Practicing the Scriptural Way to Meet and Serve to Build up the Church Practically

Without practicing the Scriptural way to meet and serve – the way that is shown in the New Testament – the Lord’s words concerning the building up of the church cannot be fulfilled.

For the building up of the Body of Christ, we believers in Christ all need to practice the Scriptural way to meet and serve. If we see that the church is the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God, and that we are members of the Body, we will desire to live and serve in the Body of Christ for the building up of the Body.

How do we live the Body life? How do we build up the Body of Christ? What is the scriptural way for us to meet and serve in the church life, so that the Body of Christ may be built up?

The Bible reveals a God-ordained way for us to meet and serve, the way that is fitted for the Body, the living and vital way that builds up the church as the Body of Christ.

This is not a method or a new way of doing things; it is the scriptural way – the organic living that is fitting for the living out of the organism of the Body of Christ.

On one hand, we need to drink the Spirit to become the one Body of Christ inwardly with the divine inward constitution; on the other hand, we need to outwardly have a certain living and practice that will help us to be built up practically as the Body of Christ, the organic Body-Christ.

In 1984 brother Lee went back to Taiwan and studied what is the way revealed by the Bible for us to live and serve in the church life; he noticed the lack of growth and function among the saints, and he wanted to help the saints be revived and build up the Body of Christ in a living and vital way.

We may fall into a routine or formal church life, coming together and doing things, and as a result there’s no increase, no growth, and no vitality; we carry on a routine week after week…but we need to know what is the Scriptural way to meet and serve in the church life, so that we may help the Body of Christ grow and be built up as the organism of the Triune God.

We expect our human body to grow year after year, and if there’s no growth in a child we are very worried; similarly, in the Body of Christ there has to be a growth, a thriving, and a functioning of all the members.

The God-ordained way to meet and serve is not a “new way” or a “new invention”, but it is the way revealed in the Scriptures – the way compatible with the organic Body of Christ.

Without the Scriptural Way to Meet and Serve, the Body of Christ Can’t be Built Up

The Lord Jesus clearly said in Matt. 16:18, I will build My church; but how does He build His church? In Eph. 4:11-16 it says that it is out of the Head all the Body causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of the Body of Christ.

How can we be built up together in the Body if we are stagnant, not growing in life, not increasing in number, and not functioning in the Body? If we are the Body of Christ, shouldn’t there be a re-generation, a generation of descendants to bear fruit?

Our preaching of the gospel, for example, is not just a way for us to fulfill the great commission; we need to preach the gospel to bear fruit.

Without the scriptural way to meet and serve, the way shown in the New Testament, the Lord’s words concerning the building up of the church cannot be fulfilled.

May we be saved from falling into a routine or formality; may we realize that we are the Body of Christ, and now we need to have a living and practice that corresponds to this living organism.

We shouldn’t think that, as long as we take care of Christ by having a living contact with Him every day, everything is fine; rather, we should enjoy more of the riches of Christ by caring both for Christ and the church.

We need to experience Christ personally and corporately, and we need to enjoy Christ both in a personal way and in a corporate way with the saints.

We all can testify that, since the day we came into the church life and began caring for the church, there has been a great difference in our spiritual life; we have an inner sense that we enjoy the riches of Christ to become His fullness.

The Lord wants to build His church, and without us practicing the Scriptural way to meet and to serve, the Body of Christ can’t be built up in a practical way. Without the way shown, illustrated, and signified in the New Testament to meet and serve, the Lord’s words concerning the building up of the church cannot be fulfilled.

In particular, if 1 Cor. 14:26 and Heb. 10:25 are not fulfilled, there’s no way for the building up of the house of God and of the Body of Christ.

1 Cor. 14:26 shows that when we come together, each one has a psalm, a song, a prayer, a prophecy, a word; let all things be done for the building up. Is this the way the believers meet today? Far from it. In many “churches” a professional class of people takes over the functioning, and the rest of the people listen passively.

The Lord must recover us back to the way He ordained in the Scriptures. We are the organism of the Triune God, and in this organic Body every member is living; it is abnormal in God’s eyes that the majority of believers are stagnant, lifeless, and not functioning.

