What is another reason that our church could not develop? It is because we could not follow through in taking care of those who joined. Despite the fact that we should pay increasing attention to the people whom we have witnessed to, we neglect them after they join the movement. This amounts to killing the new members. At least for three years you must continue to take good care of them under any difficulty.

Why is this so? That person's faith grows gradually. The time that he first encountered the Divine Principle and one year afterwards are totally different. After one year, new members will be able to understand more the three-dimensional content, of the Principle. The more they understand, the more desperate they become in wanting to know the Principle. So, they would want to approach one who can guide them. When you reflect on this process through which one becomes a new member, you should spend more time to make more specific plans and satisfy their hearts craving for truth.

You should not take the opposite attitude that since they have already become members you need do no more than just telling them, "You should study on your on from now." You should attend to their well-being for at least three years after they join. With a year-old member and a two-year old member in their normal path of faith, the latter will become involved more deeply and more concretely. He becomes more enthusiastic in more concrete ways, and desires to become involved in all areas. You should try to take care and raise these people.

This headquarters also could not fulfill this. Many people passed through this place. At first you ask them to join by introducing the Principle, but then do not pay much attention to them when they come back later. New members will remain faithful and come to the church for six months to a year because they are pulled by their love for the Principle and the lasting effects of the Word. But there is no one who can guide them or be responsible for them.

The one who is doing the lecturing must put them under his wings and raise them. After about one year, their scope of understanding of the Principle will broaden. The scope of their experience and realization will also broaden and deepen gradually. Thus, they increasingly want to learn more about the Principle, but since they cannot find a subject who can teach them further about the Principle they become aware of the inattentive attitude of the older members toward them. So when they face difficulty in their environment or have some doubts, you must provide an explanation with the Principle, and make them understand that the formula of progress is that way.

If you do this, then they will come to realize that the Principle has deep meaning and is great and gigantic. However, because you did not pay enough attention to them, they completely lacked the environment of a stimulating experience. Therefore, they were first inspired by the Principle, but such feelings could not last. So you must continually guide them. If you can no longer be responsible, then you must find a replacement who is connected to the foundation of heart on which you have been raising the member, and let him inherit the responsibility. Taking an actual example, this was the report of those sisters who came back from a witnessing campaign in the countryside recently. According to one sister's report, in some village about thirty young men and women who graduated from high school had become extremely zealous about the movement. At first they were on fire and wanted to go out witnessing, but after 40 days they all went away. After meeting them, if the missionaries had visited or written letters to them even once a month, they could have retained them all.

But when they went back after ten years of neglect, they found that none remained. There have been several succeeding leaders, but those leaders never contacted the pioneers to find out the situation of each member and get advice on how to guide them. In other words, without even inquiring into background information about their life of faith, the succeeding leaders each took the casual attitude that he was used to and gave orders on his whims, saying, "You should do it this way and do that that way." Accordingly, since some stranger suddenly appeared and played the role of a master, they feel that he is not agreeable.

Because a new leader goes to this region with public authority, if there are about thirty members there he uses the excuse that he wants to solidify the system, and employs dominating methods based on his own concepts. If you act this way, you will lose all members. You won't be able to fulfill the responsibility of inheriting from the predecessor. Until now, all regional leaders made this mistake. As new leader, you should not order members around when you have not inherited everything heartistic and internal and have not even created the environment where the members are ready to receive your orders and understand the changes you want to make.

A new leader should be receiving criticisms from the members for at least the first three months. You should not tell members to do this or do that according to you own opinion while members are still observing you. Even for someone you have been raising for three years, there can be side-effects if you become too commanding, so it will create more problems for the new members if you tell them to do this and do that as a stranger who has not even established a heartistic relationship. At least for three months, you must devote yourself.

In the method of transferring leadership, there has been this type of mistake, and there was also the members' failure to make introduction to the new leader about the persons they had witnessed to. Because the old leader also hadn't done this, they felt disappointed. Then the new leader disappoints them further, instead of resolving their dissatisfaction, embracing and caring for them, providing solutions to their difficulties, or giving them hope for the future that would give them power to move on.

