Ministry Reading Questions:

1. What is God’s unit in His salvation?
2. What is the special responsibility God has placed on the head of a family?
3. What should be the focus of the homes in helping the children? 
4. How can parents nurture and nourish the children that they can grow?
5. How can the sisters, who have a special portion, take the lead in the children’s work?    

God’s Ordained Way Being To Gain Households

In considering the exercise and practice of the God-ordained way to preach the gospel, we must include the unit of God’s salvation; God’s promise of salvation takes the household as a unit, not the individual as a unit (Acts 2:39; 16:31). Concerning eternal life, the Bible takes an individual, not a household, as the unit; however, concerning salvation, it shows that men are saved household by household (1 John 5:12; Gen. 7:1.).  We hope that all the children who are born among us will not need our extra effort in the future to bring them to salvation and to rescue them out of the world; some have already been born into our fleshly family; we should make sure that they are born into our spiritual family also (Psa. 87:5; 2 Tim. 1:5).  

Whether or not the church will go on in the next generation depends on whether we can bring our own children to the Lord; if we lose as many as are born to us, our second generation will be gone (Psa. 127:3-5).  If generation after generation all those who are born into our midst stand fast and if we also have some increase from the outside, the church will be strong and its number will increase (2 Tim. 1:5).  We must never give birth to a child only to lose it later; instead, those who are born to us must be regenerated (Psa. 127:3).

In the Bible, the head of a family has the special responsibility before God for bringing his whole household to the Lord and to His service; the head of the household can decide for his entire household (Josh. 24:15).  We should declare with faith that we have decided that our family will be a family that worships God and that our family will be a family that believes in the Lord; if we exercise our authority to take the lead, our children will go along (2 Cor. 4:13; Mark 2:4-5).  The household is ours, and we have the power to decide whether this house will serve the Lord; when we take this stand, everyone who is under us will come to the Lord; they will have no other way to take (1 Cor. 11:3).

Household salvation is one of the greatest principles in the Bible; once you are saved, your whole household should be saved; as an individual you must first stand firm for the Lord, and then your household will change 1 Cor 7:14).  When we invite people to come to a meeting of the church, many will come by themselves; if we go to visit people in their homes, we will reach their whole household (Luke 19:5-9).  

The Children’s Work in the Homes

The scriptural basis for the small groups and the home meetings is the expression from house to house in Acts 2:46 and 5:42; on the day of Pentecost, as soon as the church was raised up on the earth, it began to meet from house to house (2:41, 46; 5:42; 20:20; 1 Cor. 16:19).  To gain the increase, we need to have the home meetings; we need to have meetings in the new believers’ homes, in the homes of the ones we gain through our preaching of the gospel.  To bring the meetings to the homes is the very heart of the God-ordained way; it is a great failure in the Lord’s recovery if we cannot bring the meetings to the homes.  To meet in the homes is organic; if we only have a meeting hall with a definite, regular schedule, this will bring the entire church into the “box” of organization and causes us to lose the organic ability (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2).  Meeting in the believers’ homes is for all the members of Christ to function; in any big meeting it is hard for the saints to function, but in a small meeting with four or five, or two or three, even a small boy or girl could function (Acts 2:21, 46; 5:42; 12:12; Matt. 18:20).

We have to realize that the way the Lord is taking is to build up His church in the believers’ homes; once the church is built up in the homes, the homes will be transformed (1 Cor. 16:19; 14:12; 1:2).  The children will be preserved from drifting along the current of the age; in the end, the family will become proper and normal.  We can invite our relatives to the home meetings, and they will see the situation in our homes and will be touched to receive the Lord’s salvation.

According to what he says in 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul regards the believers as members of a large family. Of course, in a family there is the need for some amount of teaching. Both a mother and a father teach their children. However, in a family the focus is not on teaching the children but is on raising them by cherishing, nourishing, and fostering them so that they may grow. Their growth is not mainly in knowledge: it is primarily a growth in life. As children grow in life, they spontaneously receive more education. The knowledge they acquire always goes along with their growth in life. They should not be given knowledge prematurely. This means that their knowledge should not exceed their growth of life. This is the proper concept of Christian work.

