In this chapter we want to continue our practical fellowship concerning the church services. As we have realized in earlier chapters, the first step in God’s ordained way to serve is to preach the gospel as New Testament priests by visiting people in their homes. An effective way for this to be carried out is for the local saints to be formed into teams of three for going out.
In order for the gospel teams to carry out a successful work, they must go out in a regular and consistent way. All school teachers know that students must attend school regularly. If the school term is four and a half months long, the students must go to their classes daily and weekly. Occasionally within one school semester students may need to ask for a leave of absence or remain home due to sickness. That is common and excusable. However, if the attendance of a class often ranges from a high of sixty to a low of thirty, it will be difficult for any proper lessons to be taught to that class. If our gospel team attendance is not regular, we may have results, but those results will not be satisfactory.
According to my own experience, only one place where I labored had satisfactory results—Chefoo, my hometown. I also worked for a while in the nearby town of Tsingtao and had a great part in the work in that church. After spending time in Shanghai for quite a long time, I went to Taiwan. From 1950 on, I labored in Manila in the Philippines every year for at least three or four months. Then I came to the United States. In conclusion, I realized that the situation was the same everywhere. Generally speaking, although the teachings we gave were not so adequate, the saints were very responsive. They accepted the teachings and did something to put them into practice. However, the results were not satisfactory. This was due to the fact that our kind of service was not carried out in a regular way. Every class that achieves satisfactory results must be regularly attended. A class of forty-five today and thirty-five tomorrow could not be successful.
Of course, if everyone in a church of two hundred fifty to three hundred were serving, that would be wonderful. However, we cannot expect everyone to serve. I do expect, though, that fifty to sixty saints would rise up to go out and visit people in their homes.
In February of 1986 I called an urgent elders’ training and gave messages on the matter of being in one accord. I received a real burden from the Lord to sound the trumpet like Gideon to form an army. I believed and did expect a number to join me to fight against the “Philistines.” At that time I made it clear that if some do not join my army it does not mean that they are no longer a local church. I said strongly that they are still a local church. I only requested that they not criticize or oppose the army, since this would cause trouble and then division. Instead, they should pray for this army. This army will fight in order that the recovery may gain some fruit. We must fight against this enemy of barrenness. Those who followed Gideon to fight against the Philistines defeated them and rescued the entire nation of Israel.
Although I studied the Lord’s new way in Taipei since 1984, I did not have the adequate time to help the trainees to be ushered into its proper practice. I had to take care of three other things—the training, the church in Taipei, and the translation of the Recovery Version into Chinese. After five years of study, I can now conclude that the new way involves four main steps. We must first exercise our priesthood to bring sinners to be saved and baptized. Second, we must feed the new ones in their homes. After nourishing the new ones to grow, we can then form them together into a group to have group meetings in order to educate and perfect them. Last, by perfecting them to prophesy, that is, to speak for the Lord, they can directly build up the Body of Christ by speaking for the Lord in the larger meetings.
After traveling and visiting many churches during the past two years, I realized that everyone has learned the doctrine of the new way. Recently on the island of Taiwan many of the co-workers went out to visit the churches to speak the same thing as I did. Although there is much speaking concerning the new way, nearly no one practices it. Our situation is similar to a coach who speaks all the time concerning how to get the ball and shoot, but none of the team members shoot or play ball. We may even become eloquent speakers of the new way so that the saints know everything, but nearly no one is “playing ball.” We may argue that to some extent we have been playing, but we still play in a natural way. Who cannot play basketball in a natural way? Everyone can. Furthermore, we may play the piano for our entire life, yet still know nothing, because we touch the keys in a natural way.
If at the present time we have no new ones under our care, we must go to visit homes to bring sinners to believe and be baptized. There is no need to gain too many. To gain three or four is adequate. Concerning the skill required to bring people to be saved, we need to receive some instructions. For example, it may be advisable to go to “warm doors” first, rather than “cold doors.” The warm doors are those of our relatives, cousins, and in-laws. These doors will always be open to us; we will not be rejected. We also have our friends, neighbors, classmates, schoolmates, and colleagues. We should make a list of all of these friends and relatives and classify them according to what kind of persons they are. Some will be easier to gain than others. Due to this, eventually we may not need to knock on some cold doors. The friends and relatives that we bring to the Lord and baptize will bring us to their own relatives and classmates for us to visit. Then more warm doors will be open to us. Eventually, this will become a kind of chain reaction. Then, every door will provide us with ones to save and baptize.
