By Martha, Italy

In June of 2021, I supervised video work at the church, and because the workload increased, the church arranged for me to follow up on one more group’s work. I thought, “I’m busy enough with the work I’m responsible for now. If I supervise even more work, won’t I be even busier and more tired?” But I also thought, “The brothers and sisters in this group are familiar with the work. They’re all experienced and do their duty effectively, so I shouldn’t have to worry too much about the follow-up, and it won’t take much time and effort.” So I agreed to follow up on the other group. At first, from time to time I would ask if the group’s work was making normal progress, and if any of the brothers and sisters were having difficulties doing their duty. However, later I thought I also had other work to do, and trying to understand the details of each group’s work would be too mentally exhausting and time-consuming. That group’s work was progressing normally, so everything was fine, and I didn’t need to spend time to understand things. The group leader was also there, and the brothers and sisters were reliable and did their duty well. For the past few years, there hadn’t been any major problems, so basically there was no need to worry. Following up a little less couldn’t be a problem, could it? That being the case, I hardly got involved in that group’s work.

One day, more than two months later, one of the brothers gave me feedback, and said that in two cases, videos produced by that group had problems recently, and if other sisters hadn’t discovered the problems in time, work progress would have been delayed. I was a bit surprised, as a series of serious problems had appeared as the group did its duties. How come I didn’t know? Thinking back, I had been responsible for that work for several months, but paid little attention to that group’s work, and had no idea how the group members were doing their duty. I realized that I wasn’t doing the real work, and that’s what caused these problems. Afterward, when I understood the situation, I discovered that for some time no one supervised or followed up on the group’s work, so the group members just did things based on their experience and existing routines, without a sense of burden toward doing their duty. So as soon as the workload increased, they started to do things in a perfunctory way. Although two people worked together to inspect the videos, for them it was just a formality. They were just going through the motions and couldn’t discover problems. Facing up to all this was painful. These problems weren’t difficult to discover, and if I had done normal follow-up on that group’s work, I wouldn’t have been so clueless. I was so irresponsible! I had to self-reflect as to why I ignored their work for over three months. I read in God’s word, which says: “False leaders never ask about or follow up on the work situations of various team supervisors. They also don’t ask about, follow up on, or have a grasp on the life entry of supervisors of different teams and personnel responsible for various important jobs, as well as their attitudes toward church work and their duties, and toward faith in God, the truth, and God Himself. They don’t know whether these individuals have undergone any transformation or growth, nor do they know about the various issues that may exist in their work; in particular, they do not know about the impact of errors and deviations occurring in various stages of the work on the work of the church and the life entry of God’s chosen people, along with whether these errors and deviations have ever been corrected. They are entirely ignorant about all of these things. If they know nothing about these detailed conditions, they become passive whenever problems arise. However, false leaders don’t bother with these detailed issues at all while doing their job. They believe that after arranging various team supervisors and assigning tasks, their work is done—it counts as having done the job well, and if other problems arise it’s none of their concern. Because false leaders fail to supervise, guide, and follow up on various team supervisors, and they do not fulfill their responsibilities in these areas, this results in a mess being made of the church’s work. This is the leaders and workers being derelict in their duties. God can scrutinize the depths of the human heart; this is an ability that humans lack. Therefore, when working, people need to be more diligent and attentive, regularly going to the work site to follow up on, supervise, and guide the work in order to ensure the normal progress of the church work. Clearly, false leaders are utterly irresponsible in their work, and they never supervise, follow up on, or guide various tasks. As a result, some supervisors do not know how to resolve various issues that arise in the work, and remain in their roles as supervisors despite not being nearly competent enough to do the work. Ultimately, the work is delayed again and again and they make a complete mess of it. This is the consequence of false leaders not asking about, supervising, or following up on the supervisors’ situations, an outcome which is entirely caused by the false leaders’ dereliction of duty” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (3)). From God’s word, I saw that false leaders neglect their duties and don’t do real work. They think each group has a supervisor, so the false leaders can take a hands-off approach, which causes problems in the church’s work. On the surface, it may seem like false leaders aren’t doing anything that is clearly evil. But they don’t have a sense of responsibility about the church’s work, which seriously affects the progress and effectiveness of various tasks, and that disrupts and disturbs the work of the church. God requires leaders and workers to follow up and supervise work in a timely manner to ensure that the church’s work is making regular, orderly progress. That is their responsibility and duty. But after I took on that group’s work, I felt that the group leader was there, and all the work proceeded in an orderly fashion, so it made sense to take a hands-off approach. I never inspected or followed up on their work, nor did I understand the details of the existing deviations and problems in everyone’s work. I also didn’t discover when they were slack and perfunctory in doing their duty. Based on my own notions and imaginings, I thought they were reliable and conscientious in doing their duty, and completely trustworthy. So I acted accordingly, which as a result caused losses to the work. In light of God’s word, I knew that I was negligent in doing my duty, and was indeed a false leader. Although I didn’t intentionally do evil, problems lingered and weren’t resolved because I didn’t do actual work. Problems cropped up in the videos they produced, so they had to be redone, which was directly related to my being perfunctory and irresponsible in doing my duty. Taking a perfunctory approach and trying to take it easy, I didn’t follow up on or supervise the work. Although that saved me a lot of time and energy, it directly delayed work progress, disrupting and disturbing the work of the church. I was resisting God! That thought struck fear in my heart, and I continuously reflected on myself and thought, “How could I take a hands-off approach for so long without realizing it?”

