The way that can save people effectively must be by small vital groups, and everyone in this small vital group must be a shepherd. After a short time the church will be revived. No other way is more prevailing than this shepherding way.
I hope that we would pray, “Lord, I want to be revived. From today I want to be a shepherd. I want to go to feed people, to shepherd people, and to flock people together.”
(CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John”)
In 2 Corinthians 7 Paul was very emotional. In verse 13 he says that he “rejoiced more abundantly over the joy of Titus.” …Paul was very human and emotional in his ministering of life. Paul was so emotional because his concern was so deep and intimate. Without this kind of concern, we could never be abundantly rejoicing in the way Paul was. Instead, we may be as cold as a freezer, altogether lacking in concern for the saints. Instead of warming up others, we make them even colder. Nothing can grow when it is in such a frozen condition. We need the weather of spring to come to thaw us out and warm up our life. Once again there is a need for a ministering life. Do you know what a ministering life is? It is a life that warms up others. Learn to warm others. This is to have an intimate concern for them.
Many have read 2 Corinthians 7 without touching the matter of Paul’s intimate concern. If we do not have this kind of concern for others, we will not be fruitful. If I would minister life to the saints, I must have a genuine concern for them, a concern that is emotional, deep, and intimate. I must be so concerned that, at times, I may appear to others to be foolish or beside myself.
(Life-study of 2 Corinthians, message 44)
The instructions I am giving now concerning the new way are different from what I spoke in Taiwan. In Taiwan I charged you to visit people and to get them baptized immediately. But today I do not encourage you to get people baptized in a quick way. Also, when you visit people, do not speak too quickly to them concerning the Bible, God, Christ, or salvation. If you do, people may think that you are too religious and that they cannot come up to your standard. They may be turned away by your enthusiasm. In your first visit with someone who has been recommended to you, do not stay very long; the shorter the visit, the better. A short visit will give the one who is visited a good taste so that he will welcome another visit. Do not spoil the taste of those whom you visit. On the first visit do not speak too much concerning spiritual things.
As you visit a second or third time, you may begin to say something concerning Christ. You may need to go a few times before you are able to get a person saved. The principle is: the slower, the better; the slower it is, the safer it is. The slower the pace is, the more certain it is that you can gain that person.
(Fellowship concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, Chapter 3, Section 3)
“Shepherding works. We should not desire to be giant speakers to make a name for ourselves. People may be attracted to come to listen to us, but who will take care of them afterward? The way of having large gospel campaigns does not work. In some places this has been tested out. We may have big gospel meetings with many people, but eventually not many of them are added to the church. Also, we should not use famous or well-known people to testify in our meetings. This will not save people to be added to the church. Even if someone is the president of the country, he should be in the meeting just as anyone else. The way that can save people effectively must be by small vital groups, and everyone in this small vital group must be a shepherd. After a short time the church will be revived. No other way is more prevailing than this shepherding way.”
(Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John, ch. 13)
“Verses 24 and 25 of Hebrews 10 are the basis for our practice of the group meetings. These verses say, “Let us consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works, not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the day drawing near.” These verses first say that we need to consider one another. This implies that we have a genuine care for all the members of our vital group. To care for one another means to consider one another. Today we may not care for others. We do not really care whether or not a certain brother comes to the meeting or whether or not a certain sister is sick. The genuine care for one another needs to be recovered among us.
Proper wives always have their husbands in their consideration. A sister may make sure that her husband has a coat to wear as he is leaving the house. This means that she is considering her husband, caring for her husband. We need to have this kind of practical care for one another. To consider one another in a practical way is to love one another. We say that we love one another, but in what way do we love? We may not care for anyone in a practical way. Love means practical care and consideration. When we consider one another, we incite one another to love and good works. We stir up one another. If someone cares for me, that spontaneously stirs me up, incites me, to love and good works. To love here is not an infinitive. Love is a noun, just as good works is a noun. We incite one another to love and good works by caring for one another, considering one another.
We need the intimate fellowship with one another with the practical care and shepherding. One sister may point out that another sister in the group is absent because she is having some particular trouble. After sharing with the other group members the nature of the problem, the group can pray for her and fellowship about how to give her the practical care and help.
