Would you turn in your Bibles tonight to
Ephesians chapter 4 what I would just like
to do is have a quiet talk with
you about Indigenous principles Things that you already
know, but it's good to Stir up our
pure minds by way of remembrance, I think
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 7 Ephesians 4
and 7 but unto every one of us
is given grace according to the measure of
the gift of Christ Wherefore he saith or
wherefore it saith the book of Psalms when
he ascended up on high he led captivity
Captive and gave gifts unto men Now that
he ascended what is it, but that he
also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth And incidentally, I read I understand
that expression the lower parts of the earth
to refer to the Virgin's womb David uses
a similar expression doesn't he in Psalm?
139 when he speaks of himself as having
been curiously wrought in the lowest parts of
the earth Where was he born underground?
Not at all born from his mother's womb
and I think what this passage of Scripture
is saying is that that the risen ascended
Lord Jesus Christ gave gifts to men Risen
ascended.
How could he ascend he had been in
heaven from all eternity Oh, it presupposes a
prior descent doesn't it?
And that descent was in Incarnation he first
descended into the lower parts of the earth
Descended is the same also that ascended up
far above all heavens that he might fill
all things and he gave some Apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors
and teachers for the perfecting of the Saints
Eliminate the comma if it's in your version
It's not for the Perfecting of the Saints
comma under the work of the ministry comma
unto the edifying of the body of Christ
It's for the perfecting of the Saints unto
the work of the ministry Under the edifying
the building up of the body of Christ
till we all come in The unity of
the faith and of the knowledge of the
Son of God unto a perfect man unto
the measure of the stature of the Fullness
of Christ that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about
with every wind of doctrine by the slight
of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie
and wait to deceive but Speaking the truth
and love may grow up into him in
all things which is the head even Christ
from whom the whole body fitly joined together
and compacted by that which every joint supplier
According to the effectual working and the measure
of every part make an increase of the
body unto the edifying of itself in love
I Can never read this passage of Scripture
without going back in memory to?
the Hawaiian Islands during the Second World War
when God was having real dealings in my
life and The question came to be why
do you meet the way the people in
the so-called assemblies meet?
Are you in the assemblies because your father
was in them and because he made you
go to them or are you in them
by?
personal conviction But I said, okay that settles
it I'm going to the Word of God
and see what the word I'm going to
the Word of God and see if I
would be Just as happy in a denominational
church the usual clergy laity Relationship and so
I did I started in the Word of
God to gain convictions for myself and I
really believe the Spirit of God led me
to Ephesians chapter 4 and When I saw
that in Ephesians chapter 4 that the gifts
were given For the perfecting of the Saints
unto the work of the ministry Under the
edifying of the body of Christ I thought
the principles are really divine the principles that
I have been used to are really divine.
I saw that there was no place in
the Word of God for the distinction between
clergy and laity and I saw that the
world will never be evangelized as long as
we have a clerical system The God's program
is to see the Saints Built up for
the work of the ministry.
That's what it's going to take.
Isn't it every member?
Evangelism I was reading from Hudson Taylor the
other day and I came across this.
I think it's quite good He said in
a parent in a letter to his parents
dated July 1873 he wrote the work is
steadily growing especially in that most Important department
native help the helpers are becoming more efficient
as well as more numerous and the future
Hope for China lies doubtless in them.
I look on foreign missionaries as the Scaffolding
round a rising building the sooner it can
be dispensed with the better or rather The
sooner it can be transferred to other places
to serve the same Temporary purpose a few
months later He again wrote I am aiming
at such organization of our forces as will
enable us to do more work with fewer
foreign missionaries by the more thorough training of
our Native helpers.
Well that rather thrilled me to read that
excerpt from Hudson Taylor Because I had the
joy of a brief visit in China last
October And you know, I believe that some
of the most beautiful Indigenous churches in the
world today are in China If you'd like
to read a very excellent book get a
hold of a book called the church in
China by Karl Lawrence and it will thrill
your soul Actually, there are two types of
churches in China today.
There's what is called the three self help
Patriotic movement that is the official government church
That is the church that's under the thumb
of the government There are many true believers
in those churches many true believers that have
just chosen to go that way While I'm
speaking about that church that free self-help
patriotic movement I might just say that the
Chinese government recently printed 1 million Bibles and
Distributes them through that church incredible People say
why would the Chinese government do that?
