To teach the new ones to sing the hymns is the best way to nourish them. May we all learn to sing hymns. After the time we go to someone’s home to baptize him, the next time we meet in his home we can begin to teach him to sing. After singing only four or five times, he will be infused and nourished by the hymns. He may have children at home. When you sing, they may not sing, but after you leave, they will start singing. By singing a little, the truths in the hymns will gradually enter into them.
Singing is also the best “appetizer.” If the singing at the beginning is good, then the home meeting that follows will cause the whole family to be happy. Hence, the home meeting should not begin in a rigid way of social interaction. Do not engage in meaningless small talk, such as how the weather is hot or cold and whether or not to wear warm clothes. Simply sing hymns and learn to teach the family to sing. The hymns among us are especially wonderful. As we sing, our spirits are stirred. Singing is more effective than giving a sermon, and the result is also better.
After teaching the new ones to sing, you should continue to help them to pray using the phrases in the hymns. Never have a new one repeat your prayer sentence by sentence; that is a tradition and a formality. You may say a prayer first and then ask him to follow your way. You may pray, “Lord, thank You. In tenderness You sought me, weary and sick with sin” (Hymns, #1068). Then have him continue in prayer. In this way you will teach him to pray.
In leading a home meeting, you need to have variations, to be living and flexible. Do not be set and rigid. What we have fellowshipped here is just one of the many ways. If you are willing to learn to practice, you will become more and more skillful and flexible. You will know that all kinds of changes can be made as long as the spirit is living. If you lead the home meetings in such a way, I believe that the whole family of the new one will receive what is presented. After you leave, they will reminisce and have further fellowship. Therefore, you should never think that we are using gimmicks and wasting our effort. As long as we have the spirit, what we do will not be in vain, and they will receive what we say.
Next, we have to lead the members of the household to learn to pick up the responsibility in the meeting. However, this must not be rigidly enforced. Perhaps the next time you go, you may say, “I am so happy to be here with you all. Sister, can you lead us in singing this time? We can sing the hymn from the last time. Brother, can you lead us to read the Bible? We can read the section that we read last time.” Afterward, ask the wife to give a testimony. It may seem as if you are talking to them; actually you are having them share the responsibility of the meeting. The result of leading the home meeting in this way is that they will know how to meet as a home meeting.
The most important thing is that you never allow these things to become a rigid and ritualistic practice. Before you go to a home meeting, you must have ample and living fellowship with the Lord and have thorough confession and prayer until you are filled inwardly. If your spirit is filled with the Lord and His word and you can sing and pray, then you are living, and whatever you do will be living. Whatever a living person does is living; for him, even a dying business will become booming. If a person is dead, however, even a booming business will become dead. We must learn to practice according to this principle.
We need to pay attention to the areas in which we are not living, in which we are too rigid. In these areas we must be alert and diligent to be exercised. We may take the Chinese-speaking meeting in a certain locality as an example. After singing a hymn in the Lord’s table meeting, everyone begins to speak the hymn to one another, making the hymn so good and living. However, in the meeting for reading the Word, everyone becomes dumb and quiet, not knowing what to say. Then when it is time to read the spiritual publications, it is done stiffly and without spirit. The hymns are spoken, and the Word and the spiritual publications are also spoken, but why are the two speakings so different? This is due to habit. Once we fall into a habit, our spirit is killed. This is a dreadful matter.
Therefore, I hope that the brothers and sisters will be careful in whatever they do. Do not fall into a habit. You must be living in whatever you read and always exercise the spirit. Never think that since you often read the Bible and the spiritual publications that you know how to read them. Once you rely on your habit, your spirit will be killed. Only with the exercise and the release of the spirit will we be able to read in a living way. As it is in the big meetings, so it should also be in leading the home meetings.