THE FOURTH PART: THE PATHWAY OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
The Course of the Church
Message Seven—Raising Up the Work in Taiwan
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:46; 1 Cor. 4:17; John 18:37; 14:6; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Eph. 1:13
I. “In 1950, before Brother Nee was put into prison, the Lord led him to make an arrangement among the co-workers, an arrangement that was unequaled before or after. He rarely made this kind of arrangement because at that time the political situation kept changing and we did not know how to prepare ourselves for the change.” (The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, msg. 2)
II. In the two urgent co-workers’ meetings he repeatedly said, “We ask Brother Witness to go abroad;” afterward, when the Communists gained the upper hand, I was in Shanghai hurrying to finish the building of the big meeting hall, and the only job left to be done was to install the flooring composed of small marble chips set in cement; at the end of April 1949, Brother Nee sent me a wire telling me to turn over everything of the church in Shanghai to the elders and leave immediately; thus, I was sent out—cf. 1 Cor. 4:17.
III. After I arrived in Taiwan, outside the house I heard the noise of wooden shoes on the gravel road, and inside the house I saw a room with Japanese tatami; at that time there were at most fifty people meeting in Taipei, and there was not much for me to do:
A. I lay in bed in my home looking at the ceiling, saying, “What did I come to Taiwan for?” That was in April; later I took a trip to the central and southern parts of Taiwan.
B. The Lord gave me a sense that something could be done in Taiwan and that it was a very good place in which it was easy to set up local churches, because in one day I could go to three or four places and the transportation was very convenient; therefore, on August 1, 1949, I officially began the work in Taiwan.
C. Our numbers increased very quickly, and by the end of 1949, the number of saints meeting in the church in Taipei had increased to around nine hundred.
D. In November of 1950 the Lord led me to go to Manila in Southeast Asia; from then on, I spent approximately four months of every year in the Philippines; most of the remaining time I spent giving trainings in Taipei.
E. Prior to 1952, a sister and I were the only full-time serving ones; in 1952 we increased to approximately one hundred full-time serving ones; as a result, the work on the island of Taiwan increased and spread.
F. Churches were established in almost all the major cities of Taiwan from Keelung in the north to Kaohsiung in the south and even in Hualien and Taitung on the east; the full-time serving ones spread to these localities to care for the churches for the furtherance of the Lord’s work.
G. By the Lord’s mercy, during 1954 and 1955 the number of saints in Taiwan increased to almost fifty thousand; two years later, from 1956 to 1957, our numbers reached fifty thousand; in other words, we began with a small number of less than five hundred saints, and in six to seven years we experienced a one hundredfold increase—we had fifty thousand saints.
H. At the time of our increase in numbers we wanted to receive help in order to pursue spiritual growth, so we invited Brother T. Austin-Sparks to come to minister to us; he came the first time in 1955 and again in 1957.
I. His coming, however, caused problems among us and brought in a storm; as a result of the influence from Brother Sparks, several young brothers had a change of heart and began to dissent; that was a great distraction to the work.
J. His visit gave rise to a storm among us, and after that storm, all that we had done from 1949 to 1957 was diluted—cf. Eph. 4:14.
K. Even though we were distracted and had problems in 1957, the situation remained with us until September 1965 when I came back from America to deal with it.
L. As a result of the problems, the church was like a person who, having suffered a long-term illness, had been cured by an operation and needed a long period to recover his strength; the operation was in September 1965, and we needed one to two years to recover our strength; I visited Taiwan in 1966, 1967, and 1968.
IV. There were several characteristics of the work that we began in Taiwan; one feature was to hold trainings that were comprehensive in nature—cf. Ezek. 1:10; Rev. 4:6-7:
A. The best training was in 1953; it was a training on truth, life, the church, and the gospel; the aspect of the training that was on the church included service; those who attended the trainings know that that particular training was comprehensive; as a result, the leading in the church was also comprehensive—John 18:37; 14:6; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Eph. 1:13.
B. We did not overemphasize any point; rather, we paid equal attention to truth, life, the church, and the gospel; these trainings were very successful, and our numbers in the churches increased greatly.
C. As our numbers increased, we began meeting in separate meeting halls, and because our numbers continued to increase, the meeting halls were divided into districts.
D. Due to the constant increase in our numbers, we had to consider how to take care of the new believers who were being added to us; the Lord reminded us of what He had done in the wilderness when He distributed the loaves—He had the people sit down in groups—Mark 6:39-40.
