PART IV – PRACTICE

I. INTRODUCTION

The training not only provides spiritual knowledge but also the application of truths being learned in the classroom. Thus, the different subjects involving practice are taught and applied. Subjects included are God-Ordained Way, Service, Meeting, Gospel ABC, Bible-reading, Youth Lesson, Children’s Lesson, The Vital Groups, The God-Man Living, Shepherding, and Hymn-Singing.

II. LESSONS

A. God-ordained Way

God wants us to serve Him. But we serve Him not according to our own concept but according to God’s concept. The New Testament fully reveals God’s ordained way of serving Him and it is also called the new way.

The new way comprises four main steps: begetting - preaching the gospel by visiting people; nourishing - feeding the new believers; teaching -perfecting the saints; and prophesying - functioning for the building up of the church.

B. Service

1. Basic Lessons on Service - This subject is given to the full-time advanced class using the book “Basic Lessons on Service.” This book has twenty messages which were given by Brother Witness Lee in Anaheim, California.

In the New Testament, the Greek word for service means ministry. To minister is to serve people with something. In the New Testament, there is only one ministry. As long as we minister Christ according to the apostles’ teaching, the teaching of God’s New Testament economy, we are in the one ministry. The one ministry of Christ to people for the producing and the building up of the church, the Body of Christ.

2. The New Testament Priest of the Gospel - God’s intention for all His people is to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exo. 19:4,6). In the Old Testament, God’s desire was that every individual of the nation of Israel would be a priest. In the New Testament, the believers are called to be “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession” ( I Pet. 2:9). In Revelation, John wrote that the Lord “loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father” (1:5-6). The main function of the priests in the Old Testament was the offering of sacrifices. In the New Testament, however, these sacrifices are the saved sinners offered up to God (Rom. 15:16).

C. Meeting

The material for this subject covers nine messages. Five messages are devoted to “our speaking in the meeting.” We can find the four factors and elements, the words spoken, and the speaking ones in our meetings. One message is on “Knowing the Hymns.” This is by learning the important points of the content of the hymns, the standard, the feeling, the proper usage of the word and the tune of the hymns. The last three messages deal with the practice of meeting, the meeting of Christians being the exhibition of the Christian life, and the preparation, the start, the main topic, the goal and aim of our meeting.

D. Gospel ABC

Gospel ABC is a subject especially designed for the new trainees to learn the three initial steps in gospel-preaching.

1. Gospel A stands for the Mystery of Human Life as a tool used during the first gospel visitation. It has four keys to unlock God’s economy to people and causes people to believe and be baptized in order to enter into God’s kingdom.

2. Gospel B stands for the Five points of Baptism, using five verses in the New Testament. These five points present the significance of baptism to let the new believer know what he has entered into and what blessings he has received after baptism.

3. Gospel C stands for the Mystery of Christian Life. This booklet contains four two’s: a) the two kinds of people; b) the two kinds of Christians; c) the two aspects of the church; and d) the sides of the local aspect of the church. The goal of this booklet is to bring the new believers home (to the proper church life).

E. Bible-Reading

The class on Bible reading is offered to the full-time advanced class using the book, “The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John”.

This book is composed of sixty-three messages given by Brother Witness Lee in Anaheim and Huntington Beach, California, in Irving, Texas, U.S.A. and in Stuttgart and Tubingen, Germany.

The messages in this book are an in-depth study of the signs in every chapter of John, pointing out the significance of every sign as the New Testament fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings shown as types in the Old Testament. The book uncovers a wealth of spiritual light and interpretation that demonstrate the exhaustlessness of the Bible as God’s divine and eternal word of life.

F. Youth Lesson

The burden of this class is to raise up the youth, not to become a hired laborer (who teaches only for pay), or a teacher (who prepares the lesson only to impart knowledge). But to be a little shepherd (who teaches during the meeting and also visits the children or young people at their homes).

1. For the FT1 — The goal is to enable them to lead the young people by doing the four major activities of the young people:

a. Hymn-singing

b. Spiritual Pursuit

c. Gospel-preaching

d. Games

2. For the FT2 — Trainees use the material “Youth Lessons for Campus Work” as their main topic in preparation for the campus work.

G. Children’s Meeting

The trainees are given lessons both from the Old Testament series and the New Testament series of Bible stories with memory verses and practical life applications. By groups, the trainees take turns in demonstrating how the children’s meeting should be conducted, with the other groups acting as audience and simulating a real-life situation with interactions from the “children.” Songs for the children’s meeting are also provided along with visual aids for each lesson.

H. The Vital Groups

The books, composed of sixteen messages were given by Brother Witness Lee in Anaheim, California in 1996.

Brother Liu speaks the messages to the combined classes of the Full-timers, the Nazarites, and the FTA’s. The meeting is also open for all the churches of Metro Manila and the nearby provinces, which were led to follow the leading of the ministry and to recover the normal function of the members of the Body of Christ for the building up of itself in love. The vital groups are for the living of two kinds of lives: the kingdom life and the church life. When put into practice, it also is a great factor of our increase in number.

I. The God-man Living

The series of messages in this book were given by Brother Witness Lee in Anaheim, California in 1996. It is composed of seventeen messages that cover the living of the first God-man, from the manger to the cross and the portrayal of Him as a man of prayer. Christ being the first God-man with two natures and two sources is the prototype for the mass reproduction of the many God-men.

J. Shepherding

The references for this class are The Messages for the New Believers by Watchman Nee and Basic Lessons on Life and God-Ordained Way by Witness lee. The three major burdens released about shepherding are 1) turning from idol worship to the worship of the living God; 2) serving the true and living God; and 3) awaiting the second coming of Christ.

K. Hymn-Singing

The goals of the Hymn-singing class are for the trainees to know the hymns and be able to sing them properly. The trainees are taught how to read musical symbols and to apply them with emphasis on the tune and the rhythm. With the many new believers and many new churches, learning how to sing the hymns has become a necessity, especially those in various kinds of church meetings. The course has also become an exposure that has motivated the trainees to sing the hymns even for enjoyment.

PRACTICUM

A. Tuesday and Thursday afternoon door-knockings and home meetings within Malabon and nearby localities.

B. Week-end Assignments

Some trainees are sent to different districts of Malabon and nearby localities and provinces to coordinate with the local saints in the churches mainly for gospel-preaching and shepherding of the new ones.

C. One-and-a-half Months of Propagation

Trainees are sent to the different areas of Regions I-VI of the Philippines (generally for Fulltime trainees only) for propagation and shepherding of the new churches.

E. Rendering services during Blending Fellowship among the Churches of Regions I-VI of the Philippines and other big events of the churches.