If a brother has lost his job, we should pray for him. We should also consider his material situation. This is real love. James in his Epistle says, “If a brother or sister is without clothing and lacks daily food, and any one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, yet you do not give them the necessities of the body, what is the profit?” (2:15-16). In his first Epistle, John says, “Whoever has the livelihood of the world and sees that his brother has need and shuts up his affections from him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue but in deed and truthfulness” (3:17-18). If we see brothers who are in need and merely tell them that the Lord will take care of them, that is not love. That is vain talk. We should care for one another, consider one another, in a practical way.
This kind of care stirs up our love and our good works. These good works may refer to small things or big things that are related to God’s economy. A saint in your group may not think about God’s economy. God’s economy seems too abstract and unattainable to him. He thinks that we talk much about God’s economy but that this has nothing to do with our present need in our daily life. Through our loving care for this brother, he will be incited to consider God’s economy. Without such a loving care and consideration of one another, we may be very indifferent toward the things of God’s economy concerning Christ and the church. But once a brother is loved in some practical care, that impresses him and incites him to think about the Christian life and about God’s economy. When a brother who is Italian cares for another brother who is Chinese, this is a marvelous testimony. This shows that the different races are swallowed up in the new man and testifies of the practical love among the members of the Body of Christ.
Paul says that we should consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works, not abandoning our own assembling together. Today our vital group meeting is our own assembling together. For the Hebrew believers at Paul’s time to abandon their own assembling together would have been to return to the Jewish way of meeting and to abandon their assembling together as Christians. Paul exhorted them not to abandon their own assembling together as Christians. Hebrews 10:25 says that in the group meetings we should exhort one another, and so much the more as we see the day drawing near.
The first thing we have to do in the vital group meetings is to have a thorough fellowship together so that we can know the members of our group in an intimate way. The more thorough our fellowship is, the better. Do we know the occupations of the saints in our vital group and where each one works? Do we know the first and last names of every member of our vital group with their proper pronunciation? By considering these questions, we can see that our fellowship has not been thorough. To love one another involves a lot. We need to endeavor to know one another intimately in the Lord. If someone is absent from our vital group meeting, we should immediately ask where he or she is. We say that our group should be blended, but our blending has not been completed, because we do not know each other thoroughly. When you take action together in serving the Lord, you will see that this is very important. Week after week we have been meeting together, yet we still do not really know one another.
We should know each other’s situation and condition in an up-to-date way. Then we will realize there is the need of practical care. If we realize that a sister is sick, we can fellowship about how to render the proper and practical care to her. We can fellowship about who would be burdened to go or about who could and should go. In the larger prayer meetings of the church, we pray in a general way, but the prayer for one another in the groups is specific with a view to the practical care and shepherding. We may pray for a few minutes, and then we can arrange for some person or persons to visit our sister. This is the shepherding. Later, the one who visits should let the group know the situation of this sister. This is what is implied when we say that the group meetings are eighty percent of the church life.
The new ones whom we bring to our group meetings will not merely be taught by us outwardly. They will observe our practice. This is similar to the children in a family learning things by observing the way the family lives and acts. The new ones will follow the pattern that they see and hear in our vital groups. This is why we must learn how to fellowship with one another and how to get ourselves released.”
(Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, ch. 17)
In the past, we may have heard, to some degree, something concerning the practice of the new way among us. It is very unfortunate and heartbreaking that several churches have wrongly understood the new way that has been brought in and have also spoken mistakenly about it. The new way is not door-knocking alone; it does not consist merely of knocking on doors to visit people for gospel preaching. That is only the beginning of the new way. To practice the new way is to come back to the Bible and take the way ordained by God for the New Testament priests of the gospel to carry out the work of the gospel. This way includes primarily four major steps. The first step is to personally visit people for the preaching of the gospel to lead sinners to be saved through regeneration and then to offer them to God as sacrifices. The second step is to go to the homes of the new believers to nourish and cherish them that they may grow in life so that they can present themselves as living sacrifices to God. The third step is to ask the new believers to participate in small group meetings so that they all will be helped and instructed, and so that everyone opens himself and everyone fellowships. Such opening and fellowshipping bring in mutual interceding, mutual caring, and mutual shepherding. Moreover, these small group meetings afford everyone the opportunity to ask questions concerning truth and life. During this time, no one leads the meeting or acts as the only person who answers questions, but all of the attendants answer according to the measure and depth of what each one knows. Everyone speaks a brief word and adds to the speaking of others. In less than ten minutes, seven or eight people can answer a question in a complete way so that everyone learns and everyone is taught.
