Home Meetings

Teaching the new ones to sing hymns is the best way to nourish them

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“To teach the new ones to sing the hymns is the best way to nourish them…. After the time we go to someone’s home to baptize him, the next time we meet in his home, we can begin to teach him to sing. After singing only four or five times, he will be infused and nourished by the hymns. He may have children at home. When you sing, they may not sing, but after you leave, they will start singing. By singing a little, the truths in the hymns will gradually enter into them.”

(The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 4, p. 416)

How do we care for every member of the church?

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“According to our experience and learning and based upon the clear revelation in the New Testament, the proper group meetings should consist of two sections. The first section should include fellowship, intercession, mutual care, and shepherding, and the second section should carry out the perfecting of the saints through teaching. In the first section of the group meeting, the attendants should fellowship concerning each person’s present spiritual condition and practical environment…

The group meeting is eighty percent of the church life, and the church life is a life in the Body. In our physical body it is impossible for a problem in one member to be hidden from all the other members. The circulation of life in our body carries the feeling in one member to all the members. Thus, we should not hide our problems from the other members in the church life…For the practice of the group meetings, we must first overcome this to have a real, genuine, practical, and thorough fellowship concerning each person’s current spiritual condition and practical situation. A proper group meeting does not depend on singing and praying in a formal, religious way. It depends on this kind of fellowship.

After fellowshipping about each other’s situations, the attendants in the meeting will spontaneously be stirred up to intercede, to pray, for one another. This prayer will not be formal or like a theatrical performance but will be sincere and practical. After the fellowship and prayer the attendants in the group meeting should extend their loving concern for one another in the exercise of a definite and practical care. After becoming aware of a brother’s practical situation, some saints in the meeting may consider whether the brother is in need of financial help or some other practical care. Then, after caring for a brother in this way, some may go to visit him. This is the practice of the practical shepherding.

I would say that this principle regarding the practice of the group meetings is “scientific.” As such, it cannot be changed. Everything in this universe is governed by a God-ordained law, a spontaneous principle. In order for the church to be fully built up, we must have proper group meetings, and for the group meetings in the practical church life, there is the need of fellowship, intercession, care, and shepherding. In this way, every member of the church, regardless of how large that church may be, will be taken care of. The way to care for every member of the church is by the proper group meetings.”

(CWWL 1990, vol. 2, “The Practice of the Group Meetings,” ch. 6, pp. 39-40)

If you are a believer, you have to open up your home for meeting

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“And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God and having grace with all the people. And the Lord added together day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46-47)

According to the Greek expression in Acts 2:46, they met from house to house. This indicates that they did not select some houses that would fit their purpose. They met from house to house. They included every house. Today we should have our home meetings entirely according to the Holy Spirit’s created and ordained way. According to our feeling, we may say, “How could every brother have a meeting in his home? There are so many weaker ones. Oh, we had better consider and select some stronger ones.” But we must realize that selecting is not the Holy Spirit’s way—it is the human way. In Chinese this phrase means “door after door.” This indicates no selection, no missing. Whether you are weak or strong, whether old or young, whether knowledgeable or unknowledgeable, as long as you are a believer, you meet in your home. Do you dare do this? You say yes in the meeting, but after the meeting some may say there is no way to practice this. Some would say, “We selected thirty homes, but eventually fifteen have been sifted.” If you would select in this way, I am afraid that after another period of time only twelve homes would be left that are good for the home meetings. But you have to see that at the very beginning the way created by the Holy Spirit and ordained by God was to meet in two ways, in the congregational way and in the home way, not in selected homes but in all homes. If you are a Christian, if you are a believer, you have to open up your home for meeting. This is the first pattern at the initiation of the church life.

Since the Lord has shown this, I have begun to see all the benefits of this God-created-and-ordained way. If a new one would believe in the Lord, be baptized, and right away begin to open up his home for meetings, this opening up of his home would encourage him and even uphold him. Therefore, we can see that the home meetings are the top way, the super way, and eventually the unique way to meet.

(CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “The Home Meetings—the Unique Way for the Increase and the Building Up of the Church,” ch. 1, pp. 114).

What is the best way to preach the gospel?

