THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH

BEING THE HOME MEETINGS

A nation is not built upon a school or a club; its foundation is the homes. Without the homes a nation
cannot exist. In the same way, if the church is to prosper today, the homes need to rise up. If the homes
in the church are strong, the church will have a good prospect and a bright future. This is the new way
revealed to us in the Bible. Today in mainland China, Satan hates the churches that meet in the homes.
These churches comprise more than fifty million believers. The authorities condemn the “shouters,”
who are predominantly those who meet in the homes. Some saints have written telling us how strong
and revived these home meetings in mainland China are. They have no apparent leaders. Whoever tries
to be the leader is asking for trouble because the authorities focus their attention on the leaders.
However, when everyone is a leader, the authorities can do nothing.

This is one reason that we are practicing to have no “heads” among us. Rather, everyone should be a
speaker. Whoever assumes the headship is asking for trouble. We must learn from the brothers and
sisters in mainland China. They have no pastors or preachers. Everyone preaches, and the more they
preach, the stronger they become. One preaches to ten, and ten preach to a hundred. In this way the
gospel becomes more and more powerful. No one could have believed that within a period of a dozen
or so years more than fifty million Christians could be raised up in mainland China. It is possible that in a
few years the number could double to one hundred million. One county alone has more than one
million Christians. The leading ones have all been imprisoned, and no one wants to be the “head.” Yet
the saints are still very active and powerful in preaching the gospel. Some of the imprisoned ones have
been sentenced to terms of fifteen years, yet they still have small group meetings in their prison cells
with some of the guards trying to join them in secret. This is even more than what Paul did. Paul brought
the Philippian jailer to salvation, but he did not have meetings in his prison cell. This shows that the
practice of everyone speaking is truly the way the Lord ordains and blesses.

We need to see that the real prospect and future of the church lies in the homes. In order to evangelize
Taiwan, the first thing we must do is build up the home meetings. Once the home meetings are built up,
Taiwan will be gospelized within one or two years. However, if we still depend on our old ways, old
organization, and old arrangements, and if we only depend on our past training, I am afraid that Taiwan
will not be gospelized in fifty years. I hope that the co-workers and elders would change their view. We
need to see this clearly. Once we see it, we will have the burden, and when we speak, our spirit will be
released.

The most pressing need now is for all of us to promote this and to persuade others to do this in the
various meeting halls. We need to take the lead. The saints will follow us. It will not work if we try to
push others to do this but are unwilling to do it ourselves. But if we do it and urge the brothers and
sisters to do the same, the result will be a success. I am concerned that the co-workers and elders may
feel that they are merely following and obeying the training, merely doing what they have been told. If
this is the concept that we have of the practice of the new way, we have failed. We must have the
inward light. Our concepts must change. Our eyes must be opened. Only then will we have the boldness
to push the saints aggressively. I am not asking that we busy ourselves with the arrangements of the
home meetings. I am asking that we stir up the burden and stir up the saints until the saints fight to go
to the home meetings. When a person is sick, he has no appetite for food. We cannot force food down
his throat. The best way is to stir up his appetite. Once he becomes hungry, he will want food. I hope
that the co-workers and elders can make every saint in the churches or the halls a “glutton” for souls;
everyone will be starving to save some souls. If we can do this, the home meetings will be successful,
and the evangelization of Taiwan will be accomplished.

If we do not change our concept, and if we think that the new way is merely a change of method, from
managing big meetings to managing small meetings, from managing small meetings to managing home
meetings, and if we think that this can be accomplished easily by mere arrangements, we will find
ourselves facing nothing but failure. It would be better if we did not make any arrangements. The
minute we make arrangements, everything dies. If we make arrangements for one home, we kill that
home. If we make arrangements for a second home, we stifle that home. Then if we make arrangements
for a third home, we bury that home. The homes are like plants. If we do not move them, they live, but
once we move them, they die. Now we ourselves must first rise up, taking action in an aggressive way.
Then we will see others taking action who follow after us. When that happens, the new way will sprout.

A tree is known by its fruit, and parents are known by their children. If we are active in the new way, and
if we are hungry for the home meetings, the ones who are saved through us will also be active and
hungry. But if we are indifferent and unconcerned about the new way, the ones who are saved through
us will also be loose and unconcerned. If we take this attitude, Taiwan will not be gospelized in one
hundred years. In a positive sense, all the co-workers and elders from now on must be “hungry wolves,”
actively gaining people and caring for them.

