DETAILS! DO 129  11/71

STATISTICS

         1. In case you don't know it, god is interested in details & statistics! He even says that the very hairs of your head are numbered, & not one sparrow falls to the ground but what your heavenly father knoweth it! Also, some day you will have to give an account for every idle word & for all the deeds done in the body, & every man shall be judged according to his works--god's word says so! And most of all, he keeps books on those who are saved & the unsaved & all their records. God has a whole dossier on each of you in heaven!--Records & recorders are shown to be very important & necessary throughout his word, & many times they were commanded to "write all these things in a book" that they might be remembered for the record.
         2. Statistics are extremely important & vitally essential to diagnosing the condition of each home. This is why we first asked you to keep accurate records of all these figures & report them faithfully, just as it's important to keep the accurate medical records of a patient in a hospital to know his condition, or your financial records to know your financial condition, or meteorological records to forecast the weather! If a home is in good health, these records will most likely show it, but if it's ailing, these records can also show that!--You may be able to diagnose some of your own problems, even hidden problems, from some of these apparent symptoms which show up in your records, even in your statistics as well as your news & reports.
         3. One of the most dangerous problems is no report at all! If you don't report at all, we not only know something is wrong, but worse yet, we don't know what! So report!
         4. It is also important that you keep accurate records & make at least approximate estimates!--No more of this "hundreds" or "thousands" or "all basic classes" or "a few visitors" or "about 300 classes" without giving the actual number of pieces of literature or pages. If you had to print them, you'd know how much each of those counts. Also, no more question marks or "some tracts" etc. At least make a good guess. We can't guess for you. You should come close!

Need for daily & weekly witnessing reports

         5. In order to do this, in the early days we used to require a daily witnessing report from each student where each item was listed, so he could jot down the actual counted, or at least estimated, number each day on this little slip while it was still fresh in his memory. Then each student turned in a little slip of paper each week called his weekly witnessing report with all the totals added up from his daily reports by himself. He didn't get dinner on the day it was due unless his report was in!--And you should have seen the scramble of filling out reports at the last minute, even in the cafeteria line, so they could hand them in for their meal ticket that night!
         6. These little report blanks were just little slips of paper the size of a 3 x 5 card which could be kept in your pocket or bible, even while in the field, so you could jot down figures on the spot, right after the action, right beside each item, then total them up at the end of the day. The items listed should be the same ones requested for your trf.

Baptised with the Holy Ghost

         7. Holy Ghost power means more disciples & less trouble with the ones you have! Maybe some of your personnel problems are due to the fact they didn't get baptized in the spirit! Spirit baptism is far more important than water baptism, which isn't essential! Boom!

Suggestions &/or comments

         8. This is your chance to sound off & preach at us & tell us how you think it ought to be done--whatever you have on your heart, whatever you feel like saying! Now's your chance! Sock it to us! This is usually one of the most interesting parts of your report, & has sometimes resulted in some valuable contributions to our over-all operation, policies, changes, improvements, procedures, security, inspiration etc. This is also a good place for you to ask questions, if you have any, or to suggest personnel changes or plans or warn of potential dangers etc.

The purpose of the statistical reports

         9. The purpose of these statistical reports is to encourage all of us by being able to see how much we're accomplishing through these actual figures & also to help us detect any trouble spots, problems or areas that need help, & correct our mistakes. The size of the figures is not always important, except as they relate to the quality of what you're accomplishing, & the relationship of these figures to each other can often tell us something, good or bad.

Train more so you can divide more & smaller

         10. Our aim should be smaller homes scattered throughout every important area of the world carrying the message everywhere & gaining disciples in all the world & reaping the entire harvest, rather than just a few little corners of a few small fields. Jesus said, "lift up your eyes" & see the whole harvest, for which real labourers are needed, hard workers, who will be willing to go anywhere & do anything to bring it in! "Pray ye therefore that the lord of the harvest will send forth labourers into the harvest."--Mat.9:38. We have got to go wherever the harvest is!--Now!
         11. We should scatter out throughout all the world like the early church, into every land & nation, & make disciples of all nations in all the world & preach the gospel to every creature! This is why I am convinced we must do a better job of training more leaders so we can scatter into more & smaller homes throughout the world as soon as possible!

