TAKING THE SHEPHERDING WAY
TO PREACH THE GOSPEL AND REVIVE THE CHURCH

SERIES THREE
TAKING THE SHEPHERDING WAY
TO PREACH THE GOSPEL AND REVIVE THE CHURCH

Message Seven
“Feeding” the New Ones Mouth-to-mouth and “Teaching” Them Face-to-face

Scripture Reading:

1 Thes. 2:7     But we were gentle in your midst, as a nursing mother would cherish her own children.

Acts 20:20      How I did not withhold any of those things that are profitable by not declaring them to you and by not teaching you publicly and from house to house.

THE PERFECTING OF THE SAINTS—
FEEDING AND TEACHING

In Ephesians 4:12 “the perfecting of the saints” is primarily a matter of feeding. Only with the proper feeding can there be the proper perfecting, and only then can the saints be equipped and perfected. After the saints have grown to a certain measure, there is the need of teaching. A good part of the perfecting at that point will be the teaching.…Our problem today is that we talk too much yet feed too little. The feeding and the education are not well coordinated. I hope that from now on the co-workers in the various places would talk less and feed more. They should do their best to shepherd and care for the saints. As soon as we hear of anyone sick or of anyone encountering problems, we must be concerned for him, pray for him, and go to visit him. The impact that this little bit of concern, prayer, and visiting affords is far more powerful than ten messages. Although the long messages are nice to listen to, they are far inferior to the care we can give to others in their daily lives. Care can touch people’s feeling in a far deeper way than messages can. All parents spend their all for their children. In the end the children spontaneously love their parents and are full of gratitude. I hope that all the elders would be such people, who give up everything for the saints. Although the brothers and sisters are not your children in the flesh, they are the flock entrusted to you by God as far as their spiritual life is concerned. The elders must have the compassion of a caring mother. They must be desperate to care for the Lord’s lambs.

“FEEDING” THE NEW ONES MOUTH-TO-MOUTH
AND “TEACHING” THEM FACE-TO-FACE

If you are such people, and every one of them would feed and perfect others in this way, the ones perfected by you will eventually do the same work. Because the saints are under your care and because they enjoy and experience this work of grace, they will spontaneously give themselves to join in this work of grace that they enjoy. At the same time the expression of love that flows out from you will become the example for the ones served.…If the elders and co-workers would love the saints like a mother who loves her child and would render a loving, willing service to them, feeding them mouth-to-mouth and teaching them face-to-face, then when the saints are perfected, they will be just like the co-workers and elders; every one of them will be able to do the work that the co-workers and elders do. (A Timely Trumpeting and the Present Need, msg. 4)

Concerning the Practice of Caring for People One-on-one

At present the most profitable and easiest practice is to care for people one-on-one.…They should beseech every saint to receive this burden and to care for one person. We are not asking the saints to care for many people but to receive the burden to take care of one new believer. There is no need to meet the new believers often; otherwise, it will become a heavy burden. It is sufficient to visit and take care of one person once a week. Many have testified that they always feel it is a heavy burden before they go out to visit someone, but afterward they confess that the burden is not heavy. A brother said he is able to meet with thirty new ones in one week. He has received the burden to give one-on-one care to people thirty times a week.

At present there are between ten and twelve thousand believers meeting in Taiwan. If everyone receives a burden to contact one person in a definite way once a week, we could contact at least ten thousand people per week. There are four weeks in a month. This would be equivalent to contacting forty thousand people in a month and five hundred twenty thousand people in a year. We should not underestimate this.…The number of those meeting in each locality would increase significantly if all the saints in Taiwan would be willing to receive a burden to go out once a week to care for people om· on one. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 4, “Practicing the God-ordained Way with One Accord,” msg. 4)

I Feeding You at a Time Convenient to You

Formerly our meetings were like restaurants. But these restaurants were only open for half an hour each week during the home meetings. If you did not come at that time, you would remain hungry. But now, if you cannot come to the home meeting, I will deliver the food to your home. It is all right if you cannot make the meeting. I will deliver the food to your house. I will feed you at a time convenient to you.

In the past we centered too much on the meetings. A home meeting may have eight people who attend a particular meeting, but there may be over a dozen who do not attend. Every one of the eight brothers and sisters who attended the meeting should pick up the burden to visit the other twelve one-on-one. They should bring to them the riches of the home meeting and supply them at their homes.…We can also sell the one-on-one to those saints who have a heart to serve, telling them how much we enjoy practicing the one-on-one. The key is to render some supply every week to specific people, using definite materials, and at a definite time and place.…Remember, one-on-one does not mean that others meet you at the meeting hall. It means that you go to visit them at their homes. We have to make home deliveries for them. (Key Points on the Home Meetings, msg. 7)

Distributing Different Kinds of Food
according to the Varying Needs

We need to believe that our work is a work of life; it has eternal value. What we speak is the truth of the Bible, and life will follow this truth and work on man. We must learn to speak in an organic way. We should not preach in a dead way.…But if we take care of people’s situation by seizing the opportunity, we will meet the needs of all kinds of people. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, msg. 8)

We need to spend an adequate amount of time to pray thoroughly, to observe the condition of the brothers and sisters, and to understand the need of all the homes and the groups. We need to know their conditions, and then we should search out the suitable material from our publications. A mother, in preparing a meal for the family, should consider the condition of all the members of the family. Sometimes one member of the family is sick, and she needs to prepare special food for that one. Sometimes the season changes, and she needs to shop for the proper kind of food. All this takes research as well as common knowledge.

Matthew 24:45 says that the faithful and prudent slave distributes food to God’s children at the proper time. The meaning of distributing food to God’s children at the proper time is profound. It does not mean merely to distribute food according to the seasons but to distribute different kinds of food according to the varying needs. This is something that requires time and research. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, msg. 11)

He Growing with Nurturing and Teaching

We should not drag people to meetings anymore. Instead, we should go to their homes to give injections. They cannot come to the meetings because they do not have time. But if you would go to them every week to give them an injection, in the long run you will undoubtedly see results. Before we go out to practice one-on-one, we must first learn the truth. In the church we must first be supplied with messages of life four or five times a week. Only then can we supply others, and only then can those whom we beget be preserved and nurtured.…What we are doing is to go to the new ones’ homes, to lift them up in our arms, and to feed them with milk. Perhaps after half a year, we will not need to go to them anymore; they will be able to come to the table by themselves.…Gradually, with these two things, nurturing and teaching, as a cycle, he will grow. (Key Points on the Home Meetings, msg. 7)

The meetings with only one speaking and all the rest listening do not have the mouth-to-mouth feeding or the face-to-face teaching. This is why these meetings cannot perfect people and do not produce spiritual descendants. Now the new way has replaced the old way. The purpose for this change is that all the saints may be perfected and that they all may become useful persons. (A Timely Trumpeting and the Present Need, msg. 4)