Vital Groups

Vital Groups W. L.

I am very burdened for the church in Anaheim concerning the practice of the group meetings. In 1984 when I went to Taiwan, the first thing I touched was the group meetings. In my ministry regarding this matter I said that we can forget the heavens and the earth, but we must not forsake the group meetings. I also told all the churches that the church life depends eighty percent upon the group meetings.

The group meetings as a part of the God-ordained way are clearly unveiled in the New Testament. The church came into existence on the day of Pentecost. According to Acts 2:46, the newly saved believers immediately began to meet in their homes. Acts 2:46 uses the phrase from house to house. According to the Greek, this phrase means that the believers met by houses, taking the house as the basic unit for their meeting. This implies that wherever there was a home of a believer, there was a meeting. The number of homes was the same as the number of the believers' meetings. Thus, the New Testament indicates that each one of us should have a meeting in our home. Of course, these home meetings should not be just with our family; they should also include others. Paul's Epistles indicate that in some localities the church met in a home (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2).

The New Testament also shows us that in addition to having the group meetings in homes, the entire church should also come together in one place (1 Cor. 14:23). These two kinds of meetings--the group meetings in the homes and the meetings in which the whole church comes together in one place--are like the two wings of an airplane. With only one wing on one side, an airplane cannot fly. The group meetings in the homes are one "wing," and the coming together of the whole church is the other. However, we need to see that the group meetings are more basic. Without the group meetings it is difficult to have the increase of the church. Without the members brought in through the group meetings, we could not have the coming together of the whole church. Although the church in Anaheim has been in existence since 1974, the number in the English-speaking meeting on the Lord's Day is approximately one hundred fifty. This number is too small. The lack of increase among us is due mainly to the shortage of the group meetings in the saints' homes.

Over a period of more than seven years I gave a number of messages on the practice of the group meetings. In these messages I gave the word from the Bible to convey the vision and the revelation concerning this matter. I also gave detailed instructions on how to carry out the group meetings. During this period of time I did not do anything directly to begin the practice of the group meetings because I fully expected that a number of the saints would rise up and do this. I had the assurance that the elders, the co-workers, and the seeking saints would take the points of my speaking and come together to practice and learn the way to carry out the group meetings. All these saints are very capable; if they would do it, surely they would have a success. Although I have been waiting to see this in Anaheim since April 1989, according to the present situation, nearly no one has risen up to practice the group meetings in the new way. Some of the saints do have a kind of group meeting, but those meetings are carried out in the old way. Those meetings do serve a certain purpose, but I must say that that way is not prevailing. That is not the way shown in the Bible. Our desperate need today is to practice the new group meetings in the new way. Without that, it is very difficult for us to go on by gaining the increase (pp. 8-10,Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, 1992).

Life Line of the God-ordained Way

We need to realize that our present situation is very desperate. We have been speaking concerning the God-ordained way in both Taiwan and the United States for seven and a half years, but we have not seen a definite result. The word that we released has been more than clear, stressing that the group meeting is the crucial matter in the Lord's ordained way. We said that the group meetings should constitute eighty percent of the church life, and we also said that the gospel preaching, nourishing, the cherishing, the feeding, and the perfecting should be done in the groups. But where are the groups, and where are the group meetings? We heard and received the word, and even we prayed much concerning this matter, but where is the definite building up of the groups? Among the churches there are some group meetings, but these are not the group meetings we intend to build up that can occupy eighty percent of the church life.

The group meetings are the life line of the God-ordained way. As long as we have not touched the group meetings, we have hardly begun to practice the God-ordained way. Satan has deceived us, just as the serpent deceived Eve, through the practice of Christianity to pay attention to big meetings. However, the New Testament makes it clear that the first stage of the Christian meetings was in the homes. According to Acts 2:46, on the day of Pentecost the believers met from house to house. This means that they met in homes, from home to home. The Greek phrase translated "from house to house" implies that wherever there is a home of a Christian, there should be a meeting. In all the Christians' homes, there should be meetings. Although I stressed this again and again, today we may still prefer to have big meetings. If we gather together only in big meetings, the proper church life will be hindered. When clumps of grass are scattered about, they grow and spread, but when they are piled together, they die. We may prefer to have the facade of a big meeting, but the Lord is not for that. The Lord is for His spreading, and His spreading is in the homes.

