It has been good that we have had group meetings in the past. They accomplished something. However, we can always find a better way in anything we do. This is why we need a coach to help us to “play ball.” If we have never been coached, we will not have the proper way. Our group meetings of the past were better than nothing, but we must realize that they might not have been carried out in the coached way. We need coaching. We should not “play ball” in any way we desire. If we are coached, we will learn how to “play” properly, and we will be successful.
Paul received the revelation of God’s economy, which he revealed in his Epistles (Eph. 3:3, 9). We, however, were not born nineteen centuries ago, and we did not receive the revelation directly from the Lord as Paul did. Nevertheless, we have a better heritage than Paul had. Paul did not have nineteen centuries of church history to study, but we have studied church history very much, not just to learn the facts of history, but mainly to discover what the best way for the church is. We have tried to learn which ways worked and which ways did not work. During the past five years, we spent much time to reconsider all the practices of Christianity over the last twenty years. We tried to learn what God’s ordained way is and what the biblical way to preach the gospel is. We studied and restudied the Bible, and we eventually discovered from Paul’s writings the truth of the New Testament priesthood of the gospel. Every preacher of the New Testament gospel must be not an ordinary person but a priest. Then we compared this truth to the practices of gospel preaching in the Catholic Church, the state churches, and the denominations. We considered how the Brethren, the Pentecostals, and the free groups preach the gospel. We also studied how we preached the gospel in the past. Now we have learned that the top way, God’s ordained, biblical way, is the way we are passing on in these messages.
The “new way” is the God-ordained way and the biblical way. The church has been on the earth for almost twenty centuries. I have the full assurance and confidence that now is the time for the Lord to carry out His new way. The carrying out of the new way can be compared to the tide of democracy on the earth today. The political history of the past six thousand years has consummated in democracy, and now the eastern European countries, the former Russian satellites, have turned from autocracy to democracy. The carrying out of the Lord’s way, also, is like the coming of a tide. The God-ordained way to meet and to serve is recorded in the Bible, and every word spoken by the Lord will be fulfilled (Matt. 5:18; 24:35). His words were not spoken in vain (Isa. 55:10-11). Therefore, we must learn to take this way. If we mean business with the Lord, we must make a decision to have a radical change in our understanding concerning the Lord’s way.
The problem among us is that we have become old and stale, and we have not adopted the new way with desperation. If we will be desperate, we will have a success. Our lack of desperation can be seen in the way we visit people. In the past we have gone to visit people too lightly and without adequate preparation. Even in the matter of speaking the language of those we contact, we have not been adequately prepared. Those who visit a Korean-speaking family should be able to speak Korean. We have been too loose in choosing whom we send to contact certain persons. If we send brothers from ethnic minorities to visit a middle-class Caucasian family, they may not be properly received. The family may be cold toward them. On the other hand, if four middle-aged Caucasian brothers and sisters visit the same family, they will not be rejected. The doors and hearts of that family will be opened. Likewise, if we want to gain a Japanese family, we should send Japanese brothers and sisters to visit them. We have not considered these matters thoroughly. We have acted too lightly. We must mean business with the Lord or we will waste our time.
We need to reconsider our ways. We have practiced the old way for many years, and it was not effective. This should compel us to take the new way. We have no choice but to take this way. To take the new way is not difficult. We must simply pick it up and make the decision to go on according to it. According to our study and experience, we must first go to beget new believers. Within two or three weeks we can beget two or three new ones. Then we should form a new group meeting with these new persons, and we must strictly practice the new group meeting according to the way in which we were coached. Then we should continue to make improvements when possible. We should try our best to follow this way.