If we have this kind of small group meeting, week after week, for fifty- two weeks yearly, how much and how greatly we will be benefited! These meetings are neither the worship services in the denominations nor the meetings among us for listening to messages. In the small group meetings there are no religious ceremonies nor predetermined programs and procedures. Instead, everyone who comes to the meeting begins the meeting while still in his home or on the way, coming with singing and praying. Whoever comes into the meeting can simply sing and pray without waiting, and when others come, he can begin to open up himself for mutual fellowship. If there is any problem or need, they simply pray for one another. In this way, spontaneously there is care and shepherding. Any question concerning truth and life can be brought out for all to answer and to teach and learn from one another so that all may be perfected. The fourth step is to help the perfected ones to be God’s prophets speaking for the Lord in the meetings, speaking the Lord into people, so that all the saints are supplied and the Body of Christ is built up. This is the culminating step.
PRESENTING OURSELVES TO TAKE THE NEW WAY ORDAINED BY GOD
These four steps taken together constitute the new way of which we have spoken in these days, that is, the way ordained by God from the past unto eternity, which He has revealed in the Bible for us to take. I fully realize that this way does not seem convenient to many of our dear saints, but the commission that I have received from the Lord is not to speak messages that are convenient to the brothers and sisters. If so, I would have failed the Lord and cheated you. At this time I am speaking sincerely and faithfully concerning what the Lord intends to recover in us. The proper church life in the Lord’s recovery today is one in which every believer is a New Testament priest of the gospel….If we are willing to do these things, we become the genuine New Testament priests of the gospel to carry out the entire gospel work; that is, to deliver a God-chosen and called one from the position of a sinner to become a child of God and a member of Christ, and to help him to grow, be perfected, and eventually prophesy for the Lord for the edification of the saints and the building up of the Body of Christ. If we truly do this, God’s New Testament economy will be accomplished quickly, and the day of the Lord’s coming will be near. May the Lord bless us.
(The Church Life in the Lord’s Recovery Today, Chapter 3)
The group meetings should be eighty percent of the church life. If we do not build up the group meetings, the church will be very weak. Among us there are some older saints who love the Lord and the church but do not have the habit of attending the group meetings. They have the habit of coming only to the Lord’s table meeting, the ministry meeting, and sometimes the prayer meeting. Some may come only to take the Lord’s table on the Lord’s Day and leave an offering in the offering box. To charge, encourage, and exhort them to come to the group meetings will not work since they do not have such a habit. However, some of the older saints do have the burden to come to the group meetings. Many of them, though, have been in the traditional, old way for years. Their traditional way of meeting may be compared to speaking English with a foreign accent. Because of my old, traditional background, my English is somewhat poor. It is difficult for me to get rid of my old way of speaking. Likewise, it is difficult to drop the traditional way of meeting.
These older saints with the traditional ways will eventually be in the same group meetings as the newly baptized ones. The way to build up the group meetings, therefore, is first by going out to gain new ones. It is best not to raise up a group meeting with the older saints as the foundation. We should first go to gain new believers. After one or two new ones are gained, we should go to their home to feed them in their home meeting. This home meeting will become a group meeting. Then we may invite some older saints to join us. In this way we will have a mixed attendance with some new ones and some older ones.
We must let the new ones know that we do not care as much for the big meetings as we care for the group meetings. The group meetings are the “lifeline,” the “pulse,” of our church life. At the same time we should have a thorough fellowship with the older saints in the group, either in our home or in their home. We can tell them that they should forget about the old way of meeting and that they need to pick up the new way. In the first few group meetings we need to explain what the new way is and how to have a group meeting. We should explain that we come together not in formality but in a released spirit to fellowship, pray, care for one another, and shepherd one another.
