Who is not a responsible brother or sister?

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“Matthew 25 tells us that some have five talents, some have two talents, and others have one talent. At the very least, we are the one talented ones. A saint cannot say that he has not received a talent. We have to strongly stress this one thing. We have to convince every saint among us that they cannot say that they do not have any gift and cannot do anything. This is a lie. According to the biblical truth, every believer has a gift. You may have the smallest gift, but you still have a gift. Everyone is talented; everyone is gifted.

Of course, Ephesians 4:11 speaks of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. The gifted persons mentioned here are those who have been endued with a special gift. But verse 7 says, “To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Each one includes every member of the Body of Christ, each of whom has received a general gift. This shows that everyone is a gifted person and is responsible to use his gift. The Brethren did not like to use the title elders, so they used the term responsible. This is a wrong term because every believer is responsible. Who is not a responsible brother or sister? We have to be careful not to use the term responsible brothers, because all of us are gifted and are responsible before the Lord to use our gifts for the building up of the Body of Christ.”

(Basic Lessons on Service, chapter 13)

Shepherding works.

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“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)

Neither faith nor love are ours

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That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love. (Eph. 3:17)

“To experience Christ we need faith and love (1 Tim. 1:14). Faith enables us to apprehend Christ, and love enables us to enjoy Him. Neither faith nor love are ours; they are His. His faith becomes our faith, by which we believe in Him, and His love becomes our love, by which we love Him. When we are rooted and grounded in His love, we grow and are built up in His life.”

(Ep 3:17, footnote 4)

If we are not vital, we are finished

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“In light of the present situation that we are in, what shall we do? I have studied our situation thoroughly, and I feel that nothing can attract and move the present middle-aged American Caucasians unless they see the vitality among us. To be vital means to be living and active. If a group of people are meeting together and are a real vital group—living and active—whoever comes in and sees this will be convinced. If we are so vital, and some seeking ones come in among us, they will be caught by the Lord. Vitality is the most convincing factor.

If we do not have vital groups, we will have no prevailing way to gain the middle-class Caucasians. If we are vital, sooner or later, in our neighborhood and among our relatives, colleagues, classmates, and friends, we will meet some seeking ones. The seeking ones care for our vitality, for our being living and active.

The truth has an amount of influence with people, but it depends upon who passes on the truth. If you are a vital person, the truth will be effective. If you are not a vital person, others will not be convinced. They will think that you just have some good talk but are really no different than they are. If we bring some new ones to our meeting, and our meeting is dormant, we will not convince them.

This is the reason that we are stressing the vital groups. If we do not have the vital groups, we will still survive as the Lord’s recovery. We will still exist, but there will not be much hope of getting the typical American increase. The only convincing factor we could have is the vital groups. If we are not vital, we are finished.

Since we love the Lord and we are for the Lord’s recovery, what shall we do? We have to be vital at any cost. We have no choice. We must learn diligently and practice absolutely to be vital; then there is much possibility for us to gain a good number of the seeking ones. These seeking ones caught by us will spread the news. They will say, “I am now meeting in a group full of vitality. Come and see.” This kind of news will not be appreciated by the general Christians, but some real seeking ones will be attracted. Through this fellowship I hope that we realize where we are and what we need to be.”

(Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, ch. 25)

How do we attract new ones into the church?

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“We have to make our group meetings so interesting. If our vital group meetings are full of truth, are living, and if we intimately love one another in the group, this will be a big attraction. We must have a living, active vital group. Then we should do our best to bring in the middle-aged ones.

Brother Watchman Nee stressed that the priesthood in the New Testament is universal, so he encouraged all the saints to serve, to be priests. We have not yet had a complete success in this matter. After I came to the United States, the Lord showed us that we need to pray-read His Word and call upon His name. We also began to practice having a time in the meeting for the saints to share after a message was given. This helped to bring the saints into more functioning. But the most prevailing way to bring all the saints into function is for them to enter into the group meetings in a living and active way.

Our groups should not be dormant, lifeless, and cold. If our groups are like this, no one will want to attend them. We have to keep our group meetings so interesting, so living, and so attractive. People need a proper social life, but to be social in a worldly way leads to sin. The church social life in the recovery leads to light, to the deeper and higher truths, and to the divine life. I believe that if we could get our practice exposed to others, they will be attracted. The group meetings that are living, attractive, and full of activities will be used by the Lord to gain others for the increase and building up of the church.

Everyone should bear a burden for the vital groups. Do not despise your burden and your portion. If a new one comes into a group meeting, and all the members of the group meeting speak, he will be surprised and attracted. Our group meetings must be living and active, with all the members in the group speaking.

According to my experience, the most attractive thing is the thorough fellowship. In your vital groups you must always practice the thorough, intimate fellowship. This brings in the mutual care in love. If a new one comes to our group and sees this kind of intimate, open, thorough fellowship and mutual care, he will be inspired. He would say that he has never seen people who are so one and who love, open to, and care for one another so much. He would say, “This is the place where I should be. I have to be among these people.” This kind of intimate fellowship and care for one another attracts people, so we have to practice this.

We must do everything we can to strengthen the vital groups. We should spend every drop of our blood, every bit of our strength, and every minute of our time to strengthen the vital groups, making the vital groups so beautiful, so high, and so attractive. This is the only thing we should stress to get people. A number of things can attract people but not so effectively as the vital groups.”

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

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)

We should not believe that we are incapable of speaking for the Lord

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“We all have been led by Christianity to believe that we are not qualified to do anything for the Lord. We have been told that only the Pope or the pastor is qualified to do something for the Lord. However, we must change our concept. We must believe that we can speak for the Lord. Otherwise, we have no way to go on.

In 1934 Brother Nee began to see the light in 1 Corinthians 14. He told us that he saw the light, but there was no way to practice it. That was true because we were too much under the covering of Christianity. Christianity had convinced the saints and subdued them to the uttermost, causing them to believe that they could do nothing. When we were raised up by the Lord in China, we spoke concerning the light that Brother Nee had received from 1 Corinthians 14, but people argued with us, saying that we were not qualified like the apostle Paul. At that time Brother Nee waged a lonely battle in China.

We should not believe that we are incapable of speaking for the Lord. We all have the divine life. Within every life there is a capacity. Even the life of a mosquito has its capacity. We have the divine life with the divine capacity. We need to believe in the capacity of that life. We also need to call on the name of the Lord Jesus and fellowship with Him. We need to breathe Him in. Then we will realize the capacity of the divine life. We also need to exercise this capacity without being afraid of making mistakes. One way to learn is to make mistakes. We should always be willing to make mistakes, and we should never believe the negative things. Only Jesus Christ never made a mistake. Paul, Moses, and David all made mistakes. We should abandon fully the influence and the background of Christianity.

We all like to be the best at whatever we do. If we cannot be the best in a certain thing, we will not do it. This kind of attitude is wrong. We should try to do something and not be concerned if we are the worst one. After a period of time we may improve and become one of the best ones.”

(Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, ch. 18)

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)