THE FOURTH SERIES:
THE PATHWAY OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
Crucial Principles in the Administration of the Church
Message Fourteen—Serving in Coordination under the Administration of the Church (1)
Scripture Reading: Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5; 1 Cor. 12:18, 24; Eph. 4:11-12; Rom. 12:5-6a; 1 Tim. 5:1-2
I. The elders’ oversight, administration, building, leadership, and management of the church all refer to the same thing; there is one goal in the elders’ administration, with three areas of service—Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 1 Cor. 1:2; 12:27: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
A. Regardless where the church appears on this earth, it has only one goal: to be a testimony of Christ and to express Christ among humanity.—1:2; 12:27. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
B. The three areas of service—Eph. 4:11-12: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
1. The zealous preaching of the gospel: In the service of the gospel, the church must be zealous, powerful, and effective. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
2. To perfect the saints: We need to help them to love the Lord, to deal with their past, to consecrate themselves before the Lord, to learn to study the Bible, to pray, to contact the Lord, and to pursue in life—Eph. 4:12. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
3. Service: We need to lead these saved and perfected ones into the church and have them serve in a practical way. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
C. When these three items are added together, there is the building up of the church. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
II. Coordination in service; the oversight and administration of the elders are nothing other than the gospel, the perfecting, and the service; following the gospel, there is the perfecting, and following the perfecting, there is the service; as to the service, it must be done in coordination—1 Cor. 12:18; Ezek. 1:11-14: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
A. The most spiritual consideration in service is the matter of coordination; the administration of the elders must be carried out in coordination. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
B. When we serve the Lord, we should serve in the position of a member, in coordination with others—1 Cor. 12:18. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
III. The aspects of coordination; the Body is coordinated (1 Cor. 12:24) together by God, being members one of another (Rom. 12:5) to become one Body is a matter of coordination: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
A. Having life—Col. 3:4; John 5:25, Eph. 2:1, 5; Rom. 8:2, 6: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
1. The elders have to consider seriously everyone who wants to come into the coordination to see if each one has life. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
2. The elders cannot pay attention simply to an incomplete salvation; instead, they should pay attention to whether or not a person has life. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
3. In order to administrate the church, you must take life as the foundation; the first consideration is that you must have life. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
B. Being living—John 5:25: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
1. It is one thing to have life; it is another thing to be living; many who have life do not appear to be living. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
2. Some are saved, but they are not revived yet—Eph. 2:1; Rom. 8:6: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
a. They have relinquished their gross and immoral sins; however, they do not like to read the Bible, and they do not open their mouths to pray; they have no big sins, but neither have they cut themselves off from the small sins. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
b. They do not know anything about the world and have no concept about giving it up; they still live in their human relationships and worldly connections. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
3. Some who are not only saved, but are revived: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
a. They love the Lord, desire after Him, study the Bible, and pray; they do not commit gross sins; when they commit a small sin, such as saying something wrong, they deal with it before the Lord; they have given up the world, and they are living a life for the Lord. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
b. They always pray for others’ souls with tears; after two months, such a one brings one person to salvation; he is living. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
4. Elders, those who are not living are the ones you have to work with; you have to enliven them: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
a. You need to take out the files of the brothers and sisters and read them carefully; after you have touched their real condition, you can classify them; the living ones will belong to one category; the dead ones will belong to another category; those who are half-dead are also put into a third category. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
b. When I was taking care of the churches in northern China, we did this kind of classification at that time; we divided the brothers and sisters into twelve classes; the lowest-numbered class is the dead ones; the highest-numbered class is the living ones; in between are the half-dead ones, and the ones who have been dead for a long time and are about to come alive. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
c. After classification, we should not work with the dead ones or the living ones first; instead, we should work on the ones who are about to come alive; after we did this for a while, some of these came alive; they were class eleven; now they have advanced to level twelve; next, we should work with the ones who are worse, the class-ten ones. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
d. The condition of the meetings in all the places today is that although everyone has life, the big question is whether or not they are living; the dormant ones are, of course, not living; but even many of the ones who are able to come to the meetings are not living; how much work there is involved to cause these brothers and sisters to come alive. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
C. Bringing others into the service—Acts 15:36-40; 1 Cor. 1:1; Col. 1:1; 1 Thes. 1:1: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
1. In bringing the saints into the service, we must not only give them outward arrangements; we must also fellowship and pray with them to show them the way of life and to bring them into life so that they too may have experiences of life. (The Administration of the Church and the Perfecting of the Saints, msg. 6)
2. You have to know the condition of all the ones who have come alive, their heart toward the Lord, their education, their background, their finances, their family, and their relationship with those around them; even their physical strength, their health, and their mind must all come under your consideration. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
3. It is not your teaching, exhortation, or encouragement to such a one to be living; that is useless; it is your working; when one by one the people become living, the church will be filled with the spirit of service. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
D. Perfecting the functions; the elders cannot bring people into the service and leave them there; they must pay attention to the function in these ones; not only do you have to bring someone in, but you must observe him while you are bringing him in; you must find out what kind of function he has, and through which kind of service he should be perfected—Eph. 4:11-12. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
E. Encouraging the gifts; when the brothers and sisters have realized their functions in the service, the gifts will be manifested; at that time, the elders will have to encourage them to develop their gifts—Rom. 12:6a; Eph. 4:7-8: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
1. The elders have to help him pass through the hurdle of consecration afresh; such a one still has some problem with his consecration; there is a problem of degree in his consecration; there is also a problem of nature, of place, and of sovereign right in his consecration; you may have to help a person renew his consecration before the Lord. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
2. Some brothers cannot have their gifts realized because there is a problem with their character; a brother’s character may be somewhat lazy; if you can make him somewhat more diligent, his gift will take form. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
3. You discover that this brother still has a hidden sin; if you help him to take care of this, you will be encouraging his gift to be realized; if you can help him solve the problem of his sin, you will see that his gift will immediately take shape. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
F. Supplying Christ—1 Tim. 5:1-2; 2 Cor. 4:5: (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
1. The elders must spend time again to fellowship, pray, and talk with them; they must study the Bible with them and trust that the Holy Spirit will open their understanding to see that the gifts are just the glass containers and that only Christ is the content. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)
2. You have to show them that the content of the gift must be Christ; you have to help them to go over the hurdle and to know the meaning of Christ as life, so that they can enjoy the riches of Christ. (The Elders’ Management of the Church, msg. 11)