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Additional Quotes about the Local Church by Witness Lee and Watchman NeeWe must first pick up a concern for people and go to contact them. Then we will learn their condition. In a local church the first thing that is needed is for the elders to contact people. It is very convenient, profitable, and necessary for them to contact people, especially the new ones, before and after the meetings….Contacting people must be our priority in the church life. (Witness Lee, Eldership (3), 20) The elders must also learn to contact people. According to my observation and experience, an elder could contact about one hundred persons a month. This means he would contact about three or four persons daily. Many of the elders are not full-timers. Therefore, they must budget their time. Every day they should live according to a schedule. If one is a professor in a school, he does not need to resign. He can keep his job, but he must budget his time to contact people each day. An elder in a local church must budget his time to contact at least two people a day. The elders should contact all kinds of people, including unbelievers, new believers, and weak believers. The elders must pick up a burden to contact people in this way and to assign all the business affairs to the serving ones. This will save the elders from the business of the church so that they can care for people. (Witness Lee, Eldership (3), 16-17) The elders should contact people in a way that is full of love, concern, and sympathy in a meek and humble spirit (Gal. 6:1), not in a way to convince, to catch, to arrest, but to recover, to bring people back to the Lord. Their contact should be with the full realization that what the people need is the Lord and what can solve the people’s problems is to meet with the Lord. (Witness Lee, Eldership (3), 26) The elders must have the experience of Christ as life so they will know how to help others….Perhaps on the first visit there will be no opportunity to minister anything, but eventually the elders will be able to minister Christ to the person involved. They will help him contact the Lord, and eventually they may have a chance to pray with him and bring him to the Lord in that prayer. Then he will touch the Lord, and once he touches the Lord, his problem will be cared for in the Lord. (Witness Lee, Eldership (3), 33) In addition, an elder must not be slothful. A slothful elder in a local church brings that church under a curse. It can be compared to what happens in a family; if the parents are lazy, it is a punishment to the children. The elders must have a diligent character. (Witness Lee, Elders’ Management, 54) All the elders should pay attention to this. Elders, you are on the proper ground and you may be fundamental, but for what are you laboring? Are you laboring for God’s interest or for your own interest? If you are for your interest, you make the local church a monarchy, your own little empire, not a part of the kingdom of God. (Witness Lee, LS of 1&2 Chronicles-Esther, 38) An elder must not be an arrogant person. If a person becomes proud as soon as he assumes authority, he is not qualified to be an elder. An elder in a local church should feel as if he has no authority at all. If an elder is always conscious of his authority, he is not qualified to be an elder or to handle the affairs of the church. Only the foolish and the narrow-minded are proud. Such ones cannot stand the temptation of God’s glory, and they cannot bear God’s commission and assignment. Once such ones are entrusted with something, they fall into a snare. This is why a new convert cannot be an overseer (1 Tim. 3:6—in Greek this word means a novice in a trade. For example, among carpenters there are masters who have been in the trade for decades, and there are novices who have barely learned to handle a hammer.), lest he be blinded with pride and fall into the judgment suffered by the devil. (Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 3, Vol. 47, 300) If elders do not possess this kind of stable character, they will cause trouble to the church, and there will be no way to go on….Therefore, we must learn to be stable. Do not easily believe or disbelieve…. Especially the elders in a large local church must exercise to have this kind of stable character. Everything that passes through your hands must be weighed calmly….Frequently, problems in the church come from the panicking of elders who are unstable in character. (Witness Lee, Elders’ Management, 59-62) Brothers, there are difficulties in many local churches today because the elders do not have a large heart. Therefore, I fully agree that the elders in the different localities should go to visit other places. Those in Taipei should visit Tainan, Kaoshiung, and Hualien. Those in other places should also go out to visit. Once you visit another place, your heart will be enlarged. If circumstances allow, it would be even better to travel overseas. Once a man goes out for a visit, his heart will be enlarged…. Please remember that the ability to forgive others is a matter that has to do with the largeness of heart. The ability to bless the ones who curse us also has to do with a large heart. Your heart must be so large that whenever others offend you, you can forgive them as soon as they confess to you. Though others may persecute you and inflict harm on you, you can still love them. To be able to forgive others when they have offended you is something that has to do with a large heart. (Witness Lee, Elders’ Management, 42-43) | ||||