QUALITY OR QUANTITY?     DO 23    12/70

BETTER SMALL & PERSECUTED THAN BIG & ACCEPTED!

         1. OK! WE'RE ON OUR WAY! SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? How do we keep from getting derailed, sidetracked, thrown off on a tangent, or deceived into some false doctrine?
         2. THIS IS WHERE MOST GREAT MOVEMENTS FIRST BEGAN TO DEVIATE; PRIDE COMETH BEFORE A FALL! They became numerous, big, rich & powerful in the flesh, & lost the power of the Spirit! They got to where they thought numbers signalised success! In gaining numbers, they eased into a false sense of security & complacency, lost sight of their goal or lost the faith to attain it. They stopped moving, stopped changing things, became recognised by the System, accepted by it & no longer feared or fought or persecuted--because they made peace with or rejoined the System!
         3. IF THE DEVIL CAN'T KEEP YOU FROM BEING A CHRISTIAN, he'll try to keep you from being a REVOLUTIONARY Christian. He'll try to make a DEAD one out of you, instead of a real LIVE one! How can this happen? How can they be so deceived? How can they rejoin the System? How can they go back to the Pit? How can they forsake Him?--Because they love this present World! Why do they fall into such a state?--Because they've been willing to accept a substitute! Why do they fall into such a false doctrine?--Because they've rejected the Truth! Why do they reject the Truth?--Because they're unwilling to pay the price! So they manufacture an excuse! They've carved out for themselves a new God, a different Bible, an easier way--a shortcut to Heaven--when there are no shortcuts! All the shortcuts lead to hell!
         4. GOD NEVER SPECIALISES IN NUMBERS!--HE LIKES QUALITY! Watch out when you get away from the rejected, despised persecuted few state--into the big, accepted majority! The majority is always wrong! The accepted Church is always wrong! The accepted Church is always the false one! The big Church is always the bad one! Keep it small! Keep it pure! Keep it strong!
         5. BIGNESS CAN COLLAPSE UNDER ITS OWN WEIGHT! You can be bankrupted by your own overhead--or mortgage the future so you're no longer free--or trade your insecure liberty for peace & safety--& bondage! When the Early Church became numerous, big, rich, powerful & no longer needed God, she lost Him!--And was left a hollow shell, still going through the motions! Like the little girl said about the cat, "It's gone to sleep & left its engine running!"
         6. DON'T GET TOO BIG FOR YOUR BRITCHES! Don't get so involved in mechanics & maintenance that you settle down & stop moving toward the goal! Don't even get so busy gaining territory that you don't securely consolidate these gains! Either of these is dangerous--moving too fast--or not fast enough!
         7. MOVE WITH GOD! DON'T RUN AHEAD OF HIM--BUT DON'T LAG BEHIND HIM! Do as Paul did: Establish the Churches, appointing elders in each, confirming them, instructing them & training them until they can stand on their own! Then you can go off & leave them, as Paul did, & know they'll survive--by the power of His Spirit--in obedience to His commands--able to carry on where you've left off--indigenous--self-propagating! Or better still we should say: CHRIST supported, CHRIST governed, & CHRIST propagating!
         8. GOD WILL NEVER GIVE YOU MORE THAN YOU CAN TAKE CARE OF! If you find yourself with more than you can handle, you've bitten off more than you can chew, & they must be YOUR converts, & not the LORD'S!
         9. NUMBERS ARE NOT WHAT COUNT IN THE EYES OF GOD! God specialises in using LITTLE things, WEAK things, FOOLISH things! Watch out when you get too big, too strong & too smart--so big, you're bragging about numbers; so strong, you're leaning on the arm of the flesh & so smart, you think you know it all--instead of depending UTTERLY upon His guidance! Pride cometh before a fall!
         10. WHEN THE CHURCH GOT SO BIG THAT IT WAS RECOGNISED, accepted & patronised by the State, it lost the power & blessing of God & its usefulness to Him, & He had to start another "Drop-Out" Church--one after the other!
         11. IT'S ONE THING FOR THE SYSTEM TO TOLERATE YOU--it's another thing for you to JOIN it!--There's a difference between living with it & being part of it. You can be "IN the World but not OF the World!"
         12. AS LONG AS WE'RE STILL SMALL, STILL POOR & STILL PERSECUTED, WE'RE PRETTY SAFE, & most likely to be in the Will of God! But how can we stay that way?--By specialising in QUALITY rather than quantity! By specialising in spiritual strength, rather than size! And by keeping ourselves unspotted from the World-uncompromising with the System--an implacable foe of the Enemy!--By STAYING "DROPPED OUT!"--By keeping "tuned in" to God & "turned on" to His Truth!

