Priorities 01 Subject Studies — William MacDonald

In coming to this seminar, to this retreat, it makes me think of a hymn we used to sing over seas. There's a sound upon the mountains, there's a murmur in the air, and the sound of coming glory thrills my soul.

God is really working these days, and it's great to be around where he is working. The theme selected for this retreat is the man God uses as a true disciple. There are a lot of ways you could go at this.

Examining Our Priorities Before God

I thought I would take it up under the subject of priorities. What are our priorities? And I'd like to think with you. I'd like us to examine our own hearts and to ask ourselves, why are we really majoring in life?

Some of the subjects we can think about are, for instance, the Bible. What place does the Bible have in my life today? Prayer, worship, my family, the assembly, the local fellowship, the local church, my secular occupation, making money, TV, the honors of this world, security, hobbies, sports, recreation, you name it.

Somebody said, life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you want, but you can spend it only once. Now, we all know where our priorities should lie. The first verse in the Bible tells us that, doesn't it?

In the beginning, God. Put God first. When Elijah went into the home of that widow, he said, make me first a cake. Poor soul, she was just eking out an existence and had enough left for herself and her child, and then they were ready to fold up and die, and he said, make me first a cake.

I always thought, wasn't that a selfish thing to say? But it wasn't, because he was there as God's representative, and he was saying, put God first in you, and the barrel will never go empty. The crews of oil will never fail.

And then, of course, the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 6 .33 tell us where our priorities should lie. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

We know those things. The problem is how to implement them. And to test my priorities, one way I can do it tonight is this. What can I talk most enthusiastically about? It's a little temperature test that we can take.

What do I get most excited about? And what can I speak about with the greatest enthusiasm? And really, whatever that is, is the thing that's having first place in my life, isn't it? Whether it's golf, or business, or politics, or the Lord.

So I want to think about these things with you in the hours that we have together. And I'd like to begin with the Bible. Let's check on our priorities. It's very easy for us to forget what a treasure we have in this wonderful book.

Investing in the Word of God

Within the covers of this book, God has given us his counsels and his purposes. And in very many ways, this book is about the most wonderful thing we have in the world. So, you come up here to Colorado and you look out on the wonders of God's natural creation, and they are wonderful.

But really, the wonders of the word of God are more wonderful. You believe that? The revelation of God we have in the scriptures is a far greater revelation than we have in creation. I think you have that brought out very beautifully in the 19th Psalm.

If a carpenter takes me and shows me a house that he's built, I can tell some things about that carpenter. I can tell you something about the type of a man he is. But if I sit down and talk with him for a couple of hours, I can tell a lot more.

I can look out upon the creation and see a lot about God, that when I hear him speaking to me through the word of God, I can tell a lot more. And I really believe that what you and I are doing with the Bible today is determining our capacity for enjoying heaven.

Do you believe that? We are making our initial investment now in the word of God. And throughout eternity, God is going to be revealing to us the treasures of this marvelous book. Throughout endless ages, he's going to be showing us the wonders that he has stored up here.

But my capacity for enjoying it all will be determined by what I'm doing with the scriptures today. And the trouble is, it's so easy to spend more time in the week on the paper, Time magazine, and TV, than in the eternal word of the living God.

And these things should not be. I think it was in the little booklet Our Daily Bread the other day, the story about Jenny Lind, the Swedish nightingale. At the height of her career, she turned her back on it all.

And somebody said to her, Jenny, why did you do it? Why did you turn your back on it all? She said, it made me think too little of it. Well, that's the trouble. The world is too much with us. Late and soon, giving and spending, we lay waste to our powers.

And it's just too easy for you and for me to let a week slide by and not be making that investment for eternity in the word of God. Some people say to me, you don't understand, brother, I'm not a student.

Well, I know a lot of people who aren't students who became students through the scriptures, the greatest university. My father came over to this country from Scotland, and I doubt very much that he had an eighth-grade education.

I doubt it. But he was saved by the wonderful grace of God, and he started digging in the word of God. When he died at the age of 84, he could preach the gospel, he could minister the word of God. He was an elder in the local assembly, and a powerful God, a man that never had more than a...

Yes, exactly. But he would come home at night from his work and he'd study the word of God, and he'd go to the conversational Bible readings and make meaningful contributions to them. It's wonderful what God can do with a man who's really given over to him and who's willing to be taught.

