The Gospel

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)

The Lord’s life and His precious promises

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“In the last chapter we saw that the divine power of God has granted to us all things related to life and godliness and has also granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises. Hence, we should not worry for the needs of our daily life. Rather, we need to calm down our desire and concern, so that we can escape the corruption that is in the world through lust and be partakers of the divine nature, to enjoy God Himself. The tide of this age, the pressure of living, the bondage of human affection, plus our own lust, both inwardly and outwardly are seducing us, constraining us, in order to ensnare us into corruption through lust. But we have the Lord’s life and His promises. When we live by these, we can live peacefully and contentedly in the practical situation of our living. Our money and our time should also have proper arrangement and balance, affording help to man’s need and God’s business through proper means. Then we will have a living that really enjoys human life.

Only the life of Christ and His precious promises can cause us to live this kind of normal yet miraculous living. Through this we can save much money as well as time for prayer, fellowshipping with the Lord, enjoying the Lord in His Word, going out to preach the gospel to people by visiting them, and caring for the saints. I always bow my head to worship the Lord for what He has allotted to me. Due to His sovereign arrangement, He caused me to be born in a poor village and grow up in a poor home. From my youth, I learned to be hard working and enduring, endeavoring to move forward. Hence, I was also preserved. Afterwards in my studies, I came in contact with missionaries from whom I learned English and had more opportunity to know the Lord. After my graduation, the Lord caused my living to be not too poor nor too rich, but just right for serving the Lord. Because I knew English, I could know the Bible in a more convenient way, even making footnotes to the Bible, and expounding the truths. Nevertheless, I did not know English to the point that I could become an English professor or scholar. If I had pursued that, I would not have been able to concentrate on being the Lord’s worker. For the Lord’s sake, I have been in poverty, and I also have been in abundance. The Lord still caused me to be at peace. Speaking of earthly achievement, I do not possess anything today, and neither am I anything. I am just an ordinary person, preserved by the Lord and enjoying the genuine human life.

The Lord created and redeemed us, not for the purpose of making us someone special. What the Lord desires is that we live a proper and normal life, experiencing, enjoying, and expressing Him. The highest philosophy of human living is in the Bible. This kind of human life is normal yet miraculous because it is not something that we can live by ourselves, but God must enter into us to be our life in order for us to live out this kind of life. When the Lord Jesus was a man on the earth, He lived this kind of life. Before He came out to minister at the age of thirty, He was growing up in a despised city, in a carpenter’s home. The Bible does not record what He did or said; He was just there living. That God who created everything, including mankind, would become an ordinary and humble human being in the flesh, without anything outstanding is a real miracle.

I can testify in this way: the Lord Jesus lives within me as my life. I am very satisfied in my living today. I feel that I am enjoying human life the most. I go to bed, rise up, eat, and drink on time. Hence, I have no woes or sicknesses. By the Lord’s grace, I am already over eighty years old. I am still healthy. Not only can I take care of many business affairs, but I can also memorize the words of the Bible. I am speaking this word to you working ones so that you may know that our being able to live the church life on the earth is a most blessed matter. The church life is the most normal and miraculous living. Therefore, none of us saved ones may say that we do not have time to live the church life. If someone does not have time to live the church life, it is because he does not enjoy the Lord enough. As long as the Lord’s supply within us is adequate, our church life will surely be proper and satisfying, and time will not become a problem.

Although we saved ones live in the world, we should not belong to the world. We were saved and delivered from the worldly falsehood and deceit. In this current of the world, not only do we not join others in their evil, but we also are able to stand and become a pillar in the midst of the current. I hope that these words can help you so that you can be strengthened in the Lord’s grace. He has already granted to us all the supply. We should live in His living and stand on His promises, allowing His life and His promises to calm all the desires within us and remove all our demands. Then we can live our days in quietness and stability, living a normal church life, that we personally, our family, our relatives, and friends, and even the society may be blessed. This is what the Lord spoke in Matthew 5 when He said that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (vv. 13-14). We are salt because we can remove the corruption of the earth. We are light because we can enlighten the people in darkness. Nevertheless, any time we do not live the church life, we lose the taste and do not shine. Therefore, in order for us to maintain our status and function as salt and light, we must practice the church life in a good way.”

(Messages Given to the Working Saints, Chapter 4)

My dream is home meetings

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DROPPING THE OLD WAY AND TAKING THE NEW WAY

… After studying our situation, I began to reconsider the Bible in this matter, and I also began to reconsider the history of the denominations. I became clear that all of Christianity, including us, got off from the Lord’s way.

