1 Pet. 2:5 You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Serving God as a Corporate Priesthood
First Peter 2:5 says, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” By being built up, we are equipped and qualified to be a holy priesthood for God’s service. This indicates that as we are built up into a spiritual house, we also become a holy priesthood. The word priest- hood in this verse does not refer to the priestly office (Heb. 7:12) or the priestly service (v. 5) but to a priestly body a body, or a group, of priests. Actually, the spiritual house in this verse is the priesthood, and this priesthood is for God’s service. We cannot serve God as individual, isolated priests. Rather, we must serve Him as a corporate priesthood. (CWWL, 1969, vol. 1, “Miscellaneous messages”, ch. 2)
Building up the Elders’ Meeting to Head Up the Church
In the past I told the senior elders that they should not carry the burden of the church in Taipei entirely on their own shoulders. They must build up the elders’ meeting and let that meeting lead and direct the church. Only in this way can the church be strong and the Lord have a free way to go on. When I returned to Taiwan a year and a half ago, I appointed eighty elders. The purpose of my appointment was to build up the elders’ meeting. We should pick up the burden of the church and learn to expand and head up the church in a good way. Only then will the church advance and have a good future. It is right to be careful and cautious, but “where there is a will, there is a way.” The Lord wants our cooperation. We must do something. We should strive with all we have. Only then will the Lord have a way. We must pick up these three burdens—building up the home meetings, having a success in the truth-teaching meetings, and aggressively developing the community and campus work. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, msg 16)
Building Up a Church Service Meeting
The elders of the church may want to bring the saints together for a church service meeting every week. In this meeting the saints would be given the opportunity to share with the others who are present what aspect of service they were involved in that week. If a question is raised up, we should let all of the saints answer it. By this mutual fellowship in the church service meeting, all the serving ones will pick up a real burden. The beginning of the meeting will be full of prayer, and all the attendants will be on time. In such a meeting we could see the real church life with the church service. (Talks Concerning the Church Services, ch. 5)
A Principle Governing Church Service
One principle governing church service is that the work and the service must be assigned; they must be placed in the hands of the brothers and sisters. The affairs of the church cannot be in the hand of just a few people. The more people are involved in the church, the stronger the church service will be.
In order for the whole Body to rise up to serve, all the brothers and sisters have to be busy with something. Hence, we have to make arrangements for the majority of the saints to get into some areas of service. First, all the brothers and sisters have to be assigned to some service. Second, the responsible brothers have to carefully look into all the arrangements with the responsible ones of each area of service. Third, there is the gospel parade team and the gospel visitation. This is a service in which all the brothers and sisters can participate. (Matured Leadings in the Lord’s Recovery (2), msg. 33)
Submission and Harmony
If we desire to bring in the Lord’s blessing, we must have harmony. In order to have harmony, first, we must submit to one another; second, we must be open; third, we must not insist; and fourth, we must be happy to receive others’ opinions. In many things we should try our best to accommodate the feeling of the saints, as long as it does not involve anything sinful or idolatrous. When the saints come together to serve, the most precious thing is to have harmony and sweetness. When we accommodate one another, this sweetness will bring in blessing, and this blessing will be very powerful. Apparently, the saints have no power, yet the hardest person will be subdued by such harmony and sweetness.
Serving in Spirit
The last item of fellowship concerning our service is the spirit. Our service should be in spirit (Rom. 1:9; 7:6). Our coordination is not a matter of opinion or a matter of one’s cultivated tolerance but a matter of the spirit. We must learn the lesson of exercising the spirit all the time. Our self, the old creation, should always be rejected, and we must turn to our spirit by exercising our spirit. In this way our spirit will be fresh, bright, living, uplifted, and rich, and it will be easy for our spirit to come forth in the service.
We may summarize all the items of fellowship concerning our service in this way: All the brothers and sisters in the church love the Lord. Thus, we should have the peace to let them participate in the service. We should not have friction or insist on anything. Rather, we should always keep the sweetness and the harmony. Also, our spirit must be strong, and we should release our spirit in whatever meeting we participate in. This is our need. As long as we have the spirit, even if we are somewhat inadequate in other areas, it will be all right. Everything depends on the spirit. The saints should increasingly pursue this matter of the exercise of the spirit. To grow in life depends on the spirit (Eph. 2:22), to pray with power depends on the spirit (6:18), and to love the brothers and sisters depends on the spirit (2 Tim. 1:7). Everything depends on the spirit. As a result, the service of the church ends up in this one thing—the spirit. We should not fight for anything; everything depends on the spirit. As long as there is no sin, no idol worship, and no devil or demon involved, and as long as everyone has a strong spirit, it will be good enough. (The Motive, Coordination, and Function of the Lord’s Serving Ones, msg. 9)