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“We have to encourage all the saints, no matter what their situation, to open their homes for the gospel. We even have to motivate the saints who are weak and the saints who have not been meeting for a long time to open their homes…This will not only recover those saints who have not been meeting for a long time but will also cause their unsaved family members, friends, neighbors, classmates, and colleagues to be saved through hearing and believing the gospel…This is the best way to preach the gospel. I hope that from now on, every saint would open his home for the preaching of the gospel, and every saint’s home would be a gospel station for the preaching of the gospel once a week or at least once every two weeks.”

(Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel—The Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery, Chapter 10)

When the word of Christ fills us up from within, we will spontaneously flow out in singing

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“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.”  (Col. 3:16)

“I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray also with the mind; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing also with the mind.”  (1 Cor. 14:15)

“Our home meetings should be filled with singing. Singing comes out of being filled with grace (Col. 3:16c). When we have an inner realization of God’s grace, this realization will stir up our being to sing. Singing also comes out of being filled with the word (Col. 3:16a). When we are filled with the word, the Spirit bubbles from within us in lauding melodies. When the word of Christ fills us up from within, we will spontaneously flow out in singing. Our singing will be in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Psalms are longer poems, hymns are shorter ones, and spiritual songs are the shortest. We also need to sing by exercising the spirit (1 Cor. 14:15b). We should not merely sing in our happiness. We should sing joyfully in our spirit. Our singing must come out from our spirit. In praying, in singing, in reading the word, and in touching the Spirit, the secret is to exercise our spirit.”

(The God-Ordained Way to Practice the New Testament Economy, p. 88)

Christians have been robbed of a great blessing

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“Man is communal. Christians are all the more communal. None of us would like to live by himself on a high mountain. We like to see people and to speak to people. Once we have the life of God within us, we spontaneously love other Christians. We cannot explain why this is so, but it is a fact. It does not matter what color skin they have, whether they are black, white, red, brown, or yellow. As long as they are brothers, we love them. Some have asked me, “Brother Lee, how many brothers and sisters do you have?” How should I answer? How many brothers and sisters do I really have? More than hundreds of thousands! They are countless! Wherever I go today, I have brothers and sisters!

Christianity has robbed the Christians of this great blessing. When they go to the worship service, even those sitting beside them would not acknowledge them. After the service is over, everyone goes home. I attended a worship service for two years in a denomination. Besides the pastor, I did not talk to anyone. I was not the only one who was like that. All the others were the same. In that kind of setting, no one needs to speak to another. But if you come to a home meeting with eight brothers sitting in a brother’s living room, it would be impossible for you not to speak. At least you have to greet each other. Once you greet each other, the blessing comes. In time you begin to know me, and I begin to know you, and we become acquainted with each other’s condition and difficulties. Spontaneously a mutual love and care will be developed.”

(Key Points on the Home Meetings, chp. 2)

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Verses about the church in certain localities being in a house

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“Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. And greet the 1church, which is in their 2house.” (Romans 16:3-5a)

Rom 16:51 church
The church in Prisca and Aquila’s house must have been the church in Rome. When they were living in Ephesus (Acts 18:18-19), the church in Ephesus was in their house (1 Cor. 16:19). Wherever they were, they were willing to bear the burden of the practice of the church by opening their home.

Rom 16:52 house
Showing that the early saints met primarily in their houses. Such a practice corresponds with Acts 2:46 (see note 3 there) and 5:42.

“Aquila and Prisca greet you much in the Lord, with the 1church, which is in their house.” (1 Cor. 16:19b)

1 Cor. 16:191 church
This means that when Aquila and Prisca lived in Ephesus, the church there met in their home (Acts 18:18-19, 26). When they lived in Rome, the church in Rome met in their home (Rom. 16:5; cf. Col. 4:15-16; Philem. 2).

“Greet the brothers in Laodicea, as well as Nymphas and the 1church, which is in his house.” (Col. 4:15)

Col. 4:151 church
The church in the house of Nymphas was the local church in Laodicea, which met in Nymphas’s house. Such meetings in the saints’ homes afford every attending believer the opportunity to function, and they also strengthen the mutual fellowship among the saints.

“And to 1Apphia the sister and to 1Archippus our fellow soldier and to the 2church, which is in your house” (Philem. 2)

Philem. 21 Apphia and Archippus
According to the familial nature of this Epistle, Apphia must have been Philemon’s wife, and Archippus, his son.

Philem. 22 church
Philemon lived in Colossae (v. 2 cf. Col. 4:17; v. 10 cf. Col. 1:2; 4:9) and according to history was an elder of the church there. It must have been that the church in Colossae met in his house. Hence, it was the church in his house.