I have been in the Lord’s work for more than fifty years. Before we changed the system this last time, I considered many times before the Lord how we would accomplish such a change. Now the change is being accomplished before our eyes. The way that the Lord is leading us on is the best way. This is not something that we dreamed into being. Rather, it is the cumulative result of our many years of experience and observation before the Lord. Regrettably, there is one troublesome matter—the number of people who can speak for the Lord is too small, and the ministry of the word in the meetings is too weak. Being able to speak for the Lord is not a matter that can be developed instantaneously.
Even though this is the case, I still feel very hopeful because of all the full-timers here. Therefore, after considering this matter before the Lord, I decided to set aside time to give you some training. I hope that after you have gone through the training, you will be able to meet the need for the ministry of the word in the group meetings. This is my burden. For me to lead one small group would not be difficult, but for me to lead four hundred groups would be difficult. At present there are one hundred full-timers. The least I can do is to set aside some time to teach you all to lead one hundred small groups. For this reason, I hope that each of you would attend a small group meeting and attend the same one regularly for your exercise and learning. Starting from today, you should not wander from group to group, drifting everywhere. Rather, you should attend the same group regularly. As to the other three hundred groups, you must leave them and let others work on them.
When you go to a small group meeting, you should not have the intention or the attitude that you are there to teach. You should have only one real burden—to be a saint attending the small group meeting and learning to lead the small group meeting. It is worthwhile to learn how to lead a group meeting. The most crucial aspect of a small group meeting is the opening of the meeting. Do not open the meeting hastily, and do not compete to be the first to open the meeting. You should let the saints open the meeting. If they do not do a good job of opening the meeting, that may waste only five or six minutes. Then you can give a good opening word to help them have a good meeting. You should not speak much unless it is necessary. If you use a life-study message to open the meeting, and the saints follow by reading the message but read in a disorganized way, then you can speak a few sentences to help them. You should not set out with the intention to teach the saints, but you should take the opportunity to educate them when you have the chance. Everyone likes to learn. Even though some of the saints have been saved for many years, they may not know how to meet. Thus, you need to teach them little by little. You may not succeed immediately, for they will not learn immediately. You may have to teach them a little at a time. If you teach them a little at a time, after three or four meetings, they will learn.
Besides this, you need to learn to contact the members of the small group individually. For example, you may visit the home of the one who will be hosting the next meeting. When you go, do not go with the intent to teach him. Rather, go spontaneously before the time of the meeting. You do not need to make an appointment; simply go before the meeting begins. If the meeting starts at seven-thirty, you could go at six-thirty. When you arrive, you do not need to say, “I have come early to visit you.” If he asks you why you are early, you can say, “Praise the Lord that He gave me the feeling to come early.” Then you can talk with his whole family, taking the opportunity to observe their condition, to fellowship with them, and to render them the appropriate help. You could even teach the head of the household how to open up his home and how to receive the saints when they come.
You should not forget your status and your work. You are full-timers. All of your time is for the Lord and His church. Therefore, you should not be inflexible in deciding the place and time of your meals. If the meeting starts at seven-thirty, you can eat earlier in order to make it to the meeting at six-thirty. During the meeting, if you see a saint having difficulty, then you need to find an opportunity to contact him. However, do not approach him as a preacher or a teacher. You have to show concern for him and cherish him in a spontaneous way. After the contact, you may arrange to have a meal with him for fellowship before the next meeting and to attend the group meeting together. Never tell him, “I can tell that you are having difficulty, so I want to invite you for a meal and for fellowship. I hope this will help you.” Rather, you should share some of your testimony with him in a very normal way or read a portion of the Word to him for him to receive the real help. This is to do the real work.
You do not need to take care of those who are in other groups. Simply endeavor to labor in your group. In this way, in less than half a year the saints in your group will surely be on track. The direct and indirect effect or influence will be indescribable and immeasurable. The number of people in your group will quickly increase, and you will be able to form another group. I believe that through this kind of fellowship you can understand what is the proper way to work.
In your church life no service should conflict with the meetings because the church meetings are the full-timers’ work. The other saints come to the meetings simply to attend, but you who are full-timers must come to serve. Therefore, you need to study how to minister to others in the meeting what you have received of the Lord and also how to care for the saints’ individual needs. I do not mean that you should go and take care of everyone. You should simply take care of one specific person. Week after week you should take care of individual people, one by one. The number of people you take care of will naturally accumulate over the years. If you perfect one person every six months, then after five or ten years you will have borne fruit a hundredfold. We must have this view for our work.
Do not seek to be great in working for the Lord. Do not dream of becoming a great evangelist who holds campaigns and leads hundreds of thousands of people to be saved. That is not necessarily the way of the Lord. The Lord’s way is to save people one by one. He says in the Bible, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). A single grain of wheat cannot produce hundreds and millions of grains in a short time. Rather, each and every grain multiplies—one thirtyfold, one sixtyfold, and one a hundredfold (Matt. 13:8, 23). The result is that a little multiplication accumulates to produce a great abundance. Today I am very happy because there are over a hundred full-timers here. It would be a tremendous thing if each of you went and earnestly led and worked on a group.
We have been promoting the small groups for eight months already but with no result. Generally speaking, this is because no one knows what to do, and due to our complacency, everyone simply lets the time go by week after week. Therefore, to this day our situation has been unremarkable and ordinary. Nothing new has happened. If all of us had known how to work for the Lord and had endeavored to work well, then during the past eight months, our numbers would have at least doubled from one hundred groups to two hundred. However, the situation has not been so.