Later on, I read a passage from God’s word, and came to a better understanding of the fact that I wasn’t doing actual work. Almighty God says: “False leaders never inquire about supervisors who are not doing actual work, or who are not tending to their proper work. They think they just need to choose a supervisor and that’s the end of the matter, and that afterward the supervisor can handle all work matters themselves. So false leaders just hold gatherings every so often, and do not supervise the work or ask how it’s going, and act like hands-off bosses. … They are incapable of doing real work themselves, and they aren’t meticulous regarding the work of team leaders and supervisors either—they do not follow up on it or inquire about it. Their view of people is only based on their own impressions and imaginings. When they see someone performing well for a time, they think that this person will be good forever, that they will not change; they do not believe anyone who says there is a problem with this person, and they ignore it when someone warns them about that person. Do you think false leaders are stupid? They are stupid and foolish. What makes them stupid? They blithely put their trust in a person, believing that because when this person was chosen, they swore an oath, and made a resolution, and prayed with tears streaming down their face, that means they are dependable, and there will never be any issues with them taking charge of work in the future. False leaders have no understanding of people’s natures; they are ignorant of the true situation of corrupt mankind. They say, ‘How could someone change for the worse when they have been chosen as a supervisor? How could someone who seems so intense and reliable shirk their work? They wouldn’t, would they? They have a lot of integrity.’ Because false leaders have put too much faith in their own imaginings and feelings, this ultimately renders them incapable of timely resolving the many problems that arise in church work, and stops them from promptly dismissing and reassigning the supervisor involved. They are bona fide false leaders. And just what is the issue here? Does false leaders’ approach to their work have anything to do with perfunctoriness? In one respect, they see the great red dragon rabidly carrying out arrests of God’s chosen people, so to keep themselves safe, they randomly arrange for someone to be in charge of work, believing that this will solve the problem, and that they don’t need to pay it any more attention. What do they think in their hearts? ‘This is such a hostile environment, I should hide for a while.’ This is coveting fleshly comforts, is it not? In another respect, false leaders have a fatal flaw: They are quick to trust people based on their own imaginings. And this is caused by not understanding the truth, is it not? How does God’s word reveal the essence of corrupt humankind? Why should they trust in people when God doesn’t? False leaders are too arrogant and self-righteous, are they not? What they think is, ‘I couldn’t have misjudged this person, there shouldn’t be any problems with this person that I’ve judged to be suitable; they are definitely not someone who indulges in eating, drinking and entertainment, or who likes comfort and hates hard work. They are absolutely dependable and trustworthy. They will not change; if they did, that would mean I was wrong about them, wouldn’t it?’ What kind of logic is this? Are they some kind of expert? Do they have x-ray vision? Do they have that special skill? You could live with a person for one or two years, but would you be able to see who they really are without a suitable environment to lay their nature essence utterly bare? If they were not revealed by God, you could live side-by-side with them for three, or even five, years, and would still struggle to see just what kind of nature essence they have. And how much more is that true when you rarely see them, are rarely with them? False leaders blithely trust a person based on a fleeting impression or someone else’s positive appraisal of them, and dare to entrust the work of the church to such a person. In this, are they not being extremely blind? Are they not acting recklessly? And when they work like this, are the false leaders not being extremely irresponsible?” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (3)). God’s word exposes that false leaders are lazy, stupid, and foolish. Instead of viewing people and things based on God’s word, they see them based on their own notions and imaginings. Yet they feel they have insight into people and things. They can casually trust someone and hand work over to other people, while they themselves take a hands-off approach and covet the benefits of status. Through the exposure of God’s word, I saw that I was that lazy and stupid false leader! Because of my lazy nature, I always felt I was responsible for so much work that if I followed up on every group and understood the details, it would take too much trouble and effort. So I mainly followed up on the work of one group. Since the other group had a group leader, as long as the work progressed normally, everything would be fine, and I didn’t need to spend more time to follow up. My approach to my duty was that the less I had to worry about the better. Although I held the title of supervisor, I actually took a hands-off approach, which was so irresponsible! I was also very conceited. Based on my own notions and imaginings, I thought everyone in that group was reliable in doing their duty. So I didn’t have to worry, and if I didn’t follow up on their work they would continue to do their duty well. I didn’t ask about or supervise them for several months, which caused these problems to appear in their work. I didn’t understand the truth or see matters clearly, and had a strong belief in myself, thinking that my judgment about people couldn’t be wrong. I was too arrogant and stupid! Knowing all that, I was filled with regret, and realized the importance of treating people and my duty according to God’s word. So I consciously sought out the relevant passages in God’s word to find a path to do my duty.

