You should seriously consider before the Lord whether your full-time service will be short-term or long-term. Perhaps the Lord will give you the feeling that your service should be short-term, in which case you should give two or three years to the Lord, or perhaps the Lord will lead you to serve long-term. Either way, there is a great need for full-time serving ones for the going on of the church.
Currently there are more than eighty elders in the church in Taipei, but only a few of these elders are full-time co-workers serving as elders. Other than the co-workers and the elderly saints, there is not one elder who is serving full time. In other words, elders who are willing to receive a burden, to put aside their worldly future, and to care for the church’s needs for the testimony of the Lord have yet to appear. This worries me and grieves me very much, because the church in Taipei, as the largest church on the globe, should be a pattern in many ways to all the churches. Based on Paul’s word in 1 Timothy 5, a church that is in a proper condition should have some elders who serve full time. Verse 17 says, “Let the elders who take the lead well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in word and teaching.” Here, the emphasis of the word honor is on material supply, referring to the supplying of financial needs. Because some of the elders are full-time serving ones who are taking care of the church and laboring in the word, the saints should supply their material needs. This is an “honor” to them. It is incredible that this kind of situation does not exist in the church in Taipei, which is the largest church. This is truly a great lack in the Lord’s recovery.
In the United States the churches began this practice two years ago. At that time I felt that both in the Far East and in America there was a lack of full-time co-workers in the Lord’s recovery. I looked to the Lord that He would work in the hearts of the saints and raise up people to receive the burden to serve full time. I had always hoped that in every church there would be at least one full-time serving elder for every fifty people who are meeting. I also had the hope that among the Chinese-speaking saints ten or more would be raised up to be full-time co-workers. Later, I went to the Bay Area for a summer conference and fellowshipped with the brothers regarding this burden. They not only received it but also started to practice it. Almost all of those brothers had gone to the United States for their education. After they graduated, they worked for a period of time. Then for the Lord’s work, they quit their jobs to serve the church full time. Presently, the number of full-timers there has increased. Gradually, more elders are serving full time in various places. This is a good sign.
The Mormons have a regulation that requires their young people to do two years of church service. If they do not do this, they lose their membership and cannot take advantage of its benefits. Although we do not offer any such benefits, I hope that the young saints would receive the Lord’s leading to voluntarily offer up one to two years after graduating from college to receive the training and to be trained in spiritual matters such as studying the truth, pursuing life, and serving in coordination in the church life. In this way they will lay a good foundation and have a rich deposit within them. Afterward, some may go and get a job, and some may choose to serve full time after it has become manifest that they should do so and have the desire to do so.
I hope you all would realize that what you have faithfully learned in the training will not be in vain. We should not think that after receiving two years of training, those who are qualified will continue to serve full time, and those who are not qualified will be eliminated. In the training, qualification is not an issue, nor is continuing or not continuing to serve. It may become manifest that some should serve full time, yet they may not be able to do so due to their circumstances. Therefore, do not think that after two years of training and after failing the final examination you have no choice but to go back into the world to pick up a job. You must realize that those who serve full time are in the church, and those who have a job in the world are also still in the church.
The two years you have offered for the training will definitely not be wasted because in the training you are studying the truth, pursuing life, exercising to pray much, learning to coordinate in spirit with the brothers and sisters, and learning to serve in the church. If all the young saints could set aside a segment of time for this kind of learning after they graduate from college, this would be a great benefit to them both in the increase of their spiritual deposit and the building up of their character. There is a big difference between someone who has been trained and someone who has not been trained. Therefore, I hope that your decision to attend the training would not be based on whether or not you intend to serve full time permanently. Rather, it should be based on what kind of impact such a basic, spiritual training would have on your life, regardless of whether you end up serving full time or holding a job. Even if you have to hold a job, the two years of training will produce something marvelous in your life.
Some of you may say that making a schedule for contacting people in the training is difficult because unscheduled times of fellowship often interrupt the prearranged activities, making it difficult to follow the schedule. During a person’s lifetime, the time when one is a student is the most blessed time because there are not many interruptions. It is a time when one is most able to concentrate on learning. Those who work in offices are there from nine in the morning until five in the evening, so their schedules are also very regular. Hence, if someone who is not a student or does not belong to the working class intends to achieve something, then he must learn how to adapt himself to changing situations. We who serve the Lord are like guerrilla fighters. We must know how to fight using “guerrilla warfare.” As soldiers in a conventional army, we will surely be defeated. The army of the church cannot merely be a conventional army fighting a conventional war. The church has to engage in guerrilla warfare, being ready to fight at any time and by any means.
In the past our Chinese hymnals were very disorganized. There were many different hymnals entitled Hymns 1, Hymns 2, Gospel Hymns, Selected Hymns, and Additional Hymns. As a result, calling hymns in the meetings was quite confusing. Therefore, after the publication of the English hymnal in 1966, we immediately undertook the task of revising the Chinese hymnal. For this task, I translated more than two hundred hymns from English into Chinese. At that time I still had to go to different places in the Far East to carry out my ministry. Therefore, I did most of the translation work on the airplane while I was traveling. Even though I was very busy, I was still able to finish the compilation of the hymnal within one year. Moreover, I completed the job by myself with only a little help from one brother who did the typesetting and proofreading for me.
Today in our work we need to adapt ourselves to changing situations and firmly grasp our time. We cannot do anything and will never accomplish anything unless we have a set schedule. For example, if I had to attend to all the details of my work, I would not finish them even if I had three secretaries helping me. Nearly every day I receive a bundle of letters. There is no way I could reply to all of them one by one. So I have set a principle for myself. I do not read the long letters right away. Rather, I wait until there is more time. If a letter is important, it should not be too long. For example, in a telegram every word counts. If I read every letter that I got, I would not be able to do other things. Many people in the world are waiting to read our books. If I care for only one person by answering his letter, I might lose thousands or tens of thousands of people. In the same principle, you need to learn to decide what to do depending on the situation. In this way you will not feel frustrated.
You also need to learn to overcome your circumstances. Paul said that in all his circumstances, in everything and in all things, he had learned the secret and knew how to conduct himself (Phil. 4:12). You cannot stop learning because you have to attend the meetings, nor can you stop attending the meetings because you have to learn. You should learn to be balanced. You have been learning to serve the Lord for a period of time, so you should be clear that you are engaging in “guerrilla warfare.” For example, if you must attend an unscheduled meeting during the time that was originally intended for the pursuit of the Word, then you must make up that time later. If you value the matter of pursuing the Word, you will find some time to make it up. For example, you may get up half an hour early to make up for the time you lost during the week. We all need this kind of attitude.
The young people in Taiwan are full of drive in their studying, because if they do not study seriously, they most likely will not have a successful future. This is the trend of this age. Therefore, some people sleep for only five hours a day, and their whole family helps them with the other aspects of their life. It would be a tremendous thing if each of you had this kind of attitude. Maybe you could read through all the crucial ministry books in two years. If the co-workers had the attitude of the students in Taiwan, our work would be completely revolutionized and would not be in such a condition today. If you want to have ease and comfort in the Lord’s work, you are in the wrong place. There is no ease and comfort in the Lord’s work.