There are four steps in the practice of the new way: begetting, nourishing, perfecting, and building up. Every proper believer should always have two or three new believers under his care year-round. These two or three new believers would come from your visiting people with the gospel. To "knock on doors" means that you go to contact people or you get people to contact you. To make a telephone call for the gospel is to knock on doors. To ask your cousin to give you the name, address, and telephone number of one of his friends or relatives is also an aspect of knocking on doors. To contact people is to knock on doors. Through knocking on doors, you are able to gain some new believers. Gradually, as you take care of two or three of these believers, one will be raised up and brought into the church life. If you lose these two or three under your care, you should go out again to gain another group of two or three. If some of the saints practice this way year-round, I have the assurance that they will bring two remaining fruit into the church life every year.

I have also encouraged the elders to take the lead in caring for people, leaving the direct care of the business affairs of the churches to others. To not bear fruit for four or five years is abnormal. To be "spiritual" and not bear fruit is abnormal. Some elders have not borne fruit in ten years. Some would take the excuse that they are busy with the business affairs of the church and do not have time to care for people. This is not the proper attitude. The first thing in our Christian life should be begetting. On the average, one new believer should be begotten of you, by you, through you, and with you every year. If we are not begetting new believers, we have to ask ourselves, "What kind of spirit are we of?" and "Do we think that we have the Spirit of God?"

The new way, the God-ordained way, has been welcomed by most of the saints since 1988, but there are not many who really practice it. Most saints consider that they are too busy and do not have enough time to practice it. For this reason, I have encouraged the saints to budget their time, spending at least two or three hours a week for the preaching of the gospel. We should not waste our time during the week with long and unnecessary telephone calls. Often when we have long telephone conversations, it is hard to avoid gossip. We do not have the intention of gossiping, but when our conversation continues for a long time, we may be tempted to gossip. Whenever you waste time, you have the wrong spirit and you do not have the Spirit of God. According to Ephesians 5, redeeming the time (v. 16) goes together with being filled in spirit (v. 18). Redeeming the time is closely related to having the Spirit of God. Therefore, we need to learn to ask ourselves, "What kind of spirit are you of?" and "Do you think that you have the Spirit of God?"