Home Meetings

Without home meetings there can be no building

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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.” (Acts 2:46)

“[T]o meet in today’s Christianity way, to have the great congregations, is altogether natural, worldly, according to human society. I have never heard of any kind of movement or any kind of culture which invented this way of meeting in every home. Such a thing is only in the Bible [Acts 2:46].  At the very initiation of the church life the saints met from house to house. This is quite extraordinary. This is not following the natural way.

…You may ask, ‘Without the big meetings how could we have the increase?’ In the sixties when I came to this country, the evangelist Dr. Billy Graham was promoting small group meetings. Because Billy Graham found out that many brought to the gospel were scattered in the denominations and eventually became cold, he encouraged people to form small groups to have Bible study and to pray together. What he promoted was the same in principle as what we are talking about. Although thousands of people may be brought in without the small groups, how many of them could remain? There is no way. It is just like bringing the water out of a deep well and pouring it on the earth. All the water will sink back. We may get the increase, but without the small group meetings they cannot remain in the church to be built up.

…I say this especially to the leading ones of all the churches; what you have been doing is just to maintain a meeting situation of the church. As you do not have small groups, how could you have the building up? It is impossible…. After the meeting we have much contact with each other, but we still do not have much positive building because we are short of the home meetings. We must see the need of the home meetings. Without home meetings there can be no building.

…Do not say that you are weak, that you cannot overcome your self, that you cannot overcome your temper, that you cannot control yourself, that you cannot do this or that. Just set up a home meeting in your home. I have seen in many cases that when you set up a meeting in your home the Holy Spirit brings people to you. Gradually people will come. I would say that if you are a Christian, yet you do not have a home meeting, you are not up to the standard. You may know the Bible, be spiritual, be seeking, love the Lord, and so forth, but if you do not open your home, you are not up to the standard. Even a single sister could open her apartment for meetings. Every lodging of the saints, whether single or with a family, should be opened up for meeting.

…Are you going to be holy? Set up a home meeting. Are you going to be spiritual? Set up a home meeting. Are you going to know the Bible? Nothing will force you to seek the knowledge of the Bible more than setting up a home meeting. The home meetings will force you to seek after the proper, spiritual knowledge, and while you are seeking the knowledge for teaching others, you yourself will be taught, enlightened, and nourished. I can recall my own history. When I was trying to teach others I began to realize that I needed to be taught. The definite, single, and sole step for the Lord’s recovery to take today is to promote the home meetings. This is the unique way.”

(The Home Meetings, pp.12-13, 20)

Mutual fellowship is better than merely listening to messages

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“The content of the small group gatherings involves mutual fellowship. In Greek the word fellowship conveys the meaning of flowing, being in agreement, linking up, and communicating. Hence, fellowship is a flow. For example, the circulation of the blood in the body is a kind of fellowship. Likewise, the electric current in a lamp is a kind of fellowship. When there is no flow of electricity, a lamp stands alone. But once a lamp is connected to the electrical current, it is connected not only to the power plant but also to other lamps.

As believers, we have the Spirit of God and the life of God in us. Today the life of God and the Spirit of God are flowing within us continually. We have this flow, and even those who have not been meeting for a long time have this flow. Many dormant saints say, ‘I have not been meeting for many years, and I am embarrassed to go back.’ This sense of embarrassment proves that they still have God’s life in them; they are still breathing. It also proves that they have the sense of life within them. Hence, there is still hope for them. This hope is related to the flow of life, which is also the fellowship.

When we gather together in the groups, we should believe that the Lord is in our midst. From the day we were saved, He came into us with His life, and He has never left. Furthermore, we can also stand on His promise in Matthew 18:20: ‘Where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.’ We must acknowledge and grasp this privilege.

…. Each time we come to a gathering, it is not to conduct business, not to eat hot pot, and not to make friends or seek assistance. We come to seek the Lord Jesus, that is, to be gathered into the Lord’s name. Once we have this faith, we can say, ‘Lord, we thank and praise You. This small gathering is connected to heaven. You are on the throne, in our midst, and even in us.’ We must have this faith and make this declaration.

…. Mutual fellowship is truly better than merely listening to messages. Listening to messages is similar to eating only white rice during a meal; there is not much variety in flavor. When we have a meal, we always have other dishes in addition to white rice. The two-way traffic in fellowship is similar to pickled vegetables, which stimulate one’s appetite during a meal…. There may be strengthening prayers or testimonies that follow one after another. Following this fellowship, the entire gathering will open up. After half an hour of fellowship, everyone will be full and satisfied, and when they part, they will yearn for the next meeting.”

(Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 4: The Increase and Spread of the Church, ch. 8)

Changing our concepts and habits to take the God-ordained way

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Link from LivingToHim.com:  Changing our Concepts and Habits to Take the God-Ordained Way (Part 1)

“Unless we have the right view and are willing to change our concept and our system so that every saint fulfills his function, we will not be able to multiply….” (Shepherding the Church and Perfecting the Young People, Chapter 3)

Excerpt:

We need to have 6 changes of concepts and habits (practices):

  • From meeting to people: from meeting-centered to people-centered
  • From big to small: from holding big meetings to gathering in 2s and 3s
  • From coming to going: from always asking people to come to going to visit people where they are
  • From “center to circumference” to “mutuality to mutuality”: from one-directional working on a few “promising” ones to mutual caring among all
  • From “top to bottom” to “bottom to top”: from having a top-down one-directional organized church structure to everyone actively initiating and functioning
  • From “small to big” to “few to many”: from making one home meeting bigger and bigger to multiplying one home into many homes — the principle of the mustard seed vs. the principle of the grain of wheat