«　WEEK 9　DAY 3　»

　　Eph. 4:11-12And He himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ,

　　Rom. 15:16 That I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a laboring priest of the gospel of God, in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit.

　　The New Testament service ordained by God in the Scriptures indicates that all New Testament believers are priests to serve God (Rev. 1:5-6). The priests are those who serve God. Everyone who serves God, anywhere and at any time, must be a priest.... In the Old Testament the priests specialized in taking care of the sacrifices. By this we can see that the priests of the gospel, mentioned in Romans 15:16, are those who specialize in taking care of the gospel…. [And also] the New Testament priests of the gospel should be laboring priests of the gospel, … who diligently labor in the gospel of God. Paul was such a priest of the gospel of God, and we too should be such (The Up-to-Date Presentation of the God-Ordained Way and the Signs Concerning the Coming of Christ).

　　The building up of the Body of Christ does not depend on a few people. Rather, every one of the perfected saints should participate in the work of the building up of the Body of Christ. Begetting, nourishing, teaching, and building are the four major steps in the new way. When every one of the saints in the church can beget, nourish, teach, and build, God's eternal purpose is fulfilled.

　　The first matter in the Christian service is the preaching of the gospel. The spiritual childbearing is the preaching of the gospel. Paul said, “For though you have ten thousand guides in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4:15). Paul preached the gospel and led many to salvation. These Corinthian believers then became the spiritual children begotten by Paul.

　　After the fruit bearing comes the nourishing. Every mother knows that the first thing a newborn child does is drink milk. Hence, the first thing a mother has to learn is how to nurse her child. After a child is born, we do not ask him to come to us to be fed. Rather, we have to go to him and feed him with milk. If we cannot go to the homes of the new ones daily, we should go at least once every three days. The best way is to go every day. When we go to the homes of the new brothers and sisters and feed them with spiritual food, this is what we call the home meetings.

　　After feeding him for more than one month, he is stabilized. You shall bring him to the small group meetings immediately to contact brothers and sisters and to have a corporate living, i.e. to enter the church life. There should not only be teaching but also feeding in the small group. Furthermore, the small group should be organic and everyone teaches and learns to build up the body of Christ. In our small group meetings, we admonish every man and teach every man in all wisdom that we may present every man full-grown in Christ. This offering is the work of a priest.

　　The work of New Testament Ministry is not for something else and is only for the building up the body of Christ. Chapter fourteen of 1 Corinthians speaks mainly about the building of Church and the way of building up of Church, i.e., prophesying. Paul said “For you can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged” (1 Cor 14:26). “Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for the building up.” Therefore every man should practice prophesying for the building up of body of Christ.