Vital Groups

What is the God-ordained way?

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“The term the God-ordained way was invented by us, and we saw that this God-ordained way revealed in the Scriptures is of four steps: begetting, feeding, perfecting, and building. We need to beget, to produce, new believers. Then we need to feed them that they may grow. Then we need to perfect them, not by one teacher but through the mutual teaching in the groups. In the groups everyone is a teacher, and every teacher is a student. Through the mutual teaching in the groups the new ones are perfected unto the work of the ministry, as pointed out in Ephesians 4:12. This makes them qualified to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, for the building up of the church. To take the God-ordained way is by these four steps, but how do we carry them out? We found out that the way to carry out these four steps is by the vital groups.”

(Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, ch. 24)

Over 90% of our growth in life depends upon the dealing with our disposition, character, and peculiarity

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“I believe that the vital group meetings will be greatly used by the Lord. In the church many of us love the Lord, love the Lord’s recovery, and love the church, but not many are really useful because of the defects related to our disposition, character, and peculiar traits. All these defects annul us, making us useless. This vital group training and the practice of the vital groups will make us useful in saving sinners, in nourishing the new ones, and in feeding the saints. We need to endeavor to put all the things we have covered in this training into our practice in the vital groups.

In order to deal with our disposition, character, and peculiarity, we need to see a vision that we have been crucified on the cross (Gal. 2:20a). We should pray, “Lord, thank You that on the cross You have crucified my disposition, my character, and my peculiarity.” We need to see a vision of Christ’s crucifixion. By His mercy and grace we need to accept this vision and then proceed to live by the Spirit. In our daily life the Spirit applies Christ’s death to all the negative things in our being.

We have to learn practically in our daily life to be dealt with very finely in our disposition, character, and peculiarity. Sometimes we might think certain brothers and sisters have made some improvement, but their improvement is questionable. The real improvement must be because of the particular dealing with our disposition, character, and peculiarity. If we do not have some definite and practical experiences in this, we cannot have the real improvement in life. Over ninety percent of our growth in life depends upon the dealing with our disposition, character, and peculiarity. Our daily lives are filled up with these three items.

Each of us has his particular disposition. One brother has his particular way to come to the meeting and to find a seat in the meeting. Even in coming to the meeting and finding a seat in the meeting, he does not obey the Spirit, but he obeys his peculiarity. If the usher would try to seat this brother in another place, this brother might be offended. We need to consider how often we obey the Spirit during the day. Mostly we act, move, and behave according to our disposition, character, and peculiarity.

Some brothers are very active people, so they like to move around in the meetings by helping to usher people to their seats and by caring for the distributing of the bread and wine at the Lord’s table. Other brothers are very inactive people. Once they are seated, they do not want to be moved by anything or anyone. If you ask the brother who is active to be an usher, he will be very happy. If you ask the inactive brother to usher, he will say that he does not like this. Both of these brothers are acting and serving according to their disposition and not according to the Spirit. This shows that we have to die to ourselves so that Christ may live in us.”

(Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, ch. 17)

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The genuine care for one another needs to be recovered among us

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“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)

Five crucial points for our seeking in the vital groups

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“First, we need to seek to be blended with the other members of our vital group by having an intimate and thorough fellowship with much and thorough prayer.

Second, we need to seek to be filled with the Spirit inwardly and outwardly.

Third, we need to pray unceasingly by exercising our spirit to redeem the time.

Fourth, we need to learn to serve and work not in our own way but in the coordinated way by giving up our freedom.

Fifth, we need to pray for the dealing with our disposition, character, and peculiar traits.

These five items are not like lessons that we can study and courses from which we can graduate. They are five daily necessities like our drinking, eating, breathing, sleeping, and exercise.”

(Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, chapter 16)

The church meetings should be a continuation of our daily life

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“The church meetings should be a continuation of our daily life. We should sing and praise in our daily life and then continue our singing and praising in the meetings. But if we praise the Lord in the meetings without praising Him in our daily life, our meetings will be a performance, and we shall be actors. We should come to the meetings not to perform, but to express what we are in our daily life.”