E. Based on this principle, we began to further divide the districts into groups, and we met in halls, districts, and groups; in those seven years our numbers increased from five hundred to fifty thousand; that was a hundredfold increase.
Ministry Excerpts:
BROTHER NEE’S MINISTRY AND
HIS ARRANGEMENT CONCERNING THE WORK
When the Lord raised us up in China, He showed us the entire vision in the Bible in a brief and concise way through Brother Nee, the main points of which I fellowshipped with you in the previous chapter: the salvation of God, the church, Christ as life, and the Body of Christ. These are the things that Brother Nee saw clearly and spoke to us in the thirty years of his ministry. I say again that, unfortunately, of these four great points that he showed us, the average brother and sister understood only the first three points and disagreed with the last point, that is, the Body of Christ. At any rate, from 1922 to 1952, when he was put into prison, Brother Nee carried out his ministry for exactly thirty years. Then, in the twenty years after 1952 he was not able to write any book or do any work.
In 1950, before Brother Nee was put into prison, the Lord led him to make an arrangement among the co-workers, an arrangement that was unequaled before or after. He rarely made this kind of arrangement because at that time the political situation kept changing and we did not know how to prepare ourselves for the change. In the two urgent co-workers’ meetings he repeatedly said, “We ask Brother Witness to go abroad.” Afterward, when the Communists gained the upper hand, I was in Shanghai hurrying to finish the building of the big meeting hall, and the only job left to be done was to install the flooring composed of small marble chips set in cement. At the end of April 1949, Brother Nee sent me a wire telling me to turn over everything of the church in Shanghai to the elders and leave immediately. Thus, I was sent out.
THE TRANSFER OF THE MINISTRY
IN THE LORD’S RECOVERY AND
THE BEGINNING OF THE WORK IN TAIWAN
After I arrived in Taiwan, outside the house I heard the noise of wooden shoes on the gravel road, and inside the house I saw a room with Japanese tatami. At that time there were at most fifty people meeting in Taipei, and there was not much for me to do. I lay in bed in my home looking at the ceiling, saying, “What did I come to Taiwan for?” That was in April. Later I took a trip to the central and southern parts of Taiwan. The Lord gave me a sense that something could be done in Taiwan and that it was a very good place in which it was easy to set up local churches, because in one day I could go to three or four places and the transportation was very convenient. Therefore, on August 1, 1949, I officially began the work in Taiwan.
The next year Brother Nee went to Hong Kong. In the beginning of the year a revival was brought in, so he asked me to go to Hong Kong to help him lead the whole church in Hong Kong in three aspects of service: the service of the co-workers, the service of the elders, and the service of the deacons. For a period of one and a half months the two of us were there, and nearly every day we met with each group. From the end of 1949, for two years the church in Shanghai enjoyed complete freedom. Brother Nee had never before had such a great opportunity to release what he had received of the Lord, because at that time all the Western missionaries had left. At that time ninety percent of Chinese Christianity was in the hands of the Western missionaries, so after they left, the different denominations in Shanghai were like flocks without shepherds, and anyone who had a little desire to pursue the Lord turned to us. Brother Nee considered that a golden opportunity. In 1962 or 1963 Brother Nee’s brother-in-law Samuel Chang told me, “Brother Lee, in 1950, before Brother Nee left for Hong Kong to hold a conference there, the co-workers in Shanghai talked about transferring you out of Taiwan, since there was not much to be done in Taiwan. They wanted you to return to Shanghai, where there was too much work to be done. As far as Christianity was concerned, the entire Shanghai was in our hands.”
Brother Nee was very wise; he seldom did things or said things in a rush or in a headstrong way but always tried to see how God would lead and arrange in the environment. Therefore, when I arrived in Hong Kong, he did not mention this thing to me. As we sat down to talk, spontaneously I told him about the situation of the work in Taiwan in that half year or more. I told him that up to the end of the preceding year the number in the church in Taipei had increased thirty times. In my speaking I also showed that I was very burdened, saying that from there we could go to work in Southeast Asia, and then go on to East Asia, and gradually we could go on to the West. After hearing me speak concerning the situation in Taiwan, he not only did not bring up the matter decided by the co-workers in mainland China about transferring me back to the mainland, but he also encouraged me to do a good job. We talked about going back to mainland China. I said, “This is too great a matter; I don’t dare to say that either going back or not going back is the Lord’s will.” He said, “What shall we do with the few hundred churches?” After a few days, without saying goodbye to anyone, he went back to mainland China. More than ten days later, after he left Hong Kong I also returned to Taiwan.