So let us ask ourselves the question, at the beginning of this retreat, really, what am I doing with the scriptures? Am I going to be a pauper in heaven? Having majored on minors and really neglected that which was of supreme importance?

Prayer and Dependence on God

And closely connected with that is the subject of prayer, and really I speak to my own heart in this. I do believe that in eternity one of our greatest regrets will be that we didn't pray more. Somebody suggested that man never comes closer to infinite power than when he prays in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Isn't that something to think about? Man never comes closer to omnipotence than when he prays in the name of the Lord Jesus and for the glory of God. And I suppose that's why Hudson Taylor said, learn to move men through God by prayer.

I really believe the work is done in prayer. I haven't always believed that, but I believe it today. I really believe the work of God is done in prayer, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.

And how do we get in touch with the spirit? Through prayer. And you know, we live in a world where miracles are taking place all around us every day through prayer, and if we neglect prayer, we're missing out.

If we give our lives over to prayer, our lives will crackle with the supernatural. We'll see the marvelous converging of circumstances in our lives, and our lives will be radioactive with the Holy Spirit of God.

Let me give you some illustrations. Back at Christmastime, some of our fellows were praying about going to Mexico on a gospel crusade. They needed transportation. They prayed, went to prayer. We had these extended times of prayer, and they cried out to God for a vehicle that would be big enough to take the crowd down.

Save gas, don't take too courage. It wasn't long after that that Jack Davies told them that they could take the van from the Fairhaven Gospel Chapel. The only hitch was that the drivers had to be over 25, insurance.

Only one of our fellows was over 25. What do you do? Pray. So, they went to prayer, and crying to God to raise up somebody over 25 that could share in the driving, because they drive around the clock.

They don't stop at the holiday inns on the way down. One of them got a phone call one night from a fellow named John Berg in Fullerton. Heard you were going to Mexico. I wondered if you had room for another person in the van.

Yeah, how old are you? He was. He was over 25. So, they were going to leave on a Thursday morning at 3 o 'clock in the morning. Wednesday afternoon, somebody went into the room of our fellow who was over 25, the driver, stole his wallet with $350 and his driver's license.

I think the driver's license at that point was more important than the $350. And so, what do you do? You pray. You pray. So, that night, after it was dark, two of them decided to go out in the neighborhood, and look, they didn't even have a flashlight.

So, they started going around the neighborhood, and it was as dark as could be. And they looked across the street, and there was a Chuck Burger there or something, a hamburger place. It wasn't McDonald's.

And they decided to go over there. One of them looked on the ground, on the ground beside one of the disposal cans, and there was a wallet. The money was gone, but the license was there. Now, it's a wonderful thing to prove God by prayer, isn't it?

And these things are happening all around us. Are they happening in our lives? Do we see God working in this way? I was reading in NOW the other day, a woman, a Christian worker, goes into the London airport and witnesses for the Lord Jesus.

She went in recently to the London airport, and she got hold of a stewardess of one of the airliners. And spoke to her about the Lord Jesus, and the stewardess was ripe. She trusted Christ as her Savior.

And then shortly after, she said to the worker, she said, look, I've got to go. She said, my plane is leaving. And the worker said, fine. And she reached down in her bag, and she brought out a book by Francis Schaeffer, and she handed it to the stewardess.

And she said, read this if you get a chance on the flight. She shot up a prayer to God. And the girl gets on the flight, the flight goes on, gets her work done, she's sitting down in her jump seat, reading the book, and a man comes up to her and he says, you understand what you're reading?

She said, well, I've only been saved a few minutes, he said. He said, let me explain it to you. My name is Francis Schaeffer. Do you think God answers prayer? Really, it's a shame we don't pray more, isn't it?

Last year we had one of our extended times of prayer out there on the West Coast. We started this time of prayer with a confession to God, confession of our own sins, of the sins of the Church and the sins of our nation.

And as the evening wore on, we began to pray about the Chad Republic. This was on a Friday night. At that time, the president of the Chad Republic was a very wicked man named Tombulbai. And he had begun a terrible career of repression of Christians there.

