Paul told us that “those who announce the gospel live of the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:14). The ones who give up their job to serve the Lord full-time should live by announcing the gospel. But practically speaking where will your material supply come from? When I came to the United States in the early sixties, I had no personal source of income. Some of the brothers here in the United States may have thought that the saints in the Far East were helping to take care of my living. At the same time, the saints in the Far East may have thought that since I was now in the United States, the brothers here would take care of my material supply. A brother who took care of my 1964 income tax return told me that I had only received six hundred dollars for the entire year of 1964 from the church in Los Angeles, which I was serving very much at that time. You may wonder how I lived. I lived by preaching the gospel. I do not know quite well from whom I received my material supply.
About sixty years ago, the Lord began His recovery among us brothers in China, and one of the things we studied was how the Lord’s full-time servants could be taken care of. The general way practiced by many Christian groups is to raise funds through some organizational means. Then trained theological students are hired to be the ministers, pastors, preachers, or missionaries. Among so many Christian groups, however, the China Inland Mission formed by Hudson Taylor was different. Hudson Taylor did not take the organized way of raising support for himself and his fellow workers. He trusted in the Lord for his living and work. He let the Christians on this earth know that there was a work under his hand called the China Inland Mission so that whoever was burdened to give would have the opportunity. Many Christians from different denominations, from different countries, and other sources donated a lot for his work. He did not organize the money to hire people, but he told his co-workers that they were not sure how much they could receive of the Lord. All the missionaries had to go out by faith, trusting the Lord for their living. There was no promise as to what their salary would be. They did not know how much they would receive monthly, quarterly, or yearly. They were only told to go by faith, trusting the Lord. Whatever material supply was received by the China Inland Mission headquarters was sent to all the missionaries on a percentage basis. If very little material supply was received for one month, then very little was sent to all the missionaries on the field, so they had to trust in the Lord. This was the best way we saw among Christian groups to take care of the Lord’s work purely. However, we still did not feel that this way was altogether according to the way shown in the Bible.
In the Bible we see no organization, no control of money, and no hiring or firing. There is no organization and no financial center controlling and distributing the finances. All the full-time co-workers like Peter and Paul trusted the Lord to receive their supply either from the saints individually or from the churches corporately. If at any time they could not receive an adequate supply, they worked. Paul made tents for his needs and for the needs of his co-workers when the material supply was lacking. Because we made a resolution to do everything according to the Bible when we were young, we took the Biblical way. The Bible does not tell us so much in clear words what to do concerning the supply of full-time workers. In the New Testament we can only find some principles and some examples. The principle is that we should not have any organization or any financial control, but we should only trust in the Lord and serve Him as priests, as branches, and as slaves. We all should serve whether we go full-time, part-time, or whether we still have a full-time job. We all have to go. We all have to serve. The ones who do not go full-time will have a job and some regular income. Then they need to spend every cent they have received under God’s sovereignty for God’s interest. This is the principle in the New Testament. We cannot find any hint that the Lord wants us to organize something to control the finances in a center to hire people. This is according to the Biblical revelation in principles and in examples.
I have been serving the Lord full-time since 1933 and I have experienced the Lord’s faithfulness, the saints’ love, and the churches’ care. I also have experienced both being in poverty and having material riches. When I began the ministry in the United States twenty-three years ago, I did not have any burden to encourage any saint to go full-time. As the years progressed some of the saints had no choice but to take the full-time way in their localities. When these ones began to serve the Lord full-time in their localities, the church spontaneously took care of their need. This does not mean, though, that they were hired by their churches.
We can realize that now there is a great need to spread the Lord’s recovery. According to the need of the present world, the truths that the Lord has shown us, and the blessing that we have received of the Lord, we surely must take a further step, even a giant step, for the spreading of the Lord’s recovery. The time has come not only in the Far East, but also in the United States for us to rise up to take a giant step to have as many full-timers as possible to go out to spread the truth. It has been proven in Taiwan that the full-time workers’ going out to spread the truth has been much blessed by the Lord.