For any work among the saints, we need the group meetings. If it is not brought into the group meetings, even the work on the campuses will not be so adequate. It is good if we can lead many students to believe in the Lord, but they must be grouped together. Without the groups, it will be difficult for them to remain, but if we have the groups, everything we do with them will be a success. However, in our work we may trust in many things, but we not spend any of our strength to take care of the groups.

I fully realize that our barrenness is due mainly to the lack of the group meetings. If we do not have the group meetings, it will be difficult to overcome barrenness. We may still have some increase, but the rate of increase will probably not be high, and the atmosphere in our meetings also will not be high. A large tree without branches cannot bear fruit. The big meetings are like the trunk of a tree, but a trunk alone cannot bear fruit. The trunk needs tender, fresh branches. It is the branches that can bear fruit. In the church life the branches are the groups. We should not be individualistic, but should live in the Body. According to the New Testament, to live in the Body, we need the groups. This does not mean that we should group all the saints into one gathering. According to Acts, it means that we should group the saints together in home meetings (Page 1-2, Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, 1992).

The Vision Needed to Carry Out the Vital Groups

Some may wonder why we use the term vital groups. This is a special term. The reason that we need to have this kind of training with these groups is that for centuries the Lord's church on this earth has become degraded. Then the Lord raised up the recovery. To go down is easy. To go up is not so easy. Even to stand where you are and where you should be is also quite hard. The recovery has been with us for seventy years, but regretfully we have been gradually going down and down to a situation that cannot be considered normal. Rather, it has become abnormal.

...Proverbs 29:18 says that without a vision, the people run wild..... Church history shows us that many of those in Christianity are wild, without restriction and without control.... Judges tells us ...every man did what was right in his own eyes (21:25). We need to be rescued from this situation of degradation.

In this message I would like to speak a brief and clear word to you all, hoping that this could be a real vision to you. What I want to share with you is the extract, the very essence, of all the messages given in Atlanta in the Thanksgiving Day conference of 1992. The title of these messages was The Constitution and the Building Up of the Body of Christ. Then I want to share the extract of the two messages given to the elders after the winter training of 1992 on the book of Job. These two messages were entitled The Ministry of the New Testament and The Teaching and the Fellowship of the Apostles.

In the Thanksgiving Day conference I gave six messages concerning the Body of Christ. These six messages cover four points: the constitution of the Body of Christ, the growth of Christ in His Body so that the Body can grow, the transformation of the saints in the Body of Christ, and the building up of the Body of Christ. Constitution, growth, transformation, and building up are all either by life or with life. The messages I gave to the elders after the winter training of 1992 cover three more crucial points: the ministry of the New Testament, the teaching of the apostles, and the fellowship of the apostles. We all need to see a vision of these seven points (Page 188, Urgent Need of Vital Groups, 1992).

Having A Loving Concern For Sinners

We have to learn to be burdened with the loving concern of God's heart toward the perishing sinners. John 3:16 says, that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes into Him would not perish but have eternal life. God does have such a love. Now we as God's children should be one with our Father in His love for sinners. We need to have a loving concern for the salvation of sinners. The concept of preaching the gospel merely to win souls is too shallow. We need a loving concern for fallen man. According to my feeling, most of the saints among us have lost this concern and care for sinners.

George Whitfield is an example of one who had a real concern for sinners. One day he was preaching concerning the eternal perdition of those who do not believe in Christ. He portrayed the lake of fire to such an extent that some in the audience were grasping the columns in the building in fear that they would fall into that lake of fire. He had such a heart, burden, and real concern for sinners, but we have nearly lost this concern. Our vital groups should learn how to be burdened with our Father's loving concern toward the sinners. First Timothy 2:4 says that God desires all men to be saved. Before we go out, we must be equipped with this kind of feeling. Otherwise, we are hypocrites performing something. If we do not have a heart for the sinners, why should we go out to visit them? This would be a kind of performance.