He was requiring everybody, all the men, to take some very vile initiation ceremonies, which was really initiating them back into the old heathen rites. Many of the men who went to the initiation ceremonies never came back.

Time magazine reported that they buried one Christian man up to his neck in the sand and let the ants finish him off. Another man was placed, another Christian was placed inside a drum, and they beat on the drum until he starved to death.

And of course, we have friends over there, missionary friends there, and there's a very strong indigenous work among assemblies of God's people over there in the Chad. And this night, I think there are some young people here who were at the prayer meeting that night.

This night, we laid hold of God for the Chad Republic. On Sunday morning, I was driving to the meeting, turned on the radio, heard the news, military coup in the Chad, Tombulbai slain. It's been a new day for Christianity in the Chad since then.

I want to ask you a question. Do you think a group of nobodies praying in San Leandro, California, can influence the destiny of a nation in Africa? Well, it did. It did. It really did. And I'd like to suggest to you and to my own heart that prayer should really have a higher priority in our lives than it has.

Worship as the Believer’s Proper Response

We never come closer to omnipotence than when we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus and for the glory of God. And then I think of the subject of worship, too. What place? Am I really a worshiper? I got a lesson years ago.

I was traveling back east and went to Baltimore, and A .S. Loazo picked me up at the railroad station and drove me to his home. When we came into the yard of his home, he had two dogs, one was a white dog and the other was a black dog or something like that.

Anyway, when we got out of the car, that white dog came and jumped all over Mr. Loazo, slobbered all over his hands and really showed the utmost affection for him. Really did. The black dog lurked in the shadows, didn't even come near.

And Mr. Loazo said to me, that black dog knows nothing about worship. And it was a very powerful object lesson for me, you know. I thought of my own life and how you can be so busy in the work of the Lord and neglect the subject of worship.

And how gratifying. You know, I think it's a wonderful thing that God made dogs. Really, a dog is a wonderful creature. Many of you have dogs at home, no doubt. And I think God put those dogs there to really teach us lessons.

They really do. They're wonderful creatures. And the loyalty and affection that they can shower on others is really something. I have some friends in Napa and they have a red Irish setter and it's the most affectionate dog I've ever known.

It's a leaner. Whenever you go in the house, it comes and leans its head right against your knee. And it really does something for you, you know. I was going to say for your ego, I don't know if it's your ego or what.

But just to think that the dog cares, that's all. Well recently, recently their house was broken into and I guess the dog just gave the robbers a royal welcome. That's the kind of a dog I like. Because when my friends came home, the house was stripped and the dog was contentedly shut up in the kitchen.

They had just closed the door in the kitchen and left the dog there. Well they said, we're going to put an end to that. And so they got a young German Shepherd and when we visited the home, we were not to touch that German Shepherd.

They didn't want us to pet that German. That German Shepherd was going to be a man-eater, you know. And anybody come near that house was going to get it. I was up there a couple of weeks ago and did you know that Irish setter had transformed that German Shepherd.

It was a real lover. A real worshiper. And you know, worship is like that too. It really is like that. And when you think, when you think of what the Lord has done for us, when you think of God becoming man so that as man he could die for us on a criminal's cross, why he deserves all that we have.

And when you think too that the only worship that God gets is what he gets from redeemed lips, it isn't too much is it? And so at a time like this, and I'm speaking to my own heart tonight, I really think we should really rededicate ourselves to this whole matter of worship.

Listen, there are too many brothers in our assembly whose voices are never heard in public worship. And it would lift the tone of any meeting just to hear that brother, young or old, get up and say, Lord Jesus, I love you.

David did that. I've been impressed as I've been reading some of the psalms, some of the simple things that David said. Well, there's nothing great about that. No, nothing great about the great thing is that he said it, you know, the Lord, great is the Lord.

Well, I could say that, why don't you say it? David said it, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. The Lord is good. David said, I love the Lord. That's just ABC, I know it, but we're not saying it.

We're not telling the Lord and he's waiting for it. I really believe that the Lord Jesus has an appointment with me at that worship meeting and I believe he misses me when I'm not there. Sad to say there are all too many who are really more concerned about a weekend in the mountains than they are about an hour at the throne.

When the Lord Jesus went to the house of Simon the Pharisee, he said to him, and you know, the woman came and anointed him and really worshipped him. Jesus said to Simon, thou gavest me no kiss. Huh, he wouldn't think he'd have missed a kiss, but he did.

