HOME MEETINGS
Read and pray: “Jesus said to them, Come and eat. None of the disciples dared to ask Him, Who are You? because they knew that it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish.” (John 21:12,13)
THE NEED TO COOK AND TO TEACH (2)
In the elders’ training in February 1984, I told them how they should take care of the meetings. As an elder one should not go to the meeting to occupy it with his speaking. This is not the way to build up the church. The way to build up the church is to gather the saints, encourage them to speak, and charge them to have each one’s speaking.
Whenever one participates in a large or small meeting, one should first labor much in the Word. First one must equip and prepare oneself with something before going to the meeting. All the saints must be allowed to participate in the meeting.
In the case that they have nothing to open the meeting, after some minutes you must serve them a prepared dish. This means that we must give them a living word that lasts less than ten minutes and is rich, enlightening, awakening, and refreshing.
Then return the meeting to all the saints. Perhaps some will continue saying something. Later, it is possible that they will stop speaking. Then bring something again, another dish, to serve them. In this way, all the saints will be trained to function in the meetings.
This is not so easy; it requires much preparation. It requires much work. From my observations, it is more difficult to take care of the church as an elder than simply to go out to give conferences. Giving conferences is a great enjoyment, but staying in the locality to take care of at least four or five meetings per week is not so easy.
Taking care of the church requires a heavy burden, and what weighs the most is taking care of the meetings. This is exactly like a mother or a wife at home. A mother’s care in cooking for her family is truly hard work.
You need to understand that in a family a good mother must do something else necessary, that is, teach her children. They should not only send their children to school but also help them do their homework.
When they return home with their schoolbooks, you have to teach them. Then you can expect that your children will be raised properly both physically and mentally. Physically, they obtain from you the food cooked at home, and they also receive proper education.
To be such wives, you need qualification and effort. This is especially clear in this country. Not only here, but in every country of this world, families know this. Wives must properly feed the children and teach them so that they may have education. A church is a family, and the elders are actually the mothers. They must cook and educate.
This is why I tell you strongly that we need to change our system. Our current practice is mainly to give a message. A message might at most stir you up, giving you some inspiration.
Such a meeting is not an educational matter. To carry out educational teaching we need something like a lesson book. In the fifty-two weeks of the year, we need a good sequence, at least one or two lessons per week.
Educating children is a difficult work. Buildings must be constructed, schools established, teachers trained, a faculty organized, and classes set up. For the education of our children many things must be done to give them the proper knowledge of human culture.
It is up to the mother to coordinate with the school, knowing how to send the children, in which grade they will study, and to care for their lesson books, organizing their tasks and so on.
This is a good illustration, but no church has been seen that is like a family. The elders do only some kind of routine work, according to the traditional system of Christianity, that is, to gather the people, sing a hymn, have some prayers, and give them a message.
This is easy to do, but to take care of a meeting as a mother takes care of the children in cooking and education must be the work of the elders. It is no wonder that Paul said that the elders must be apt to teach and therefore must labor in the word and in the teaching.
This is my burden. All the elders must change their mentality to make a real turn from the way we are taking currently. We must set our attention on the new way, that is, first cooking and second teaching.
Just as a housekeeper, you must cook in adequate time the proper food, nutritious, tasty, and economical for the family.
You must also teach. Even if you send your children to the schools, you must still have the teaching at home. If the mothers cannot do the teaching work at home, it will be difficult for the children to continue in their education.
Today, in every local church, the elders and the leading ones, including the sisters, must practice this. They must continually cook appropriate meals for all the saints, and they must always be apt to teach. To do this, you must labor much.
🌿 Enjoy more:
Hymn: Service – “Minister Christ”
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