There is pressure today to "save souls from Hell," to add numbers to the church, "win souls for Christ," and so forth. While good may be accomplished by this attitude, the pressure in some instances may not be coming from the Lord but from the spirits of ambitious people. It appears that the end result of a continual emphasis on going out and saving souls, witnessing, and so forth often is churches full of immature believers. If such efforts are not followed by inspired teaching the Kingdom of God will not be greatly strengthened.

Some large assemblies of our day are built by appealing to the family instincts of young people. Whenever there is a large group of young people, other young people will be drawn because of the boy-girl attraction. Having a separate "youth culture" of this kind is characteristic of the American social system.

We know there are special gifts that minister to young people, particularly the young people of America who have become disenchanted with American values. Such special ministries have their place in the work of the Kingdom.

But building an assembly on the family urge of young people, stressing only the basic work of evangelism, is not accepted of God. This device may draw a crowd but it is not accepted of the Father. Also, such an assembly will not stand the Divine shaking when it comes, for every work shall be tried by fire in the day in which we are living.

God's pattern is to have families together in the Christian assemblies. If one of the family members has received Christ and is living in Him, then the entire family is holy and may receive the Communion elements.

It is not the Lord's will that the young people of Christian families have their own Divine service apart from their parents. Before the revival comes that numerous Christians are expecting today, God wants the hearts of the parents turned toward the young people and the hearts of the young people turned toward the parents. Nothing else is accepted of God.

Satan would fragment the family into young people, adults, and senior citizens. God wants the family intact and worshiping together as a unit. Only then will the Presence of God be among us.

Immature believers are of little use to God and they are not a threat to Satan's Kingdom. The Lord told us to feed His sheep. When the sheep become strong and fat they are able to break the yoke of Satan.

We think it is time to listen to the Lord, to the Holy Spirit. We need to know what God's will is for us personally so we do not rush forth in the blindness of the flesh, not truly understanding what the Lord wants us to do. We cannot do everything and be everywhere at once. We need to know what the Lord wants us to do today where we are.

There is a time for evangelism and then there is a time for building up the saints. As the saints are built up in Christ the people around them will be drawn to the Lord. The sheep gate comes before the fish gate. The sheep do not have to be forced to reproduce. They will reproduce naturally as they become mature.

To be continued.