Concerning the technique for meeting, there are no rules or regulations. Regardless of what kind of meeting we have—for the Lord’s ta...
Concerning the technique for meeting, there are no rules or regulations. Regardless of what kind of meeting we have—for the Lord’s table, for prayer, for study, or for a message—we almost always sit and wait for a hymn. There is no such teaching that we should always start the meeting with a hymn. From where did we learn this? This is simply a tradition that has crept in. Whether starting with a hymn is right or wrong depends on Christ and the Spirit. Moreover, from whom did we learn that only the responsible brothers should announce a hymn? Who gave us this kind of regulation? We should not condemn the responsible brothers for this, because it is we who have been too much of a “tomb.” Because we do not take the responsibility, the so-called responsible brothers are forced to act as the “clergy.” We may say that we do not have a laity and a clergy, but in actuality we do. Each of us is responsible for this. May the Lord be merciful to us.
We have to change our concept. Our old concept must be dropped. This is not a matter merely of changing the forms. This is a matter that depends on our daily life. We all have to live by Christ. We all have to labor on the good land, and we have to exercise our spirit. Then when we come to the meeting, there is no need to wait. There is no need to have either a prayer or a hymn first. Everything will come out spontaneously. The right way to meet requires that we have a proper daily walk, have an adequate experience of Christ, and exercise our spirit. Then our spirit will be strengthened, living, active, and positive. Then when we come to the meeting, we will spontaneously pray.
Some may say that this spontaneous way will cause confusion. I do not believe it will, but I would even prefer this kind of living “confusion” to a deadened order. If we all live in the spirit to experience Christ, whatever we pray when we come to the meeting will be right. Variety will produce beauty. If we could go to the feasts of the people of Israel, we would see the variety of the riches of the surplus. If we all pray from our experience of Christ by exercising our spirit, even if there is a variety, there will still be the beauty, and there will be the flow of life.
Because we have been influenced by certain kinds of regulations, each one comes just to sit here. We are used to doing this. I am not saying that we need a change of form. Rather, we need a change in life and a change of concept. Then we will be truly diligent, zealous, active, positive, strong, and living in the spirit. As Christian brothers and sisters, we have to conduct our Christian life in this way, day by day laboring on Christ and experiencing Him by our spirit. We must learn how to exercise our spirit, be strengthened, be living, and be active and positive in our spirit to experience Christ all the time.
Then whenever we come to the meeting, we must realize that it is our duty to share something. Deuteronomy 16:16 tells us that the people of God could not appear before Jehovah empty-handed. They had to come to the feast with something of the good land. Likewise, we need to have something of Christ to bring to the meeting. Then we all will be open to Him, and there will be a way widely opened for the Holy Spirit to move among us. Many riches of Christ will come out and be offered to God for His satisfaction and for our enjoyment in the presence of God with one another. This is our way of meeting and our worship to God. In this way there will be no forms, regulations, laity, or clergy. Rather, all the living members will bring something of Christ to offer to God by the exercise of the spirit. This is the proper way to meet.
We are on the way of recovery, and this way to meet is an item in the Lord’s recovery. We have to drop the old way, the way of form and regulation taken from the tradition we formerly practiced. Let us look to the Lord and cooperate with Him. I say again, we should not merely change our form, but we must change our realization, our concept, and our way of life. Then we will come to the meeting in the living way, with a new way of life under a new realization.
(The Ground of the Church and the Meetings of the Church, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee)
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