Converting Sinners Into Members of Christ

In Romans 15:16 Paul said, "That I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a laboring priest of the gospel of God in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit." Paul was a priest of the gospel who offered all the Gentiles to God as sacrifices. Paul was burdened to fulfill his ministry to convert the sinners into members of Christ. In the Old Testament, the priests offered cattle sacrifices as types of Christ. But Paul said that he offered to God the sinners saved by his gospel preaching as spiritual sacrifices, as members of Christ (1 Pet. 2:5). He did this for the building up of the Body of Christ to accomplish God's economy.

This is not just to have God's loving concern for sinners, but to pick up the burden to carry out God's economy. God has an economy, and that economy is centered on Christ with His desire to have a Body. Today it is difficult to see many who have a real burden for the Body of Christ. Today's evangelical work is just for soul-winning, but who cares for the building up of the Body of Christ? Paul preached the gospel for the increase and building up of the Body of Christ. He was a priest offering saved ones to God as the living members of the Body of Christ. We need to have such a burden....

Romans 12 reveals that the regenerated sinners should not be conformed to this world but should be transformed by the renewing of their minds to make them living members of the Body of Christ. Romans 12 shows us the practice of the Body life, and in the Body life we must be transformed. The transformed ones become the proper materials for the Body life. We are burdened to save sinners so that they can be regenerated and then transformed to be proper materials built up into the Body of Christ.

...It is not an easy thing to convert a sinner into a member of the Body of Christ. This is why we need to get ourselves prepared, trained, and perfected, equipped. This is our burden in this vital group training.

We all need to be inwardly touched by the Lord. Then there will be an echo within us to God's love and to God's economy. Within God's heart are His loving concern for the fallen sinners and His desire to carry out His economy. This is a heavy burden for Him. Who today understands God's heart? God's heart today is for only two things: to save sinners and to accomplish the building up of the Body of Christ. We know that this will consummate in the New Jerusalem, which is God's ultimate goal. We must pray for these two points which I have mentioned here. If we do not pray and if we do not pick up this burden, it is meaningless for us to participate in the vital groups.

Inciting One Another To Love

Verses 24 and 25 of Hebrews 10 are the basis for our practice of the group meetings. These verses say, "And let us consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works, not abandoning our own assembling together, as the custom with some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as you see the day drawing near." These verses first say that we need to consider one another. This implies that we all have a genuine care for all the members of our vital group. To care for one another means to consider one another. Today we may not care for others. We do not really care whether or not a certain brother comes to the meeting or whether or not a certain sister is sick. The genuine care for one another needs to be recovered among us.

Proper wives always have their husbands in their consideration. A sister may make sure that her husband has a coat to wear as he is leaving the house. This means that she is considering her husband, caring for her husband. We need to have this kind of practical care for one another. To consider one another in a practical way is to love one another. We say that we love one another, but in what way do we love? We may not care for anyone in a practical way. Love means practical care and consideration. When we consider one another, we incite one another to love and good works. We stir up one another. If someone cares for me, that spontaneously stirs me up, incites me, to love and good works. We incite one another to love and good works by caring for one another, considering one another.

We need the intimate fellowship with one another with the practical care and shepherding. One sister may point out that another sister in the group is absent because she is having some particular trouble. After sharing with the other group members the nature of the problem, the group can pray for her and fellowship about how to give her the practical care and help...

The first thing we have to do in the vital group meetings is to have a thorough fellowship together so that we can know the members of our group in an intimate way. The more thorough our fellowship is, the better. Do we know the occupations of the saints in our vital group and where each one works? Do we know the first and last names of every member of our vital group with their proper pronunciation? By considering these questions, we can see our fellowship has not been thorough. To love one another involves a lot. We need to endeavor to know one another intimately in the Lord. If someone is absent from our vital group meeting, we should immediately ask where he or she is. We say that our group should be blended, but our blending has not been completed, because we do not know each other thoroughly. When you take action together in serving the Lord, you will see that this is very important. Week after week we have been meeting together, yet we still do not really know one another.

