THE FOURTH PART: THE PATHWAY OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
God-Ordained Way
Message Fifteen—The Small Group is the Life Pulse of
the Present Practice of the Church Life
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:42, 46-47; 5:42; Heb. 10:24-25; Eph. 4:12; 1 Thes. 2:11; Col. 1:28-29
I. The small group is the life pulse of the present practice of the church life; the age has changed, the home meetings is the lord’s way today; if our small groups are strong, we will surely have a great increase in number; the small group meetings being the foundation of the building of church—Acts 2: 46-47; 5:42; Heb. 10:24-25; Eph. 4:12: (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, msg. 5; Key Points on the Home Meetings, msg. 2; The Living Needed for Building Up the Small Group Meetings, msg. 1)
A. The small group meeting is the life pulse of the Lord’s recovery and the key to the survival of our “family”; the small groups is our life pulse; we must work it out—Heb. 10:24-25. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, msg. 5)
B. The Small Groups is the Life Pulse; it will create “job opportunities” for the saints and bring out their organic function. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, msg. 5)
C. New faces are the life Pulse of a small group; as long as there are new ones, there will be burden, feeling, and utterance. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 4: The Increase and Spread of the Church, msg. 12)
D. The content of the church life is based mainly on small group meetings and not on big meetings; then in our daily life the small groups can function in mutuality to care for and visit the saints—Heb. 10:24-25. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, msg. 5)
II. The small group is the way to build up the church, the way to gain people, the way to shepherd others, and the way for mutual care; the third step in the practice of the God-ordained way is to establish group meetings—Acts 2:42, 5:42; Eph. 4:12: (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 5: Concerning Various Aspects of Church Service, msg. 15; Three Crucial Matters for the Increase and Building Up of the Church, msg. 18)
A. If every one of us preaches the gospel according to the new way, bringing people to salvation and feeding the lambs, in a few months we will be able to gain two or three persons; a few of us can then bring our lambs together to form a group and establish a group meeting. (The Vision of the Divine Dispensing and Guidelines for the Practice of the New Way, msg. 6)
B. The conclusion of the new way in our understanding is that we must build up the group meetings; through this kind of exercise—from preaching the gospel by knocking on doors to home meetings with the new ones to group meetings, we all learn how to build up a group meeting; this is for the perfecting of the saints—Eph. 4:12: (The Exercise and Practice of the God-Ordained Way, msg. 29, 27)
1. The need to build up the group meetings is very urgent; the crucial point of the God-ordained way is the group meetings; how much success we will realize depends upon how much attention and labor we are able to put on the group meetings; therefore, we must endeavor to build up the group meetings. (The Exercise and Practice of the God-Ordained Way, msg. 29)
2. The group meeting is a miniature of the church life; the real and practical church life is in the group meetings; whether the church life is strong or weak depends upon the strength of the group meetings. (The Exercise and Practice of the God-Ordained Way, msg. 27)
III. The base for the increase and spread of the church—Establish small group meetings, vital group meetings—Acts 2:46-47: (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 4: The Increase and Spread of the Church, msg. 2; God ordained Way to Practice the New Testament Economy, ch. 11)
A. The small group meetings in the homes be able to support people; the Lord is for His spreading, and His spreading is in the homes—Acts 5:42: (The Living Needed for Building Up the Small Group Meetings, msg. 6; Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 1)
1. The group meetings should constitute eighty percent of our church life. (2000 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
2. Our barrenness is due mainly to the lack of the group meetings. (2000 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
B. Small groups being in the nature of home nurturing, whereas joint meetings being in the nature of school education; in order for a church to go on in a good way, we must have small group meetings for home nurturing, and we must also have joint meetings to educate in the truth—cf. 1 Cor. 14:26; Acts 19:9, footnote 2; 20:7-9; 28:30-31: (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 4: The Increase and Spread of the Church, msg. 2 )
1. We need to be balanced, because a large meeting hall can help us gain better results; even though we continually beget those who can be nurtured in the homes, there must be a large meetings hall as a university to teach and perfect them. (2016 MDC, msg. 4)
2. The principle of houses still applies today, but this does not mean that the church will always mean that the church will always meet separately; in fact, it is important and of great profit for all the believers to gather quite regularly in one place. (2016 MDC, msg. 4)
3. If a local church is to be strong, the number of people attending the groups must be high; it is better that the number of people attending the group meetings exceed the number attending the Lord’s day meeting; if this is the case, our church life will not merely be worship services, but a practical church life. (The Vision of the Divine Dispensing and Guidelines for the Practice of the New Way, msg. 6)
C. The “defensive” function of small groups—upholding and restoring the saints; the “offensive” function of small groups—every home preaching the gospel. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 4: The Increase and Spread of the Church, msg. 12)
D. The crucial point of the God-ordained way is the group meetings; when the group meetings are built up strongly, the church will also be very strong—1 Cor. 14:26; Acts 2:46-47. (The Exercise and Practice of the God-Ordained Way, msg. 29)
IV. Meeting with the saints in small group meetings that are full of mutuality；this is also the third step for the New Testament saints to minister as the priests of the gospel, this is the major part of the practice of the church life—Heb. 10:24-25: (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
A. Leading and cultivating the saints: (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
1. To open up and fellowship with one another. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
2. To pray for one another. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
3. To care for and shepherd one another. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
4. To mutually ask questions for learning and teaching the truth. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
5. To mutually ask questions for the pursuit and instruction in the growth in life. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
B. Exhorting and consoling the saints as a father—1 Thes. 2:11: (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
1. Teaching the saints all the counsel of God—Acts 20:20, 27, 31. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
2. Presenting the saints full-grown to God in all wisdom—Col. 1:28-29. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
3. Equipping and supplying the saints that they may do the work of the New Testament ministry, which is to build up the organic Body of Christ—Eph. 4:11-12. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
C. Appointing the saints to go forth: (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
1. To preach the gospel by visiting people. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
2. To nourish and care for the new believers. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
3. To lead the believers to attend the small group meetings. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
4. To lead the believers to attend the bigger meetings of the church. (1999 ITERO-F, Evening sessions, msg. 2)
V. “Heaven and earth may pass away, but the small group meetings must never be forsaken. Now we must be awakened to work on the small groups and allow the Lord to have a way. ” (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 1: The Vision and Definite Steps for the Practice of the New Way, msg. 5)