Concerning this matter, we in the Lord’s recovery must have a change in our concept. Do not think that in the recovery we regard work higher than life. No, we need to concentrate on life. The church is a family. The church may also be compared to a farm or a garden. A family is a place where children grow up, and an orchard is a place where trees grow and produce fruit. Paul’s concern in chapter 2 is with the growth of his children. He is fostering the young believers so that they may grow. We may also say that he is watering, nourishing, and cherishing the tender young plants so that they may grow in life. This is the reason that instead of giving the believers a great deal of teaching, he presents them a pattern of life. This pattern of a proper living is actually Paul himself. (Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, pp. 108-109)

To nurture children means to bring them up, to raise them, by nourishing them. Raising children requires that the parents give them the needed instruction related to human life, family life, and social life. The word admonition here includes instruction. Paul was probably referring to the Old Testament requirement that parents instruct their children with the word of God (Deut. 6:7). This means that we are to teach our children with the Bible. Along with this instruction, we sometimes must discipline them, chastise them. It is crucial that parents learn to nurture the children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 520-521)

As human beings, we fell and need the Lord’s salvation. After the fall, God came in to restrict man. For example, God imposed restrictions on the woman because the fall had come in through her (Gen. 3:16); this restriction was actually a protection. In human society today, chaos would prevail were it not for the restraints of ethical teachings, the police, and the law courts. These have been ordained by God to limit the fallen race. Since our families are part of the fallen race, we as parents must exercise God’s ordination to restrict our children by ethical teachings, regulations, and discipline. For proper human living in your home, you must teach your children to behave properly by honoring their parents, caring for their brothers and sisters, respecting their neighbors, and not stealing.

Do not say that ethical teachings are apart from Christ and therefore worthless. The necessities of our human existence are one thing; the experiences of Christ, another. For our human living we must buy groceries, do laundry, lock our doors to prevent burglaries, be careful about fire, open and close windows, and cook and eat. Besides taking care of these earthly matters, we are also learning to experience Christ. These are two different areas; both are needed. (Life Messages, vol. 1, pp. 91-92)

Building Up a Prevailing Children’s Work in the Church

We expect the children’s work among us to be very prevailing; therefore, we need to have a proper realization and preparation for this work (Gen. 1:28; Psa. 127:3).  Some may think that it is easy to care for the children by simply giving them a piece of candy. However, to handle the children in this way will not yield a good result. According to my observation, the most difficult work to do effectively is the children’s work. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, p. 311)

Whether or not we succeed in the children’s work depends partly on the teaching material and partly on the brothers and sisters who take the lead.  How can a family not take care of its children? This should be a great matter to us. No family will disregard its children; as a priority a family looks after its children, raises them, and teaches them. Hence, we must serve the many children in God’s family. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, p. 314)

The leading sisters in the churches must receive a burden for the children’s work. Under the arrangement of the church and the leading of the elders, they should concentrate on the children’s work and lead all the sisters to participate. The elders are too busy to take care of the details. Instead of waiting for the elders, the sisters should pray much and make plans. They can then present their plans for the children’s work to the elders for their approval. This is just like a family in which the husband is busy with his job and cannot plan the details for the household. The wife can make plans and carry things out with the consent of the husband. In this way the wife does not do anything independently and will still be able to take care of the details of the household in a timely way. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, p. 314)

In carrying out this work, we need to pay attention to a few principles. First, a number of sisters should rise up to lead the children’s work. A number of older sisters must receive this burden. The elders should also appoint three to six sisters to take up this responsibility. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, p. 305)

The sisters in every church should be persistent to promote the burden for the children. On the one hand, they should not give the brothers any peace, and on the other hand, they should learn not to assume the leadership but to be full of patience, knowing when to proceed and when to wait. The sisters should be persistent to develop the children’s work in the church. Furthermore, according to the leading of the Lord, they should fellowship with other sisters who are serving. As the sisters fellowship more and more, the burden for the children will increase more and more, and the number of sisters who are burdened will grow as well. Through fellowship, more and more people will be burdened for the children.