He did. Thou gavest me no kiss. I'll tell you, one of the great things that could really happen as a result of our weekend here is if we determined that our lives would be more fragrant for the Lord Jesus in worship from now on, and we'd let some of the other things go by the board, you say, how do you do it?

Well, I'll tell you just a practical way in which to do it. That is to dedicate Saturday night to the Bible and the hymn book. You ever think of that? I personally like to have my Saturday nights to myself and to sit in my room with my Bible and the hymn book.

The hymn book God so often uses inspiring worship, really, and those men said it in ways that I can't say it. They say what I feel but can't express, and really some of the hymns are just wonderful and they lift you right up to the very throne of God.

Lamb of God, our souls adore thee, while upon thy face we gaze, there the Father's love and mercy shine in all their brightest rays. Lamb of God, when we behold thee, lowly in the manger laid, wandering as a homeless stranger in the world thy hands had made.

I think you can scarcely sit and contemplate words like that without your heart overflowing in love and praise and adoration for the Lord Jesus. Are you a worshiper? It is very pleasing to the Lord. Mary was.

She chose the better part. Service is good. Worship is better. I don't know whether Doug Fuller is here yet, I don't see him, but he gave a lovely devotions one morning in our intern program this year, and he quoted some men who said God is more interested in our love than in our service.

The heavenly bridegroom is wooing a bride, not hiring a servant. Let me say it again. God is interested, this may not be exact, but it's the gist of it. God is more interested in our love than in our service.

The heavenly bridegroom is wooing a bride, not hiring a servant. That really shot through me when he said that, and I realized God had spoken to me. So try it. Try setting Saturday night aside just to be quiet before the Lord, reading the scriptures concerning the passion of the Lord Jesus, and reading some of those wonderful hymns in a hymn book like Hymns of the Little Flock, or Believer's Hymn Book, or Hymns of Worship and Remembrance, things that are specifically set apart for that.

These are really things of first importance, and yet the things of life, the things of the world can crowd them out so that often times we look at our hearts and wonder whether we are stones or human beings.

Family as a Primary Mission Field

Then I think about our family. I personally believe that when God gives a man a family, that's his number one mission field. I really believe that. I think it's a sad thing when anybody has to say what the Shulamites said in the first chapter of the Song of Solomon, they made me the keeper of the vineyard, but my own vineyard have I not kept.

Of course, she said it really about her own personal appearance, didn't she? When she said it, she was dark and swarthy, sunburned from working out in the vineyard. Her own personal appearance she hadn't kept, but it applies to our families as well.

It applied to Eli's family, you know? Eli, representative of God among his people, but he failed with his family. David gave Adonijah a gentle pass, as it were, but he didn't rebuke him. Years ago, it came over the radio in northern Minnesota that there was a heavy frost coming that night.

There was a woman on a farm there and she remembered that she still had a few cucumbers and tomatoes on the vines. She took her two little children and put them out in a little pen in the yard and closed the gate and she went off down to the garden to get the tomatoes and the cucumbers.

When she came back, the little girl was missing. The alarm was sent out and men spent all that night searching with great searchlights for that little girl and she was never found. The woman got her cucumbers and her tomatoes, but she lost her child.

As you know, it's possible for us to do that too, isn't it? I'm afraid that in too many cases today that we give ourselves to the world so much that we lose our children in the process. And not only that, but oftentimes we hold before our children worldly ambitions and train them for the world and for hell.

We really do. I was brought up in a Christian home and I really thank God tonight for the background I had, but I might as well be honest too and say that I can't remember anybody ever holding the work of God before me as a desirable way in which to spend my life.

I was encouraged to go out and make a name for myself in the community and get a good job, shoot for the top, but I can't remember anybody ever holding the work of the Lord before me as a desirable way in which to spend my life.

Isn't that sad? My brother went off to Bible school and I can remember now to my mind saying, whatever you do, don't you do that, Bill. And I said, don't worry. I had no intention of doing it. I knew I wanted to be an investment banker and nothing was going to interfere with that.

