Home Meetings

How should we meet as Christians?

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“How then should we meet? First, if we would meet properly, our meeting must be related to the church, and our meeting must belong to the church. Our meeting must be standing with the church and be a part of the church. The purpose of our meeting must be to execute the decision of the church.

…If you read the book of Acts, you will see that whatever decision was made by this one group of elders was taken by all the believers, because they were all one church. Acts 8:1 says, “The church which was in Jerusalem.” Why do I stress this matter so much? Because it is so basic to the matter of meeting. The first thing we must care for in the matter of meeting is that our meeting must be a part of the local church. We must meet by taking the stand of the church and by carrying out what the church intends to do. We may have scores of home meetings. I would like to see in the city of Los Angeles more than one hundred home meetings, yet all one church under one eldership. In the city of Taipei, on the island of Taiwan, there is an actual example of this at the present time. In that city there is one church, the church in Taipei, with thousands of believers and more than sixty home meetings, yet all under one eldership. All those home meetings are not isolated and independent meetings; they are in full relationship one to another and to the one church there. The first thing we must care for in regard to our meetings is that we meet in this way. By being related to the local church, we are right. This is a basic matter.

…This matter has very much to do with the oneness of the Body. If a few brothers meet here and there in the Lord’s name without caring for the church, the Body of Christ is divided. We must all meet with a proper and positive relationship to the local church. Then our meeting will not be a divisive meeting; it will be a meeting that stands with the church and executes the church’s will. We cannot begin any meeting carelessly. We cannot start any meeting without taking care of the church. Whenever we begin to meet, we must meet for the church: either we meet as the church or as a part of the church. That means that we are absolutely one with the church and that there can be no divisions. It is in this way that our meetings will be kept in the church in oneness. The Lord be merciful to us.”

(From How to Meet, chapter 1: “On the Position of the Church”)

What is the optimal size for a small group? 

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It is preferable for a small group to have no more than twelve people. Five or six is the best, seven or eight is fine, and even eight or ten is good. Because we love Him and mean business with Him, we should daily pray, read the Word, learn the truth, see the light, experience Christ, and labor on Christ. Then when we come together, we will have experiences to share, rather than being an “audience” waiting for others to speak.

(On Home Meetings, chapter 1)

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)