HAVING MUCH AND ADEQUATE PRAYER

The co-workers and elders must also strengthen their prayer. We need to consider this matter as a
burden and pray for it. In order to be a hungry one, one must first be a fasting one. The co-workers,
elders, and full-timers need to fast and pray often. It is not too much to fast and pray weekly. We must
pray by fasting, saying, “Lord, You must turn the church around absolutely from the old way of
Christianity. You must turn us to the home meetings. Burn in every home! Stir up every home!” To
merely act a little after I speak is not the way. We need to pick up the burden in a genuine way and pray
with this burden pressing heavily upon our shoulders.

Fasting is the result of heaviness of burden and pressure in the spirit. When one becomes so pressed
that he is unable to eat, he is fasting. Once we pray according to the burden within, the Lord’s Spirit will
come upon us. When the Lord’s Spirit comes upon us, something will happen. This is different from a
mere change of method. Although we speak of changing the system, we are merely borrowing this
expression for convenience. In reality, if we have only an outward way without a burden that burns
within us, and if we do not fast or pray, this “change of the system” will be an empty shell. It will never
bring forth any results.

I have no way to describe the heaviness of my burden. I hope we all will see this and pick up this burden.
The need in the Lord’s recovery is great, and there is no way for us to meet the need. I have mentioned
before that throughout my life of serving the Lord over the past fifty or sixty years in both the East and
the West, I have never seen a place like Taiwan today where needs abound. The way the high-rise
apartment buildings are constructed today is simply a preparation for the gospel. Within one building
there are sixty to seventy homes, and they all share a common entrance. It is easy for everyone to know
everyone else. Are we not touched by the situation? Our need today is people. At present, there are
approximately ten thousand saints in the church in Taipei. Among them only four thousand are active
members. If we do not work on the homes, and if we do not stir up every home, how can we answer to
the Lord, and how can we answer to all the saints?

PRACTICING THE HOME MEETINGS

AND TRAINING THE SAINTS

I have heard that many denominations are now turning their attention to these urban communities and
have gained many people from them. However, they are still carrying on their practice in the old way. I
hope that when we go to these communities, we will be different. We should practice “universal
conscription”; everyone should be a soldier, and every home should rise up. If we stir up the homes with
the homes, and if we perfect the homes with the homes, soon twenty homes will be stirred up in a
community. Perhaps in two years many home meetings will be established in that community. This
requires our labor. To depend solely on the one or two hundred co-workers and elders that we have
here can be compared to attempting to quench one’s thirst with only a drop of water. What we need to
do is stir up the homes. Of course, we cannot wait until all the homes are stirred up before we begin our
work. On the one hand, we need to make personal visits to the communities, and on the other hand, we
need to train the saints through the practice of the home meetings. If we cannot break through in the
matter of the home meetings, we will not be able to have an army. Every home that is stirred up
becomes a part of the army.

During the Second World War, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States could not enlist the
adequate number of fighting men by the standard way. The government opened up the opportunity for
anyone interested to join the army. As a result, the number of volunteers more than met the demand.
The American government also diverted its resources and turned many factories into arsenals. In this
way all the needs were met. Today in Taiwan we need to evangelize the entire island. The Lord has
provided us with an open door. If we have three to five thousand people responding to this need, we
will gospelize Taiwan in at least two years.

I have heard reports of the visitation work in the communities. These reports are very encouraging. We
are well received and many people are open to us. Although we do not have the adequate manpower,
we should still endeavor to do this work. In particular, the full-time trainees should go out at least twice
a week. I have made the decision that when we go out again, we will match two young full-timers with
one older saint. I believe that there will be more open doors because of this, and people will take our
gospel even more seriously. The training center in Taipei needs to plan, and the co-workers and elders
must take the lead to encourage the working saints and the elderly saints to dedicate some time to go
with the full-time trainees to visit the communities and to bring the meetings to people’s homes.

