In the fresh leading we have received of the Lord, our first step is to learn to visit people by door-knocking. This is not door-pounding but door-knocking. Door-pounding implies a rough attitude, whereas door-knocking indicates a polite visit. The first thing with door-knocking is to talk to people about the Lord, to speak the gospel, to lead them to pray and receive the Lord, and then to baptize them. Before a person is baptized, we need to tell him clearly that as we baptize him, we will be immersing him into water, which signifies that we are immersing him into the Lord (Gal. 3:27). Through this, he will experience dying and being buried together with the Lord (Rom. 6:3-5). He was formerly outside of the Lord, but now through baptism he becomes one who is in the Lord. Not only so, we are also baptizing him into the Triune God, that is, into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19) as well as into the church, the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). This Body is joined to the Lord as one spirit (6:17). Hence, through baptism, we put him into the Lord’s death, into the Lord, into the Triune God, and into the church, the Body of Christ. He by faith receives the Lord; we by faith baptize him. This is the simple meaning of baptism.
Many times when we preach the gospel to people, it is not the listeners but we who do not believe. In our hearts we may say, “This is too fast; it is not going to work.” To be sure, then, it does not work. Such is the way in which faith operates. When faith says, “It is done,” God says, “Amen; it is done.” Our God is amazing. Sometimes He does not say amen right away. He may wait five days before saying, “It is done.” However, this does not mean that nothing is happening during those five days. Rather, He works continuously until it is done. This is to bring people to salvation and unto the Lord. Therefore, we all have to learn to only believe and not fear.
After we help someone to be saved, we must grasp the opportunity to set up a time with this new believer for another meeting. The next time that we visit him is to establish a meeting in his home. This is because the target of our gospel is to gain not the individual alone but rather the whole family as the unit. The multiplication by families is inexhaustible. A Chinese proverb says that cousins span three thousand miles. There are cases of Chinese people immigrating to America, getting their citizenship in five years, and then bringing over their wives, children, parents, siblings, and other relatives. With the son comes his parents and children, with the daughter-in-law, her parents, and with the siblings, their wives. In a few years the whole family has immigrated to America. We must preach the gospel in the same way—not to only one individual but to the entire family. As soon as his home opens up, all of his close and distant relatives will come along. Thus, the multiplication of the gospel is without end.
For this reason, after helping a person to start having meetings in his home, we need to remind him after one or two times, “Brother, you have received the grace of the Lord and are overflowing with joy and blessing. However, God does not want to bless you alone. He also wants to bless your household. He has poured Himself not only on you. He wants to flow into your whole family also. This is marvelous, so you must not hoard this heavenly grace to yourself, not letting it go. You should propagate this grace to your whole family, including all of your distant relatives, by delivering it to their homes.” We need to exhort him in this way. However, we should not expect results the following day. Of course, we also should not be in unbelief but should admonish him steadfastly and continually until he is touched. In this way, within just two or three years, his relatives and friends will become linked to us, becoming our gospel targets.
What should we do in the home meetings? Generally speaking, there are only four things in the Christian meetings: the Spirit, the Word, singing, and praying. The most important of these four is the Spirit. Where the Spirit is, that meeting is living; where the Spirit is not, that meeting is dead. Meeting by meeting we should become more living. The more we exercise our spirit, the more Spirit we will have, and the meetings will become more powerful. In the past, influenced by our naturalness and the poison from traditional Christianity, we always made God’s salvation altogether a religious ceremony. As a result, the meetings became dead and tasteless.
By reading church history, we know that the best European architecture from the Middle Ages was the cathedrals. These are steep and pointed on the outside and dark and gloomy on the inside. The use of stained glass windows creates a sense of subdued lighting so that a person on entering feels solemn and reverent, being afraid to sit improperly or even to take a breath. This is Satan’s way of killing the believers’ function. The record in the four Gospels reveals that in His ministry, the Lord preached to people primarily in the wilderness and secondarily in the homes. One of the first homes used by the Lord was that of Matthew the tax collector. As a tax collector, Matthew was a vile sinner in people’s eyes, yet the Lord called him. After he was touched and saved, the first thing he did was immediately to open up his house for a feast, inviting all of his colleagues and friends to come and eat with the Lord Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they murmured to the Lord’s disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?” When the Lord heard this, He turned and gave a word of reprimand to them (Matt. 9:9-13). The Lord also ate in the homes of at least two other Pharisees. One occasion is recorded in Luke 7:36, and the other in Luke 11:37. In addition, the Lord feasted at the home of Martha and Mary, went to the home of Peter’s mother-in-law, and visited many other homes to heal the sick and preach the gospel.
When people enter a cathedral, they become solemn and reverent but do not feel secure. However, when they enter a home, instead of fear they sense the warmth of the home. Therefore, we must understand that the traditional way of church services in Christianity is of the devil’s teaching with the aim to kill people so that their mouths are shut. The Bible shows us that when the believers come into the meetings, they should have their mouths wide open and must speak. If we were to have a meeting here today, then even before the leading ones arrive and before anything has been written on the board, we ought to have our mouths opened to praise, to sing with rejoicing, or to pray aloud. Surely in this way the meeting will be living.
If a Christian never opens his mouth or functions in the meetings, he will become a dead member. My wife once said that if I do not speak for a month, my legs cramp, my back aches, and I do not sleep well. Therefore, she told me, “You need to hold conferences frequently. As soon as you open your mouth, your legs have no cramps, your back stops aching, you sleep well, and you have a good appetite.” This is the normal condition of a Christian. Some elderly ones in their eighties are not able to do anything. They cannot understand much, they are often forgetful, and they are afraid of getting lost when they leave the house. Because of this, they lock themselves at home every day. Today not only do I not get lost, but I can still remember verses from the Bible very well, and my mind is very lucid. This is because not only do I have the Lord in me, but I also exercise my spirit often, release my spirit, and function.
I was born into Christianity, under bondage there for more than twenty years. Once I jumped out of that sphere, I never wanted to be in it again. We oppose the way traditional Christianity meets. (But this does not mean that we can be unrestrained.) Christians are living and joyful; therefore, we do not want dead silence in religion. We hope that the sisters serving to play the piano would come early to every meeting. In this way, when the saints arrive, they can call hymns and begin to sing. Hymns are the easiest way to stir up our spirit because they are the expressions of the poets’ sentiments. Take, for example, “Give up the world, Christ to obtain” (Hymns, #1025). In the summer of 1948 I was in Shanghai, busy and tired from the work. One day some co-workers and I arranged to go to a park for a rest. It was then that this hymn was written. Whenever we sing this hymn in the meetings, our tiredness easily goes away and our spirits are refreshed. Sometimes you may be the first to come to the meeting. Even though you are only one person, you can start a hymn, playing and singing to yourself. As the brothers and sisters arrive one by one, they can join you in the singing. In this way, the meetings spontaneously will be enlivened.
There is no set agenda in the meeting. After singing, the saints can share from their enjoyment of the hymn and then read a few verses from the Bible, speaking and declaring aloud one to another. It should not always be the same few elders doing the reading, for in doing so, they are going beyond their duties and functioning as “priests” in your place. The brothers and sisters must all exercise to function organically in the meetings, singing and reading the Word in an organic way.