One day, I read a passage of God’s word that says: “Because false leaders do not learn about the progress of the work, and because they are incapable of promptly identifying—much less solving—problems that arise in it, this often leads to repeated delays. In certain work, because people have no grasp of the principles and there is no one suitable to be responsible for it or preside over it, those carrying out the work are often in a state of negativity, passivity, and waiting, which severely affects the progress of the work. If the leader had fulfilled their responsibilities—if they had presided over the work, pushed it forward, supervised it, and found someone who understands that field to guide the work, then the work would have progressed faster rather than suffering repeated delays. For leaders, then, it is vital to understand and grasp the status of the work. Of course, it is also very necessary for leaders to understand and grasp how the work is progressing, as progress relates to the efficiency of the work and the results it’s supposed to achieve. If leaders and workers do not have a grasp on how the church’s work is progressing, and they do not follow up on or supervise things, then the progress of the church’s work is bound to be slow. This is due to the fact that the majority of people doing duties are seriously scummy, do not have a sense of burden, and are often negative, passive, and perfunctory. If there is nobody with a sense of burden and work capabilities taking responsibility for the work in a concrete manner, learning about the progress of the work in a timely manner, and guiding, supervising, disciplining, and pruning personnel who do duties, then naturally, the level of work efficiency is going to be very low and the results of the work are going to be very poor. If leaders and workers can’t even see this clearly, they are foolish and blind. And so, leaders and workers must promptly look into, follow up on, and grasp the progress of work, look into what problems people doing duties have that need to be resolved, and understand which problems should be resolved in order to achieve better results. These things are all very crucial, a person acting as a leader must be clear on these things. To do your duty well, you must not be like a false leader, who does some superficial work and then thinks they’ve done their duty well” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (4)). God’s word shows people the path to doing their duty to an acceptable standard. As a leader or supervisor, people have to approach their duty with a sense of burden, and cannot covet the comforts of the flesh. They must follow up on, look in on, supervise, and inspect the work they’re responsible for in a timely manner. Leaders and supervisors should also follow up and understand the state of the staff involved, and the details about how they do their duty. That way, problems can be detected promptly and deviations rectified. Because no human being has yet been perfected, everyone has a corrupt disposition. So if people’s state is good and they are conscientious, responsible, and effective in doing their duty for a period of time, that doesn’t mean they are completely reliable. When their states are abnormal or they live according to their corrupt disposition, they then become perfunctory in spite of themselves, and do things that disturb the work of the church. So as people perform their duties, leaders, workers, and supervisors need to inspect and follow up on the work, and when problems are discovered, they should rectify the deviations promptly. This is their responsibility. After I understood God’s requirements, I began to follow up and learn more about the group’s work, and regularly gathered them together for work summary meetings. When I found deviations and problems, I promptly communicated about them together with the group leader. Through follow-up work, I discovered that everyone’s work was rather undisciplined and lacked planning. So I discussed the group’s work plan and progress with the group leader, and some backlogged work was completed as scheduled. In addition, we streamlined staffing based on the workload, and arranged to send some of our staff where they were needed more. After carrying out that kind of practice, I felt much more at ease. At the same time, I followed up on the work within my scope of responsibility more closely than before.

