Furthermore, we need to see that our main objective in meeting together with the new ones should not be to exhort them to attend the meetings, to be zealous, and to serve. Rather, we should go to feed them and to minister to them. No matter what we are learning in the church meetings, whether it is something from the Truth Lessons or from the Life Lessons, we have to be like one who carries hot food from the oven to the new ones who are under our care. We have to feed them with this hot food. We do not need to read a whole lesson every time we go to them. Maybe we can read half a lesson or a quarter of a lesson. This is how to fight using “guerrilla warfare.” At the initial stage we must not expect the new ones to be able to listen to so much. We must keep the principle of not forcing people. We should decide how much to feed them, depending upon their real condition and capacity. If we care for these new ones like the way a mother feeds her child, then in half a year to a year, we could have ninety who remain out of every one hundred who are newly saved.

We all have been saved and have grown in life by being under someone’s care. Caring for the new believers requires us to continue steadfastly, not forcing people, pushing people, or compelling people. There is no way for new believers to go on too fast, so we need to accommodate them. Every time we go to see them, we should give them a small amount of truth, a small amount of food, and we should pray together with them. We must believe that the grace of the Lord is there. As long as we go to visit them, we can bring them a small measure of grace. In this way, in less than a year we will be able to retain people. This is the best way.

Another way to take care of the newly saved and recently baptized ones is to gather them together to practice the church life for three or five days. Every day we could speak the gospel and the truth to them, thereby giving them a start. We also need to teach them a little about certain matters they should know after being baptized, such as how to be a Christian, how to read the Bible, and how to pray. However, this kind of help is not complete. We still have to commit each of these new believers to the care of the saints. We all need to learn this matter. We should not go to people to drag them to the meetings; rather, we have to go to be with them, meeting with them in their homes.

Although the Catholic Church has many shortcomings, some of their practices are very good. For instance, if one of their members is sick in the hospital, they will send the mass to him on the sick bed. This captures people’s hearts. Although there are many heresies in the Catholic Church, their practices are very flexible and tactful. Therefore, their rate of increase is very high. We are just the opposite. We are rich in truth yet somewhat rigid in our practice. This is where we need adjustment. This is also the reason for changing our system. We cannot continue to expect people to come to the meeting hall; rather, we have to go to be with them. Moreover, the Lord Jesus said, “For where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst” (Matt. 18:20). This kind of gathering of two or three is right, and it is also what the Lord is after.

We cannot be negligent. This requires us to be equipped with the truth. Perhaps we may go and visit the saints, and all we can say is, “How are you? Thank the Lord you have been baptized. It is so good and so blessed to be baptized. Now we are all in the Lord and in the church.” Following this, however, we have nothing else to say. This is not sufficient. If someone should ask us further, “How can the blood of the Lord Jesus wash away my sins?” and we remain silent, without a word and unable to answer, then he will not get any help and may even be stumbled. Hence, we all must be equipped in the truth, so that we can preach the truth to people.

Man has an inner desire to seek for knowledge, so we must try our best to satisfy the needs of the saints regarding the truth. In particular, after a person is saved, he has an inner desire to know more about the things of God. When we speak the truth and minister life to people, this brings out the desire and longing within them for the truth. Sometimes people may ask us questions that we cannot answer. We cannot tell them that we do not know the answer, and we also cannot pretend that we do know it; otherwise, people will not easily accept our words. Hence, we definitely must be equipped with the truth. If we speak the truth frequently to people and speak it clearly, we will gain their heart, and they will naturally welcome our visitations very much. Then we can gradually invite them to attend the meeting on Lord’s Day. In this way they will be brought into the church meeting. Hence, in taking care of people we must not be rigid and inflexible.

I believe that this is a very sure way to retain people. Although we cannot say that we will be able to retain one hundred percent, at least we will retain seventy percent. If one hundred people are baptized, then we should keep seventy, or two-thirds, of them. Everyone who works for the Lord, even those who have been saved for many years, must practice this point. We must be confident that when new believers have passed through this kind of help and perfecting by us, gradually, after a year or so, they also will be able to help take care of others. In this way this practice will become the tradition of our family. It is impossible to depend only upon the elders to do this; every one of us must rise up and enter into the depths of the truth.
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