The advantages of small homes over big homes

         12. When your home gets to the point that it takes all your time just to try to take care of them physically & you don't even have enough time to train them spiritually, & they can't even get out & witness very much, your home's too big. But a small home has few needs, requires little housing, less food & food preparation, less transportation, less maintenance & has lots more time to teach, study, train, experience, witness & win souls!
         13. You'll also find that, with fewer people, you'll have fewer & less serious personnel problems because everybody is kept busy in some responsibility, & you can keep an eye on every one of them, & everyone is learning to be a leader by experience, on-the-job training! But as I've said again & again, you cannot possibly keep track of everybody in a large home, some are bound to be shirking & goofing off & getting into trouble, for idleness is the devil's workshop!
         14. It's almost always the biggest homes that are having the most troubles & the most problems. Whereas the smaller homes know they have to trust the lord because nobody else pays any attention to them to the point of neglect, so they get along fine!
         15. These little pioneer homes are the shining examples of faith, miracles, provision, protection, amazing development of leadership & marvellous accomplishments for their size! Some of them win as many new disciples, or more, than the big ones, because the big ones are too busy to witness & too big to hold any more disciples!
         16. Since when are we supposed to wait until all the conditions are just right before we have enough faith to obey! Since when do we think we have to wait until our leaders have years of training & our babes months & months of coddling before we can send them out! Since when do we have to have just the right kind of an open door, just the right kind of a house or building in just the right section or city with all the best provisioning conditions, plenty of money & the best weather, before we can leave!
         17. I am becoming convinced that it's merely a lack of pure faith & obedience that we're not breaking up these big homes, or at least trimming them down by sending out more teams to needier areas around the world!
         18. Every team that has been sent out has prospered, been cared for, multiplied & been blessed by the lord, & won many new disciples in spite of many trials & tribulations, obstacles, hindrances & persecution! Ptl!
         19. Many of these new teams had very young leadership, & plenty of babes, even some inexperienced leadership that had never run a home before--but they soon learned, for god was with them, blessing them for their faith & obedience! They sought his kingdom first & all these other things were added unto them: houses, lands, provisions, protection, good publi city & much good fruit! Hallelujah!
         20. If persecution forces us underground, the smaller the home, the easier it is to hide & the less attention it draws from the enemy, & the less adverse fire from the news media. When publicity is not favourable, it's sometimes better to have no publicity at all in order to survive. The bigger you are & the more news you make, the more afraid they are of you, & the more apt they are to react violently against you.
         21. The larger you are & the more publicity you get, the greater threat you become to their society & way of life, & the more they are apt to try to get rid of you! And they can get rid of you if they want to, usually by clamping down on your housing!

Housing can be the System's weapon against you

         22. If the System wants to start clamping down on you because you've become a nuisance to them, because you've stirred up too much antagonism amongst the parents who are jumping on the backs & climbing down the throats of the officials, so that they simply want to get you out of their hair, you're disturbing their peace, so that all of a sudden you have become a serious threat to public health & safety, guilty of disorderly conduct, etc.--
         23. They use the simplest weapon at their command: the housing, building, zoning, health & safety & fire regulations etc. There's hardly a building they can't condemn if they want to. They can clamp down on the restrictions & the inspection so tight that they can make it impossible to meet their requirements or economically ridiculous & extravagant!
         24. Or they can put the pressure on your poor landlord so that they make his life miserable unless he himself asks you to leave. They even condemned & made him tear down our house in miami, & the few ministers who were cooperating with us were also threatened with reprisals against their own church buildings under these dictatorial local building codes! In america today, the government really owns your property & tells you exactly what to do with it, but makes you foot the bill!
         25. So the smaller home again attracts less attention, opposition & persecution from the System, as a rule, can operate much more underground inconspicuously, quietly, & without drawing too much notice, fear or fire. And then, when things do get hot, the smaller home has less invested & fewer possessions & people to move at a moment's notice, & they can go almost anywhere, as almost any of our other homes could take them in for a day or two until they could be enroute to another location, or their members spread around & absorbed by other smaller homes until another location opens or they have faith to launch out & obey--"go!"

ALWAYS STAY MOBILE & READY TO MOVE

         26. CONSIDER THE RECHABITES OF JEREMIAH 35! THROUGH THEIR FATHER, THE LORD COMMANDED THEM, "Neither shall ye build house or sow seed nor plant vineyard nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents: that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers!" And "we have dwelt in tents & have obeyed" & "when Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon came into the land we said, come, & let us go...& so we dwell!" Read the whole chapter--it will thrill you! Because of their willingness to dwell in tents when everybody else was living in houses, they were able to quickly escape when the trouble came, & survived! In fact, the Lord holds them up here as a shining example to His People & promises them, because of their sacrificial obedience, they would continue to survive, & in spite of everything: "Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before Me forever"! Hallelujah! What an example for us in a Jeremiah time!
         27. OUR GREATEST HANDICAP IS THAT WE'VE LOST THE PILGRIM SPIRIT, haven't kept up our campers, tents & camping equipment, & have settled down to the ease & luxury of more stationary & conventional housing.
         28. I BELIEVE WE CAN TRUTHFULLY SAY, THAT AS LONG AS WE KEPT MOVING, or at least prepared to move, God blessed us the most. And although sometimes it seemed necessary to settle down for awhile for a little rest & recuperation, for the patching of our tents & the feeding of our flock & the strengthening of our lambs, we soon had to move on again-always & without exception, PTL!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family