We do not pay enough attention to the saints’ growth in life. The elders should be aware of their own growth in life, of the growth in life of the saints, and of the growth in life of the responsible ones. This does not mean that the elders should invite the saints for fellowship or that the districts should have love feasts. These are merely methods. The elders must first learn the lessons of life, and then spontaneously and automatically they will fellowship concerning life. There will be no need for arrangements. Fellowship does not refer to making decisions about services or a meeting schedule. Such decisions do not matter. The elders need to learn genuine lessons in life. If a responsible one is not doing well, the elders should fellowship with him and supply life for his progress. Then the responsible one will be able to supply life to the saints. The saints need more growth in life.
The co-workers and elders need to spend more time in the ministry of the word. We should not assign one person to be in charge of giving messages, but a district with a regular attendance of four to five hundred saints needs the supply of a living word. Both the co-workers and the elders must be desperate to study the word so that they can minister a word of life. It is the responsibility of parents to satisfy the hunger of their children. The co-workers and elders must give their whole being to give a living word. They can at least spend time before the Lord studying our publications, which contain many messages, so that they can present the word of the Lord to the saints in a fresh and living way. Every week the elders and co-workers must supply the saints with the word so that the church can develop and be full of content. We cannot ask the saints merely to pray-read and shout. It is right to release the spirit, but to merely shout and pray-read fifty-two weeks a year is not right. We must present something solid, just as parents feed their children every day.
The churches are not progressing because we are not practicing visitation and shepherding, we are short of the supply of life, and we lack the supply of the word. In addition, the churches are not developing because the elders have not handed the services over to the saints, and the work is not advancing. Hence, we must rise up and make a radical change. The elders must give themselves to shepherding the church of God. They must find a way to shepherd the church so that the saints grow in life. The co-workers must minister the word. If the co-workers cannot minister the word, the elders must make up the lack. Please forgive me for giving such a frank word. The co-workers who are not able to supply the word should not consider themselves as co-workers. If they cannot help the saints to grow in life or supply the saints with the word, what else can the co-workers do? It may be that they can only serve with the saints. However, the saints do not need help with the service; the co-workers do not need to be involved with the services in the churches. The services should be completely turned over to the saints. The saints can do the cleaning and ushering in their spare time. They can even give hospitality. We should seriously consider these matters before the Lord.
We must have a pure motive and only take care of ministering to the saints. The co-workers do not need to lead the young people’s meeting. The young people can lead their own meetings. It is unnecessary for the co-workers to do what the saints can do. Even if there are more regular services, such as ushering during the meetings, the co-workers do not need to be involved with the services. The saints can handle the services. We often declare that the whole church should serve and that all the saints should serve. However, only a few saints are serving. We need to fellowship concerning this so that the churches have a way to go on. The full-time serving ones need to give the saints a living supply. We must change our concept. If a co-worker meets in a district where there is no supply of the word, he should immediately minister the word and not wait for others to arrange for him to supply the word. For example, at the end of the Lord’s Day morning meeting he should stand up to minister the word for twenty minutes so that the saints are fed, even if no one invites him or arranges for him to do so. If he does this, who can say that he is wrong? It does not matter whether he is assigned to take care of a district. What is important is that the district he attends is living.
When the co-workers go to serve in a locality, they should be like rainwater that can seep through any crack. They should serve with young people and also with older saints. They should serve according to the burden, whether or not they are assigned. If they serve in this way, we have hope for the future. Our attitude should be to serve wherever we are. We can always contact the saints individually. If we cannot contact the saints individually, we can contact unbelievers. Only by serving diligently can the work propagate.