This morning I want to fellowship with you concerning the inclusiveness of the new way. This has been the burden within me for a long time. From the first day I mentioned the need to change the system and take the new way, I heard that a very small number of saints among us had different opinions, especially after we had the gospel preaching by visiting people. From that time, I was prepared to find an opportunity to present to everyone a complete picture of the inclusiveness of the new way in its entirety.
We already tried this new way over fifty years ago, but it did not succeed. In 1933, when I went to Shanghai for the first time, I was brought to the work center to work together with the brothers. At that time, we had already encountered this problem of the change of the system that is being spoken of today. We were considering how to eliminate the meeting with one speaking and the rest listening, and change to all the saints going out to preach the gospel. Eventually, after much effort, we could not find a workable way. In 1937 Brother Watchman Nee released a series of messages concerning re-thinking our work. He emphatically said that the Lord’s Day message meeting was a waste, and that this meeting was following the customs of the nations; it was not worth maintaining. In 1948, in the book Church Affairs, he mentioned this matter again, and the words he used were much stronger than those spoken eleven years earlier. For thirty-six years, from 1949, when I was sent to Taiwan to spread the Lord’s work overseas, until 1984, when I returned to Taiwan, this matter of changing the system has been an unresolved problem in our midst.
Within that period, from the time of Brother Nee’s imprisonment in 1952 until his death in prison in 1972, we cannot say that he had any work; also, we had no way to correspond with him. By the Lord’s mercy I simply had to coordinate with the brothers and sisters to spread the work of the Lord’s recovery overseas. In the areas from Taiwan to Southeast Asia, and from Southeast Asia to Japan, I spent over ten years’ effort. After that, most of my time was spent in the Western world in developing the work in America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. In the last approximately twenty years, we have established over six hundred churches. Including the development in Asia, there are over nine hundred churches on the whole earth at the present time.
Three years ago, I was alerted by the practical situations. I discovered that, although the Lord’s recovery had spread to the six continents, no matter which place it had spread to, that place soon became stagnant. Nearly every place was like this. The situation that bothered me the most was that of the United States. From 1962 to 1984, twenty-two years altogether, I was there carrying out the work personally. I traveled from the south to the north, from the east coast to the west coast, to the extent that today there is a church in the Lord’s recovery in nearly all the big cities. There are altogether about one hundred churches; the number is not too small. However, regarding the increase in number, we have nothing to boast about. In the first ten years, there was still a twenty to thirty percent increase rate, but in the last ten years, the average increase rate was only three percent. One of the areas that burdened me most heavily was Orange County, California, where I live. From the time we moved there in 1974 until 1984, ten years altogether, the number has not increased.
However, you need to understand that in the last ten years, I spent half a year’s time each year (three months in the first half of the year, and three months in the second half) in writing, composing the footnotes of the New Testament, and also revising the translated text of the English version of the Bible. Besides these, there were the semi-annual trainings held to expound the New Testament book by book, resulting in the Life-study Messages of the Bible. These occupied at least two-thirds of my time. The time that was left was limited; hence, I had no way to take care of the needs in the various local churches. In 1984, after I had completed the footnotes of all the books of the New Testament, I decided to come back to Taipei. As soon as I came back, I mentioned this important issue of changing the system. At that time, I said that we started this change of the system on a trial basis, and we did not need others’ criticism or adjustment. We ourselves knew how to adjust as we went on. While I was learning the way of the recovery from Brother Watchman Nee, I acquired the skill of making adjustments. Because this new way has never been taken by anyone, we may be considered as pioneers. Hence, everything requires study and improvement.