When you nourish the new ones in this way once or twice a week, week after week, in half a year the new ones will be greatly helped by you, and they will be established. By that time, you can tell them that the life of a Christian is a communal one. All Christians like to be with other Christians. We are God’s sheep. We do not like to live alone away from the flock. We should meet with the brothers and sisters that live close to us. In this way, you bring them to the small group meetings. Soon after this, they will become a member of the small group. Our small group meetings do not have any set program or procedures. In these meetings, we can sing, pray, or speak. You can fellowship a little about the verses that you pray-read in the morning. When everyone hears this, some may spontaneously begin to pray. Perhaps one would say that today he has a certain burden. Everyone will then pray for this burden. Hence, in the small group meeting, there is fellowship, there is mutual intercession, and there is mutual care, including shepherding and help. Among us there are no pastors or preachers. Every one of us, whether young or old, male or female, is a priest and can serve God.
Paul said in Romans 15 that he was a priest of the gospel offering up gospel sacrifices. The priests in the Old Testament offered up bulls and goats for offerings. The priests of the New Testament offer up souls. Paul offered up the Gentiles as gospel sacrifices (v. 16). When we meet in the small group meetings, everyone is a priest. Everyone can speak. If anyone asks a question, it is best if everyone can say something, rather than nominating one to give the answer. After the first one finishes, the second one can add a little. Then the third one can add more words. If seven or eight people would all speak for a minute or two concerning what they know and experience, the result will be most beneficial to the listeners. This will make the group meeting living and rich. Every attendant becomes a speaker, and every speaker is a listener. In this way, everyone speaks. Everyone listens. Everyone learns, and everyone teaches. Those who have been saved for thirty years can speak something deeper. But those who have been saved for three months can also speak a few words from their experience, that is, from what they know in their elementary stage. Everyone is a teacher, and everyone is a student.
When the new ones see this in the small group meetings, their eyes will be very much opened. In half a year, they will pick up all these matters related to the feeding, the care, the questions, and the answers. By that time, the small group meeting will have over twenty people. You can then divide the group into two and encourage them, saying, “Now we have to bring others to salvation. We do not need to get help from others. And we do not need to hold any big meetings. The simplest way is to go out to visit people. Earlier, we knocked on your doors and helped you to be saved. In the same way, now you need to knock on others’ doors and help them to be saved.” There may be some older ones in the group who cannot go out. They can stay at home to pray. After you go out to visit people for three or four weeks, every group can bring in three or four people. Then you can start another cycle. Begin by nourishing the new ones in their homes. Then bring these new ones to the small group meetings to equip and perfect them. In half a year, the small group will reach thirty in number again, and you can divide into two groups again. No one takes the lead in the small groups. Every attendant in the small group is a leader. In this way, the church will have the increase and the spread.
Thank the Lord. After four and a half years of studying, we have found the way for believers to be revived every morning and to be renewed every day. In our daily lives, we have the gospel preaching, the home meetings, the small group meetings, and the Lord’s Day morning meetings. In the past, the big meeting on Lord’s Day was for one person to speak and all the others to listen. Now the brothers and sisters are divided up into districts. Every district has about fifty people. Every one of these fifty can speak. Everyone can pray. Everyone can call a hymn, and everyone can say something. We do not encourage too many testimonies. Testimonies often become story-tellings, and the time is wasted. We hope that those who want to testify would speak for half a minute only and would put emphasis on the words they have pray-read in the morning and the experience they have had from them. When everyone speaks something, spontaneously it will become a message that speaks forth the word of God. In a meeting of fifty people, at least twenty can stand up to prophesy. There is no gossiping. There is no opinion. There are no arguments. Everyone speaks the Lord’s word and expresses the Lord’s riches. Such a meeting is an exhibition of Christ.
In the meeting some may speak about one aspect of Christ. Another may speak about another aspect of Christ. This kind of meeting will supply, enlighten, comfort, and perfect all the attendants. The result is that the riches of Christ will be dispensed into all the members of the Body. These members will then become the materials for the building, and the church will be built up. This is the Christian life. The Lord’s recovery on earth must arrive at this goal. If we would live this way every day, going out to visit people, bringing others to salvation, attending the small group meetings, enlightening others, and functioning in the Lord’s Day meeting by presenting the riches, the church will be built up.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Taichung on March 29, 1989)