First, I would ask you how you bring people from the home meetings to the group meetings and how you make them interested in the group meeting. Second, when they come to the group meeting, how do you conduct the meeting? In an orderly way? Or do you let it run its free course? Third, if there is a good number in the group that will not go to the district meeting, how do you help them read the Bible, pray, break bread, and even have gospel activities? After having listened to the fellowship of the brothers and sisters, I feel that the situation is very complicated. Concerning the group meeting, I still have not arrived at a conclusion. Hence, we still need to spend time to study the matter.
Another question we need to pay attention to is: when you full-time trainees go out to set up home meetings and group meetings, how do you link yourselves to the local saints? In the group meetings it is better not to distinguish between the original ones and the new ones. We are all brothers and sisters. You have to do your best to put the two groups of people together. The newly baptized ones are under your care. You know their situation very well. But the saints who have been saved and meeting in the halls for a long time do not know their situation very well, nor know how to be related to them. This requires you to bring both those who have been saved for a long time and the new ones into the same group, so that they will have more opportunities to know each other.
Moreover, when you go to conduct the group meetings, you should also consider how to bring the more experienced saints into the group meetings to share in the responsibility. Besides this, we also need to study the length of the group meetings. In the past, due to our shortage in manpower and the large number of baptisms, we could not afford to have more than half an hour for the home meetings. Now I feel that half an hour is definitely not enough for your group meetings. You cannot expect to accomplish anything in such a short time. You need at least an hour. We also need to consider how often we should have the group meetings. Should we have one a week, or one every two weeks? Also, concerning the breaking of bread, some are not willing to go to the district meeting to break bread. Should we break bread in the home meetings or in the group meetings? All these practical questions await our study. There is another important matter that requires our study—the content of the group meetings. The key to keeping people in the group meetings is the content of the meetings. If the content is not right, the meetings will not last for long.
As to how many meetings the new ones should have each week, we must make that decision according to their condition. At present, we have three meetings each week. They are the home meeting, the group meeting, and the district meeting. Is this too much for them? Or should we be less rigid about the home meetings, not so formal, giving them the freedom to meet either in the morning or in the evening. Should we make the group meetings more fixed, and encourage them to have it once a week? This way, psychologically, they will not feel that there are too many meetings. Or, should we have the district meetings once a week, with the home meetings and group meetings being conducted alternately once every other week? All these points are worth studying.
At present we have made a general arrangement for all the serving ones in the different districts. We have also tabulated the number of new ones, co-workers, elders, and full-timers in each district. For example, in a certain district we may have one hundred fifty saints originally and four hundred newly baptized ones. That makes a total of five hundred fifty saints, including old and new ones. We estimate that each full-timer can take care of twenty new ones. While you are taking care of these twenty new ones, you should find a way to join the new ones with the old ones in the district. These old ones are experienced and should be brought in to coordinate with you. Their time is not so flexible as yours. The working ones have to go to their offices, and the sisters have to take care of their housework. You have to work according to their schedule and see how to put the new ones into the group. Only when these groups have been formed will there be a stable condition. All the districts should do their best to carry out these points.
Once you actually work with a group meeting, you will find many problems. For example, you may be a twenty-five year old brother. When you go out to knock on doors to preach the gospel, you may baptize a fifty-five year old college professor. After this, you may begin to have home meetings with him. Gradually, because of the difference in age, it will become difficult for the two of you to communicate with each other. Then you will need an older saint to coordinate with you for the situation. But he will have to be trained also. Otherwise, he may be able to get along well with the new one, become a friend and develop a good relationship with him, yet not render this new one much perfecting. This matter also requires our attention.
If there were not a church here in Taipei, it would be very easy in taking the new way to propagate with three or five saints to knock on doors and preach the gospel to save people. But the church in Taipei is an old church. Among the ten thousand saints here, about three thousand attend district meetings. Besides, during the past year and a half, the full-time trainees went to knock on doors to preach the gospel, and they gained over thirty thousand people. Out of these, about two thousand meet regularly, while another two to three thousand are unstable. If we add the new and the old together, we will have over eight thousand people. The urgent need is to care for them and to perfect them in the small groups. Moreover, there are still many unsettled issues concerning how to cause the useful ones to function, and how to train the ones who are not so useful to become useful. Therefore, concerning this matter, every elder, co-worker, and full-time trainee must bear the responsibility.