I don't know But I know God often
causes men to do things that naturally they
wouldn't do He did it with Balaam didn't
he Balaam said some wonderful things.
He didn't want to say them, but God
overruled Well in addition to that, of course,
there's what is known as the underground church
And there are millions of believers in China
today In fact, it's absolutely thrilling to read
about it and Karl.
I don't know Karl Lawrence I don't know
who he is, but in almost naivete He
says that the wonderful thing is that these
churches don't have resident pastors They have itinerant
evangelists who move around the countryside and visit
them But the church is vibrant the church
is on fire for the Lord I believe
Hudson Taylor would be thrilled If he could
know what's going on in China today, maybe
he does know Under those circuit, it's interesting
that even in the free self-help patriotic
movement The government wants churches that are self
-governing self propagating and self-financing Self-financing
Interesting, isn't it that a worldly government?
Would latch on to those things they want
the church to develop a long Chinese line
How many a truth was spoken between false
teeth?
Hmm, and I think you have an illustration
of that there I mean if they're right
give them credit for it I hope I
don't shock you when I say this But
I think one of the worst things that
could happen in China today would be an
influx of Western missionaries I really do it
would change the whole character of the work
there and take away from it that beautiful
Indigenous character that it has today Now I
think we have a responsibility to pray for
those dear Christians I brought back with me
a picture of a dear young brother who
traveled five days on a train From Urumqi
up in the north down to Canton in
order to be baptized I'll tell you a
lot of people in the United States wouldn't
cross the street to be baptized Would they
he traveled five days in an uncomfortable train
from the north down to the south just
to be baptized What do we mean when
we talk about indigenous churches?
Well, I think the best synonym I would
know for indigenous is Native native We speak
of orchids as being indigenous to Hawaii But
not to Alaska You know Orchids just flourish
out there in the Hawaiian Islands.
They don't do well in Alaska or in
Siberia and when we speak of that in
connection with the churches, we we say that
we want churches to Follow New Testament principle
to be empowered by the Spirit of God,
but to be self-governing Self-financing self
-propagating I Think you see it in the
life of the Apostle Paul and and that's
really a throwing thing to go back to
the New Testament The book of Acts and
the epistles and see Paul at work there
going into an area Preaching the gospel in
the power of the Spirit of God He
was a man who was radioactive with the
Spirit of God and When he preached things
happened for God the old English bishop said
Everywhere Paul went he started a revolution Everywhere
I go they served me tea well everywhere
Paul when he did start a revolution and
things happen and and Souls were saved and
then he would teach them the great truths
of the of the Word of God with
regard to the church And with regard to
other things of the next thing, you know
a church Came into being an assembly came
into being thrilling.
I Always marvel over Thessalonica, don't you?
Paul going into that Greek community It was
really pretty primitive Territory as far as the
gospel was concerned, but he preached And he
preached in power and his life backed up
his preaching.
He said that to them You know what
manner of men we were among you for
your sake They first saw Christ in Paul
And the next thing, you know, there's a
church.
There's an assembly there in Thessalonica And as
the Spirit of God is given opportunity to
raise up elders as leaders there they're raised
up and They're recognized and Paul advises and
Paul moves on great Really great Paul was
not a resident pastor abroad fuzzy He was
not a resident pastor abroad As someone has
said he was a goer not a stayer
William Dillon said something.
He said a successful foreign missionary is never
replaced by a foreign missionary Well, that may
be a little extreme that statement but it
has shock value makes you sit up and
think a Successful Foreign missionary is never replaced
by a foreign missionary So Paul went the
longest Paul ever stayed in one place at
a time was two years in Ephesus During
his total ministry.
He was there for three years But at
any one time the longest he stayed was
two years in Ephesus He's nice to have
him here at the conference have him.
Tell us how he did it Under God
a lot of us would like to know
more about that.
I'm sure But he did he set up
assemblies that were really Self-governing you see
that for instance in the book of Titus
and I always get a special thrill out
of this Paul is telling Titus what the
Cretan people were like.
He said they're they're liars He said they're
evil beasts he said they're idle gluttons That's
what they were naturally apart from the grace
of God But the grace of God comes
into Crete and these men are saved in
the very very same chapter Paul says I
want you to ordain elders.
