Today you may be still learning how to serve full time, but this does not excuse you from knowing how to meet in the group meetings. Perhaps some would say that when they were serving full time in the past, they learned to serve in a different way. It is true that in the past I said that if you wanted to learn to serve the Lord full time, you should first start by going to the meeting hall to clean the toilets, wipe the windows, sweep the floors, and arrange the chairs. I was the one who took the lead to do these things. However, I did not intend to lead the serving ones in that way. Rather, they deviated from my way. What I meant at that time was that these matters were the basic exercises and things that we had to learn. However, that was thirty-six years ago. Today, since every hall has at least one hundred saints, is there still the need for you who are full time to wipe the chairs and clean the toilets? If you do that, you are taking over others’ functions. You should let others wipe the chairs while you do other things.
I seriously hope that the elders would not lead the full-timers to go to the meeting hall and wash the windows, wipe the chairs, and clean the toilets. If the full-timers do not even have enough time or energy to take care of the small groups, then why should they be forced to take care of these lesser matters? It is true that the halls need to be cleaned, but right now what we are lacking is not people who can clean but people who can speak for the Lord. Our situation is like that of a school with many students, classrooms, and classes, but no teachers. In other words, there are many who can clean, but there are few who can teach. If the chairs in a hall are not being cleaned, this is an indication that the elders do not know how to lead the saints. This is a problem with the elders. If the elders cannot find people to wipe the windows or set up the chairs, then they should invite the saints to a love feast. After the love feast, it would be easy to ask the saints to serve. When there is love, it is easy to fellowship about anything. This is a very effective secret. This is not playing politics but helping and leading the saints by warming their hearts.
In 1939 when I was in the church in Chefoo, I would invite some saints to a love feast at the meeting hall on the nights when there were no meetings. We met on the second floor of the meeting hall, and there was a kitchen below the room where we met. I would hire a cook, not to cook meals for me but to prepare love feasts for the saints. For every love feast I would invite up to twenty guests. Eventually, all the saints had been invited to at least one love feast. Of course, my love feasts were not without a price. After being invited to a feast, many saints would do some service.
To take care of services such as ushering and cleaning the meeting hall, we only need to prepare a few love feasts for the saints. Then they will be willing to give themselves to serve and will have the heart to serve. However, the service of ministering the word cannot be taken care of simply by having a love feast. Our situation is like that of a school without teachers. We cannot simply invite a few saints over for a meal and then ask them to teach and expect them to know how to teach. Ministering the word is a most difficult thing. Every Lord’s Day morning the twenty or so meeting halls in the church in Taipei have three thousand people meeting in them, all of whom are like infants crying from hunger and waiting to be fed. If we have nothing with which to supply them and no food to feed them, then we should not blame them if they do not come back the next time.
We have been encouraging the saints to meet in small groups. They are very happy about this, but they do not know how to meet in this way. Perhaps some who were previously in the young people’s meetings learned a hymn there. This may be the only hymn they know. Thus, when they come to the small group meeting, they can sing only this one hymn. Perhaps others do not know how to start the meeting, so they chat about all sorts of subjects. Therefore, if someone does not lead the meeting in a good way, then when the brothers and sisters come to the meeting, they will not know what to do. Consequently, others may receive a bad impression of our meeting and may not want to come again in the future. Moreover, once people receive a bad impression, it is hard to change this impression.
I believe this is the reason that there is no increase in the small groups. Therefore, I would like to train you to lead the small groups. In the past when we practiced having small group meetings, we made some arrangements. We arranged for certain ones to be group responsible ones, home responsible ones, and hall responsible ones. There were at least two responsible ones in a small group so that when one was sick or had other matters to take care of, the other could substitute. However, the saints began to think that to be a responsible one was to have an official position. The situation reached a point in which it was difficult to even assign responsible ones because there would always be eight or ten people competing to be a home responsible one. If we appointed only two people, then the others would get offended and would not come to the meeting for one or two months. Some would even question the elders as to why they were letting a person be responsible who was less qualified than they. Therefore, we do not want to have titles. We do not want any of the saints to act as the head.
However, if no one acts as the head, then it is hard to meet. Of course, there are some saints who have a clean heart and do not assume to be leaders. They do not want to serve as officials. They only know to love the Lord and to love the brothers and sisters. Moreover, they know how to serve and also have certain spiritual abilities. When this kind of person comes to the meeting, he spontaneously helps the brothers and sisters and supplies the meeting. As a result, the small group meeting is successful. However, suppose such a one does everything and directs everything. He is the one who calls the hymns, selects the Scripture verses, and speaks the message. Since he is spiritually weighty and experienced in life, the result will be that most of the saints will prefer to go to his small group meetings and not to the meetings in the meeting hall. This would not be a good situation either. This is why we say that this matter of taking the lead is the most difficult point.