When this happens, members simply have no choice but to fall away. If they miss church three times, some accidents will occur, and if they do not come for one, two, and three weeks, they will become much more distant. They will be worried that when they meet the leader, and the leader will certainly ask them why they are not coming to the church. If they are questioned, then although the actual reason is due to disappointment, they cannot give an honest answer but tell some lies. If this pattern is repeated several times, they become increasingly distant, and eventually leave completely. (29-192)

Even though you have brought in members, you sacrificed many people because of bad policy in taking care of members after they joined. So, what should the leader always be concerned about? The mission of the leader is not spreading and conveying the word, but reaping the harvest. You must understand this. Proclaiming the word is planting seed, and reaping harvest afterwards is the mission of the leader. In other words, you must give water to the young bud, and uproot the weeds and help the blossoming of flowers in order to produce fruits.

The mission of the leader will be completed only after the fruit matures after some time and he is able to reap the harvest. A new leader should not try to implant again from scratch what the predecessor has already done. Rather, he must take a good care in raising what is already there. Although the seeds were planted by someone else, if he can raise them well and bring in harvest they will go into the storage of Heaven. However, because he does not have such an attitude, because he does not try to first understand the personality and leadership style of the past leader, but plants his own seeds, they will die. You should never make such mistakes.

I believe that because the leadership transfer and inheriting responsibility did not go smoothly, many people were sacrificed. Looking from this point of view, more than the spreading of words, leaders must be able to reap the harvest. You should not be a leader who implants seeds, but a leader who collects the harvest after implanting seeds. It takes more than three years in order to make a harvest. You should not try to reap right away. For this reason, Jesus wandered for three years in order to find the twelve disciples. This is the Principle. Therefore, you must devote yourself for three years.

For this reason I told you when I was sending you out witnessing, "You must play the role of someone sold as a servant, or in the military for three years, and must loyally fulfill your duties in the villages." Moreover, what do you teach members? You should teach them about the true way of loyalty. In addition, you should show them through practice. Then, without you telling them to do so, they will try to inherit your mission and work. When everyone displays this attitude, then you can secure your foundation in your villages.

Because you could not fulfill your responsibilities in the frontier despite such direction, all over the world the foundations laid down are like a complete house. It is more difficult to continue to build on top of that structure than to build a new house from scratch. If you return to a place where a witnessing campaign has failed in the past and all members have dispersed, then you will find that it takes two or three times more effort to pioneer there than in the first time. You must already be well aware of this fact through the experiences of the past. Reflecting on this, we arrive at the conclusion that we did not accomplish our responsibility fully.

Considering all these questions, we have to reevaluate this. First is the issue of solving the problem of regional headquarters, second is the issue of enhancing the Principle lecturing skills, third is the question of witnessing and raising members. You should not just give birth and abandon them. You must raise them after the birth. You must raise them to be your own heir. We have been neglecting these problems so far. Therefore, when you return to your regions tomorrow, you should make plans centering on these issues.

How many have you witnessed to so far? If you have witnessed to ten members, then you must have a meeting with them together with the people under you at least once a year. Even if they are spread out in ChunLa, KyungSan, or KangWon province, you should gather them at least once a year. If all of them cannot gather in one place, you should try to call them individually, or take the time out to go visit them at least once a year.

Just as in the relationship between a parent and child, you should be able to talk about the things that happened so far. Just as a parent will embrace and encourage a child who comes to visit from far away and tells him about his recent affairs, you must have a time of unity centering on the bond of heart of the past, and tell each other everything from sad events to happy affairs. The longer these times are the more they cannot forget you. However, you have not been doing this so far.

Then, what did you do so far? When a leader from the ChunNam area is transferred to another region, I am told that he tells people by writing letters. This is not how it should be. You must introduce them to the succeeding leader. You should write to them saying, "Although I did it this and that way, if there is conflict with the leadership style of the new leader, then you should do this and that to eliminate the problem, and when even that does not work, you should write to me." You should not try to drag them to where you are. You should try to connect them to the new leader, and try to create the basis for them to be better, based on the standard that you have been using to raise them. Since the new leader does not understand about each member, this is how you should do it. We have not carried this out so well. (29-191, 1970.2.28)