The Church in Taipei — Reorganization, Purchasing Land to Build the Shin-Ji Building, and the Increase of Large Districts and Meeting Halls

Brother Li Guanghong: As everyone knows, our beloved Brother Wu had extraordinary courage and boldness; his sense of responsibility, his sense of commission, his ability to withstand pressure, as well as his steadfast perseverance, his capacity to bear with others, and his quality of harmonizing and coordinating matters of every kind — all these were the chief factors that brought the co-workers and elders throughout Taiwan into being of one heart, into an unprecedented one accord, and into giving themselves fully to the work.

October 1984 was a crucial moment in the Lord's recovery. Brother Lee, carrying the commission and mission that Brother Nee had not completed, returned to Taiwan to put into practice the great truths that Brother Nee had seen; that is, what was revealed in Ephesians four: "for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ." This opened up the God-ordained way.

At this epoch-making, crucial moment, our Brother Wu played a key role. In the matter of the printed ministry, he was a faithful propagator; in the practice of the new way, he was a wise foreman. We may say that, in the vision, Brother Nee was the seer of the divine revelation, Brother Lee was the inheritor of the divine revelation, and Brother Wu was the most faithful and diligent propagator of the divine revelation.

Brother Nee once said to Brother Lee, "We have the blueprint in our hands." When the church in Taipei was being reorganized, Brother Lee said to us, "We have the construction drawings in our hands." And our Brother Wu was the excellent pattern of one who built according to the drawings. The sixth stanza of Hymn 756 is also the best portrayal of his building process: "The hands of thousands cannot stop me, / Nor can the eyes of myriads; / The thorns along the way / Only help me advance faithfully and bravely to gain the blessing."

We cannot but bow our heads to worship. It was Brother Lee's wisdom to entrust the gospel work in Taiwan to Brother Wu's leadership. Had it not been for Brother Wu's boldness and his capacity to bear pressure, the practice of the new way in the Lord's recovery would have been many times more difficult, for this practice requires a change of our habits and a change of our natural concepts.

Brother Wu took the lead and charged ahead, so that the reorganization could attain to today's achievement. After the two-week gospel festival in Taipei in October 1987, the practice of the new way — "begetting, nourishing, teaching, and building" — was confirmed, and the structure of "the gospel, the home, the group, and the district" was put into effect. This not only recovered and strengthened the organic functioning of the saints but also brought in a substantial increase in number. At that time the average Lord's Day attendance in Taipei was over 3,000; today it has reached 13,000, and the number of those having a part in the church life has reached 40,000. Moreover, it is not one man speaking and the multitude listening, but everyone prophesying and functioning.

Because of his courageous advance, not only was Taipei built up, but this reorganization was spread to all of Taiwan, so that today the saints in every locality are walking in the new way. We remember him — our dear Brother Wu!