April 15, 2022
To the Elders and Leading Ones of the Churches in North America:
Five and a half years ago, as the result of fellowship between LSM and a few co-workers and full-time serving ones, a few brothers began to promote our common burden to encourage the saints to be nourished in life and constituted with the divine truth by consistently reading the ministry publications. This matter weighed heavily on our Brother Lee; he said, “I hope that all the churches in all the localities, which have received the supply in the Lord’s word from this ministry, will do their best to help the publication of the ministry…We also want to encourage the brothers and sisters to build up the habit of reading spiritual books.” He hoped that the elders in each locality would “give the saints some help and encouragement so that each household would have a supply of spiritual books” (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 5, “The Faithful and Diligent Spreading of the Truth—Concerning the Publication Service,” pp. 189-190). He further charged us, saying,
If we have a clear view and know the Bible, the condition of today’s Christianity, the truth, and the mercy given to us by God, we would spend our whole life being immersed and soaked in the truth. Then we would surely have the burden to propagate this truth as much as possible among the brothers and sisters in the churches. We would endeavor to create among the brothers and the sisters an atmosphere of desiring the truth and the Life-studies…I hope that we could all learn to appreciate the Life-studies by diving into them, bathing in them, and allowing the light of the truth to penetrate us. Only then will we be able to spread the blessings and benefits that we have received, thereby creating an atmosphere in which the saints desire the truth and the Life-studies.
We must have a proper attitude and be positive and aggressive, doing our best to urge people to read His word.
The Lord’s word will require that we bear the responsibility to labor willingly to zealously encourage and urge everyone in all the local churches to pursue the truth and read the spiritual publications. In this way the Lord’s truth will spread widely, and there will be a real revival.
If all the six hundred churches on the earth would seriously read the Life-studies and thoroughly study the truths contained in them, I absolutely believe that a great revival would begin not only among us but even on the whole earth. (pp. 172-173, 207-208, 172)
Furthermore, in Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision, he told the brothers,
We should help the saints to build up a practice or a habit that every day they would spend at least thirty minutes in the Word…I think we need to remind them week after week, and sometimes the elders need to give the saints some direction, some encouragement, and some incentive. (pp. 105-106)
The following quote from The Economy of God and the Mystery of the Transmission of the Divine Trinity presents Brother Lee’s view concerning the ministry publications:
I hope that we could live to be eighty or ninety, even to over a hundred, so that we might be able to see the fulfillment of all that we have fellowshipped today. I wish to live on this earth and witness with my own eyes the truth of the Lord not only being printed into books through our hands, but also being sent through us to every part of the world and prevailing in every place. I absolutely believe that this will hasten the Lord’s return because it is through this that the Lord will prepare His bride. I hope that we all can see the manifestation of such a situation. (p. 163)
Throughout these years, more brothers have joined themselves to this burden so that now there is a team of six brothers who are endeavoring to contact the churches in North America in order to impart this vision and burden and to provide practical fellowship for the building up of a healthy book service in the church. These brothers are open to visiting to fellowship with the elders of the churches, with those burdened for the book service, or with the entire church, according to the feeling of the leading ones. In some cases, several churches may want to cluster together for a time centered on this burden. This could be done over a weekend, during a blending time of the churches in your region, or at any time convenient to you.
Please consider this before the Lord. Our Brothers Jim Miller, Steve Watts, Michio Miyake, Bill Lawson, Samuel Liu, and Alberto Pagan meet to fellowship weekly and are burdened to promote this kind of healthy practice among us. We proposed that these brothers visit the churches to fellowship more in depth about this burden. The brothers may contact you, and you should feel free to contact them by email at propagation@lsm.org. We hope that you will arrange a time for these brothers to share with the elders and the saints the importance of a consistent habit of reading the Lord’s ministry.
May the Lord bless His recovery through the rich supply in His ministry and through the cooperation of the saints.
In Him,
The brothers who oversee Living Stream Ministry