The sisters should fellowship about the way to carry out the children’s work. For example, they can determine how many sisters are available to be with the children, how many young sisters can teach the children, how many children can come and even bring other children to the meetings, and even how many cannot come. Once they have a general idea of the situation, the sisters should meet with the elders and let them know of the needs in the children’s work. This will surely activate the work among the children. Although the sisters should not assume to lead or head up anything, they should be persistent so that the brothers who take the lead can promote this matter. All the sisters’ service, including the children’s work, should be done in this way.

The sisters who have a burden for the children should stand in the position of sisters with their heads absolutely covered. They should not take the lead or head up anything but only actively promote things. They can speak to the elders so that the elders who do not have a burden will become burdened over time. However, they should not depend on the elders for everything, because the elders will not be able to consider all the details. Instead, the sisters should pray over every matter, have a thorough fellowship among themselves, and then ask the elders to give the word to proceed. The sisters should not expect the elders to make all the arrangements or plan everything for them. The sisters can make plans and arrangements, but before implementing anything, they should bring their plans and considerations to the elders and ask the elders to examine and approve them. If the elders do not approve of a certain aspect of the arrangement, it should be dropped. The sisters should not do anything that has not been approved by the elders. This kind of fellowship and coordination will result in the elders becoming more burdened for the children’s work. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, pp. 341-342)

Many of the sisters love the Lord, but they need to find the way to do something for the Lord, not by themselves but by abiding in the vine to impart life into others. If we bear the little ones as fruit, the Lord will add them to our account. Only eternity will reveal the result of this. Perhaps out of a group of children for whom we are caring, some will become apostles. Therefore, I encourage the sisters to do this good work. All the housewives can bring children to the meetings, and the younger sisters can be trained to cooperate with them to bear these little ones as fruit. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, p. 550)

To have the practical church life to the uttermost, in the local church there should be some real sisters and some real mothers. In an earlier message it was my burden to share with you that you need to be a serving sister, but now I am burdened to share with you that you need to be a mother. As long as there is a shortage of sisters like Phoebe among us, the church life is not practical. Yet the serving of that sister is at the beginning of Romans 16, in the first verse. When the church life in practicality reaches a peak, in every church there should be some real mothers. (Loving Mothers in the Church Life, pp. 7-8)

I believe that there is quite a large number of children in every locality. As soon as we begin the children’s work, the young people will begin to function. They can all take part in serving the children…we will need young people to coordinate and serve. The young people need to give themselves to this work, and this will give everyone an opportunity to practice speaking. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, p. 326)

When the entire church is mobilized in this way, all the brothers and sisters will have an opportunity to serve. Some can open their homes, others can bring the children to the meetings, and still others can teach the children. When all the saints endeavor in one accord for the Lord’s heart’s desire, the profit will be immeasurable. This will impress the children that we are all for the Lord and are caring for them without compensation. Those who open their homes do not ask for money, those who teach do not ask for money, and those who transport the children do not ask for money. Instead of asking for money, the saints spend their own money to pay the expenses of carrying out the children’s service. As a result, everyone will be full of joy. Our conducting children’s meetings in this way will deeply impress the children from their youth. They will see people who live for Christ and who sacrifice for Christ, not caring for themselves. This is the ultimate benefit. Furthermore, the impact will unconsciously influence the relatives of the children in such a way that it will be easy to invite them to a gospel meeting. Hence, the children’s work is a major service. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, p. 306)

• Young people are important for the Lord’s work to change the age
• We need to have long-term view that consistently labors on the children to provide them with an accumulation of the spiritual deposit
• The benefit of this labor is that the next generation will have a rich deposit, they will be gospel seeds as young people and college students, the families of the children will be gained and the Lord will gain His age-turners.