When I went to Taiwan, I had a family of ten with two domestic helpers. A total of twelve went to Taiwan. When I got off the plane, I had three hundred U.S. dollars with me. Brother Nee fully realized the situation among us, and he knew that when I arrived in Taiwan it would be difficult for me to receive support. At that time there were only a handful of saints in Taiwan, and most of them went there to take refuge, so they did not have much to spare to support others. Brother Nee truly loved the co-workers; he said, “Brother Witness, here I have a bottle of medicine as a sample, and I also have the formula. Take these two things back to Taiwan. Gather some brothers who are engaging in business and ask them to make a small investment and do a little advertising. That would be enough.” So I went back to Taiwan and fellowshipped with the brothers, but everyone felt that it was not the proper time, so we did not do it.
At the end of 1950 I went to Manila. I worked there for five and a half months, and just before I left, a brother went to the elders and asked them to make an appointment for him to see me. This brother was a businessman and was quite wealthy but had donated little prior to that time. He came to see me and said, “Brother Lee, now you are going back to Taiwan. Please tell me the total amount of the annual expenses of your work in Taiwan, including the building of meeting halls and the support for the co-workers. I have the burden before the Lord to bear the whole responsibility.” This was truly something of the Lord’s doing. Then I said, “Brother Wang, you know the practice among us is that we do not tell people of our needs.” He said, “This is not you telling me, but it is I receiving the Lord’s commission. Therefore, if you don’t tell me, how can I know the amount?” So I told him. Thus, he supplied the work every year for eleven years, from 1950 to 1961; every year there was a sum of money as a supply. Thank the Lord, this was all His doing.
I went back from Manila to Taiwan. At that time I was the only full-time brother in Taiwan, and there was a Sister Hou, who was also serving full-time. On the whole island of Taiwan we were the only two full-time serving ones. Even Brothers Chang Wu-chen and Sun Feng-lu were not yet full-time. Everyone knew that unless he went to get a job, there would be no support, so everyone got a job. After I had this experience in Southeast Asia, I fellowshipped with the brothers. Then I began to hold trainings. In 1952 over eighty full-time serving ones were produced. I told the church clearly that it did not mean that the churches had no responsibility or that the brothers and sisters did not need to give in love. But my own experience told me that there was the possibility that the serving ones would have no food on their tables. From the Bible we see that this was also the experience of Paul. Therefore, I said that, because of my experience, the support which I received in the work of my ministry would be used to pay the expenses of providing adequate food for the co-workers and their families. This means that even if the brothers and sisters would not give anything, the co-workers still would have food on their tables. This support continued through 1961. From 1961 the churches began to share according to their ability in order to reduce the burden on the side of my work. Because many churches were set up and the number of saints increased, they reduced the amount of my support of the co-workers to about sixty percent. Thus, gradually, in 1964 I unloaded this burden. All this was recorded in the accounts of the Gospel Book Room in those years. The number of co-workers with their families reached a peak of 170. Every year the ministry supplied them for their daily needs. This was truly the Lord’s doing.
THE LORD WAS MAKING PREPARATIONS TO TRANSFER TO ME THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD IN THE LORD’S RECOVERY
In 1950 I had my last contact with Brother Nee. At the time I was not clear, but now when I look back, I see that it was the Lord’s doing; that is, the Lord was making preparations to transfer to me the ministry of the word in the Lord’s recovery. When I was in mainland China, I did not publish books on my own. Rather, I helped Brother Nee manage the Gospel Book Room. I wrote only a few articles, which Brother Nee liked and published as a book, entitled Gleanings from Christ’s Genealogy. There were also a few other books concerning the kingdom of the heavens. In 1950, when the two of us were in Hong Kong, we spent much time talking together. Because I realized that later it might not be possible for me to contact Brother Nee, I brought up to him the need to publish in Taiwan. He said, “Brother Witness, you know that among us only I personally own the Gospel Book Room. It belongs neither to the church nor to the co-workers; it belongs to me personally.” Then he made arrangements, saying, “Now the three political regions—the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan—all differ from one another. So we will have the Gospel Book Room divided into three: one in Shanghai, one in Taiwan, and one in Hong Kong. They are not three Book Rooms; rather, they are one. Due to the political situation, the three places will be on their own financially.” He was responsible for the one in Shanghai; he entrusted to me the responsibility for the one in Taiwan; and he asked Brother K. H. Weigh to take charge of the one in Hong Kong. He further charged me, saying, “Brother Weigh also needs your help in bearing the responsibility for the articles.” Therefore, in the initial period, the Taiwan Gospel Book Room published books mainly in coordination with the Book Room in Hong Kong. The two published books together, not separately. The cost of the books published both in Hong Kong and Taiwan were calculated together. It was due to such an arrangement made by Brother Nee that we have today’s situation.
