21职事需要经历生命的功课。为着预备、收集、产生建造的材料，我们需要运用恩赐；但要把人建造到召会里，就必须有职事。……在使徒行传里，我们看见召会的开始乃是借着恩赐；但到了提摩太前后书，我们看见召会的治理和建造需要学功课。所以保罗嘱咐提摩太说，“倘若我耽延，你也可以知道在神的家中当怎样行。”（提前三15上）……召会的治理不是恩赐的问题，乃是职事的问题。保罗在提摩太前后书里常常提到学习、教导、操练、训练等，这些都不是凭恩赐得着的，乃是出代价才能学得的功课。我们要学习分辨各种器皿，学习认识人；这些都要出代价。职事乃是凭所学得的功课去帮助人。在建造召会的事上，恩赐没有多大用处；建造召会的路，乃在于我们出代价、学生命的功课，让神作到我们里面。 21Ministry requires the experience of lessons of life. We can use gifts to collect, prepare, and produce building materials, but we must have ministry in order to build people into the church…In the book of Acts the church began through gifts, but at the time of 1 and 2 Timothy, the administration and building of the church required the learning of lessons. Hence, Paul charged Timothy, saying, “If I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God” (1 Tim. 3:15)…The administration of the church is not a matter of outward gifts but a matter of ministry. Paul often mentioned learning, teaching, exercising, and training in his two Epistles to Timothy. These matters do not come by gifts but by lessons learned through paying a price. We should learn to discern different kinds of vessels and to know people; these matters require the paying of a price. Ministry is to help others according to the lessons that we have learned. Gifts are of little use in the building of the church. The way to build the church depends on our paying a price and learning the lessons of life that work God into us.