… The old way is to always have big meetings, a congregation with a speaker. This produces clergy, a hierarchical class with most of the others not functioning. Taking the way of a big congregation with a speaker produces hierarchy and also produces organization. The organizational way is to have clergy and a congregation and to raise up money to hire trained preachers. People are first brought into this way, and then their function is killed. This is the way of Christianity. Brother Nee told us repeatedly and insisted strongly that we give up the Lord’s Day morning meeting in the churches. He proposed that we use that time to go out to preach the gospel. In Brother Nee’s book The Normal Christian Church Life, there is a section on the home meetings (ch. 9). He told us that we needed to have meetings of mutuality, not meetings where one speaks and the other saints sit there to listen. We tried this, but we never carried it out because of the heavy background and influence from Christianity.

… Therefore, I had the boldness to tell the church there that the old way should be put aside, and that they should take the new way according to what is in the Bible. At the very beginning of the church life, according to the first record of Christian meetings, the apostles spoke in the temple to a big congregation for the preaching of the truth, yet the believers met “from house to house” (Acts 2:46). In Greek this means that they met according to the houses. Each and every house was a meeting place; the meeting number was according to the houses. After the day of Pentecost when they were baptized, they met according to the homes. They did not have hired speakers, but they had the church life in their homes. They also met in the temple, but this was according to their tradition and habit and not according to God’s economy. That was not the church life.

The more we studied the situation according to the truth of the New Testament and according to our experience, the more we were assured that the right way is to have the church life built up in the homes. First Corinthians 14 speaks of the whole church coming together in one place (v. 23). But this is not a meeting of only a few speakers but a meeting in which “each one has” (v. 26), a meeting full of mutuality. The old Christianity way of one speaking and the others sitting to listen kills the church life.

In the full-time training in Taipei, I told the trainers not to bring the new ones to the church meetings. Occasionally, some new ones asked the trainees to bring them to a church meeting. After one or two church meetings, these new ones said they did not want to go to the church meeting again. They liked to enjoy the meeting in the homes. They did not have a taste for the big meetings. But with many of us it is exactly the opposite. We have a taste for the big meetings. When you bring your contacts to a meeting, you may like to have a big hall, a large congregation, and a big, eloquent speaker. All of this is a good façade. We have been meeting in this way in our localities for many years, and what has been the result? We have had hardly any increase, but instead have been maintaining a traditional Christian worship service. People today are quarreling, debating about doctrine and about different practices in Christianity, but I am not burdened merely for the doctrines or for practices. I only care for the New Testament faith, the Christian faith, the New Testament economy. As long as we have this, let us take the new way to have the increase.

… Many of us have become drugged with the old way of having big meetings. When we made the change from having the big meetings in the hall to having the small meetings in the homes, many saints were disappointed. But the newly baptized ones like the home meetings. Some brothers in Taipei got addicted to the home meetings, and many trainees got addicted to the baptism in the new way. If they could not get one baptized every evening, they felt they were short. They got addicted to this practice and found that to baptize people in faith is a real joy. These new ones are growing. They have begun to seek after the Lord and to know the truth.

Many of us have become drugged. We are too satisfied with the old way to have a congregation. But I have seen a view that perhaps after five years in Taipei, the church will just be meeting in many homes.

… We have not had much feeling about our years of barrenness in which we did not bring forth much fruit. One leading brother told me that he did not bring anyone to the Lord for twenty years. However, after he began to practice door-knocking in the new way, he baptized seventeen within four months.

My burden is to wake you up because you have been drugged. The Lord says that as a branch, you have to bear fruit. This is serious. If you do not bear fruit, there is the danger that you will be cut off (John 15:2, 6). The words of the Lord in John 15 indicate that as branches of the vine, we must bear fruit. If you abide in Him, you will surely bear fruit (v. 4). God even took away His kingdom from Israel because Israel was barren, fruitless, and gave His kingdom to another people, the church (Matt. 21:43; Luke 13:6-9). But how about today’s church? Who is bearing fruit?

… Do you not think we have clergy? Do you not think we have hierarchy? We do not call anyone a pastor, but actually we have “pastors.” We have followed Christianity’s way unconsciously. We brought people in and we killed their function by our way. We say we do not control, but in many respects we do control. The leading ones need to ask themselves if they are part of the clergy and the hierarchy among us. Let us all drop the old way, “the old coat!” I am not only telling the elders to drop “the old coat.” All of the older generation must give up the taste of the old way and take the new taste of the new way. For the Lord’s sake, we need to take the new taste.