I'll tell you there's something thrilling about that,
isn't there when you can take such unpromising
raw material and And see it transformed by
the grace of God and these men becoming
functioning elders in a in the midst of
Place like that Yes, the local assembly the
local fellowship should be self-governing It's not
to be governed by a foreign Missionary and
frankly, it's not to be governed by a
national worker or by national workers paid by
foreign missionaries And in the course remarks that
I will be thinking of some of the
abuses I could just pause here and say
that I think the American dollar has done
and is doing more harm in the mission
field than any other single thing I can
think of and it's not purposeful because the
American people are generous and the American people
are gullible and It's just causing a lot
of problems on the mission field today Self
-governing assemblies of plurality of Elders and you
know, the wonderful thing is that these principles
are good for any Place in the world.
I'll never forget visiting in some of the
most remote parts of Italy We went up
to a mountain town there.
There was a huge Catholic Hospital made of
Italian marble There was a famous priest there
named Padre Pio and he had supposedly had
these marks in his hands that bled at
periodic intervals the stigmata, they're known and Padre
Pio, of course wore gloves all the time
Nobody ever saw his hands and the people
would say isn't that a mark of his
genuine humility that he wears?
Gloves well right in that same place where
Padre Pio was carrying on It was a
little assembly of believers and these dear men
going out into the fields at Sun up
in the morning and coming home at sundown
at night working hard in the fields all
day I want to tell you something they
knew the Word of God and they could
minister the Word of God and they could
speak in the power of the Holy Spirit
of God and they could see more on
their knees than Padre Pio could see on
his tiptoes and I said to myself praise
God for New Testament Church principles Because I
saw them in operation and I saw that
they were and they could those people couldn't
have hired a pastor They couldn't have built
a church.
They didn't have money for either a pastor
or a church building But I'll tell you
they were functioning to the glory of God.
I'd love to get back there I felt
so much at home with those dear Christians
there That's the goal, isn't it?
What a monument to leave behind I can't
think of anything greater The greater monument to
leave behind then New Testament assemblies Going on
brightly for the Lord Jesus and on the
foreign field able to carry on without foreign
personnel at all It's good, it's good when
the Nationals can handle disciplinary matters, isn't it?
A Disciplinary problems come up, of course all
the time in situations like this And some
of you know from firsthand experience that if
the foreign worker Handles it oftentimes there's grudges
among the Christians against him because of it
He's acting against one of their own It's
like the Arab proverb that says I and
my brother against my cousin But the next
part of the problem Proverbs says I and
my brother and my cousin against an outsider
Hmm.
I think that tells the story I and
my brother against my cousin We have the
privilege of fighting one another if we want
I and my brother and my cousin against
an outsider And it's nearly that's what's happening
in Lebanon today, isn't it?
That's the whole story of Lebanon today and
Will be for days to come It's good
good when the Nationals themselves are trained and
are able with an open Bible to handle
the disciplinary problem It's good when the Nationals
themselves Administer the Lord's Supper as it were
and decide on the forms of service But
I really believe this that these Indigenous principles
must be introduced from the very beginning of
the work.
I think that the Nationals have the Right
to know from the very beginning the form
that the work is going to take They
will rise to the occasion and it's really
these principle is just as important in this
country the same principles apply In our assemblies
we have to be constantly Thinking about the
training of younger men to take over the
leadership of the assemblies I was rather thrilled
two years ago I was in Israel and
two of the brothers came to me to
the leading brothers in Israel and they said
brother bill They said we're not going to
be here much longer We're passing off the
scene and they said we want to see
God raise up leaders for the work here
in Israel They said 15 years ago, there
were only 200 Jewish believers in all of
Israel today there were 2,000 they said
We want to do something about it.
And so it was arranged that in July
of this year We would have a leadership
training conference there where the young men of
Israel could come together and have a whole
month of Intensive leadership training you might pray
for that would really appreciate your prayers I
think it's something very significant for the land
of Israel what a joy to be there
with those dear young people many of them
come in with their army uniforms they'll come
in in uniform with a machine gun in
their hand or whatever the gun is and
Then they'll go upstairs and change and come
down and attend the meetings But those men
had a burden To see leadership strong spiritual
leadership raised up for the work in Israel
in indigenous churches, there should be a Self
-financing The assembly should be independent of foreign
support and then there can be no question
about That assembly or the work being an
agent of a foreign power Workers should be
supported by the national believers.
Well, a lot of them don't like this
I was in a country in the Orient
and a brother said to me He said
brother McDonald we Christian workers here do not
want to be supported by our local assemblies
We want to be supported from the United
States And then he said to me, what
do you think of that?