The Importance of The Children’s Work

Nearly every work that the young people were called by God to do was a work that turned the age. God called Moses to turn one age, and He called Joshua to turn another age. Obviously, His calling of Samuel turned another age. The prophethood, priesthood, and kingship all hung on this young man Samuel. He was truly one who turned the age. David was also one who turned the age. Furthermore, we can see that Daniel and his three friends were young ones among the people in captivity. Through them God turned that age of captivity. Then in the New Testament, the first to emerge was John the Baptist. We know that he was a young man called by the Lord. God used him to turn the age at his time. We can go on to look at Paul, who was an apostle especially used by God. The Bible says that he was a young man when he was visited by the Lord (Acts 7:58). We all admit that Paul was a man who turned the age. For the carrying out of all these works of great consequences, God always called young men.

I would like to tell you, brothers and sisters, that because we saw this, we have been paying much attention to the young people’s work for nearly twenty years. This is not to say that one young person’s soul is worth two older persons’ souls. This is not what I mean. What I am saying is that a person has to be gained by the Lord at a young age if he will have some usefulness in God’s hands or a future in God’s work. 

From our experience we feel that the children’s work is very important. The children’s work should not simply be babysitting in order for the saints to come to the meetings. Due to their circumstances, the saints need to bring their children to the meeting, and there is the need to take care of the children for the saints. However, the children’s work has another function, that is, to cultivate and nurture our next generation. 

Suppose these children begin to be cultivated in the children’s meetings at the age of six and are saved. They will continue to be cultivated through three years of junior high school, three years of high school, and four years of college. In all, they will receive a total of sixteen years of spiritual education and cultivation. While they will receive sixteen years of secular education, they will also receive sixteen years of spiritual cultivation in the church. How valuable this is!

Our work for the Lord should have a long-term view. Six years go by very quickly; soon the children in first grade will be young brothers and sisters. When they enter junior high school, we can preach the gospel to their classmates in junior high. When they enter high school, we can lead many of their classmates to be saved. When they enter college, they will be gospel seeds. In this way the young people will multiply year after year. The benefit from this will be very great.

If the Lord delays His coming back for five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years and He wants to accomplish something, the commission will have to be entrusted to the young people. Unless there is a group of young people who are saved to receive proper spiritual help today, how can they gain the experience and be used by the Lord in the future? If there are no young people gained by the Lord today, after our departure there will be no one to succeed us. Then there will be a gap.

In summary, we need to gain the young people in the church and in the Lord’s work. Anyone who works for the Lord with insight needs to pay attention to this matter. If you see this, your heart will be burdened to love the young people regardless of whether they are good or bad. Having a young one who is not very desirable is better than having none at all. May the brothers and sisters as the Lord’s lovers all love the young people for the future of the church and for the Lord’s work.

Families Being Brought In through the Children

Every children’s home meeting should frequently preach the gospel and invite their relatives and the children of their neighbors. Even though some parents will not come, they will allow their children to come. We believe that many people will be brought in through the children’s gospel work. I hope that we will have two thousand children by next spring, three thousand by the summer, and four thousand by next fall. There is a great future in this work. If we take this way, there will be ten thousand children in the church in Taipei within two to three years. At least two to three thousand children out of the ten thousand will not be the children of the saints. The children’s meetings will open up a way to gain people, especially the parents of the other children.

We must realize that the children’s work is a crucial burden. Every locality must be aggressive in the children’s work, because there is a greater future in the children’s work than in the campus work. Generally speaking, it is easier to bring in children, and once they come in, they usually remain. Our history confirms this fact. The church in Manila is an example. Most of the saints in the church in Manila were gained by the children’s work. Ninety percent of the churches in the Philippines are maintained by saints in their thirties, and most of these saints grew up in the church and attended the children’s meeting.