(Life-Study of Exodus #58)

The future of the vital groups greatly depends upon the sisters

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“These all continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” (Acts 1:14)

‘Acts 1:14 says that the one hundred twenty continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer, “together with the women.” We need to consider why the Bible says “with the women” in this verse. Every word in the Bible is written with a purpose. I hope that the sisters would give me the permission to speak a frank word. The one accord is always troubled by the women. When the sisters have no problem in the church, the church will most likely have no problem. In the church life there are generally more sisters than brothers. In the home in Bethany spoken of in John 12, there were two sisters and one brother (vv. 2-3). We can see from this that the church life greatly depends upon the sisters. When the sisters are okay, the church life will most likely be okay. The vital future of the vital groups greatly depends upon the sisters. If the sisters are blended, the blending of the groups will be successful.’

(Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, chapter 12)

Open Letter from brother Andrew Yu (May 29, 2020)

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Download Open Letter from Brother Andrew (29_5_2020)

An open letter (Fellowship from Brother Andrew Yu on May 29, 2020). Translated from original in Chinese, not verified with speaker.

NOTE: An updated version of this letter is available at https://www.churchinalhambra.org/en/2020/05/31/br-andrew-yu-an-open-letter2020-5-29/. Reprinted here:

Dear brothers and sisters,

“The time of the Lord’s return is at hand. For this reason we are reevaluating many matters in the light of the judgment seat.”

The above quote is from “An Open Letter” in Issue No. 1 of The Present Testimony by Brother Watchman Nee published in January of 1928. Today, ninety-two years later, we are even closer to the time of the Lord’s return. Today, seeing all the things happening around us, we feel even more deeply that the time of the Lord’s return is closer than any of the previous ages. The instability of the world situation, the global spread of the pandemic, the panic in people’s hearts, the uncontrollable environment, and the economic crisis all indicate that this age is nearing a fundamental turning point. At this solemn moment, it should be a time for us to have a reevaluation. To reevaluate means that what was formerly the standard can no longer be the standard for today; what’s considered acceptable living can no longer be our living today; the former goals in our lives can no longer be our goals today; our former mode of valuation can no longer be the mode of valuation today; and our former ways can no longer be our ways today. Everything needs to be reevaluated in the light of the judgment seat. This means that everything needs to be reevaluated according to the Lord’s return and the consummation of the age. Our former church life, former services, and former ways of living all need to be reconsidered and reevaluated.

First we need to reevaluate our living. The Lord said, “Do not be anxious for tomorrow,” but “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33, 34). Do we trust in God in everything to live the life of the tent on the earth, having a living that is uprooted from the earth and storing up our treasures in heaven? Or are we still anxious for tomorrow? The young people are anxious for their employment after graduation, as well as their marriage and family. The middle-aged people are anxious for their career and their business performance for the next quarter or next year. The elderly people are anxious for their health, savings, and relationship with their children and grandchildren. We need to reevaluate. The apostles called people to be delivered from sins and turn to the Lord, but the Lord called people to be delivered from mammon to follow Him (Matt. 6:24). Many preach the gospel of prosperity, but the Lord preached the gospel of poverty. The age is coming to an end, and one of the signs of the Lord’s coming is that people are storing up treasures (James 5:3). The ten virgins are “going out of the world” to meet the bridegroom (Matt. 25:1, note 5). The harvest needs to be “dried of all the earthly water” (Rev. 14:15, note 2) to be ripe for reaping. Brother Lee, in his diary right before the great revival in Chefoo, wrote on December 23 of 1942: “We should not be concerned with what we will eat, what we will drink, or what we will be clothed with; this is what the worldly people seek. We should care only for God’s kingdom and His righteousness. The worldly people lack clothing and food because they care only for their own living and not for God’s kingdom and His righteousness” (CWWL Vol. 2, p. 28). A day earlier, he wrote: “How desolate is the situation on earth today! Even more desolate is the condition within man! How many hearts and souls have suffered to the extreme? How many souls are perishing every day? The church has lost her function…The church is like this because her consecration in the past was not thorough” (p. 27). On December 26, he wrote: “The reason we are quiet, have no aspiration to spread the Lord’s kingdom, have no power and courage to spread the Lord’s gospel, have no living faith, and are timid is all because we have not had a thorough consecration, have not stopped living for ourselves, and have not lived entirely for the Lord!…If we live entirely for the Lord like Peter on the day of Pentecost, we will also be able to say as Peter said, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene rise up and walk’ (Acts 3:6b). But to say this, we must also be able to say, ‘Silver and gold I do not possess’ (v. 6)!” (p. 29)

We need to reevaluate: does our living today have dispensational value? Do we, our person, have a dispensational significance before the Lord?

