SHEPHERDING AND TEACHING—THE OBLIGATION OF THE VITAL GROUPS (1)
Shepherding and teaching are the obligation of the vital groups. If we do not do this, we owe something to the Lord, to the saints, and to all the sinners on this earth (Rom. 1:14). Shepherding and teaching are our obligation as a charge given to us by the Lord. This is the basic way ordained by God in the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate His eternal goal—the New Jerusalem.
Christ’s shepherding was for the care of God’s flock. He was the door in and the door out for God’s elect (John 10:2-5). He was the door into the fold for the Old Testament saints, such as Moses, Joshua, David, and Isaiah. The fold signifies the law, or Judaism as the religion of the law. When Christ came in the New Testament, He was the door out of the fold so that God’s chosen people, such as Peter, John, James, and Paul, could come out to enjoy Him as the pasture…. All the members of the vital groups should be like Christ. We should be the door to people for their salvation and nourishment so that they can feed on Christ as their pasture that they may have His divine life abundantly.
In John 10:16 the Lord said, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must lead them also, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd.” This means that Christ was the Shepherd flocking the divided Jewish and Gentile sheep together to be one flock… The proper shepherding work is to flock people together.
Christ is the Chief Shepherd, shepherding His flock through the elders of the churches (1 Pet. 5:4)… Actually, we are not the ones who are shepherding. When we shepherd, it should be Christ shepherding through us.
When the Lord’s shepherding goes deeper in us, it reaches our soul to take care of our inward condition for the doing of the will of God in us. Christ as the Shepherd of our soul oversees the inward situation of our soul, which is composed of our mind, emotion, and will. We need Him to perfect our mind, adjust our emotion, and correct our will.
Christ comforts us inwardly to constitute the divine organism, the incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with His regenerated and transformed elect (14:17b-20). As the second Comforter, Christ is the Spirit of reality who comes not only to be with us but also to be in us, the redeemed ones of God (v. 17). Then the Son in whom we believe is in the Father and we are in Him and He is in us (v. 20). These four ins show the Triune God incorporated with His redeemed and transformed people to be one entity. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 6, pp. 101-107)
The church in Zamboanga 