BRINGING THE MEETINGS TO THE HOMES

To bring the meetings to the homes is the very heart of the God-ordained way. It will be a great failure
in the Lord’s recovery if we cannot bring the meetings to the homes. For the past twenty years in the
Lord’s recovery, we have been bringing people to the meeting halls. The more we work in this way, the
fewer people we have, and the worse the condition of the homes becomes. More and more our
meetings have become a kind of Sunday morning service. In Christianity many people “go to church” to
listen to the singing of hymns and to attend the “service,” but their homes are deplorable; their tables
may still be scattered with mah-jongg game pieces. In the morning the family attends the service, but in
the afternoon the mah-jongg game goes on in the homes. In order to overturn this degraded situation,
we must bring the meetings to the homes. I hope that every home will be mobilized, that everyone will
become a soldier, and that together we will become an army of the Lord.

At present in Taipei there are about sixty new urban communities. Let us suppose that we can set up a
center for meeting in every community, and every center takes care of fifty people. Immediately we will
have three thousand people. If each center takes care of one hundred people, we will have six thousand
people. This is not a small matter. This is the reason that we must endeavor to work on the
communities.

BEING LIVING IN TEACHING TRUTH LESSONS

Recently I took some time to observe the teaching of the truth classes in hall one in Taipei. On the one
hand, the brothers took my word and stayed away from free expounding, keeping themselves instead to
teaching the text. On the other hand, as the brothers have followed my words, they have become
somewhat “robotic”; they no longer act according to the leading of the Spirit. If asked why they are
doing what they are doing, they may say, “Brother Lee told us so.” I would like to point out the
shortages here according to my observation.

First, your spirit is not strong enough. When you are teaching, you are not exercising your spirit. There
are two ways to teach. One way is the institutional teaching, the teaching in the schools. In this case the
teacher reads or teaches, and the students are occasionally asked to read. This kind of teaching does not
require the exercise of the spirit. The other kind of teaching is the teaching in the church. This requires
the spirit. If we do not exercise our spirit, we will turn Truth Lessons into a school textbook. If neither
the teacher nor the students exercise their spirit while reading Truth Lessons, the result will be a killing
meeting where people come merely to warm the pews and sleep. Throughout all these years, we have
been taught that our meeting is a matter of the exercise of the spirit. Any time we meet, we must stir up
our spirit and exercise our spirit. This is not a matter of being loud or soft. It is a matter of exercising the
spirit. When we exercise our spirit, we can read in a living way. If we do not exercise our spirit, we will
read in a mechanical way. I have pointed out that there are many ways to read Truth Lessons. We can
read them with life, with repetition, with emphasis, with prayer, with explanation, and with singing.
However, no matter how we read them, the key is to exercise the spirit.

In our reading we should not be legal but flexible. While we read, we can ask questions to emphasize the
main points. As I have said before, in order for a chicken to live, it needs feathers, skin, and bones. The
feathers are worthless, but without the feathers the chicken cannot exist. In the same way today, while
we are serving others, we must remove the “feathers” and the “skin” from the “meat.” Once in a while
we may also serve the “bones,” but the main thing we serve others is the “meat.” When we ask
questions, we should not concentrate on the “feathers” or “skin.” Rather, we should give others the
“meat.” We need to know what the meat and the feathers are. If our questions are on the main points,
we can ask ten questions, and the time will still be well spent.

We may take the outline of the Old Testament as an example. I have no intention to teach the brothers
and sisters history. Yet most of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament are a record of history.
Without history, the Old Testament would be like a chicken without bones, feathers, and skin. However,
if someone merely focuses on the history when reading the Old Testament, he will be lost, unable to
understand what he is reading. For this reason, in writing Truth Lessons, I gave a general sketch of the
history of the Old Testament. The main points, however, are the spiritual matters related to life. If we
have the discernment, we will spontaneously pick up the meat, that is, the spiritual points and the
points related to life. We will not read the lessons in a dead or legal way.