Thank the Lord, as soon as we began the work in Taipei, an overseas Chinese brother contributed ten thousand U.S. dollars, and that became the beginning of the Gospel Book Room. Concerning the Book Room, I have explained clearly to the co-workers that this Book Room does not belong to the church nor to the co-workers nor to the work. Just as it was in the past with Brother Nee, this is my book room to serve the publication of my ministry. Therefore, I began to publish books in Taiwan. I knew that there could no longer be the ministry that was with Brother Nee and we could no longer have it. So I began to carry out the literature work in Taiwan. That fellowship in Hong Kong truly was the Lord’s sovereign arrangement in that Brother Nee gave me instructions concerning the work. After another two years he was put into prison. In 1952 in Taiwan over eighty full-time serving ones were added at the same time. I can testify to you that none of these things was of my work, but everything was the Lord’s sovereign arrangement. From 1932, when I began to speak for the Lord, to the year 1952 was a total of twenty years. I began to speak ten years later than Brother Nee. Brother Nee began to speak for the Lord in 1922. From that time to the summer of 1952, when he was imprisoned, he spoke for a total of thirty years. From 1952 on, the Lord transferred the ministry of the word to me. (The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, msg. 2)
RAISING UP THE WORK
IN TAIWAN AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
Beginning in 1946, a small number of saints began migrating to Taiwan. More saints migrated in 1947 and even more in 1948. By the end of 1948 there were thirty to fifty saints meeting in the church in Taipei. When I came to Taiwan in the spring of 1949, there were less than one hundred saints in the church in Taipei. In August we built a small meeting hall where hall one is now located, and we officially began the work. Our numbers increased very quickly, and by the end of 1949, the number of saints meeting in the church in Taipei had increased to around nine hundred.
In November of 1950 the Lord led me to go to Manila in Southeast Asia. From then on, I spent approximately four months of every year in the Philippines. Most of the remaining time I spent giving trainings in Taipei. Prior to 1952, a sister and I were the only full-time serving ones. In 1952 we increased to approximately one hundred full-time serving ones. As a result, the work on the island of Taiwan increased and spread, and churches were established in almost all the major cities of Taiwan from Keelung in the north to Kaohsiung in the south and even in Hualien and Taitung on the east. The full-time serving ones spread to these localities to care for the churches for the furtherance of the Lord’s work.
By the Lord’s mercy, during 1954 and 1955 the number of saints in Taiwan increased to almost fifty thousand. Two years later, from 1956 to 1957, our numbers reached fifty thousand. In other words, we began with a small number of less than five hundred saints, and in six to seven years we experienced a one hundredfold increase—we had fifty thousand saints.
THE PROBLEMS OF BEING DISTRACTED
AND OF LOSING THE LEADING AT THE BASIC LEVEL
At the time of our increase in numbers we wanted to receive help in order to pursue spiritual growth, so we invited Brother T. Austin-Sparks to come to minister to us. He came the first time in 1955 and again in 1957. His coming, however, caused problems among us and brought in a storm. As a result of the influence from Brother Sparks, several young brothers had a change of heart and began to dissent. That was a great distraction to the work. It has been approximately twenty-seven years since that storm, but our numbers have not increased; they have remained stagnant.
During the first few years of the work in Taiwan, our numbers increased quickly. In Taipei we increased from one meeting hall to several meeting halls, every meeting hall was divided into several district meetings, and every district meeting was divided into several small groups. Looking back, we must confess that our practice of every meeting hall being divided into several districts and every district being further divided into many small groups was appropriate and effective. The advantage of this practice was that newly saved ones were taken care of by the small groups. However, we became distracted by Brother Sparks’s visit and no longer paid attention to the service in the districts and in the small groups. Later, the small groups gradually disappeared, and the districts were rearranged.