The Local Assembly in God’s Plan

That's it. And we have a whole sense of priority. So what nowadays? I know many Christian parents today would be very glad to have their children serving the Lord. Just perhaps one more. I'd like to ask tonight, what priority do we give in our lives to the local assembly, to the fellowship, to the local church?

I would guess that most of us don't really realize how important the assembly, when I use the word assembly, I mean that local fellowship, how important it is to God. First of all, the importance of the fellowship is seen by the place that's given to it in the New Testament.

Think of the vast portions of the New Testament that are devoted to the subject of the New Testament church. It must be important. It must be important. It formed a very important part in the ministry of the apostles.

Wherever they went, they spoke enthusiastically about it. I don't know if you've noticed it, but it's almost a mum subject in evangelical Bible conferences today. Did you ever hear the subject of the church roached?

Yet, Paul had a two-fold ministry, and the church was part of that ministry. In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul said that he was called, first of all, to declare among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

That's the gospel. And he said to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery. That's the church. Paul didn't think his ministry was complete unless he kept the two in balance, the gospel and the local fellowship.

The subject of the church forms the capstone of scriptural revelation. Colossians chapter 1, verse 25. A rather obscure verse, but maybe we could just look at it for a minute. Colossians chapter 1, verse 25.

It says, Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill or complete the word of God. To complete the word of God. The subject here is the church, the mystery.

And he says, Whereof I am made a minister. That is, a servant of the church, of the mystery, to complete the word of God. What does it mean? Well, I believe it means this, that when Paul gave us the truth of the New Testament church, that completed the word of God.

Oh, you say, just a minute, brother. Revelation was added after that. That's true, but there was no new, important doctrine added after the doctrine of the church. That was the capstone. When Paul gave us that, he gave us the capstone.

The church is an object blessed to angelic beings. Ephesians 3 .10. They look down and they see the manifold, the variegated wisdom of God in the church. And I'll tell you, that would be enough to spend hours just meditating on.

How do angels see the manifold wisdom of God in the church? Well, it's really a wonderful thing when you stop to think about it. When you take a group like ourselves and what we've been saved from, how the Lord Jesus came down into Death Valley, into a very jungle of sin, as it were, and he took people of every culture and every background and every social strata and all the rest and saved them by his matchless grace and embarked on this tremendous program of conforming them to the image of his Son.

And he puts us together in the church to get the rough edges knocked off and to develop graces in our lives that could never be developed in any other way. It's a wonderful thing. It's an object blessing to angelic beings.

The assembly is the only unit on earth to which God has promised perpetuity. That is, only to the assembly, to the church, has he said, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Mind you, there are a lot of good Christian organizations in the world today, and I'm not here to sing against them.

But I want to tell you, I believe the assembly, the church, is central in God's plan. And I believe if my life isn't bound up with that church, I'm missing God's best. I really believe that. I really believe it with all my heart.

The church is spoken of as the fullness of him that fills all in all. I love some of these expressions of Paul. It seems that the words seem to bend under the very weight of the ideas. Imagine that the church is the fullness of him that fills all in all.

What does that mean? Sometimes it's just a jumble of holy words to us when we read something like that. But I like to illustrate it like this. If this is Christ and this is the church, the church is the complement of Christ.

It goes to make up the complete human. Now, really, only grace would ever say that. Imagine the Lord Jesus in any sense intimating that he's not complete without us. I think he could get along very well without us.

No, it says the church is the fullness of him that fills all in all. When I read that, I stand in awe and worship. It's the body of Christ. Just think of that, the body of Christ. The bride of Christ.

How can you think of anything that expresses more intimacy and affection? I believe the church is the unit on earth that God has chosen to propagate the Christian faith. I really believe that. I'm glad for the great work of the Spirit of God in our day, creating a new emphasis on church renewal.

I believe this, that the weakest assembly of God's people in the world today means more to God than the greatest nation that exists. Do you believe that? Maybe some of you are from an assembly like that.

A weak assembly, and sometimes you get discouraged and you wonder if it's worth it. Listen, that assembly means more to God than the greatest empire that has ever existed. Why do you say that? I say that because it says in Isaiah that the nations to God are as a drop in a bucket and a fine dust to the balance.

He never says that about the church. He says the church is the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. And I believe that the humblest elder in an assembly of God's people means more to God than the President of the United States.