We should not merely run through a lesson in a nondescript way. To do so is to take the way of
classroom teaching. Such reading does not differentiate the meat from the bones and feathers. In
reading, we must separate the bones, feathers, and skin from the meat. When we come to the
important points, we need to read with emphasis. If we do this, the meeting will be living, and the
message will be nourishing. In editing the materials, I have purposely left out many bones, skin, and
feathers and have kept the meat. For example, with the twelve books of the Minor Prophets, the main
points are the meaning of the names of the prophets and their prophecies, especially their prophecies
concerning Christ. The main purpose of the material is to show everyone that all the prophets in the Old
Testament spoke of Christ. Although I included the background, history, and dates related to these
prophets and their spiritual significances in the lessons, the goal of the lessons is to show the reader a
picture of the entire “chicken.” When we teach, we need to bring out these main points. The thing that
bothers me the most is that none of us have presented these main points in a clear way. This is a great
loss. It defeats the whole purpose of teaching Truth Lessons.

At the end of each lesson there is a summary and some questions. This is the most crucial portion of the
lesson and contains the real significance of the entire lesson. All the teachers should first study the
summary and ponder the questions. Then they will know the main points. In teaching, we should impart
the main points into others. We should speak, ask questions, and answer with our spirit, and we should
read these portions with repetition and emphasis. If we do this, in one hour we will give the attendants
an impression of the main points concerning Christ.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE ELDERS

First Timothy 3:2 says that one of the qualifications of an elder is to be apt to teach. I hope that every
elder would participate in the teaching of the truth lessons on the Lord’s Day morning. The elders should
not excuse themselves from this responsibility simply because others can teach better than they can.
They must be teachers. First Peter 5:3 indicates that the elders must take the lead in everything,
becoming patterns of the flock. If the elders do not take the lead in teaching but assign this
responsibility to others, they are acting contrary to God’s word. Even if others can do a better job of
teaching, they should still take the lead in teaching. By doing this, the elders will be forced to learn the
truth and speak the truth. In principle, the elders should know more of the truth than the other saints.

Today in practicing the new way, we need every saint to speak. If the elders only encourage others to
speak, yet they themselves do not speak, they are left without any excuse. No elder in the Lord’s
recovery should be an “honorary” elder. Every elder should be a practical and useful elder. The first
responsibility of an elder is to teach. This is the greatest need of a church. If we read the Bible carefully,
we will find that there is not much mention of the affairs that the elders should handle. This proves that
the scriptural requirement concerning the elders lies in teaching, supplying life, shepherding and care,
becoming patterns of the flock, and not so much in the arrangement of affairs or the management and
organization of the church. Strictly speaking, once the church life is built up in the saints’ homes, there
will not be much need for the arrangement of affairs and organization. At that time the elders should
take the lead even more in learning the truth, learning to speak, and teaching the truth.
This is the grace that the Lord has reserved for the elders. You need to be a few steps ahead of the
saints. You should know the truth a little more than the saints so that you can fulfill your responsibility in
the church. The foremost requirement of the elders is to be apt to teach. Never surrender such
responsibility of teaching to other brothers and act merely as an overseer. Even if others are more
gifted, the elders should still take the lead in this matter. By taking the initiative and participating, they
induce others to follow. By this practice a good foundation will be established.

The Chinese have a saying, “Champions are found among the students, not among the teachers.” Sixty
years ago there was a famous opera singer in Chinese drama; everyone knew him, but no one knew who
his teacher was. I am not a “champion,” but I truly hope that everyone taught by me would become a
“champion.” If you learn and put into practice what I have taught you, I believe you will do a better and
more excellent job of teaching than I can. If you do this, the teaching of the truth lessons will be living,
with much spirit, having a good grasp of the main points, and with much supply of life.

In Chinese cooking, one famous dish is plain steamed fish. The whole fish is steamed, and the original
taste of the fish, including the head, the fins, the tail, and even the bones, is retained in the cooking. The
fish is very tasty and fresh. Because Westerners do not like the bones in fish, they usually cut the fish
into fillets and throw away the head, the fins, the tail, and the bones. However, the taste is sometimes
lost in this way. Today we are not here to serve merely the “fish fillet”; we must learn to cook our “plain
steamed fish.” If we teach the truth lessons in this way, we will make them tasty and appealing.

A FINAL WORD

The burden in this message is first to bring the church to the homes, and second to bring the saints into
the truth. If we can achieve these two points, the new way will succeed, the gospelization of Taiwan will
be realized, and there will be a bright future in the Lord’s recovery. Therefore, we need to give our all to
do these two things. We must build up the home meetings, and we must teach the truth. I hope that we
will pray much before the Lord for these two matters.