Even in our neighborhood there must be a children’s meeting that should not be considered as the children’s meeting of the church. This is a children’s meeting work in the saints’ neighborhood. It is easy for us to set up two children’s meetings. Every week one sister can take care of two children’s meetings with four helpers. On one day, two sisters can assist this one to take care of twenty children. Maybe on another afternoon two more sisters may help to take care of another children’s meeting of fifteen to twenty children. We can collect a number of children out of our neighborhood into our home. We can ask the children to sit down on the carpet. We do not even need a piano. There is no need for materials or textbooks, but one living person. She can even sing a song to the children. Within two months we can build up two children’s meetings. Then after six months we will have six children’s meetings. One sister will not need to take care of all the meetings directly because other sisters will follow her example and have their own meetings. There may be ten children’s meetings under the direction of one sister. This would expand to over a thousand children. All of these children are linked to their parents. So through the children many homes will be opened for the church to evangelize. This is the community work. These are the warm doors and the parents will welcome us. Although people today are occupied by many things and it seems as if they are not open to the gospel, the best way to overcome this is to have a children’s meeting in our own home. The responsibility for this community work lies with the elders.

Excerpted from: Raising Up the Next Generation for the Church Life, Chapters 4, 10, and 11

Fellowship Questions:  

1. Why is the children’s work important?
2. What kind of spiritual deposit might a child from ages 1-18 years old receive if they are cared for in the family life and church life? Some answers may be a realization that God is real, shaping of proper human character, receiving God’s salvation, that they are cared for and loved in the church, and the knowledge of God’s word. 
3. What specific children and young people are you, your family or the members of your group burdened for? This may include children and young people whose parents do not meet with your group.
4. How can your group support this burden through prayer and shepherding?

Key Points

• God’s economy is to produce the Body of Christ 
• For this, He is working to dispense Himself into all His chosen people
• We need to see man’s role as vessels to contain Him and express Him
• There is a need for our own children to be raised up as “Timothys” to be prepared and useful vessels

Eph. 1:10 Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him;

Eph. 3:8 To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel

Eph. 3:9 And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things,

Eph. 3:10 In order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church,

The Body Of Christ— The Goal of The Divine Economy

The divine economy is God’s eternal plan to dispense Christ into His chosen people to produce, constitute, and build up the organic Body of Christ (Eph. 1:10; 3:8-10; 1 Tim. 1:4). Since Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, for God to dispense Christ into His chosen people actually means that God dispenses Himself in Christ into His chosen people. In brief, God’s economy is to gain a Body for Christ. This Body is the enlargement of the Triune God for His expression that He may be satisfied.

Do not forget the word is in Ephesians 1:23: “[The church] is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” This means that the church is the Body, and the Body is the fullness. These two levels of “is” are in succession rather than in parallel. It is not that on the one hand the church is the Body, while on the other hand the church is the fullness. Rather, it is that the church is the Body, and the Body is the fullness. According to doctrine, the fullness equals the Body, and the Body equals the church. But according to reality, a man can be in the church and still not live in the Body. All the brothers and sisters who meet in Hong Kong are in the church, but who is living in the Body? This becomes a big question mark. Strictly speaking, that which can fulfill God’s eternal purpose is not the church in name but the Body. The Body is the fullness of Christ.

Every part of the organic Body of Christ is an issue of the grace in the economy of God. Grace is the enjoyment of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—as the enjoyment of life, and the life of God is with God the Father as the substance, God the Son as the element, and God the Spirit as the essence.

Christ, the last Adam, after passing through an all-inclusive death, became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection as the essence of the Divine Trinity to come into us to be our life and everything. Day by day we need to be filled with Him, saturated with Him, permeated by Him, infused by Him, and transfused by Him. Hence, as we read the New Testament, we cannot avoid the word Spirit. Especially in the Epistles, the emphasis is on the Spirit, and the Spirit is frequently linked with grace. 