… The Lord Jesus was not sitting in the heavens sending out invitations, inviting people to come to Him. He came down out of heaven (John 6:41) to visit Zaccheus’s home (Luke 19:5). Then He said, “Salvation has come to this house” (v. 9). He went to Jacob’s well and waited for a Samaritan woman (John 4:6-7). Why would we not follow Him? Why would we just follow Christianity, set up a church building, and be one of the hierarchies, inviting people and learning to speak eloquent things to attract people? Then once they are attracted by you and come to your meetings, they become dead Christians without any function. They may only pull out their checkbook and write some checks to support you in your hierarchy. I am not only talking about Christianity but about us. I believe that after two or three years of our taking the new way, the elders who remain in the old way will be jobless. A brother who wants to be a good speaker with a congregation will not have one since the church life will be in the homes. All the elders and co-workers must learn to knock on doors. The elders must take the lead in this matter.

… Eventually, in the recovery the way of Christianity with a big congregation and one gifted speaker will be completely annulled. For one to minister the Word depends upon whether he has the real burden of some of the truths from the Lord. Such a person is like Paul, who went to Troas and on the Lord’s Day, after the breaking of the bread, spoke the word to build up the saints there (Acts 20:6-7). This is not like today’s pastors giving sermons week by week. Some of us have been giving people messages week by week for years, but what has been the result? I would not say there is no result, but the rate of the result is too low.

We have tasted the old way, we have experienced the old way, and we have suffered from the old way. Now many of us have tasted the Lord’s new way, which is so sweet and so workable. What would you choose? We have been drugged without bearing fruit in the old way for years, yet we did not have any feeling about it. We came to the big meetings year after year with hardly any new ones brought to the Lord. How could we be satisfied? Let us forget about the old way. When a house gets too old, it should be condemned. You need to get a new house to replace it. I was unhappy with our low rate of increase for the last ten years, but I could not do anything.

THE LORD’S MINISTRY TODAY

The Lord’s ministry today is not to build up big congregations. It is to build up the saints in the new way, which involves:
(1) Learning how to knock on doors, how to touch people with the high gospel within a short time, how to baptize them not only in water but also into the Triune God, and how to set up meetings in their homes.
(2) Learning how to feed them with the truths concerning the Triune God, concerning life, concerning Christ, and concerning the church, which means that we have to learn how to teach the truths in homes.
(3) Learning how to help all the new ones to grow in life.
(4) Learning how to bring them into the full knowledge and practice of the church, the Body of Christ.
This will be done not only by me or by some of you; this will be done by everyone. Every door-knocker will learn this.

After two or three years the saints will have another taste. They will tell you that they do not like to have the big meetings. They like to have the home meetings where they could preach the gospel by themselves and where they could teach the truths by themselves. They will not need any kind of organization. What elders have been in mainland China for the past fifteen years? You may say that is a mess, but I am glad for that “mess.” I like to see this kind of “mess.” If there could be such a “mess,” after fifteen years another fifty million will be converted. This would be wonderful.

The big denominations, the Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Episcopalians, have all decreased and are still decreasing according to a recent article. Are we still happy to remain in this degraded situation? Will we not wake up? We should not talk about others but should consider ourselves and drop our old way. I have no interest to take care of the work in the old way. I realize that the old way is the killing way. Would we be happy to remain in this kind of work? I like to see homes. I like this word home — home sweet home. My dream is home meetings. The homes are the basic foundation for the building up of the local churches, not the halls with big congregations. When the saints rise up to go out knocking on doors, they will get addicted to knocking on doors, addicted to baptizing people in bathtubs, and addicted to home meetings and to teaching people in home meetings. They will not care for having big meetings in the meeting hall. They have been meeting in the old way for years, and many are bored of the old way of meeting. All the elders need to be door-knocking elders. They need to take the lead to go door-knocking. May the Lord grant us all the mercy to completely drop the old way and to fully pick up the Lord’s new way.