FIRMLY ESTABLISH BASES & USE SMALL MOBILE WITNESSING TEAMS!

         13. BETTER A YOUNG, SMALL, VERSATILE, WIRY, SHARP-WITTED, FASTMOVING, POWER-PACKED LITTLE RUNT OF A "DAVID," than a monstrous, lethargic, dull-witted giant of a "Goliath" that can barely move because of his own weight!--And on the other hand, better the slow-moving tortoise that keeps moving & gets there, than the spurt-sprinting hare, who runs with such bursts of speed, that he's so exhausted that he has to stop & rest, while the "plodders" pass him by! Better a live coward, than a dead hero--in some cases! Better some tough, dinky, little fruit that remains, than a proliferous crop that rots & dies on the vine before it can be preserved!
         14. I'D RATHER SEE YOU ESTABLISH & GROUND IN THE WORD A SMALL, TOUGH HOME THAT ENDURES & stays true & pure & continues to make slow, solid, enduring progress & growth as the Lord adds daily to the Church, than to open the floodgates to every Tom, Dick or Harry that wants to come along for the ride!
         15. SO LET'S KEEP IT SMALL, BUT MOVING--& WE'LL COVER A LOT MORE TERRITORY THAT WAY--except for the major, more or less permanent bases--the home bases of Jerusalem, Antioch, & Ephesus--from which we can branch out covering the other surrounding territories!
         16. EVERY ARMY THAT EVER OVER-EXTENDED ITS SUPPLY LINES & spread itself out too thin eventually defeated itself by starving itself to death or getting cut off from home base--& the whole war was lost--sometimes the entire kingdom! Let's not let it happen to us!
         17. LIKE THE EARLY CHURCH, THESE BASES SHOULD ONLY BE LARGE ENOUGH TO EFFECTIVELY TRAIN THE NEW DISCIPLES SENT TO THEM FROM THE FIELD TEAMS. And these major bases should each be responsible for a fairly large area, so they do not overlap or duplicate each other's efforts--& yet, not so far removed from each other that they cannot readily communicate with each other, exchange personnel & keep in close contact with their units in the field!
         18. LET'S EXPECT TO DEVELOP OUR OWN FIELD SUPPORT through litnessing, provisioning &/or new disciples, & only rely on home base for training them, or to help us open & develop new & more difficult projects, such as the pioneering of new fields, until they, too, can be self-propagating!

CONCENTRATE ON TRAINING NATIONAL LEADERS

         19. THE MOST LASTING MISSIONARY WORKS IN THE WORLD have continued on in countries even now closed to the Gospel, where the natives themselves were taught to carry on by themselves, after the missionary was gone--a procedure the Apostle Paul practiced, & which resulted in the evangelisation of all Asia, & most of Europe before his death, by means of his own single-handed efforts & that of a few of his friends--by training his converts to witness & carry on after he was gone! The best ones, who were willing to forsake all & follow Him to become fishers of men, he even brought home for further training & to experience & enjoy the larger fellowship of the home church, until he was able to establish major field bases abroad, which could train workers for the whole country--another home base, or field headquarters!