According to our rearrangement, the church in Taipei had more than twenty districts, but there were no more small groups. Thus, the basic level of service disappeared. As a result, our care for the brothers and sisters, especially our cherishing of the new ones, was not as effective. Many brothers and sisters were not cared for, and the newly saved ones were not appropriately supported. Subsequently, the number of people in the church gradually decreased, even though the brothers and sisters faithfully maintained the Lord’s testimony and preached the gospel to gain new ones. Despite these efforts, our numbers fell far below the fifty thousand we had gained more than twenty years ago.
For the past three or four years, I have been observing our situation. Even though I have not been in Taiwan, I have had a burden for Taiwan. I have been observing the situation in Taiwan from afar. I have also had thorough fellowship with the responsible brothers and the elders. We have constantly been seeking how a church as large as the church in Taipei should go on.
Even though we were distracted and had problems in 1957, the situation remained with us until September 1965 when I came back from America to deal with it. As a result of the problems, the church was like a person who, having suffered a long-term illness, had been cured by an operation and needed a long period to recover his strength. The operation was in September 1965, and we needed one to two years to recover our strength. I visited Taiwan in 1966, 1967, and 1968. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 3: The Future of the Lord’s Recovery and the Building Up of the Organic Service, msg. 13)
THE INITIAL STAGE OF
THE LORD’S RECOVERY IN TAIWAN
The initial stage of the Lord’s recovery in Taiwan began in 1949. Before 1949 local churches were not clearly established in Taiwan, because no elders were appointed prior to this time. Before 1949 there were some small churches, or rather, there were meetings in various places in Taiwan, but the responsible ones who had been spontaneously produced had not been appointed as elders. The first elders were appointed in the church in Taipei.
In the summer of 1949 the ministry in the Lord’s recovery began the work in Taiwan with a conference. After this the Lord’s recovery in Taiwan began to take shape; that was more than thirty-five years ago, a third of a century. This period, which cannot be considered short, is our history. We must look back and consider those early years in order to learn and to receive practical light instead of being idealistic.
I came to Taiwan in 1949. Before then I had served in more than two churches, and by the Lord’s grace, my service was successful. The first church was the church in Chefoo. The success of the church in Chefoo was witnessed by many brothers. After the victory in the Sino-Japanese War in 1945, I met with Brother Nee and fellowshipped concerning what I had practiced in Chefoo, that is, concerning the way I had led the church. Brother Nee encouraged me to be diligent to continue my practice in the other churches. Hence, I was bold to lead the church in Shanghai, and the result was obvious to all. If it had not been for the change in the political situation, the church in Shanghai would have been a great success.
Despite the success that we had in Chefoo and Shanghai, after coming to Taiwan, we felt that some of the things that we had practiced were unnecessary. We therefore dropped the unnecessary items. As a result, the work in Taiwan was a new beginning. We began with about five hundred saints, and by 1956 we had thirty thousand saints. When we invited Brother T. Austin-Sparks in 1957, we had more than fifty thousand saints. But his visit gave rise to a storm among us, and after that storm, all that we had done from 1949 to 1957 was diluted.
THE COMPREHENSIVE LEADING
AND THE PRACTICE OF MEETING IN DISTRICTS AND GROUPS
There were several characteristics of the work that we began in Taiwan. One feature was to hold trainings that were comprehensive in nature. The best training was in 1953; it was a training on truth, life, the church, and the gospel. The aspect of the training that was on the church included service. Those who attended the trainings know that that particular training was comprehensive. As a result, the leading in the church was also comprehensive. We did not overemphasize any point; rather, we paid equal attention to truth, life, the church, and the gospel. These trainings were very successful, and our numbers in the churches increased greatly. As our numbers increased, we began meeting in separate meeting halls, and because our numbers continued to increase, the meeting halls were divided into districts.
At that time we did not use the term group. Even though Brother Nee used the term districts, based on Acts 2:46, which says that the believers met “from house to house,” he did not have the way to practice it. The turmoil in the church in Shanghai prevented him from putting this into practice. After the turmoil the church stopped meeting. That was in 1942. That same year the church in Chefoo had a great revival. The church in Chefoo put the matter of meeting in districts fully into practice, but we did not have the practice of meeting in smaller groups. During that time our numbers increased but not such that we needed to divide into smaller groups.