We should know each other's situation and condition in an up-to-date way. Then we will realize there is the need of practical care. If we realize a sister is sick, we can fellowship about how to render the proper and practical care to her. We can fellowship about who would be burdened to go or about who could and should go. In the larger prayer meetings of the church, we pray in a general way, but the prayer for one another in the groups is specific with a view to the practical care and shepherding. We may pray for a few minutes and then we can arrange for some person or persons to visit our sister. This is the shepherding. Later, the one who visits should let the group know the situation of this sister. This is what is implied when we say that the group meetings are eighty percent of the church life.

The new ones whom we bring to our group meetings will not merely be taught by us outwardly. They will observe our practice. This is similar to the children in a family learning things by observing the way the family lives and acts. The new ones will follow the pattern which they see and hear in our vital groups. This is why we must learn how to fellowship with one another and how to get ourselves released (pp. 163-166, Urgent Need, 1992)

Teaching One Another

In the vital group meeting, someone may say that he has a problem in understanding John 7. He may ask why John 7:39 says "the Spirit was not yet." Then the other members of the group can answer his question in a mutual way. We need this kind of teaching in mutuality with the mutual asking and answering of questions...

The best teaching always implies two things: the highest revelation and the rich experience of life. You may give a word perhaps for just two minutes, yet in your word there may be the highest revelation and also the very rich experience of life. This is the best teaching. The speaking of some Christian teachers is full of cleverness, eloquence, and good illustrations, but it is devoid of revelation and lacking in experience of life. We must learn to teach with the highest revelation and the rich experience of life.

The practice of the new way in Russia is very encouraging. The church in St. Petersburg was raised up just a little over six months ago. Recently, they had a general gathering in which the five districts came together, and the number who attended was one thousand one hundred thirty-one. We have received quite a few letters from St. Petersburg saying that although the new ones have been in the church life less than half a year, they can speak as if they had been in the church life for a number of years...

In our group meetings we need to practice teaching by mutual asking and mutual answering. We need to consider how to answer questions on subjects such as God's economy, the Lord's recovery, objective justification, reconciliation, subjective sanctification, and the ground of the church...if we do not do our best to teach, the vital groups will have no way to go on. In the group meetings the main thing is to perfect and equip one another by teaching (pp. 169-177, Urgent Need, 1992)

Keeping the Oneness, Loving One Another, and Having the One Accord

In John 17:19-21 the Lord Jesus prayed, "And for their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. And I do not ask concerning these only, but concerning those also who believe into Me through their word, that they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me." We are all members of the Body of Christ. As such, we must have the real oneness. We are really one. However, although today we are still in the recovery and in the oneness, we need to realize that the oneness among us is not a living oneness. Our oneness is not a working oneness. We all are one, but you are you and I am I. The oneness among us is a dormant oneness, a sleeping oneness. Our oneness should be very active. The genuine oneness will cause us to take action when we hear of a need among the saints in the Body. The real oneness is an active and acting oneness.

...In John 17 the Lord said that if we have this oneness, the people of the world will know that Christ was the one sent by the Father (vv. 21, 23). This indicates that when we go to visit people, they will realize that we are one among ourselves. They will realize that with us there is something heavenly, something divine, that the people of the world could never have. The worldly people cannot be one, yet we are one in a living way, so that our oneness is expressed and is realized by others. When they meet us, people can sense that we have the oneness....

A group may have only seven or eight members, but these seven or eight must have the one accord. By fellowshipping together in the group meetings, all the members will enter into one accord, and in one accord they can pray. Then they will really be one. We need to pray in one accord, and one accord comes from oneness and mutual love.

I have covered portions here of the 1992 fellowship on vital groups. Brother Lee gave much more fellowship concerning the training and practice of the vital groups in 1993 and 1996. The above serves as an introduction, but there are many more valuable points to cover. To purchase the book, Vital Groups, 1996, call 1-800-549-5164 or log on to www.LSM.org and make a request. To get the book free of charge contact me, and I will send you out as many as you like.

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