not God. God was their invisible King, the King in their spirit. God wanted them to live in their spirit that they might know God. If they lived in the flesh, they would not be able to know God. Finally, God gave them a king, Saul, who caused them much pain. To set up a king is against the principle of the divine rule. In the church we must not have the thought of having a king. Even the more, we must not have the ambition to be a king.
Some think that among us there must be a strong leader. They think that leader should be set up in order for everyone to have a sense of responsibility. However, that is altogether a human concept. When we practice the home meetings, no one is the head yet everyone has the sense of responsibility. The church is the church of the brothers and of the saints. From now on, every brother and sister must bear the responsibility, because they are the owners of the church. The church belongs to you, to me, and to the saints.