HOME MEETINGS
AND THE BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH
Read and pray: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things which I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age.” (Matthew 28:19–20)
My burden now is to share with you how to have the home meetings and how to make them rich, strong, fresh, living, attractive, and still appealing and able to sustain people. Many of us are concerned about the home meetings, because it is not so easy to make them rich, strong, fresh, living, attractive, and able to sustain people.
In the big meetings we need only two or three selected and trained people. To have a Billy Graham to be able to keep thousands of people. You may argue that we do not have such a person in the home meetings. But, praise the Lord, we have the gifts. All these gifts need to be used.
How to have a rich, strong, fresh, living, attractive, and sustaining meeting in your home? Acts 5:42 says: “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.”
The word teaching means they knew the truth. And announcing the good news of Jesus as the Christ means that they preached. They were able to teach and to preach.
In the past we had annual conferences and trainings, both in summer and in winter. We have completed the full study of the entire New Testament, and the messages are being printed. Many of you have the complete collection of the Life-studies of the New Testament on your bookshelves at home.
However, how much of the truth transmitted through those pages has really been constituted into you? And how many of these truths can you teach to others? I am a little concerned that it is not many.
We have also emphasized the growth in life. We need to know the truth and to grow in life. But again, how much have you grown in these years? According to my observation, not enough. In one sense, it is a disappointment. But in another sense, it is an encouragement because you are here. You are seeking because you are hungry and thirsty.
I know that we have published the truths, but I have helped the saints in a rather loose way. In a sense, I regret this, but I had no other alternative in the past and neither today. I must dedicate my time to publishing the Word of God.
Brother Nee, as well as others who went before us, knew a lot, but others did not know much of what he knew. We have only a few books from him. Therefore, I know that I must dedicate my time to publishing what the Lord has shown us through these years. I believe that before His coming, there will be a time for the Lord to do something to build up His church.
Because of this, I anticipate that in the future we will have a great need for the Life-studies. I have a great burden to publish the Life-studies of the Pentateuch and of the prophets of the Old Testament. I must dedicate at least half of my time to writing, speaking, and publishing these things.
Besides this, I have the burden to care for certain regions, such as Taiwan, for example. There is the need to return there again and again. I am also striving to do more than I did in the past for the churches in the United States.
From now on, I intend to have more time with you and with the leading ones, exhorting all to be thorough. We have the Life-studies of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, and the saints need to be constituted with them. We must get into what is taught in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts, and so on. This requires time.
The educational system of the human race has been practiced for many years. Now the whole world follows the same educational form. We have kindergarten for children, elementary school, high school, university, and postgraduate studies.
If mathematics is taught loosely without following this educational system, when one grows older, one will know little about mathematics. There must be a definite way to require people to complete the course. It takes six years to finish elementary school, eight years to finish secondary school, and another four years to finish university.
After finishing this, they will have received definite training. This is how it should be done. We all need to endeavor. Through the small groups we have the way to do it. Suppose a school with a thousand students has no formed classes, but only invites people to give good speeches throughout the year.
The students would get something, but in a general and loose way. However, if I open a school, I would not invite good speakers, but good teachers. I would build classrooms, form classes, and hire the best teachers.
Then they would teach the classes each semester. I would not need to invite any good speaker. I would have formed a strong school, and all the students who graduated from my school would be competent. We should learn in this way. Our classes are the small groups. We must form the small groups.
At one time in Dallas, there were two Baptist congregations. One depended on having a good speaker for the big meeting, and the other depended on the classes. After some years, the one that had large meetings and good numbers eventually failed and became small.
But the one that paid attention to the classes and had a small number at the beginning grew to about ten times the size of the other. It is of little use to have large conferences to give certain messages. We need to establish classrooms with designated teachers.
But where are the classrooms? Each home is a classroom. And each brother or sister in the home must be a teacher. You need to arrange your home as a classroom. Study and train yourselves as teachers. Along with this, a good teacher must be a mature person. Even if a child has good knowledge, he cannot be a good teacher.
Therefore, we must grow in life. All the churches must endeavor to teach every saint thoroughly in the spiritual truths and help all to grow in life. Only these two things can qualify the saints to be useful for the home meetings.
We must believe that in a home meeting of five or six, at least two or three could and should be rich in the knowledge of the truth and in the growth in life. When these two or three gather together, they spontaneously supply the richness, the strength, the freshness, the life, and the attractive and sustaining power of that small group.
They could be useful, and their usefulness could be applied to the practical situation. However, listening to a speaker in a large meeting, in a certain sense, nullifies their usefulness. Therefore, from now on I will give the advice that all the churches have only, at most, one large meeting per week.
Do not monopolize Brother Lee’s speaking; all of you need to gather together to learn to speak. Do not say that you do not know how to speak. Just speak. Each one of you can be an apostle, an evangelist, a teacher, and a shepherd.
I hope that you will be deeply impressed to repudiate the overvalued congregational form and to understand the need for the small groups.
Secondly, I hope you will obtain the proper knowledge of the truth. Study the New Testament and get into the Life-studies. I like to see in the homes of the saints the Life-studies in every room so that at any time, in any place, you can get into them.
However, I fear that in your homes all the Life-studies are stored up on the shelves. Get into the full knowledge of the truth and then pray to the Lord: “Lord, grant me mercy and grace that I may grow in You. Give me grace to grow, Lord.”
Pray much, seeking the growth in life. Be revived. Be factors to enrich, strengthen, refresh, and enliven the home meetings. Then the home meetings will be attractive and able to sustain any member.
🌿 Enjoy more:
Hymn: “Prayer – Exercising the Spirit”
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