In order to have this kind of living, we need to be filled with the Spirit inwardly and outwardly every day (see The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move, ch. 2). If a balloon is not filled with air, it cannot ascend. Why do we need to have much and thorough prayer? It is for us to be filled both inwardly and outwardly. Why do we need to confess our sins and repent? It is because they are the requirements for us to be filled with the Spirit. Without a living that is daily filled with the Spirit both inwardly and outwardly, we cannot have a living that has dispensational value. In order for the virgins to meet the bridegroom, the requirement is that their vessels be filled with oil (Matt. 25:4). In order for us to redeem the time, we must be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:16, 18).

During these days, the more difficult the outward environment is, the stronger we feel inwardly that now is the time for God’s children to be uprooted from the world and to live the life of the tent. The benefit of migration is to cut off our old background and to learn to simply look to God to live a life of faith. The spreading of the kingdom is inextricably linked to being cut off from the world. The persecution in Acts 8 suddenly uprooted all the disciples and scattered them everywhere, which put the Lord’s command in chapter 1 into action. In order for the gospel of the kingdom to be preached to the whole inhabited earth, there is the need for some to live the kingdom life. For the Lord’s return to become real, man must “go out of the world” as the virgins did in Matthew 25. One hundred fifty years ago the gospel of grace was preached to China. One reason for that was that some in that age saw that the Lord might return in that generation and that the gospel needed to be preached to the whole world in that generation. Today, the gospel of the kingdom needs to be preached to the whole inhabited earth because the time of the Lord’s return is even closer. At this juncture, should we not reevaluate how we should spend our remaining days on the earth? Should we not cut off the old ties at this time to practically live the life of the tent, live for the gospel, and move for the Lord?

At this moment, we also need to reevaluate our church life. Whether the Lord is satisfied with our church life is one thing, we should first ask ourselves whether we are satisfied with our current church life. True, we have very good truths, and we also have a church life that we have been comfortable with for many years. However, what we need to reevaluate is whether or not this kind of church life can satisfy the Lord’s need, whether it can usher in the Lord’s return. In the church where we are, has the number of saints grown? Are the saints vital?

In 1992 and 1993, Brother Lee was deeply dissatisfied with the church life at that time, so he released the messages on the vital groups, hoping to produce the overcomers outside of the infrastructure of the church life at that time, who would be delivered from the three great enemies of death, lukewarmness, and barrenness. Unfortunately, although the messages were released, the practice has yet to be seen. In the past twenty-three years, although the church life in each locality has gone on steadily, they are still mainly composed of meetings and mainly carried out by way of asking people to come to the meetings, and what is treasured among us is still the great number of attendance. Please consider: in the light of the Lord’s return, shouldn’t this kind of church life be reevaluated?

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the brothers and sisters have been limited physically. All physical meetings have stopped, and the saints can only communicate mostly over the internet in smaller settings. But in this process, many found out that brothers and sisters actually prefer this new mode of church life. Over the internet, everyone prays for one another, has mutual fellowship, and cares for the new ones. Everyone is able to function, and everyone practices begetting, nourishing, perfecting, and building in an organic way. This is actually the vital groups that Brother Lee talked about, which is for everyone to function and for everyone to serve as a priest. In this way, many new ones have been saved, and many who have not been meeting have been reconnected. In many localities, the number of people has increased, and many members of the Body have been enlivened. It turns out that this is the way for the Body of Christ to be built up. Of course, we are not saying that we should not resume the physical meetings after the pandemic. However, in light of this new situation brought in by the pandemic, isn’t it worthwhile for us to reevaluate our church life? Shouldn’t we turn more from “meeting” to “people,” from “coming” to “going,” and from “big” to “small”?