Even though our current group meetings may have the element of oldness, we should not dissolve them. This will not be good for the attendants in those meetings. We still need to maintain the present meetings, but at the same time we should form a group in the new way. Our time and energy should be concentrated on the new group meeting. If some saints would raise up group meetings in the new way, after a few months many others will follow them to do the same. At that time the meetings in the older way will fade away by themselves.
We should not depend upon the church to arrange a group meeting for us. If we want a family, we should simply get married and bring forth children. We do not need to wait for our parents to arrange a family for us. An arranged family is not a genuine family. We need to produce the group meetings ourselves. Then we must learn the new way to have the group meetings. It is not sufficient to maintain a number of home meetings with only two or three members present. These smaller meetings will not be as effective as the group meetings and will not last for the long term. We need to go along with the need of the new ones, but in going along with their need, we must bring them into the new way. Then a proper, genuine group meeting will be built up with them. A group meeting formed and built up in a proper, spiritual way will endure for the long term. The church life depends upon this kind of group meeting. We need to learn the best way to have the group meetings, and we need to spend time to labor according to what we have learned.
(The Practice of the Group Meetings, Chapter 1, Section 4)
What is to practice the church life according to the God-ordained way?
In order to do this, we need to move away from the “meeting” mentality to the “person” mentality.
Four new words to replace the word “meeting”:
This is the essence of the church life!
“Do you know what is the universal language? Not Chinese, not English. Love! Love is the universal language. It transcends all barriers. It doesn’t matter. You know as long as you love, I don’t care what color of skin you are. Then you open up, and then you have the real Body life.”
[Luke 15] Verse 20 says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately.” That the father saw the son a long way off was not an accident. From the time the son left home, the father must have gone out to look and wait for his coming back every day. We do not know how many days he watched and waited. When the father saw him, he ran to him. This is the Father’s heart. The father interrupted the son while he was speaking his prepared word. The son wanted to speak the word he had prepared, but the father told his servants to bring the robe, the ring, and the sandals and to prepare the fattened calf. A teacher among the Brethren told me that in the whole Bible we can see God run only one time, in Luke 15, where the father saw the returning prodigal son. He ran; he could not wait. This is the Father’s heart.
To speak truthfully, we have lost this spirit among the co-workers, elders, and vital groups. We do not have such a loving spirit that loves the world, the worst people. We classify people, choosing who are the good ones. Throughout my years I have seen many good ones. Eventually, very few of the good ones remain in the Lord’s recovery. Rather, so many bad ones remain. In the beginning I also was one who classified them as bad, but today many bad ones are still here. If it were according to our concept, where would God’s choosing be? Our choosing depends upon God, who chose His people before the foundation of the world. The Bible says that God hated Esau and loved Jacob. If we were there, none of us would have selected Jacob. This man was too bad. We would have selected Esau, the gentleman. From his mother’s womb, Jacob was fighting, and when he was born, he grabbed his brother’s heel. Eventually, he did everything that caused Esau to want to kill him. His mother Rebekah knew this, so she sent him away to his uncle’s house, but when he went there, he did the same thing; he cheated his uncle by getting four wives from him. This is to live like a gangster. None of us would have chosen Jacob. It is not up to our choosing, our selection. It is based upon God’s eternal selection.
…I want to shepherd and disciple you from the Bible so that you can see this matter and have a change. I am discipling you to change your concept. The God-man concept is that Christ came to save sinners, especially the top sinners. He saves the “gangsters,” even the leader of the “gangsters,” Saul of Tarsus. Paul said, “Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15). Paul could say this because he was the top sinner opposing Christ. He rebelled against Christ, but while he was rebelling, Christ knocked him down, called him, and saved him. Jesus Himself said, “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill…I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:12-13). That is why He was there among the sinners and tax collectors, eating and feasting with them, reclining at table and enjoying with them.
If we lose this spirit, whether we are elders, co-workers, or serving ones, we are finished. This is the main reason why we are so barren, bearing no fruit for so many years.
