Concerning the service of literature work

I. The value of the literature work:

A. The extensive and everlasting efficiency——The gospel and truth preaching will have great gas and omissions without the coordination of the literature work. Without literature work, brother Watchman Nee’s ministry will be hardly preached out. The usefulness of the literal material is extensive and everlasting. As for its universality, such as water, it will permeat man’s inner being unconsciously. Sometimes just one message will have great influence on somebody while flowing from hand to hand. The efficiency from the literal materials is also everlasting, not superficial as just listening. One was moved and touched while listening, however after three days the feeling would fade and disappear. But while reading is different. The more you read the more you understand, the deeper impression will be in you. The psychologist discovered that the television is much more progressive than broadcast because the everlasting efficiency of listening is far behind that of watching. Therefore the value of literature work lies in its extensity and durability. Such as Bible, for thousands of years, it has have a unspeakable influence on people.

B. Spreading the divine truth—The churches in the Lord’s recovery profit a lot mainly from this literature ministry, from Shanghai to Nanyang in the early stage, and Taibei, to Nanyang now. The past 30 years, they have be nourished most from this loving ministry. As for the Chinese-speaking church among us, they wholy depend on this ministry. Since 1962, this ministry has come to English-speaking countries. Especially the recent 11 years, as our laboring in this work, the life-study of the whole New Testament was completed, laying a good foundation. Even through what we see is not so complete, but compared with others, what we see is indeed much higher and profounder than the others. Therefore, now even among the western English-speaking Christians, they also begin to use the truth what we see from the Lord.

C. Supply the bread of life. We cannot come to help them most of time; while the most direct and reliable way is through the literal material as the life supply, to nourish them. It seems very slow, but actually it has a astounding effect even faster than what we can imagine. For example in Mexico, up to now there has already been more than 50 churches raised up, mainly by the literature work; the most benefitted way is to play the video message. We sent the eliminated machine from the ministry station with some video CDs to some locality, and they spread them to many places. Most of the church were raised up by these video CDs. The churches in Brazil were raised up also through the literature work, such as the 80 churches in Brazil and the other churches in South Asia. They mostly depend on the literal materials and the video CDs. If we stop to supply literal materials, without sending CDs out, they would suffer spiritual famine. Therefore, we can see that literature work has a great importance(Preaching the Truth Faithfully and Diligently—About the Service of Literature Work).

II. The need of the literature service;

Once we gain some new ones, we need to study to find the way to take care of them. I have been considering what materials would be the best to use in the group meetings to teach people. We have both Life Lessons and Truth Lessons. Although these lessons are very well written, I feel that they are not so suitable, because they may be too much for the new ones to digest. Even The Holy Word for Morning Revival may not be suitable for the new ones in the group meetings. It is not good to feed people too much food; we need to give them the proper portions. In Hebrews 5:12-14 Paul mentioned two kinds of food: milk and solid food. We should not attempt to nourish a child with solid food. Hence, we need someone to labor in order to write some suitable materials for the group meetings that will nourish the new ones with milk. In order to have the profitable teaching and fellowship in the group meetings, some materials that can serve as a guideline are needed. I hope that some of the brothers will be raised up by the Lord to compose some proper writings for the group meetings. （Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups， message four，Practicing The Groups With Much Consideration, Prayer, And Labor）

III. The learning of literature work：

A. Frist we must know that only God is the Creator, men cannot boast at all in this aspect.

B. Moreover, in order to do well, first, study hard, second, take time to modify it.

C. The cultivation and the learning of Literary attainments.

D. Study the technique of the classic works.

E. Pay attention to use the correct idiom.

F. Don’t be afraid of being slow but of making mistake.

G. Pay attention to establishing proper character.