613 What It Takes to Lead the Church
Chorus
Those who can lead churches, supplying people with life,
apostles to the people, need actual experience.
They need the right understanding of all things spiritual
and correct appreciation and experience of truth.
Only with these qualities are people qualified
to be the workers or apostles that lead the churches.
Else they can only follow as the least.
Verse 1
This is because the function of apostles
is neither to rush about, nor to fight.
It’s to do the work of ministering life,
leading others to transform their dispositions.
Those people performing this function
bear a heavy responsibility.
They are commissioned to do such work.
It’s not something just anyone can do.
Chorus
Those who can lead churches, supplying people with life,
apostles to the people, need actual experience.
They need the right understanding of all things spiritual
and correct appreciation and experience of truth.
Only with these qualities are people qualified
to be the workers or apostles that lead the churches.
Else they can only follow as the least.
Verse 2
One must have life, have experience of the truth
to be able to undertake this work.
They can’t just renounce, rush about, expend themselves,
but they need that experience of the truth.
If one hasn’t been pruned or judged, they can’t do this work.
With no experience, they lack reality.
Then they cannot see reality clearly,
for they don’t possess this kind of being.
Pre-chorus
So if one’s this type, then they’re not able
to do leadership work.
And if they stay without the truth for too long,
they’ll become an object of elimination.
Chorus
Those who can lead churches, supplying people with life,
apostles to the people, need actual experience.
They need the right understanding of all things spiritual
and correct appreciation and experience of truth.
Only with these qualities are people qualified
to be the workers or apostles that lead the churches.
Else they can only follow as the least.
Adapted from The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God’s Work and Man’s Work