The Lord surely loves and cares for our children and young people, and His good intention for them is that they would become the next generation in His move. Throughout history He has depended on the faithful labor of His saints to raise up the next generation, mainly their own children, for the continuation of His divine economy on the earth. For this reason the Bible offers substantial help to God’s people about raising up the next generation. It is no wonder, therefore, that those who have taken the lead in the ministry among us, Brothers Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, paid careful attention to this matter. The materials that compose this book are drawn from the numerous places in their ministry where they offer fellowship about taking care of our children and young people with a view to their becoming the next generation in His glorious move on the earth.

The published ministry of Brother Nee and Brother Lee is prolific, comprising hundreds of titles and tens of thousands of pages. Thus, while the over four hundred pages of this compilation may seem massive, in relation to the whole of their ministry this line in their fellowship is not actually a major one. As will be seen in the pages to follow, most of their help on this topic comes from excerpts scattered throughout their ministry. If the excerpts are examined in their original contexts, it will easily be seen that most often our brothers offer us help on children and young people as supplemental points to their more central lines of fellowship. Of course, there are a few publications in their ministry where they focused on caring for our children and young people (for example, Brother Lee’s How to Lead the Young People), but it would not be correct to say that this was a focus of their ministry. Rather, viewed in the whole context of their ministry, their fellowship on children and young people falls squarely within that third line of truth from the Bible, what Brother Lee called “the leaves and the branches,” bearing less importance than the former two lines, what he called the central line and the line of supplemental points. While both Brother Nee and Brother Lee often shared on “the leaves and the branches,” they did so to bring us all into the central line of the divine revelation, and the original contexts of these excerpts will fully bear this out. (For Brother Lee’s fellowship on the lines in the divine revelation of the Bible, seeInternational Training for Elders and Responsible Ones, Spring 2011: The Central Line of the Bible, Message 1.)

That being the case, it is with some concern and caution that Living Stream Ministry, as publisher of the ministry of Brother Nee and Brother Lee, offers this compilation to the churches and the saints. In making something of “the leaves and the branches” the focus of so substantial a publication asthis, we do not wish to distract any of the dear saints or churches from the central line of the Bible. We sincerely hope that no one among us will make the substance of this book hisor her central line or even the focus of his or her ministry among thesaints. We hope that all the saints and all the churches everywhere will be just as Brother Nee and Brother Lee were, focused on and laboring for the central line among us, especially when they touched “the leaves and the branches.” Of course, some have been called to serve primarily among our children and young people, and we know that such a service is of the Lord and to the Lord. But we certainly feel that all of us should conduct our service so as to lead all in our care to apprehend and experience the central line in the Bible. We further hope that no one among us will use the precious fellowship of our brothers in this book to insist on ways to conduct the children’s and young people’s work among us. As part of “the leaves and the branches,” this fellowship is not to be insisted on, even though we firmly believe that it presents the best guidance for raising up the next generation for the church life. But while we have these concerns, we also have the firm conviction that all the saints in the local churches everywhere will exercise the very same caution that is expressed here, and we are certain that the mere mention of these concerns serves as a sufficient reminder of the pure intention of us all to remain faithful to the central line of truth in the Bible.

Finally, it should be noted that because the fellowship in this book comprises many excerpts from numerous publications, there was the need of organizing and summarizing the content. This will be seen in the lesson outlines that precede each group of excerpts. These outlines, which faithfully crystallize the content of their following excerpts, were composed by a group of blended saints who serve among our children and young people. We are sincerely grateful to them for their labor before the Lord and expect that all the readers of this book will be equally so. We thank the Lord for His grace to them in this labor.

CONTENTS

Part One: Introduction

1. Vessels unto Honor for God’s Eternal Economy
2. The Body of Christ—the Goal of the Divine Economy
3. Keeping Ourselves in the One Flow of the Lord’s Work for the Building Up of the Universal Body of Christ
4. The Importance of the Children and Young People’s Work for the Future of the Lord’s Recovery
5. God’s Ordained Way Being to Gain Households

Part Two: Parents

6. The Person, Living, and Responsibility of the Parents
7. Sanctifying Ourselves for the Sake of the Children
8. Cooperating with God for His Move, as Parents Entrusted with Their Children, to Cultivate and Nurture Them in the Lord

Part Three: Those Who Labor among the Children and Young People

9. Being Patterns for Fostering the Children and Young People

Part Four: Children’s Work

10. The Importance of the Children’s Work in the Church
11. Having the Increase of the Church Also through Children’s Work
12. The Children’s Work Being to Build Children Up in Their Humanity to be Proper Human Beings
13. The Children’s Work in the Homes and in the Neighborhoods
14. Building Up a Prevailing Children’s Work in the Church
15. Compiling Children’s Lessons That Build Up a Proper Humanity and Lead the Children into a Proper Enjoyment (1)
16. Compiling Children’s Lessons That Build Up a Proper Humanity and Lead the Children into a Proper Enjoyment (2)

Part Five: Young People’s Work

17. The Vision and Importance of the Next Generation in the Lord’s Recovery
18. Bringing the Young People into the Church Life through the Homes
19. The Young People Needing the Humanity of Jesus for the Church Life
20. How to Lead the Young People (1)
21. How to Lead the Young People (2)
22. Shepherding the Young People according to the Lord’s Heart
23. Teachers’ Training (1) The Proper Understanding of Teaching, and Receiving the Word as the Breath of God to Produce God-men
24. Teachers’ Training (2) Learning to Teach God’s Economy in an Experiential Way, and Converting Doctrine into Experience

Part Six: Conclusion

25. Serving in Coordination and in a Blended Way to Minister Life
26. Expecting the Lord’s Blessing, and Doing the Unique Work of the Body in Oneness to Produce Beings of the New Jerusalem