According to the present situation, among all the meetings of the new way, the group meeting is a very complicated one. In the group meeting there are those who have been saved for a longer time as well as the newly baptized ones; those who attend the district meetings as well as those who do not attend them; those who break bread in the homes, and those who break bread in the group meetings. The group meetings are composed of different sorts of people. Besides this, we have the goal of bringing all the students into the district meetings and even into the group meetings. At present, the church in Taipei can be compared to a large chop-suey mixing pot. Not only is the number of serving ones great; the items of services are also many. Hence, in practice, we need much of the Lord’s grace that we may meet all the needs when we serve, and may be able to coordinate the serving ones from all the different areas together.
We all know that it is much easier to do anything if we have only one line of action. If there are many lines it will be rather difficult. We are now facing a situation with many lines. Besides those attending the district meetings, we still have over five thousand people to care for. Among them there are two thousand who were recovered from the gospel festival, and three thousand who were brought in from the door-knocking during the past two years. They came from every part of society. They have meetings every week, and their condition is quite good. But they only like to meet in the homes; they do not want to come to the district meetings. From this aspect, our burden in taking care of them is too heavy. Besides this, among our trainees, we also have a very complicated situation. There are the local ones and also those from overseas. Among those from overseas, most are from America, and some are also from Southeast Asia. The lengths of the training periods they have attended are also different. Some are already in their third term, whereas some have been here only a few days. Besides this, there are the one-week trainings, the two-week trainings, the six-week trainings, the housewives’ training and the older saints’ training. It is very difficult to sort out all these aspects and have them in order.
The church in Taipei has been here for thirty-eight years. It surely is qualified to be called an “old church.” Superficially speaking, our number is quite large. Actually, it is not large enough. Throughout the past years, according to our statistics, we have had only one hundred fifteen thousand people under our care. This is not a large number. The reason for this is that our former system of meeting was wrong. We were not able to perfect the functions within all the brothers and sisters. As a result, although our number grew larger and larger, those whose function has been truly manifested are few. This is our big lack.
Our training here has a definite goal. This goal is to recover God’s New Testament economy. The content of God’s New Testament economy is that God is working Himself into a group of people, that they may become the Body of Christ as God’s expression. This is the local churches in the different localities today and the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth in the future as His ultimate manifestation. Although this word is simple, its content is very rich. In order for us to have a clear vision, we need to first see what kind of God our God is. Next, we need to see how He is working Himself into a group of people. Then, we want to see what kind of people are those into whom He is working Himself.
As to God, He is the Triune God. In order to work Himself into man, He needs some steps. These steps are the various processes He has gone through, which include the Father’s choosing and predestinating and the Son’s incarnation. When the Son came to earth, He came with the Father and by the Spirit, and lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. In the end He willingly went into death, gave up His soul-life, was nailed to the cross, and accomplished redemption. After that, He walked into Hades and death and came out from there and entered into resurrection. In resurrection, He became the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. He then breathed this Spirit into those who believed in Him to become their life, their content, their supply, and everything to them. From then on, those who are chosen and called by God and who believe into Him can receive and possess Him. Not only are they regenerated; they are sanctified and transformed as well. To the Father they have become His many sons, and to the Son, His many members. In this way, the many members of the Son are constituted one Body. When this Body is expressed in the different localities, they are the local churches.