Whatever the Lord has established has great significance and value. Many people consider the breaking of bread to be a light matter. In reality, however, this is a very serious matter. Throughout the ages the Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations have all paid great attention to this matter. The Catholic Church depends heavily on the mass to retain people. If the mass were taken away from the Catholic Church, they would lose half of their congregation. The mass is the meeting for the breaking of bread in the Catholic Church. Even though many matters in the Catholic Church have been confused, this matter of bread-breaking is still highly regarded. We also need to regard this matter instead of disregarding it. We need to bring a person to the bread-breaking meeting, preferably at the meeting hall on the first Lord’s Day following his baptism. If in the long run he cannot go to the meeting hall that often, then we should find a place for him to break bread according to his need.
Generally speaking, we should find a suitable home near the school of the newly saved students so that we may bring them to the Lord’s table meeting. This is the proper church life. The students’ primary service is to preach the gospel. It would be marvelous if there could be a home near each campus so that we could have the breaking of bread with ten or fifteen people. Of course, it would be the best if we could bring them to the meeting hall, but if the circumstances do not allow this, then we should know how to be flexible and accommodating and not so rigid.
My dissatisfaction with the co-workers is that they are too rigid in their work and do not know how to be flexible. All of the worldly people who do business must learn to be flexible. The Lord Jesus said, “For the sons of this age are more prudent in their dealings with their own generation than the sons of light” (Luke 16:8). Once I heard a true story about a brother among us who owned a women’s hat shop in Hong Kong. One day a celebrity came to the shop to buy a hat, and this brother waited on her. She looked at a number of hats but was not satisfied. This brother immediately said that there were better ones in the back. He then took one of the hats that she had examined and went to the back of the shop. He took off the ribbon, pressed the hat into a different mold, put on a new ribbon, and brought it back out. He said to her, “This hat is the best one.” After she saw it, she bought it, paying a few times more for it than the original price.
I hope that the co-workers would learn from this story. The sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of light in worldly matters. The reason the co-workers are not doing well in their work is that they do not know how to make adjustments according to the demands of the situation. Some co-workers blame me, asking why I changed after going to the United States. Actually, I have not changed; my ways have changed. This is just like the fact that the hat in the story did not change, but the mold into which it was pressed and the ribbon that was tied around it were different. I am not being proud, but I ask you, “What is the present condition of the work of the co-workers who rebuked and opposed me in the past?” They have not produced one church. There were two who opposed me the most—one took the lead to accuse me of teaching heresy, and the other opposed me in a refined way. The two of them, one wild and the other refined, have been opposing me for thirty years, yet neither has produced a single church. However, while they have been opposing me, I have been preaching the word for the last thirty years and have produced five hundred churches.
I have no intention to boast. There are over one hundred churches in Mindanao, the southern part of the Philippines, that were raised up through the sixty topics of the Fundamental Truths in the Scriptures. There was one Chinese-speaking brother who moved there from Fukien when he was very young. After he was saved, he read the Fundamental Truths in the Scriptures and felt that it was very good. He then translated it into Visayan, which is the local dialect of the Philippines. One day he told me that it was through this set of books that he raised up one hundred churches in Mindanao. When I visited the Philippines, he told me that the saints in Mindanao are now reading the life-study messages. In South America, Brazil also has fifty to sixty churches now, and in Central America there are one hundred churches. All of these churches were raised up in the last twenty years.
Dear saints, we must be those who “bring life to a dying business” and not be those who “bring death to a thriving business.” Sometimes I feel that the co-workers are like the latter kind of people. I do not mean to criticize. I truly hope that the younger generation would change the tradition and be wise and educated in the matter of working for the Lord. What is the church life? The church life is not something stiff and dead. For a meeting to be considered a part of the church life we do not have to bring the saints to the meeting hall. I am not saying that we should not bring people to the meeting hall. What I mean is that the church life does not necessarily have to be experienced in the meeting hall. If there is a saint’s house near the campus with a living room that can take up to fifteen people, and that saint is willing to open up his home for the students, then we can bring the students to have the Lord’s table there, and we can care for the students there.
Regarding the one hundred of you who are full-timers, besides leading the students to break bread and preach the gospel, you also need to lead a small group meeting. You need to visit each home of the members in the group so that the group can bring in people. Thus, not only will your busyness be meaningful, but it will also produce obvious results. This should be your church life. In this way the students who break bread in the homes will be specifically cared for as well as properly perfected. Spontaneously, they will be brought into the church life and become part of the church. This is the kind of view and the way of serving you should have.
Of course, whatever you intend to do, you need to fellowship with the elders first. You have to explain everything to them and receive their confirmation. I would say to the elders that your view has to be broadened. Do not focus only on the numbers, and do not say that everyone who is saved must come and meet in the meeting hall. Actually, they can go anywhere because they have been saved by the Lord and are in the Lord’s church. I hope that the number of students living the church life under the care of the full-timers would eventually be greater than the number of saints living the church life in the meeting hall. The elders should not care whether or not the full-timers bring the students to the Lord’s table at the meeting hall. The crucial thing is that they must do their work in a proper manner and gain results. I am not saying that the older saints and the working saints are not precious. Nevertheless, for the future of the Lord’s recovery, our burden is still for the students. Since nearly all of the full-timers will come from the college campuses, we should bring in the students. The more students we bring in, the better.
What I have fellowshipped is in the nature of principles. We need to endeavor to study these matters further. In conclusion, there are three points—first, we must use the truth to bring people to salvation; second, we must lead them to break bread; and third, we must lead them to serve by preaching the gospel to save people. The table meeting should not be too long. It should be one hour at most, with fifteen minutes for singing and bread-breaking and then forty-five minutes for a message and sharing. May the Lord grant us mercy that we may have the wisdom to do His work.