“THE RECOVERY OF THE WHOLE CHURCH PREACHING THE GOSPEL

In the matter of preaching the gospel, we have to recover the kind of preaching that is done by the whole church. We do not need to invite people with big advertisements. Rather, we should ask all the brothers and sisters to invite people individually. There is a difference between inviting people through advertisements and inviting them individually through the brothers and sisters. In this way the whole church will be able to rise up to serve. This kind of service will be the whole Body serving together. If we have only a few serving today, we have not reached God’s standard.

The way to go on today is to have authority plus the one-talented ones. When authority is added to the one-talented ones, we have the church. Whether or not a church is up to the standard depends on whether the one-talented ones are functioning. It is not enough just to have the two and five-talented ones. If our work does not bring out the one-talented ones, our work is a failure.

The flesh always comes with the one-talented ones. Before we have learned obedience ourselves, we will not know whether others are obeying or not. But after we have learned obedience, we will detect disobedience as soon as it is present. If we are coordinated, there will be authority among us. With authority we can deal with the rebellious and the insubordinate.

Our co-workers have been working and laboring all this time. I would like to ask if they feel tired? Perhaps God is telling us to let go now. The way today is not to struggle individually by ourselves. The way today is to do things all together and in coordination. The church is the reservoir of Christ; all the riches of Christ are stored in the Body. If one day we see the whole church rising up to preach the gospel, we will realize what a beautiful and powerful picture it is.

TAKING THE WAY OF THE WHOLE CHURCH SERVING

Today very few spiritual giants are being produced any longer. In the last century during the Keswick movement, many spiritual giants were produced. At that time people had a very shallow knowledge about the Bible. When A. T. Pierson stood up to preach, very few people knew what he was talking about. Today man’s knowledge about the Bible has increased. When a person steps up to the platform to preach today, he only needs to speak the first sentence, and everyone knows what will follow. Today there are very few five-talented ones like Paul. However, although there are very few spiritual giants, two or three one-talented ones and two-talented ones will make up for a Paul. Today we do not have many Pauls. We can no longer wait for spiritual giants to come to us. I believe the time has come for the church to rise up to serve, work, and preach the gospel. There is no way for us to go on individually any longer. This is the time for us to take the way of the church. We have to be in the same mind with God. We criticize the denominations and their system of one man monopolizing everything, but in the local churches, one co-worker plus two or three elders monopolize the services. They are replacing the functions of the saints. In principle this is the same as the denominations.”

(Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 3) Vol. 57: The Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry, Chapter 11, Section 5)