…Whenever we criticize others, we miss grace and instead suffer God’s resistance. We all must learn to shepherd one another. This does not mean that since I am shepherding you, I do not need your shepherding. I need your shepherding. We all have defects and shortcomings. Everyone has defects. Therefore, we have to humble ourselves to meet God’s grace. This strengthens our spirit to visit people and to take care of people regardless of whether they are good or bad. Regardless of what they are, we must go to visit them and keep visiting. According to their statistics, the Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on six thousand doors to visit people in order to gain one. They do this legally, but we do not. We have no such law forcing others to go out. However, I am trying my best to help the church to build up the vital groups with such a shepherding spirit full of love and care for others.
We need to have this kind of love and go to tell all the dormant ones who think that the church condemns them that the church does not condemn anyone. Rather, the church wants to see all the dormant ones come back. If they all would come back, I would weep with tears of thanksgiving to the Lord. The Lord can testify for me that I do not condemn anyone. We have no qualification to condemn anyone. Without the Lord’s mercy, we would be the same as the dormant ones. Therefore, we must love them. It all depends upon love, as the wise king Solomon said, “Love covers all transgressions” (Prov. 10:12). We love people. We love the opposers, and we love the top rebels. I really mean it. We love them and do not hate them. Who am I? I am not qualified to condemn or to hate. Am I perfect? Even the prophet Isaiah, when he saw the Lord, said, “Woe is me, for I am finished! / For I am a man of unclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell” (Isa. 6:5). Who is clean today? If we criticize people and say something bad about them, we are not clean.
(A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord, chp. 2)
| Old Way | New Way |
| Caring for the meeting | Caring for people |
| Being isolated in my home | Opening my home to saints and /or visiting saints in their homes |
| Only staying in or thinking about my district/locality/state/country | Blending, visiting, migration; praying for the Lord’s move all over the Earth; being Body-conscious |
| Being set, settled, and occupied | Being open to migrate |
| Big meetings | Twos and threes |
| Charismatic speakers | Every member functioning |
| Scheduled activities / special events | Everyday activities done together |
| Big | Small |
| Meeting hall | Homes |
| Individual spirituality | Corporate building up |
| Criticizing the elders and/or other saints | Being a pattern of the healthy church life |
| Spiritual giants | Vital groups |
| Trying to become a five-talented member | Investing my one talent |
| Regulating behavior | Growing in the divine life |
| The principle of the tree: outward display, deeply rooted in the earth, a lodging place for birds (Matt. 13:32) | The principle of the mustard seed: small, sojourning, good for food |
| Having meetings | Wanting to be with the saints |
| Taking care of meetings | Taking care of people (saints, new ones, unbelievers) |
| Hierarchy/clergy-laity | Mutuality |
| One-directional working on a few “promising” ones | Mutual caring among all |
| Top to bottom: having a top-down one-directional organized church structure | Bottom to top: everyone actively initiating and functioning |
| Small to big: making one home meeting bigger and bigger | Few to many: multiplying one home into many homes |
| Meeting once or twice a week | Contacting saints regularly throughout the week (because I need them) |
| Dressing up and putting on a performance for the big meetings | Being genuine with one another, getting to really know one another, loving one another |
| Brothers doing everything, sisters being left out (including husbands and wives) | All members especially sisters functioning, couples and families serving together, brothers heading up and covering |
| Inviting new ones to our meetings and conferences | Visiting new ones where they are, especially in their home |
| Only meeting with saints who are from my cultural background or language | Being open to blend with all the saints |
| The 20% church life | The 80% church life |
| Brothers being 2/3 of the saints | Sisters being 2/3 of the saints |
| Looking to a “pastor” or leading brother to run the home meeting and give a teaching/message | Every member functioning in mutuality in the homes, learning by asking and answering questions |
| Focusing only on college students | All saints being cared for |
| Living to our children | Living with the tabernacle (Christ and the church) as our center |
| Not letting others care for our children | Caring for one another’s children so the sisters can make it to the meetings |
| Barrenness | Corporate bearing of remaining fruit |
| Formulaic meetings (pray-eat-sing-read) | Organic functioning of every member, following the leading and flow of the Spirit |
| Focusing on the Lord’s Day meetings | Daily church life |
| Following our jobs | Following the Lamb |
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