I said, I think it's the worst thing
that could happen He said well, why would
you say that it was rather offended that
I would be so negative I said my
dear brother 60 miles north of us The
communist forces, right?
Well, we were talking the communists were lined
up 60 miles north of us I said
supposing someday they should just cross over that
line and come down here whose heads Do
you think would be the first to fall?
The heads of those supported by imperialist dollars,
that's who He didn't appreciate it And he
may have been the same man who said
to a brother who's sitting in the meeting
tonight We want your money, but we don't
want you Pretty straight talk, isn't it?
actually in that country American dollars have flowed
in such a way that the people the
Christian people of that country have developed a
beggar Mentality and the work is not Indigenous
in the truest sense of the word too
bad, isn't it?
Too bad that a situation like that could
ever exist.
They say well our people are so poor
That we couldn't support a national worker Well,
I'll tell you how it is if there
are ten families in that assembly and ten
families tithe They could support one National worker
on the same economic level as themselves just
as easy as that Let me say that
again If there are only ten families in
that fellowship and most of them have far
more than that and each of those families
would tithe They could support one national worker
on the same economic level as themselves He
would be supported on a comparable basis buildings
For meeting should be designed built and owned
by the nationals and financed by national funds
years ago There was a very dear Christian
brother in Kathmandu Nepal and He may he
he was brought by loving Americans over to
this country I don't think he ever got
even got further than the East Coast and
the churches there lavished him with money and
he went back and and this dear man
had had served prison sentences for baptizing believers
in Kathmandu and He went back and they
built this tremendous edifice in downtown Kathmandu and
it just shrieks America The only thing indigenous
about it is that they don't have chairs
or pews they sit on the floor is
the only thing But it almost make you
sick to see it It was so out
of place.
It was so bizarre it was so incongruous
to see that kind of an edifice in
a country like Kathmandu and especially in The
city the capital city And so there are
tremendous abuses today through the wrongful use of
money Years ago.
I was in Amman Jordan And there's a
wonderful missionary brother there in Amman.
His name is Roy Whitman.
Some of you may know him I don't
think I ever see his name in any
of the magazines But down through the years
Roy Whitman has done a marvelous job for
God raising up indigenous Assembly he speaks Arabic
so well that the Arabs like to come
just to hear him speak They're so impressed
by his Arabic and down through the years.
He's seen these assemblies built up He's seen
under God.
He's seen elders raised up men proficient in
the Word of God men living godly line
Then what happened?
Well, I'll tell you what happens American evangelical
denominations go over there and they want to
start a church in Jordan so they go
to one of these elders and They offer
him a salary that would be comparable.
That is something that they'd be getting in
the United States terrible almost cruel almost inhumane
and Many many times it's just been too
much of a temptation for those dear men
And so they leave that assembly and they
go to pastor denominational church and I admire
Roy Whitman Never said a word he just
flawed on God has vindicated that man over
the years If it were me, I think
I could have dipped my pen in acid
and written out a few well-chosen words,
but not Roy Whitman That's hard When God
has used you to raise up these lovely
assemblies Something similar that to that happened in
Nazareth Israel some of you have been to
Nazareth probably visited the little assembly there Harry
and best Negro used to work there and
then God called Harry home best came back
to the United States and the assembly functions
as an indigenous Arab assembly Well, there was
another denomination that wanted to start a work
there in Nazareth And they came over not
even to an elder Just to one of
the brothers in the assembly.
They say come be our pastor We'll pay
you and I don't know what the salary
was maybe ten thousand dollars or something which
would make him a millionaire comparably in that
country And So he went and he became
the pastor of that local church in Nazareth
Well, the interesting thing is when the Arabs
when the unsaved Arabs in Nazareth when they
passed that church, they say the American Church
Because it's financed by American dollars now that
might sound good to you the American church
that doesn't sound good to them I'll tell
you this they don't say that when they
pass the building where the assembly meets It's
an indigenous Assembly, it's governed by some of
their own countrymen by their own neighbors And
it's financed by their own neighbors and it's
propagated by their own neighbors as well Years
ago in Laos There was a national worker
Supported from the United States one of the
denominations in the United States And he was
getting more money than the governor of the
province How do you think that went over
with the authority?
Not very well Not very well And I
wouldn't think his longevity would be very great
in the succeeding years.