The entire economy of God, and especially that in the New Testament age, is a matter of dispensing…Many matters are covered in the New Testament, but if we dive into the depth of the New Testament as the divine revelation, we will see that God surely has an economy, a household administration, to carry out His eternal purpose. This economy is just God’s universal operation. If you would ask me what God is doing today, I would answer that God is operating in one thing and for one thing: He is spending much time to patiently dispense Himself into all His chosen people. Everything that is mentioned in the New Testament concerning God has to do with His dispensing for His economy.

Man—The Center of God’s Plan

Romans 9:21 discloses God’s purpose in creating man [“Does not the potter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?”]. This verse is unique in its revelation of God’s purpose in the creation of man. Without this verse it would be difficult for us to realize that God’s purpose in creating man was to make him His vessel to contain Him. We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that we are God’s containers and that He is our content.

God’s selection in His sovereign mercy has a goal, and this goal is to have many vessels to contain God and express Him eternally. God created us in such a way that we are able to take Him into us and contain Him as our life and life supply, to the end that we may be one with Him to express what He is and that He may be glorified in us and with us. This is God’s goal in His selection and in His creation of man. 

Our God, who is full of wisdom, has a plan, and the entire universe was created according to His purpose, His will, His plan. We must know what God’s eternal plan is…Man’s position, man’s place, in God’s plan is very central. It is absolutely right to say that the Bible is a book full of Christ, yet we can also say that the Bible is a book full of men. Even God Himself became a man (John 1:1, 14). Jesus is the complete God and the perfect man. Even after His resurrection and ascension, He is still a man. Before Stephen was stoned, he said that he saw “the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). Stephen saw the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man in the heavens. Man is the center of God’s plan. A bicycle wheel may have a hub with many spokes. The hub and the spokes subsist in the wheel. If the hub, the center, is taken away, the spokes will collapse. In like manner, without man as the center, God’s plan would collapse. 

Vessels of Mercy Unto Honor And Glory

The believers in Christ are vessels of mercy unto honor and glory. Romans 9:23 goes on to speak of God’s making known “the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory.” As vessels, we are not instruments or weapons—we are containers. According to Romans 9, we contain mercy, honor, and glory. This mercy, honor, and glory are actually the Triune God. In the initial stage of our experience the Triune God is our mercy, in the progressing stage He is our honor, and in the completing stage He is our glory. At present we are enjoying our God as mercy and somewhat as honor. When the Lord Jesus comes back, we shall be fully brought into honor and also into glory. Then we shall be filled with the Triune God not only as our mercy but also as our honor and glory.

Romans 9 reveals that the climax of our usefulness to God is that we are vessels to contain Him and express Him. We are His container and His expression, and He is our content and our life. He lives in us that we may live Him. Eventually, He and we, we and He, will be wholly one in life and nature. This is our destiny as vessels of mercy.

Second Timothy 2:21 says, “If therefore anyone cleanses himself from these, he will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared unto every good work.” A vessel unto honor has to meet a certain standard that it may contain a specific object of honor. Here the word honor is related to our nature, the word sanctified indicates our position, the word useful implies the matter of function, and the word prepared reveals the matter of training. Paul exhorted Timothy to cleanse himself from the vessels of dishonor that he could be trained in these four matters. These four items together would make Timothy a vessel unto honor according to a certain standard. This also involves our character.

Honorable vessels are of both the divine nature (gold) and the redeemed and regenerated human nature (silver). These, like Timothy and other genuine believers, constitute the firm foundation (2 Tim. 2:19) to hold the truth.

When God bestows grace on the church, He needs vessels. There is the need for more Timothys to be raised up. It is true that we can save men from the world, but there is a greater need for raising up people from among Christian families.

Excerpted from: Raising Up the Next Generation for the Church Life Chapters 1 and 2 

Discussion Questions

1. How is God’s economy related to us being vessels?
2. How do the verses “vessel unto honor, sanctified, useful to the master…” (Second Timothy 2:21) and “vessels of mercy … unto glory.” (Romans 9:23) imply a process in God’s economy? Describe the process. 
3. Consider the children and young people you are connected with. Where are they in this process and how can they be shepherded further according to their age and capacity?