(Being Desperate and Living Uniquely for the Gospel, Ch. 1)

What is the foundation of the church meetings? ​

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“THE HOME MEETINGS BEING THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH MEETINGS

When the church was established, three thousand people were saved, and later five thousand men were baptized (v. 41; 4:4). Altogether, at least eight thousand people received salvation. How did they live the church life? The church met together, but how did this many people meet? In other words, what was the foundation of their meetings?… What is the foundation of the church meetings? The eight thousand who were saved met in the temple and from house to house, from one house to another (2:46; 5:42). When they were in the temple, mainly Peter, John, and the other apostles spoke. But there was no way for Peter and John to meet with all eight thousand people, comprising a minimum of a thousand homes; the believers needed to meet from house to house.

Acts 5:42 says, “Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.” Those who were saved for even a day or two began to meet in their homes, and they did not speak the teachings of Moses or Elijah. Every household was speaking what they heard from Peter in the temple.

The crucial point is that the meetings in the homes were the foundation of the church meetings. A big meeting in the temple was not the foundation. The believers who were produced by the speaking in the temple were brought to meetings in individual homes. In other words, the building up of the church did not depend on the big meetings in the temple; rather, the building up of the church depended on the meetings in the homes, the meetings from house to house.

In Acts 8, not long after the eight thousand were saved, a great persecution arose in Jerusalem. The believers all left Jerusalem, and only the twelve apostles remained. It is hard to believe, but the Bible says that “all were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” (v. 1). The propagation of the gospel and the spread of the testimony of the church did not depend primarily on the apostles but rather on the newly saved ones who were dispersed. We have to believe that even in their dispersion, they were not able to hold big meetings because of persecution. It should be clear that big meetings were not the foundation of the church. The meetings from house to house, the meetings with three to seven people in the homes, were the foundation of the church. The big meetings are like skating in an ice rink; it is easy to skate in, and it is easy to skate out, but the home meetings can actually keep people. This light is very clear in the Bible.

THE SMALL GROUP MEETINGS STARTING IN TAIWAN

In the Lord’s recovery we saw this light from the beginning. Thus, we encouraged the saints to migrate for the gospel…. In Taipei we first began to meet in one hall. When we gained more people, we met in several locations. When even more were added, we divided them into homes and then into groups for visitation and shepherding. These homes and groups brought in tens of thousands of people and were able to retain them. From 1949 to 1957 the number of saints in the churches on the island of Taiwan increased from four or five hundred to forty or fifty thousand; there was nearly a hundredfold increase. However, in 1958 we were distracted and started to go downhill. This downward slope was not steep; rather, it was a gentle decline. However, we have been going downhill for twenty-seven years.

GOING DOWNHILL BY PAYING ATTENTION TO THE BIG MEETINGS AND IGNORING THE HOMES AND GROUPS

When we began to leave the big meetings, which were according to the practice of the denominations, we began home meetings and small group meetings; it was not an easy mountain to climb. But before we could reach the peak, we were distracted and could not climb any further; instead, we went downhill. We went downhill to such an extent that we paid attention only to big meetings and eloquent speakers. Good speakers attract people, and the saints acquired a habit of listening to sermons. Before going to a meeting, we often would ask about the speaker. If “Paul” was speaking, everybody would go, but if “Mark” was speaking, many would say, “I don’t have the time to go.” Thus, the foundation of the church gradually shifted from small groups in the homes to speakers in a big meeting. This is like degraded Christianity.

MEETINGS WITH SPIRITUAL GIANTS NOT RETAINING PEOPLE

In Christianity there is little emphasis on home meetings or group meetings. Mainly, congregations hire a pastor who has a seminary degree, some human capability, likableness, and eloquence and who can speak on many topics. With such a pastor, the congregation will flourish and prosper, but if the pastor is not capable or eloquent, the congregation will dwindle. This is the general situation in Christianity; there is some growth, but the direction is ultimately downhill. It is hard to retain people by relying on gifted preachers or spiritual giants. When a great preacher comes, tens of thousands may come and listen, but when he leaves, everyone leaves as well. When the great preacher leaves, the thin ice that everyone is skating on melts.

People hold revival meetings in Christianity because they are deflated. The purpose of a revival meeting is to give a heart-strengthening injection. The foundation of today’s Christianity is not with small groups but with big meetings. When I was young, I went with my mother to a Sunday service for nearly twenty years. I never talked to anyone, and no one talked to my mother and me. Everyone was dressed up and sat quietly in the pews. There were hymn numbers posted on a board, and someone would begin the service by calling out these hymns. After the singing, someone would preach a sermon, and then someone would make announcements. Finally, there was a benediction to end the service. After the benediction everyone got up and left. I did not say anything to anyone, and no one spoke to us; we simply went our own way. There was no mutual fellowship, much less a steadfast continuation in the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42).