In the light of the Lord’s return, we should also reevaluate our service. The ultimate goal of our service is to perfect people. The work of the ministry is to perfect the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ. Today our work is not to raise up a work but to raise up people. The effectiveness of our work today is not measured by how much work is done but how many people have been raised up. Strictly speaking, our work today is not to do the work but to distribute the work. Today the question is not how much we ourselves have done but how much others have done. The parable of the slaves in Matthew 25 reminds us that the question is not how much we have maintained but how much we have reproduced. The five- talented one perfected another five-talents, and the two-talented one perfected another two-talents. Thus, they received the Lord’s approval. But the one-talented one did not perfect anyone, and he was cast into the darkness. The Lord is coming to settle an account with each one of us.

Today in the light of the Lord’s return, we all need to reevaluate our service and see whether our service, in the light of the judgment seat, will be approved or not. The good and faithful slaves were not those who merely maintain their portions but those who reproduced themselves. The evil and slothful slave was not one who abandoned his service but one who did not reproduce himself. Whether in the church or in the vital groups, our duty is to perfect others unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ. We need to use all wisdom to perfect others. We need to use all those whom people regard as useless. We need to dig out all the one-talented ones from the earth, so that their talents are no longer buried in the world. The growth in life is gradual, but the trading of one’s talent is immediate (Matt. 25:16). In the light of the Lord’s return, we need to evaluate our service to see whether it is up to the Lord’s standard.

Lastly, in the light of the Lord’s return, we need to reevaluate our work. There are two basic questions: whether our work is of a maintenance nature or of a pioneering nature, and whether our work is static or dynamic. The pattern of the brothers who went before us is that they were always moving and progressing. At the outset of the Sino-Japanese War, Brother Nee founded the magazine called The Open Door. He reminded the co-workers that they should not merely try to cope with the environment; instead, they should preach the gospel everywhere to spread the Lord’s testimony. The co-workers should not stay in one place but should travel everywhere. Actually, the testimonies today in many places throughout Southeast Asia were all started at that time.

The Lord’s testimony has been on the island of Taiwan for over seventy years. From the beginning Brother Lee’s hope was that Taiwan would be a starting point where the Lord’s testimony would spread to the whole world. Today in this special time, should we not reevaluate the direction of our work? Actually, just in Taiwan alone, there are still quite a few cities and towns that do not have a church and require propagation there. The needs outside Taiwan are even greater. Now is not the time for us to stick to our own place. Now is the time for us to spread the gospel of the kingdom with a view of the whole earth. Should we allow ourselves to be stuck in one place till the Lord comes? If Abraham had not left his own land and his own country, God’s move on earth could not have begun. What the Bible gave us is not the biographies of the apostles but the acts of the apostles. Recently after the three rounds of 24-hour prayer and the 30-day global prayer, a brother in China saw lightning and heard voices of thunders in his prayer and immediately consecrated himself and migrated with his factory to a place in Southeast Asia where there is not yet a church. Is this a precursor of the Lord’s move?

May the Lord cause us to see the opportunity afforded to us today to cooperate with His move. At a time when the whole world is facing an unprecedented challenge, may we reevaluate our living, meetings, service, and work in the light of the Lord’s return.

Andrew Yu

May 29, 2020

(keyword: Zoom)

Our habit of being formal limits us in the meetings of the church

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“I have stressed in the past that the group meeting should not be a formal, religious worship service. But after attending some of the group meetings, I have observed that we are still somewhat having a religious meeting, a worship meeting, a kind of service. This is because we are too formal. In the group meetings, we should fellowship freely, sing freely, pray freely, and ask and answer questions freely without formality. When we sing a hymn, we do not necessarily have to sing it in order from the first verse to the last verse. We may begin with the last verse or with any verse according to the leading of the Spirit. We should not sing the hymns in a dead way but in a living, exercised way with the release of our spirit. We need vital groups, not formal, religious, and dead groups. We need to pray, “Lord, make us vital in singing, vital in speaking, and vital in everything.” The Psalms tell us that we need to give a ringing shout and make a joyful noise to the Lord (71:23; 100:1). Our habit of being formal limits us in the meetings of the church.”

(Fellowship concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, p. 161)