LEARNING THE NEW WAY FOR OUR SERVICE
In conclusion, for many years in the church life we have been loving the Lord, attending meetings, serving in various areas, reading the Bible, and praying, but within us there has always been a feeling that something is lacking. Now with the practice of the new way, we have been given the opportunity and the way to serve that can fill up our inward lack. Therefore, we must seize this opportunity. Second, the new way is focused on the individual homes, and its practice has four definite steps. The first step is to go out door-knocking and to baptize people; the second step is to establish a home meeting immediately in the new ones’ homes; the third step is to teach the truth in the homes to build up the new ones in the habits of reading the Bible and prayer. In this way they will not repeat our mistake of listening to others give messages for thirty years without being edified or understanding the truth. On the other hand, we also need teachers to teach the new ones and to help them to properly use the lesson books. These teachers, however, should not teach according to their own opinions. Instead, they should teach in a living, interesting, and weighty manner in order to supply the new ones. The fourth step is to bring the new ones into the knowledge and living of the practical church life. In the end, they will not just be baptized; they will learn the truth in their homes to be supplied and grow in life. They will also live in the practical church life and coordinate together in the service.
At present, we already have more than one thousand home meetings. Although many of us have picked up the burden to become door-knockers, we should not go to the homes of the new ones to “lead” a home meeting. Instead, we should go to meet together with the new ones and teach them to do what we do. This will be the only way for us to continue increasing and spreading.
The Bible clearly reveals that God’s economy has the home as its focus. The controlling vision of our change of system is to take the focus off the meetings and place it onto the homes. Our hope is not that the new ones would be saved and immediately come to the meetings. We also do not want to continue building meeting halls in every place. Once there is a meeting hall, then an organization might be produced, and it may gradually turn into a situation in which one person speaks and everyone else listens. This would be going back to a condition under the influence of Christianity’s old way. If there are no meeting halls but only home meetings, it will be easy for everyone to function. However, we cannot have the church life only in the homes. There is still a need for all the saints to be connected and joined together (Eph. 4:16). Thus, we are still researching into a properly balanced way. I ask you all to pray for this matter and to do your best to cooperate in thoroughly changing from the old way to the new way. This will not only give the saints the opportunity and way to function, but also it will bring in the real multiplication and increase to carry out God’s economy.
(The Furtherance of the New Way for the Lord's Recovery, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