COOPERATION & BALANCE BETWEEN BASES & FIELD TEAMS

         20. SECURE YOUR BASIC BEACHHEAD FIRST, BEFORE YOU DO ANY FURTHER INVADING--as I think you've already learned! Until your base becomes strong enough, large enough & adequately staffed to care for your basic training programme, it would be almost impossible for you to spare complete & effective teams for distant fields without short-changing your home base, & weakening its effectiveness.
         21. COUNT THE COST! BE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH FORCES TO WIN THE BATTLE BEFORE YOU START IT. In some cases, God does use numbers, & this is one of them! I think sometimes He has used our very numbers in some instances to discourage the Enemy from attacking us--so you'd better wait for enough numbers before you start attacking the Enemy too far in the field!--Lest you lack sufficient reserves to hold the fort at home!
         22. A GOOD WAY TO KNOW THAT YOU'RE READY TO EXPAND IS WHEN YOU HAVE MORE THAN YOU NEED or can hold at home! Then send the surplus to needier bases or other fields!--But don't rob Peter to pay Paul! Don't weaken home base too much in order to strengthen a new Home!

PIONEERING--TOP PEOPLE NEEDED FOR SLOW, CAREFUL TRAINING OF OTHERS!

         23. AND REMEMBER THAT GOD ALMOST ALWAYS TAKES THE CREAM OF THE CROP RIGHT OFF THE TOP--like the Apostle Paul--to send out in the field to evangelise & establish new churches or Homes--because such tried & proven top leadership has the needed wisdom, experience & power for pioneering! They've done it before & they can do it again! Pioneers & Apostles always train their disciples to be able to carry on after they're gone, so they can continue to pioneer & open new fields. That's their job!
         24. DON'T TRY TO PUSH YOUR PEOPLE OUT BEFORE THEY'RE READY! Don't try to go before you're ready! Usually God will push you out when you're ready, by closing some doors & opening others, by the urgency of an undeniable need--by an irrefutable call--an unbearable burden--sometimes even by persecution & tribulation! When God dried up the brook & stopped the ravens, Elijah knew it was time to move on! (1 Kings 17) When Herod drew out the sword after the Early Church, they knew it was time to scatter! (Acts 8) When Paul saw the need in Asia, & that the home field could now do without him, he went abroad to seek hungrier hunting grounds--virtually a fugitive, a refugee & an exile from home! Remember, Paul spent a long time in Damascus, Jerusalem & Antioch, the home bases, before he was ready for the field & they were ready to go without him!
         25. DON'T BE TOO SLOW TO BRANCH OUT--like Jerusalem was, till God had to scatter them by the sword, but don't launch out prematurely, either, as I fear you may be tempted to do, before you are ready & able & before you have a strong, firm, well-manned home base, able to spare the forces!
         26. THIS WORK DIDN'T GROW UP OVERNIGHT! It took years--years of training its first leaders--my own children, then years of their operating under my own supervision on a very small scale, until we were ready for God to trust us with a larger ministry! Then it has taken more years recently, to develop more leaders under our leadership, before we could expand to our present proportions! Those years required patience, plugging, plodding & slow, hard work, until we were ready for God's timing of the present explosion--& capable of handling it! Don't get the idea you can be some kind of a whiz kid or boy or girl wonder that can do it faster--or you may find yourself so far out in front, you've lost touch with reality!
         27. PAUL SOMETIMES HAD TO DO WEEKS OF UNDERCOVER WORK BEFORE HE WAS READY TO SURFACE. Sometimes he surfaced prematurely & got chased out before he could get started! Even Jesus had to train His disciples for three-&-a-half years before they were ready to really launch out! Even after Paul was gone from them, he had to keep writing letters to them to keep them straightened out--as we have--who still have the burden of all the churches, & pray for you continually!

THE REASONS FOR THE FAILURE OF OTHER GROUPS

         28. THERE ARE SO MANY REASONS FOR THE FAILURE OF OTHER GROUPS IN THE PAST, it would be almost impossible to enumerate them all, but basically they are as I have outlined them to you here: Remain God's "Drop-Outs." Don't go back to the System--even if you have to work in it or with it.--Don't become part of it, in spirit or otherwise! Stay revolutionary--don't compromise with the enemy! Try to live as peaceably with him as you can, but don't join him. Don't pull your punches, don't compromise your convictions or water down your message! Stay dropped out!


Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family