When we came to Taiwan, we did not meet only in halls, which were equivalent to what Brother Nee called districts. We divided every hall into smaller groups, which we called districts. Due to the constant increase in our numbers, we had to consider how to take care of the new believers who were being added to us. The Lord reminded us of what He had done in the wilderness when He distributed the loaves—He had the people sit down in groups (Mark 6:39-40). Based on this principle, we began to further divide the districts into groups, and we met in halls, districts, and groups. In those seven years our numbers increased from five hundred to fifty thousand; that was a hundredfold increase. Once we had a baptism meeting for newly saved ones that began at six o’clock on Saturday evening. Even though we were baptizing people in three different meeting halls, we could not finish all the baptisms that night, so we continued baptizing people on the Lord’s Day morning. On that occasion we baptized more than seven hundred people.
If we had continued meeting in halls, districts, and groups, I do not know how many people we would have gained. Five hundred saints increased to fifty thousand within seven years; that is more than a hundredfold increase. From 1957 until today we have passed through four seven-year periods. In the beginning of the four seven-year periods, we met in halls, districts, and groups; however, after Brother Sparks visited us, we were distracted in our practice. If we had not changed our direction, we could have gained at least two hundred thousand in the following seven-year periods. A conservative estimate is that we would have a total of two hundred fifty thousand saints. We increased from five hundred saints to fifty thousand saints. If we use this fifty thousand increase as the base, in another seven years we should have gained another fifty thousand. We believe this would have been possible.
We had some definite experiences in mainland China, and we knew which experiences were useful for the building of the church and which were not. Hence, after the Lord brought us to Taiwan, we continued the useful practices and dropped the practices that were not useful. Not only so, we added a new practice of dividing into groups. Before 1952 only one sister and I were serving full time. In 1952 approximately one hundred brothers and sisters joined us to serve full time. After the comprehensive training in 1953, the one hundred full-timers went to carry out their function in the different halls, districts, and groups. This is the way that our numbers increased to fifty thousand in just a few years.
THE WAY OF MEETING IN HALLS, DISTRICTS, AND GROUPS
IS BENEFICIAL TO THE INCREASE OF NUMBERS IN THE CHURCH
We invited Brother T. Austin-Sparks because we wanted to receive spiritual help; however, as a result of his visit, our practice was diluted. After 1958 we stopped paying attention to the district meetings, and we did not establish any more district meetings or group meetings. This practice was washed away during that storm. The dissenting ones said that we did not have a vision and that the leading co-workers were finished. This was in 1959. Everyone was influenced by this speaking, and many were carried away to speak of a vision and of spirituality. As a result, our initial practice was set aside, and we returned to the way of Christianity in which we gathered the brothers and sisters either for the Lord’s Day meeting or to preach the gospel. No one paid attention to meeting in districts or groups. The leading we had in our first seven years was blown completely away like a puff of smoke.
Today, nearly twenty-eight years after 1957, our numbers are less than what they were then. We have decreased, not increased. During these past twenty-eight years some brothers and sisters have passed away, some have become cold, others have backslidden, still others have gone abroad, and there are those with whom we have lost contact. The number of new ones is equal only to the number of brothers and sisters who were lost. We now know the reason for this: we abandoned the practice that we had during our first seven years in Taiwan, and we returned to the traditional way of Christianity, which is to meet to preach the gospel and to listen to messages.
It is an undeniable fact that the way of meeting in halls, districts, and groups is beneficial to the increase of numbers in the church. However, for the past thirty years we have abandoned this practice; hence, our numbers have not increased. This has been a huge loss to us. Moreover, we have not seen any accomplishment in spirituality or in life. We do not pursue the truth, and we fall short in spirituality and in the growth in life. This is not true only of Taiwan; most of the brothers and sisters in the churches in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong are not clear about the truth. Hence, we can say that we are doing an average job in the gospel, we are not strong in the church life, we have no goal concerning the truth, and we have no accomplishments in spirituality and in life. On the contrary, we have abandoned our strong point, our special skill, which is the practice of meeting in halls, districts, and groups. Therefore, our numbers have been reduced. We can say that our loss is greater than our gain. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 3: The Future of the Lord’s Recovery and the Building Up of the Organic Service, msg. 1)