The Scriptural way to meet and serve is clear: each member of the Body has a portion, and each one has to function for the building up of the Body. Christianity is not short of people but of living people, of vital members.

When we see what the Body of Christ is, we will practice the way God has ordained for us, and we will desire to build up the Body!

We praise the Lord that, in the church life all over the earth, on the Lord’s day we come together to not only have the remembrance of the Lord at His table, but also to speak, to function, each in our measure!

Since we enjoy the Lord and are filled with the Spirit within and without, we come to the meeting singing, overflowing, rejoicing, and with much thanks and praises.

Furthermore, as Heb. 12:25 says, we consider one another so as to incite one another for love and good works, that is, to prophesy and function for the building up of the church.

Because in the church life we all learn to practice the scriptural way to meet and serve, no one takes over but we all consider one another and desire to help one another to function.

Our meetings are in mutuality, for we know that each one member of the Body has a portion, and we consider one another to help one another to release our portion!

Lord Jesus, we want to contribute to the fulfillment of Your words, I will build My church, by practicing the scriptural way to meet and serve in the church life. We want to learn to not only seek to be inwardly filled with the Spirit by drinking the Spirit, but also outwardly live and function in such a way that we build up the church as the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, we want to take Your way – the God-ordained way to live, serve, and meet in the church life, so that we may build up the organic Body of Christ in the local churches!

The Scriptural Way to Meet and Serve (every Member Functioning) is Versus the Traditional Way (the Clergy-Laity System)

The scriptural way to meet and to serve – with all the saints functioning as living members of the Body of Christ – is versus the traditional way, the natural way, to meet and to serve, which is in the principle of the clergy-laity system (Rev. 2:6, 15).

The traditional way to meet and serve adopts the way of human society for religion – “in the customs of the nations” (2 Kings 17:8); the traditional way is natural, fitting man’s natural and fallen condition.

The traditional way to meet and serve in Christianity doesn’t require man to be living and in the spirit, but it religious.

Furthermore, this traditional way of meeting accommodates man’s taste; you don’t have to be living and active, but even if you’re dead spiritually, you have a preference and a taste, so this is how you meet and serve.

Many can testify that, when we were in Christianity, we attended the meetings we wanted, we went to the church we preferred, and we were just sitting and listening to some professional person sent by the leadership of that denomination speak, Sunday after Sunday…

The traditional way is the natural way, which is in the principle of the clergy-laity system; this system is hated by the Lord! The Lord hates to have a “superior class” that serves and over-functions, being “professional” at what they do, while the rest of “inferior” believers sit and listen, give their contributions to the church, and then go home.

The Lord hates that many believers come to meetings as dead men, listen to the sermon as dead men, and leave as dead men; they wait for inspiration from a good message, but they don’t contact the Lord, they don’t function, and they don’t exercise their spirit to build up the church.

Oh Lord Jesus! How much we need to be saved from the influence of any system in Christianity, from the traditional way of meeting and serving, and be brought back to the divine revelation in God’s word!

We need to see the scriptural way to meet and serve, and learn to function in our measure by first contacting the Lord, then serving in the church, and prophesying to build up the church as the Body of Christ!

Lord Jesus, we want to reject the traditional way to meet and serve in the way of clergy-laity, and take the scriptural way of every member functioning in their measure. Save us from meeting according to our natural and fallen condition, and save us from serving according to our taste and preference. May we be those living and active in the spirit, and may we learn to function in our measure in the meetings of the church for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1973-1974, vol. 1, “The Vision and Experience of the Corporate Christ,” chs. 3-4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 7, The Status of the Church – the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Forgive me, Lord I’m open to You. / Fill me more and more each day. / Build me with the saints in love / And keep us running toward the prize. / Lord keep me growing and functioning. / Don’t ever let me out of Your sight. / Grant me a spirit of boldness. / Open my mouth, Lord, to prophesy. (Song on learning to prophesy)
  # We must ever preach the gospel, / Learning how to prophesy / For the building of the Body, / Thus the Lord to glorify. (Song on preaching the gospel)
  # Now the church life is so precious with all the saints so dear. / Enjoying all Your riches, our vision is so clear, / That all would prophesy of Christ from what they’ve seen, / According to Your scripture in First Corinthians fourteen. (Song on God’s economy)