Our practice in the past, the old way, was mainly to build up a congregation. The old way can never build up the organic Body of Christ. It can only build up a congregation as a facade for a show. Our practice in the past has also lacked the development of the organic functions of the saints for the building up of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ cannot be built up organically by the old way. In the old way one person spoke general messages to an audience. There was no personal, direct contact to meet the personal, particular needs. The organic Body of Christ cannot be built up without helping the organic members of the organic Body to function.
The members of the Body have not been developed in their organic functions under the old way. One might have been under my ministry for over thirty-five years without being able to say anything for the Lord because his organic function has not been developed. Just as a little child has all the organic functions in his body, we also have our functions in the Body of Christ, but these functions need development. This development can only take place by our eating and by our being trained and taught. In the old way we did not practice this development. Without the development of our functions, how can we expect all the members to function organically, and without all the members functioning organically, how can the organic Body of Christ be built up? In the old way, all we can accomplish is the building up of a congregation as a show to others. We can only be a congregation coming together to listen to a good speaker. However, once the speaker leaves, the congregation may disappear within three years. This is not the Body of Christ.
The Lord’s way is to practice Ephesians 4:11-16. To appoint elders and speak to a congregation is only a part of the work of the apostles. According to Acts 20:20 and 31, the main work of the apostles is to visit the saints in home after home. Paul did this among the Ephesians day and night for three years. This not only edifies but also develops the saints’ organic function.
As part of the development of their function, the saints can be instructed how to go to the meeting with something in their hands. In the Full-time Training in Taipei, we have been teaching the co-workers and full-timers how to prophesy for three minutes. Every morning they pick up two verses and record in their notebook the main point they have enjoyed. On Saturday night they add together all the points which they have enjoyed the past six mornings and compose a prophecy. They practice speaking it to determine if it is too long or too short. If it is too long, they trim it. If it is too short, they add something and speak it again until it is three minutes. Then a “coach,” a teacher, may check their composition to correct or improve it. On the next morning when they go to the meeting, they have something. Everyone goes and everyone has.
Some saints may not have liked to go to the meeting because they felt they had nothing to speak and did not know how to speak. But after composing a prophecy the night before, they desire to go to the meeting to speak for the Lord. They want to go to the meeting because they have something to speak. In such a meeting everyone competes for time to speak. The saints in Taipei have at most ninety minutes for this kind of sharing, and each person takes about three minutes. There are almost always fifty people in the meeting and sometimes as many as seventy. All the speakers are ready with something in their hand. Everybody speaks, and they learn to speak in a good sequence. They learn which part should be spoken first and which part should be spoken next. I now have the way for all the saints to speak, and I am presenting this way to you. This way of speaking is good news for us. We should learn to speak for the Lord in this way.