I Don't know how it finally came out
But he a Simple Christian worker getting more
money than the governor of the province.
I mean years ago I was in Rome
and I visited the Bible school in Rome
and they asked me if I'd come and
teach And I looked around there weren't any
students.
I began to wonder who I teach And
I said what's the story about the students?
They said well Italian young people want to
be paid to come to Bible school They've
been bitten by a fox, haven't they?
They had seen American dollars flowing all over
the place and they wanted to get in
on it Non-indigenous churches and assemblies provoke
the suspicion of hostile governments Whereas indigenous assemblies
can go underground as no other were allowed
And do Hostile governments resent Western imperialistic support
and the communists use this as Propaganda in
their war and of course, there's always the
danger of rice Christians, isn't there?
When I was in India brother Ken Smith
told me that there are people in India
who will profess to be saved be baptized
Come into the Fellowship of the Assembly and
be in the Fellowship of the Assembly for
20 years All they want is a trip
to the United States.
I Was speaking in a place one night
I think was in Calcutta and a well
-dressed man came up to me afterwards and
he said good evening.
Mr. McDonnell I said good evening.
He said I would like to take an
Emmaus course.
I said, well, that's interesting How did you
know about I hadn't said a word about
the Emmaus courses that night?
I said, how did you know about the
Emmaus course?
That's wonderful because they're available right here in
Calcutta He said no, you don't understand.
I want to take an Emmaus course in
the United States but I said I said
the same Courses that are available in the
United States are available right here in Calcutta
No, no, he said I want to take
the course in the United States So the
next day I was leaving Calcutta and I
went by the turning sheep to say goodbye
to Mr. and Mrs. Ken Smith And I
said, oh, I forgot to tell you I
have a new prospect for you for the
correspondence course and She said, what's his name?
And I told her, she said, all he
wants is a trip to America.
It was pretty good.
All he wants is a trip to America
And then the indigenous churches should be self
-propagating and this is wonderful Isn't it wonderful
that Paul went into Thessalonica and he preached
the gospel and pretty soon they became a
hub from which the word of God was
radiating in the surrounding district Great that he
could go in and see them planted as
a new church in the south and then
see them functioning but from you sounded forth
the word of the Lord he can say
to them what a wonderful thing missionaries can
never evangelize the world can they?
We take that for granted tonight missionaries can
never evangelize the world but missionaries can teach
nationals, can preach the gospel can teach nationals,
can mobilize them and work with or under
them and I don't know whether you'd agree
with this or not, but I think it's
true that most missionaries can never reach the
unsaved quite like the nationals themselves can.
They have the culture, they see illustrations of
Bible truth in everything around them Now there
are arguments used against some of this I
know and we want to think about them
for instance arguments against turning the work over
to nationals and it's just as true here
in the United States, there is an innate
hesitation about turning over leadership to other men
and it's easy to say we can't do
that nationals can't govern themselves nationals have their
own tribal governments nationals have their own household
governments in fact all society on earth is
supported by two pillars, authority and submission to
that authority it's impossible to think of any
ordered society whether political religious or anything else
that doesn't have authority and subjection to that
authority and tribes have it and sometimes it's
very very strong and they do know how
to govern themselves they have their own government
another objection is they don't know how to
do things right they don't know how to
do things right well that means what that
really means is they don't know how to
do things the way we do them that's
really what it means and it's true that
many of them wouldn't do things the way
I'll never forget one night I was down
in Mexico City we were having a meeting
and one of the girls from OM was
going to sing a solo and a young
Mexican fellow got up to the piano and
I tell you he fairly murdered it it
was awful she would be ready for the
next note and went off on a trill
somewhere and she would just stand there and
hold her breath until he got through with
the trill and I was squirming it was
a most uncomfortable experience for me but I
looked around and I saw the people, the
Mexican people were enjoying it and I thought
to myself what's the matter with you McDonald
this is the way it should be I
was squirming it the way he was carrying
on at the piano but they thought it
was wonderful that the Mexican fellow was up
there carrying on and it was and I
changed my whole thinking on the process I
think what we have to realize is that
just as sometimes we have resentments toward the
Nationals they have resentments toward us, they say
that we don't understand their concepts of time
that's true and of courtesy and of personal
friendship I think we have to plead guilty
to some of it they say that we
have a domineering attitude that we're full of
superiority they sometimes feel resentful that missionaries don't
want their children to marry foreign Nationals or
that a missionary may be called home if
