Many new believers have not remained after being baptized, because we have not spent enough time to care for them. Our service has focused on maintaining the meetings. We rely on meetings to shepherd the saints. Most of the serving ones focus on maintaining the meetings. We spend our time and energy on the meetings. As a result, the service related to shepherding, teaching, visiting, and comforting does not exist. This means that after a person is baptized, no one cares for him or nourishes him. It is regrettable that some new believers have even been lost.
We need to examine our situation and consider whether we can change the way we do things. The responsibility for this matter lies with the elders. They should change the system by spending more of their time shepherding. Not only should the elders spend more time shepherding, but the responsible ones in the districts and the serving ones should shepherd more. In particular, the saints who meet regularly should also do the work of shepherding. It would be good to drop one weekly meeting and use that time for visiting and shepherding. The elders and responsible ones in the districts should reduce the church business affairs; they should not spend too much time on the business affairs.
The church life should not depend on those taking the lead. Rather, we should simplify our meetings as well as the administrative affairs so that there is more time for visiting and shepherding the saints. The elders’ meeting should also be simplified. In this way much time can be saved and used for shepherding the saints. In short, elders should do more shepherding and visiting. They should also bring the responsible saints in the districts and small groups into shepherding and visiting.
Furthermore, we should make a list of all the saints in the meetings and then arrange the saints into small groups. There should be one weekly meeting in the meeting hall, and the rest of the time can be used for small group meetings. A group of five saints may decide to visit another saint, or they may invite another saint to fellowship with them, or they may preach the gospel. These things are all good. Whatever the saints in a group desire to do, they may do. They can meet two times a week, but it would be best to meet three times so that they can also shepherd and care for other saints. Two groups may decide to come together and fellowship. This is also good. Such matters do not need to be brought to the elders’ meeting for fellowship. The saints should have the freedom to carry out such matters with each member participating. The elders oversee the church. They should observe how the groups are progressing, how many new ones are being gained, and how many backslidden ones are being recovered.
I feel that it is worthwhile for us to change the system. In particular, the elders and the responsible ones in the districts and the small groups should have a turn. It would be best if the business affairs took up only one-tenth of our time and visiting and shepherding took up nine-tenths of our time. We should spend more time and energy visiting the saints. Visiting is not the responsibility of only the elders; all the saints should be involved. We need more fellowship concerning this matter. Changing a system is not a revolution, but it requires more effort than a revolution, because it is possible to have a revolution but still maintain the old system. Therefore, to have a change of system requires more effort.
We must also pay attention to supplying the Lord’s Day meeting. I attended a Lord’s Day meeting in which the saints merely sang hymns, prayed, and gave testimonies. That is not the best use of our time in the Lord’s Day meeting. Some of the testimonies encouraged the saints. The meeting was not in the hands of the elders; in other words, the elders did not consider the meeting to be their responsibility. This situation can be likened to inviting guests for a meal but not preparing anything. We need to have a plan. We must be determined to have some “food” for supplying the saints during the Lord’s Day meeting.
If I bore responsibility in a district, I would do everything in order to get a supply to meet the need of the Lord’s Day meeting. Otherwise, several hundred saints will come together for one and a half hours every week without receiving a supply. After a few weeks some will feel that they are wasting their time and energy. Hence, the elders must labor desperately. They should bear a heavier burden for the Lord’s Day meeting. Instead of relying on the co-workers, the elders should labor and pay the price to receive a supply for the Lord’s Day meeting.
A two-hour meeting on the Lord’s Day is not long. There should always be a good, suitable, and living supply rendered to the brothers and sisters. We should not fill the time with things that do not supply the saints. If an elder cannot fulfill this need, he should ask another brother to take care of it. We must set aside some time in the Lord’s Day morning meeting to render an adequate supply to the saints. Another period of time should be set aside for the saints to fellowship and give testimonies. These are also necessary. In every Lord’s Day morning meeting we should render a supply to the saints for their edification, and all the saints should have mutual fellowship.
Furthermore, we should set aside two evenings a week for the saints to take care of their household affairs, which have nothing to do with spiritual things or church service. The saints can meet in the hall for their edification on any other evening. The focus of the meeting in the hall should be for the edification of the saints. The small groups can decide how to use the rest of the evenings in the week; they should include a prayer meeting. The elders should not decide the location of the small group meetings. Every group can make that decision. The saints in a group may decide to pray in the home of one saint this week and in the home of a different saint next week. A small group can consist of five saints, ten saints, or even twenty saints. However, all the saints in a group should live nearby and be in the same district. Two groups may even decide to meet together.
The activities of a group may include meeting, fellowshipping, finding and visiting backslidden saints, and preaching the gospel to lead people to salvation. The responsibility for this service can be placed on the shoulders of the saints. In this way the church is responsible only for taking care of the meeting on Lord’s Day morning and the mid-week meeting. The mid-week meeting can be on a Wednesday or Thursday, and each small group can decide whether to visit or to shepherd on other evenings. The elders should charge the saints to come together to pray, fellowship, visit and recover the backslidden saints, strengthen the weak saints, comfort the disheartened saints, and lead people to salvation. Every group can participate in these activities. When the number of saints in a group increases, the group can split into two new groups.
There should be two meetings a week to edify and supply saints. These meetings should be in the district halls, one on the Lord’s Day morning and the other during the week. If the elders cannot give good messages, they can coordinate together to select a few messages and digest them. They can select a message from The Ministry of the Word magazine. The brothers should read, digest, and fellowship concerning the message. They can then use this to supply the saints on the Lord’s Day.
The elders should always have something with which to supply the saints. They should never be empty-handed. We should not be like an irresponsible mother, who does not consider how to feed her children.
The elders must bear this responsibility. Every Lord’s Day morning when the saints come together, the elders should supply them in a proper way with “food.” No matter how poor the elders think that they are, they must always be ready to supply and nourish the saints. This is the proper way.