Why all this fuss about the presidency and so little about the elders? Where do you ever get such far-out ideas, MacDonald? Well, I'll tell you. Just go through the New Testament and find me... How many verses can you find me that will tell me how to be a good President of the United States?

Not many. How many verses can you give me about the work of elders? Oh, you say, quite a few. I can give you 1 Timothy 3, I can give you Titus 1. Peter had a lot to say about it in his... A lot of it.

Why? Because it's important to God. And they'll never forget it. They'll never forget years ago, back at Emmaus, I said to a young fellow, Alan, what would you like to do when you become a mature Christian?

He said, I'd like to be an elder in a local assembly like Brother Chapel in our assembly. The only young person I've ever heard say that. That is very good. I'd like to be an elder in a local assembly.

To tell you, he had his priorities right. He really did. And I believe that the visitation work in that local assembly of yours is pure religion and undefiled. I don't know what kind of visitation is going on in your assembly.

But I read in James, pure religion and undefiled is to visit the widows and fatherless in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. And I was impressed in the church gleanings calendar recently, and with this I'm going to close.

There was a quotation from John Nelson Darby to George Vesemius Wigram. Some of you Greek scholars know Wigram, I think. It's a really interesting letter. His middle name, Vesemius, means 20. He was the 20th child in the family.

George Vesemius Wigram. Well, Darby wrote this to him, and it really surprised me, but I believe it's true. He said, I think the visiting part is the most important part of the work. The clock strikes the hours and the passersby hear it, but the works inside make the clock go.

And keep the striking and the timing right. I think that visiting should be your substantive work, and take all else as it comes. I dread much public testimony, and especially so if there be no private work.

And that was written by a man who turned his back on wealth and luxury in Ireland. He was brought up in a castle in Ireland, and when people passed the castle, their noses went up, and they'd say, it's so nice to know the Darby.

And he turned his back on all of that, and on a position of rank in the Church of Ireland, he went out, traveled for 26 years in Europe without unpacking his suitcase. He lived for days at a time on milk and acorns.

One day he sat in a cheap Italian boarding house and cupped his chin in his hands and sang, Jesus, I, my cross, have taken all to leave and fall thee. When he died, his collected writings still 34 volumes.

He left New Testament assemblies everywhere he ever went. There are many of them in the world today. And he says, I think visitation is the most important part of the work. Where are my priorities tonight?

Am I really giving the Bible the place it deserves in my life? Prayer, the quiet time. I didn't mention that. My family, the local fellowship, or am I really majoring on minors, becoming an expert in underwater basket weaving, while above us burns the vision of the Christ upon the cross.

Shall we pray? Father, we'll pray tonight that during this weekend when we're together and we have a chance to get away from the rat race and just look out over our lives, we do pray, Lord, that you'll give us the grace to face things honestly and if things have really become rather turned upside down in our lives and if we're spending our lives in that which really doesn't matter and if we're neglecting with all kinds of theological excuses the things that we really should be doing, we pray, Lord, that we might do business with you in great waters this weekend.

The Speaker’s Accountability to a Local Assembly

We ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. One of the questions is, what is your relationship with a local assembly, meaning my own? Elder? Question mark. Deacon? Question mark. In subjection? Question mark.

Well, the answer is I'm not an elder. I'm not a deacon. My ministry is more of an itinerant work, but I do have a home assembly and I am in subjection to the elders of that assembly. That's the Bethany Gospel Chapel in Oakland, California.

Also, during the week, I work with the Discipleship Intern Training Program and that is under the elders of the Fairhaven Chapel and it's a work strictly in connection with a local assembly. But I could not be an elder in the Bethany Assembly because I'm not there sufficiently.

I do carry on with the visitation program at Bethany, but I think to be an effective elder, you should be there on Lord's Day and meeting the people and entering into the life of the assembly and because of my ministry in other places, I'm not able to do that.

Training Younger Men for Visitation

If I don't answer the question, feel free to just speak out because that would be best. What would you suggest that a younger man, 20 to 25, do to help in the area of visitation? Well, I think it's ideal, first of all, when an assembly has a visitation training program and when those who feel that the Lord could use them in this work come out regularly, maybe on a weekly basis, when there's a definite training schedule going on and then when they move out, a trainer and a training.