Sixty years ago the Lord showed us the mutual fellowship of all the members of the Body. This cannot be practiced only through big meetings. Even if we met in this way for ten years, it would not be easy for every member to be contacted. However, once we meet in a home, there is a need for everyone to speak. Even if we have never had a thorough conversation with another member, we will spontaneously have many such conversations in the homes. This is the advantage of the small group meetings.
….
HOME MEETINGS AND GROUP MEETINGS BEING THE FOUNDATION TO KEEP PEOPLE

Big meeting halls have their usefulness, but if we focus only on this aspect, we will not have the foundation of the church. Our current way is like skating in an ice rink, and it is easy for people to skate out the door. If we bring people to the home meetings and group meetings, they will be rooted and grounded. Only the home meetings and group meetings can keep people. This is God’s wise design; it is not a method conceived by man.

The Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, and He led the believers to meet from house to house. The beginning of God’s work always reveals what is best, because after His work is handed over to man, it begins to go downhill. The beginning in Acts was the best. Now the big meetings are like a skating rink, and many skate in, but many also skate out. In Acts there were meetings from house to house as a foundation to bring people into the church. Once a person met from house to house, he was surely kept. This is God’s wisdom.

…. I beg you all to pick up the burden to pray and to strive together. Do not belittle the small group meetings. Whether we can succeed, that is, whether the Lord can work out a way among us, depends on our efforts now. Otherwise, the Lord will have to look for some other people, and we will go downhill, becoming yet another group in Christianity.
….
SMALL GROUPS BEING THE WAY TO BUILD UP THE CHURCH

In the church all the brothers and sisters love the Lord, and based on this love for the Lord, I have the burden to lead you. Since you love the Lord, you must mean business with Him; your love for the Lord should not just be vain talk. The Bible shows that the Lord has only one way to build up His church, to reach His goal—the small group meetings. The building up of the church cannot be accomplished with big meetings. The big meetings of Christianity are like the age of the judges, who were like spiritual giants. When Samson rose up, it was good. When he died, Israel declined (Judg. 13—16). The age of the judges in the Old Testament prefigures today’s Christianity. If we pay attention only to big meetings and neglect the home meetings and group meetings, we are returning to the old way, reenacting the age of the judges and depending on spiritual giants. We must change our concept. We do not want judges; we want homes. Every home and every group must be strong, and we must be strong in order to have strong homes and groups.

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.
….
SIX COMMISSIONS FOR THE SMALL GROUP

First, we must change our concept; this is the most difficult thing. We must realize that the small group meetings are not a method or merely an additional meeting. We should neither uplift the big meetings nor despise them. We need to regard them equally. Presently, we need to stress the small groups because the saints still overemphasize the big meetings. We need to be balanced. We should not consider that recovering someone means to bring a person back to the big meetings on the Lord’s Day. Of course, this would be good, but it is not required. As long as a saint can come to a group meeting, this is good enough.

Second, the group meetings should strive to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time. In Taipei there are tens of thousands of brothers and sisters who have not been meeting. The three to four thousand who meet regularly should be in group meetings in order to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time.

Third, we need to preach the gospel widely. The home gospel must go out from the small groups. The community gospel must go out from the small groups. Even the campus work can go out from the small groups. The small groups are the foundation. When the small groups are not strong, it is hard to perfect people to help with the gospel on a campus. If the small groups are not strong, who can shepherd when there is a need for shepherding? If the small groups are not strong, the children’s work also will not be carried out. In order for a nation to be strong, its families must be strong. Likewise, for a church to be strong, the home meetings and group meetings must be built up as the foundation, the base, of our spiritual work.

Fourth, the small groups must be able to keep and uphold people and cause them to want to come back. We have to work on the small groups to the point that they have the power to attract and keep people. Fifth, we need to strengthen the riches in the small group meetings. The content of the small group meetings must be rich. When the small group meetings become rich, we will attain the highest goal of expressing Christ.

The small group meetings are not easy to build up. This great and high mountain is not easy to climb. When we change our concept and begin to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time, to widely preach the gospel, and to uphold, strengthen, and enrich the content of the meetings, we will reach God’s highest goal for the church—expressing Christ. May the Lord have mercy on us. May we all pray for this matter.”

(On Home Meetings, chapter 1)