We must pay attention to a fundamental point in the young people’s work, which is that we must bring them into working with us. We should not replace others in whatever we do. However, we often do the work by ourselves and thus replace others. This is the natural way to work. Those who have truly been trained will not take this way. The trained way is to always teach others and work with others. It is necessary for us to apply this principle to the young people’s work.
Many serving ones have fellowshipped about how to lead the young people’s meeting. They are searching for a way to preach the gospel in the schools. If it is necessary that we go to the schools to do the young people’s work, the work has already failed. A normal situation would be that many students are saved, but no co-worker has ever entered the gate of the school. No one knows that he has brought many students to salvation. This is skill. If we desire to do the students’ work, we must learn this skill. A serving one who has not learned to work in this way is natural and untrained.
We need to be aggressive and learn how to preach the gospel in a school without ever setting foot in the school. A brother serving with the young people in a locality should find out if there are any brothers or sisters in his target school. There are saints in almost every school in Taiwan; they are either students or staff. This is the Lord’s mercy to give us such an excellent condition. Suppose the serving brother finds a young brother who attends the school. The co-worker should spend time with him by fellowshipping with him, having meals with him, and leading him to pray until the young brother begins to love the Lord, is revived, and becomes willing to preach the gospel in his school.
The co-worker should not go to the school to preach the gospel. Once he goes, he has failed. Instead, he should let the young brother do the work. The co-worker must work on the young brother until the young brother is raised up. The co-worker should not go to the school; rather, he must work on a young brother until the young brother is more zealous and more serious about the work than the co-worker is. Thus, even if the co-worker would stop serving, the young brother would continue to believe and work. The work must become the young brother’s and no longer the work of the co-worker. Then the co-worker has achieved his goal.
The co-workers must always apply this principle no matter where they serve. A co-worker has failed in the service when he is always asking others to help him. The work must belong to the local saints to the point that they are, at most, asking the co-workers for assistance rather than relying on them to do everything. The work came to Taiwan from mainland China through me, but now it is your work, and because it is your work, you ask me only to help. The Western missionaries who went to China did not work in this way. Rather than raising up others, they were always asking others to help them. Hence, the work was entirely in their hands.
Some co-workers serve like the Western missionaries. When they go to a certain place, an impression is conveyed that the elders or deacons should help the co-workers or that those who come to serve are doing the co-workers a favor. Only when the service is in the hands of the saints, and they are asking a co-worker for help to carry out a service, is it a success. A co-worker must be able to raise up useful saints who can serve. Then he has succeeded.
In order to produce a useful brother, we must spend a few months to labor with him. This is the secret of our work. We must work on the brother until his burden is only to bring people in his school to salvation. If we can achieve this, our work will be a success because it will not depend on outward things, such as asking for permission to preach the gospel in a school classroom. Some serving ones want to organize a gospel club in the schools or put up posters. We may do these things, but they are not very practical. The practical way is to labor and gain one person, working on him until he is burdened to preach the gospel in his school. In other words, we should let him preach the gospel. He can save one classmate, and the two can begin to meet together. When he feels that he cannot meet the need, he will ask for help, and we should assist him. Perhaps he will bring a classmate with him. We should teach the two of them to coordinate together and to meet. However, we do not need to meet with them at school. We must learn this basic lesson.
When the young saints ask for help, we should be ready to help them. If we cannot help them, they will not ask for help again. A co-worker must develop the skill of helping the saints, or he will be useless. If the young saints learn something that they can apply, they will return for more help. Then the co-worker can give them further direction. At this point, the work will be borne by both the saints and the co-worker. The work will belong to both, because the saints carry it out at school, and the co-worker helps as needed. If we work in this way, it will be easy to gain a school.
A co-worker who goes to a school in order to preach the gospel will accomplish little, because when he leaves the school, the work will end. However, if a co-worker can serve according to this fellowship, the work will continue after he leaves, because it is borne by the students. This way of service must be the foundation of our work and should be applied to all our service, such as the brothers’ house or sisters’ house, the publication work, and coordinating with a local church. All our service must be built on a solid foundation. Without such a foundation, our service is outward. We must diligently learn to produce useful saints in the schools. Then no matter where we are, we will succeed in every situation, and we will gain double the result with half the effort.