he falls in love with a National some
Nationals resent the time that missionaries spend in
housekeeping at the market with mail, caring for
children visiting with other missionaries rather than doing
missionary work it's good to know what people
think about us isn't it they they resent
the fact that missionaries don't adapt themselves to
foreign courtesy they're especially resentful when missionaries talk
in their presence in English and they don't
understand what's being said and it isn't particularly
courteous is it and many of them feel
resentful when we don't learn the language well
I remember one brother, young brother from this
country going down to Argentina years ago he
comes with a word in his mouth became
proficient in their language and they were exhilarated
the missionaries have resentment toward the Nationals oftentimes
they say the people don't appreciate us and
all we're doing for them they say the
people are completely irresponsible or they're not educated
enough to take over or they're always late
or they fail to pay back loans or
are always late in doing so we here
in the United States have had some experiences
with this and I'm sure many of you
are familiar with them and I think some
of us have to admit that we've made
mistakes ourselves I remember years ago two gentlemen
came from an Asian country they started touring
the assembly and the money started rolling in
they happened to be wearing very tattered clothes
like the Gibeonites and all the wonderful clothing
centers offered to completely outfit them but they
didn't want to be outfitted they toured the
assemblies and they went back to their country
relatively speaking millionaires and it took the work
of God 20 years to recover from the
strife conflict jealousy that resulted from that you
don't believe it?
Ask Mr. J.
M.
Davies he's the one who told me it
took 20 years for the work to recover
from the harm that was done those men
should have been supported by their own assembly
but it's even true today that these men
can come and tour American assemblies without even
being checked on we had a horrible case
of that in recent years where a man
came purported to be from the assemblies in
an oriental city and he wasn't at all
as a matter of fact he was living
in Sim in that city but he came
to this country did very well financially I
think one of the worst cases I ever
heard was a couple that came and took
up graduate work here and were commended commended
by an American assembly to go back to
their own country not indigenous is it?
I don't understand that as being indigenous they're
supposed to be commended by an assembly in
their own country they went back with a
Mercedes Benz car in that particular country I
can't think of anything worse than a Mercedes
Benz car you talk about separating them from
the people it would be horrible and they
went back with a guarantee of so many
dollars a month four years later they came
back to the United States on their first
furlough violations of indigenous principles but
I think the positive side is what a
wonderful thing it is to be used of
God one of the greatest of calling to
be used of God to go into an
area to see people saved to see them
transformed by the grace of God to see
them gathered in New Testament assemblies and see
them propagating the word of truth see that
assembly becoming a mother assembly and others being
formed as a result of it this is
God's program I believe for this day and
it works in every country every clime every
culture it's God's way and there's nothing better
than God's way though I have no doubt
this will stimulate some discussions and sparks and
I don't mind that at all I'd just
like to close with a quotation from Dr.
Moffat one of the great missionaries to Korea
he said as a missionary you have no
right ever to expect to have the satisfaction
of doing any job well oh I said
why not because he said it's your business
as soon as you can find a Korean
who can do what you're doing maybe not
as well as you're doing it but if
he can do it at all to put
him in your place and you drop back
and do something else you're here to start
a church establish a church it isn't your
church it's a Korean church and they must
take over just as quickly as possible it's
up to you therefore to retire whenever you
have a chance and make yourself expendable so
that everything you started will be taken over
by Korean Christians they may make mistakes but
they'll learn from them just as you did
I think that's thrilling I think it's thrilling
to look upon ourselves as being expendable and
one of the greatest joys in life is
to be able to train other men men
and women to take our places and see
the work of God moving forward so we
pray Father we just thank you for this
time together tonight we thank you for your
word thank you for this great principle we
find in the writings of the Apostle Paul
that the risen ascended Lord Jesus gave gifts
for building up the saints for the work
of the ministry for the edifying of the
body of Christ Father we believe that we
found divine principles here and we pray that
we might stick with them in a day
when so many are offering the clergy laity
system as the panacea for all ill even
when it's creeping in among the assemblies in
this country and very strongly so Father we
pray that you'll call us back to the
word and that we might have the joy
of seeing this happening in a grander scale
in our midst both at home and abroad
we would just come to you tonight Lord
and lay ourselves at your feet and say
Lord use us use us for your honor
and for your glory we ask it in
Jesus name and for his sake, Amen