Today our urgent need is to practice the new way diligently. The elders, the full-timers, and the co-workers should be the first ones to take the new way. All the elders should take the lead to get new ones saved and to always have two or three new ones under their caring hand. Simply to manage the affairs of the church is not adequate. In a sense, the Lord is not for that. The Lord is for bringing sinners to be saved, regenerated, sanctified, and transformed to be His living members. It is not sufficient merely to have a large number meeting in a local church, because they may be meeting in the way of Christianity, coming together on the Lord’s Day merely to constitute a good attendance. We should not shout “Hallelujah!” for merely a good attendance. We must ask whether the attendants are being nourished, sanctified, renewed daily, and transformed. Some may say that they are not able to follow so quickly what I am speaking; they need more time before they can begin to practice this kind of care for new believers. However, we will not be able to say this to the Lord when He comes to settle accounts with us. The Lord has already waited for nearly two thousand years.
The most pleasant thing to the Lord is that those who love Him and seek Him would have two or three new ones under their care. After their children get married, parents always like to see a new child come forth. If a son has been married for three years but does not have a child, his parents may not be happy to visit him. Parents do not want to see their children’s rose garden; they want to see grandchildren. If there are two or three grandchildren in a home, the grandparents will want to stay all day to play with them. The Lord desires that two or three new ones be raised up under our caring hand. We may make excuses, saying that it is too hard to get people saved, but the Lord may simply admit that He is a hard man, reaping where He did not sow (Matt. 25:24-26).
Today in every place there is the urgent need of a new beginning. The elders should not wait for the younger ones, and the younger ones should not wait for the elders. We all need to begin to practice this way. I would propose that all the elders, full-timers, and trainees take the lead to get people saved at any cost, forgetting about the other saints and leaving them to the Lord and to themselves.
I do not like fishing because it requires much patience. In fishing, one must spread a net and then draw it in, and there may or may not be fish in it. One may also have to cast a line and wait for a whole day. Fishing is a real test. Likewise, getting people saved is not easy. However, it is also not too difficult. We may visit people by knocking on their doors, or we may call them on the telephone or ask the saints to recommend their relatives to us. We should try our best to find someone to visit for the gospel. In one way or another we need to begin to practice the new way.
After we baptize people, we will treasure them. They will be our treasure and our babies. Then we will have to take care of them, to cherish and nourish them, not just for a few days but for a considerable period of time. Some new ones will need us to care for them for half a year, while others will need our care for a whole year. The goal is to feed them that they may grow. We must practice this.
It is not necessary that we go out to care for others every day. To do this once a week for two or three hours is adequate. On the Lord’s Day we should meet for about two hours in the morning to have the Lord’s table and to speak the Lord’s word to one another. All the saints, new and old, should attend the Lord’s Day morning meeting to take the Lord’s table and enjoy Him corporately, and to learn to speak for Him. While we are speaking, we will also be listening to others. In this kind of meeting we will hear the word, and spontaneously we will experience much building up. We should try our best to leave the Lord’s Day morning free for this. Then one evening a week we should attend the prayer meeting. Do not despise the prayer meeting. By praying only once in the prayer meeting, we may receive more edification than by attending another kind of meeting. We also will receive much enlightenment and exposure for our help. Then one evening a week we should attend a group meeting for fellowship, for our perfecting, and for the perfecting of others. The Lord’s Day morning meeting, the prayer meeting, and the group meeting are the three basic church meetings. This still leaves five evenings, two weekend afternoons, and one weekend morning open. Even if we use the entire Saturday for sundry affairs, we will still have five evenings and one afternoon free. We should use one of these six openings to go out for the gospel, either to knock on doors to visit people, to call them on the phone, or to go to the new ones to feed them. This is easy to carry out. It would be even better if we would go out twice a week, one afternoon and one evening, or two evenings a week.
Some may still say that this is difficult to carry out in practice. In the school at which I studied, there were many kinds of sports, but I did not like to play most of them. Many of the sports were difficult for me to play simply because I did not practice. We must practice to go out once or twice a week for the gospel. Even if we do not know how to do it, we should simply do it. We may never have been trained to knock on doors, but we should not care about this. After going out for about one month, we will feel that it is easy. When we see the Lord, we will not be able to excuse ourselves by saying that the new way was too hard. We need to practice.
For many years I have told the saints that we must learn to contact new people, especially after the meetings. However, we have had little practice of this. After a meeting, a sister may go to talk to a sister who is familiar to her. However, in that meeting there may be several new ones who are not being cared for. To talk only with a familiar saint is offending to the Lord and to the church. After a meeting, we should look around to find the new ones. This is pleasing to the Lord and pleasing to the church. We must have the habit of taking care of the new ones. To practice this is not difficult. It is not like learning Hebrew or Greek. We may simply go to a new one, introduce ourselves, and invite him to lunch. This requires that a habit be built up. We do not need to know how to feed someone after baptizing him. We simply need to do it. We should not ask, “With what shall I feed him?” We should simply go to feed him. Most of the new ones appreciate being visited. By doing this we will learn. The first and second time we go we may not know how to feed the new ones, but gradually we will learn. I did not study in a seminary, and I was not taught to speak. I simply practiced, and the more I practiced, the more I learned by doing it.
We should go to get two or three new ones under our care. If we cannot do this, we should come back to pray and fast and then go out again. Our service in the practical affairs of the church may be godly and pious, but it may not be as pleasing to the Lord as going out to knock on doors to gain people. It is better to get sinners saved and baptized and bring them to the church meeting. We have been here for years but we still see the same faces. Even in the group meetings the same eight or ten saints may repeatedly come together, with no new ones. We need some new ones. We need some lambs that we can feed.