It is just a matter of our diligence. We do not need to do too much, but just give the Lord two and a half hours every week. When we give this time to the Lord, we must mean business. No school teacher could keep a job if he or she were unaware of the number of students in the class or ignorant of which lessons to teach. Before giving this time to the Lord every week, we must stir ourselves up by prayer. We must catch the spirit of gospel preaching through prayer.
After three or four are baptized, we should immediately begin to feed these new ones in their homes. Do not insist that they come to our home for home meetings. On the contrary, we must go to their home. This is the real home meeting. Here we can feed them for a few weeks or even three or four months, depending on each person. We should then do our best to bring them out of their home so that we may group them together with other Christians. By collecting the new ones together from different homes, we can form a group meeting for their perfecting. Eventually we can lead them to attend the larger church meetings.
From now on we should not go out to knock on doors and reach people according to our own way. We must not carry out these four steps in a loose way. No tutor or piano teacher would allow any of the students to use their fingers as they like. The most difficult thing is to instruct the new ones to use their fingers properly. Some of those who play the piano excel as pianists because they were under a strict tutor for at least ten years. Nearly the entire day they sat there and played according to strict instructions. Otherwise, they could not play in a concert. It is the same way in reaching people at their doors. I have heard many places testify of door-knocking, home meetings, and group meetings, but I just shake my head.
What is on my heart is this. As long as we are not overage, we should go out regularly and carry out these four steps exactly as the training instructs. If each of us promises to give two and a half hours a week, eventually we will get into it. When we get into it, we will acquire a taste for it. Then we may even desire to go out twice a week.
Every time the teams come together for fellowship, some brothers will give some instructions and training prior to going out. This going out is a simple matter, but we must learn some spiritual principles. Because our practice of the new way is not that regulated or regular, we may work very much but reap little. So we must change the way.
Some saints were not happy with door-knocking and the new way. They said that I was too much in activities and that it seemed there was no God, no Lord, and no Spirit. One saint even expressed the feeling that all the saints need to come back to the enjoyment of Christ. Although it is wonderful that we have enjoyed Christ so much, I would like to check, where are the fruits? We may enjoy Christ, but where are the fruits?
To enjoy Christ means to abide in Him. In John 15:5 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Without the proper bearing of fruit, our enjoyment is not genuine. There must be something wrong. If a married woman has no children after three or five years, there is something wrong.
Still worse, we may have been Christians for fifteen years, yet we are without fruit. We cannot tolerate this kind of teaching that speaks of the enjoyment of Christ yet without fruit. It is altogether twisted and imbalanced. Rather, we testify that the enjoyment of Christ issues in fruit bearing, and fruit bearing comes out of the enjoyment of Christ. These two things should be here to balance us.
Although we all enjoy Christ, what kind of enjoyment of Christ do we have? This is the problem. The real check of our enjoyment of Christ is by no other way than fruit bearing. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 12:33 that “by the fruit the tree is known” (cf. Matt. 7:16-20; Luke 6:43-44).
Furthermore, the Lord condemns barrenness in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the Lord condemns physical barrenness (Gen. 30:1-2; Prov. 30:16), whereas in the New Testament, He condemns spiritual barrenness (John 15:2, 6). Thank the Lord that in the New Testament He does not care whether we have physical children or not. Even the Apostle Paul said how good it would be if we did not have children (1 Cor. 7:7-8). However, if we do not have spiritual children, that is a shame.
The Bible tells us that when man tills the ground, God sends the rain (Gen. 2:5). Suppose that every day the rain comes but no one tills the ground. What can we reap? All farmers know that, on the one hand, they have to till the ground, sow the seed, and water the crop. On the other hand, they must all look to the heavens for the adequate rainfall. This is to “make a living by the heavens” in the Chinese expression. To look to the heavens does not mean to just go home and sleep day and night. Farmers must go to the field, till the ground, sow the seed, and so forth. Then they will reap something at harvest time.
In the same way, without our labor God would not be able to do any work today. Today is the day of the New Testament, and the New Testament principle is that of incarnation. God must work together with man and in man. If so, then something will happen. Otherwise, nothing will happen. If we merely teach and speak without laboring, how could we expect to gain the fruit? I am looking to the Lord that here in Anaheim and in all the churches a good number will be faithful to rise up and begin to practice the God-ordained way. We will see the difference after one year. Surely each one of us can bring at least two remaining fruit to the Lord each year.