Fellowship concerning service (9)
Date:March 6, 1950 Place:Jordan Road, Hong Kong Speakers:Watchman Nee, Witness Lee
The deacons and the deacons’ office
Witness Lee: We need to make some arrangements concerning deacons and the deacons’ office. First, we need to make some arrangements about the work of the deacons’ office. There are two kinds of people serving in the deacons’ office. The first is the person on duty. The fourteen deacons should take turns in this duty. The second is assistants. These are responsible for clerical work.
There are two requirements for the deacons. First, they must not be afraid of trouble. They should welcome trouble. They are like the businessmen who are not afraid of more customers and more troubles. The deacons must be right in their motives. Some deacons are not right in their motives. When things get complicated and work gets busy, they have a wrong attitude. Second, the deacons cannot do things according to their own ways. They have to work according to the direction of the responsible brothers. If you are a housewife in a family, you are the only person taking care of the work in the house. There is no change of personnel. As such, you can do things absolutely according to your own will. But the work in the church deacons’ office is different. You are not the master. If you cannot get through with something, you cannot change it at will. You can fellowship with the responsible ones of the deacons’ office, but you cannot change it suddenly.
The work in the deacons’ office must be based on rules and procedures. It should not depend on the whims of individuals. Except for special assignments, everyone should serve according to prearranged instructions. Everything has to be kept in the right place. This will make it easy for the next person to continue with the work.
A deacon has to be aware of everything around him when he serves in the deacons’ office. If a brother or sister comes to you and asks a question, as a serving one on duty you cannot say that you do not know. Even if the brother asks you for a nail, you have to find it immediately, wherever it may be. For every question there may be fifty related questions, and you have to learn them all one by one. In this way you will be clear about everything, and you can answer any question.
The assistants in the deacons’ office must obey the one who is on duty. In the church fellowship meeting, the elders have to explain the relationship of the brothers and sisters to the deacons’ office. They should encourage the brothers and sisters to fellowship with the serving ones in the deacons’ office. The deacons’ office is not under the deacons, but under the elders. Hence, the elders must know everything that is occurring in the deacons’ office. They must make sure that all the items of service are taken care of properly. They should not take care of them in the way of control, but in the way of assignment; they should assign the work to the deacons. If they find any preassigned arrangement in the deacons’ office improperly done, they should not try to change it right away. Instead, they should inform the responsible ones of the deacons’ office and make the changes in fellowship. In principle, if anyone makes a mistake in the deacons’ office, the elders cannot make the adjustments themselves; they have to ask those who committed the mistake to adjust it.
In the fellowship meeting, the elders have to let the brothers and sisters know that the serving ones on duty in the deacons’ office are serving on behalf of the church. All the brothers and sisters have to respect these ones. They have to learn to go along absolutely with the arrangements in the deacons’ office. When an assignment comes to you from the deacons’ office, you have to accept it mechanically; it is not a matter of seeking for leading. You only need to move according to instruction. The serving ones on duty should also occupy themselves with some extra work at ordinary times; they should not be idle in any way.
The work of the deacons’ office being a biblical one
Watchman Nee: First we need to ask if this kind of arrangement is scriptural. Brother Ma, Brother Chia, are we scriptural? All those who know the Bible admit that this arrangement is according to the Lord’s word. Acts 2:45 says that properties and possessions in the early church were “divided..to all, as anyone had need.” In order to divide to all according to need, there first had to be a survey and a census of all the people. Only then could everyone’s need be ascertained. Today it is a simple thing to read these few words. But there were tens of thousands of believers in the church in Jerusalem at that time. How much arrangement and preparation work was needed to divide to all according their need? Acts 6:1 tells us that trouble arose because of the neglect of the supply of a few widows. The church has to take care of many affairs. For this reason, there must be planning and arrangement.
The Bible only gives us general principles for handling these affairs; it does not give us a detailed record. This is because things differ with age and background. God does not want us to pay attention to the arrangement of practical affairs, but to men’s spirituality. God recognizes the need for arrangement, but He does not think that it is so important that all the details need to be recorded in the Bible. He wants us to live before Him and receive His revelation and wisdom. If a man is filled with the Holy Spirit, he will spontaneously know how to deal with spiritual things. In 1 Timothy 5:9 we are told that the widows had to be enrolled in a register. That is the only reference to this matter. We only know that the widows were enrolled. As to what a register looks like, we have to go to the Lord and pray for wisdom and revelation. God will not show us the description of the register in detail. If He did, it would be easy for us to carry out things, and we would not need to pray.
In feeding the multitude the Lord told the disciples to arrange the crowd in groups of fifties and hundreds (Mark 6:39-40). The disciples learned from this. At Pentecost they were able to baptize three thousand and then five thousand, and then they were able to divide to all according to their needs. The Lord trained the disciples personally; He did not write a manual of instructions for the disciples to follow. In writing the Bible, the apostles were detailed in describing spiritual things. As far as the arrangement of practical affairs was concerned, however, they only told us that there were such arrangements. They did not tell us how these arrangements were made. Paul wrote fourteen Epistles, but he did not write a single church manual.
In keeping a record of the saints, it is wrong to say that we need one book, and it is equally wrong to say that we need many books. We only know that there is a principle of enrolling. As to how to enroll, we have to seek the Lord. We must not make decisions based on dead methods. We need a register because human memory is unreliable. Paul knew that he would die; therefore, there was the need of a register. But the Holy Spirit has not left the church. He is still leading the church on in practical matters. We have to know of the need for a register, but we have to look to the leading of the Holy Spirit in preparing this register. We need the Holy Spirit to give us the wisdom.
Arrangements in the church are different from those in denominational organizations or in business institutions. They must be based on spiritual principles. Everything we do must be biblical; we should not go to the extreme in anything. Here we are not emphasizing a method of doing things, but a principle of doing them. Even after we have a principle, we should still seek the leading of the Holy Spirit according to these principles.
The goal of arranging practical affairs
Today our arrangement of various practical affairs is for the purpose of training brothers and sisters to walk in an orderly and sober manner. The church is an institution, a Body in action. It should absorb as many people as are presented to it, whether one hundred or one thousand. In order to take care of all kinds of people, there is the need for suitable arrangements. We have to have the capacity to absorb every person. If there are no arrangements in the church, there will be confusion when the number increases. However, arrangement is not our goal. It is merely for the purpose of placing brothers and sisters in the right position of service so that the entire church can rise up to serve. The combined effect of the work of the deacons’ office and of the various preparation works is like the logistic support of an army. When the whole church becomes the supply line, the power of the church will multiply. We have not set up five or six items of service randomly; they have a purpose. Through such arrangements the whole Body can serve and preach the gospel, and God can begin His recovery work on earth. By making these arrangements, we are making a way for the whole Body to rise up to serve.
A few things the deacons should take care of
I must speak in particular to the deacons. You should not try to assume leadership in the church. You should only work as you are told. Whether or not the church service is pleasing to God depends not so much on the performance of your work as on your obedience. In the church we must have love, and we must have authority. May the Lord bless the church in Hong Kong and grant all of us grace to learn submission. May we all learn the spiritual principles so that the entire Body will learn to serve in coordination.