BUILDING UP A HABIT OF CONTACTING PEOPLE
We must first pick up a concern for people and go to contact them. Then we will learn their condition. In a local church the first thing that is needed is for the elders to contact people. It is very convenient, profitable, and necessary for them to contact people, especially the new ones, before and after the meetings. However, many of the elders have not picked up this habit. There may be many new ones in the meetings, but the elders do nothing to contact them after the meetings. Contacting people must be our priority in the church life.
If we have the practice and a strong habit of going out to contact unbelievers for the increase according to a schedule, others will know us to be those who are always busy gaining new ones. If we are such persons, others will be helped to go out with us to preach the gospel. We are not a society to take care of people’s social problems. This is not our way. We are here to save people, to gain new ones, and to help people to grow.
The way we practice the church life is our basic problem. Nearly all the elders have accepted in theory the God-ordained way to meet and serve, but many do not practice it. Those brothers who are elders must consider this situation. We must practice what we believe. We must practice going out to gain new ones in a desperate way, contacting people for their salvation. We must go to contact people. To get one person saved and to bring that person into the church life is not an easy matter. It requires us to pay the price.
(Elders' Training, Book 11: The Eldership and the God-Ordained Way (3), Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