A while later, I took on new work that required a lot of time. I thought, “For some time, I followed up on the work of each group in detail, so now things are stable. If I still have to worry about and get involved in the details of each group, it will take too much time and effort. That will make my schedule too tight and give me too much pressure.” I wondered which group’s work I could delegate to someone else so I would have less to worry about. I thought of one group with two group leaders who were more proactive in doing their duty and able to pay a price. I wanted to transfer the group’s work to them so they could follow up in detail. Then I would only have to watch the direction of things, and regularly attend gatherings to summarize the work. I could leave everything else to the group leaders. But by doing that, I was going back to my old ways, just focusing on the new work I had taken on and not getting involved in the details of this group’s work. I thought that since the group leaders were there, it would be fine. If there were any problems, I could just wait for them to take the initiative to inform me, and then deal with it. One day, one of the group leaders pointed out that I wasn’t doing enough follow-up work, and I wasn’t involved in the details of their work. Some of the group’s brothers and sisters were procrastinating and lazy in doing their duty, but there was no follow-up or resolution, which affected work progress. When I heard that, I got a little defensive and thought, “You two group leaders could do that, couldn’t you? For some time now, I’ve taken on some other work. If I have to follow up on the details of every task, it would take a lot of time. How could I ever get it all done? Your demands are excessive!” But my arguments made me feel a little uneasy again. Looking back on that time period, I rarely followed up on their work, and I didn’t understand the brothers’ and sisters’ states, whether they entered principles in doing their duty, or the results of their work. At that time, I pondered that in the past, I transgressed in my duty by taking a hands-off approach, so how could I be in the same state again?

Later on, I read God’s word: “Many people behind My back covet the benefits of status, they gorge themselves on food, they love to sleep and give every care to the flesh, always afraid that there is no way out for the flesh. They do not perform their proper function in the church, but freeload off the church, or else they admonish their brothers and sisters with My words, constraining others from positions of authority. These people keep saying they are following God’s will and always say they are God’s intimates—is this not absurd? If you have the right motivation, but are unable to serve in accordance with God’s intentions, then you are being foolish; but if your motivation is not right, and you still say you serve God, then you are someone who opposes God, and you ought to be punished by God! I have no sympathy for such people! In the house of God, they freeload, always coveting the comforts of the flesh, and give no consideration to the interests of God. They always seek what is good for them, and they pay no heed to God’s intentions. They do not accept the scrutiny of God’s Spirit in anything they do. They are always being crooked and deceitful and cheating their brothers and sisters, being two-faced, like a fox in a vineyard, always stealing grapes and trampling over the vineyard. Could such people be God’s intimates? Are you fit to receive God’s blessings? You take no burden for your life and the church, are you fit to receive God’s commission? Who would dare trust someone like you? When you serve like this, could God entrust you with a greater task? Would this not cause delays to the work?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. How to Serve in Harmony With God’s Intentions). “It doesn’t matter how talented you are, what level of caliber and education you possess, how many slogans you can shout, or how many words and doctrines are in your grasp; regardless of how busy you are or how exhausted you are in a day, or how far you’ve traveled, how many churches you visit, or how much risk you take and suffering you endure—none of these matter. What matters is whether you are performing your work based on the work arrangements, whether you are accurately implementing those arrangements; whether, during your leadership, you are participating in every specific work you are responsible for, and how many real issues you have actually resolved; how many individuals have come to understand the truth principles because of your leadership and guidance, and how much the church’s work has advanced and developed—what matters is whether or not you have achieved these results. Regardless of the specific work you’re involved in, what matters is whether you are consistently following up on and directing the work rather than acting high and mighty and issuing orders. Besides this, what also matters is whether or not you have life entry while doing your duty, whether you can deal with matters according to principles, whether you possess a testimony of putting the truth into practice, and whether you can handle and resolve the real issues faced by God’s chosen people. These and other similar things are all criteria for assessing whether or not a leader or worker has fulfilled their responsibilities” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (9)). From God’s word, I saw that He extremely detests and resents people who always covet the benefits of status, are cunning and play tricks, and consider their own fleshly interests in doing their duties. That kind of person can’t play any positive role in promoting the church’s work, nor can they promptly discover and rectify deviations and gaps in their duty. Their irresponsibility can even bring losses to their duty, and disrupt and disturb the work of the church. Such people utterly lack sincerity in doing their duty, and are unworthy to receive God’s commission. If they don’t repent, ultimately God will detest and eliminate them! In addition, God’s standard for measuring leaders and workers is not how much work they do, or how many roads they travel, but whether they do real work and produce actual results in doing their duty. The exposure of God’s word made me feel ashamed. By putting me in charge of making videos, the church had given me such an important job, asked me to carry a greater load, and promoted and trained me. I, on the other hand, didn’t take responsibility, and was unwilling to suffer in doing my duty. When the workload increased a little bit, I only thought about how I could suffer less and worry less. I was afraid that more worry would exhaust me. When the brothers and sisters pointed out that in doing my duty, I didn’t do any actual work, I kept looking for all kinds of excuses to absolve myself. This is how God described someone like me: “In the house of God, they freeload, always coveting the comforts of the flesh, and give no consideration to the interests of God. They always seek what is good for them.” As a supervisor, I should have followed up on and monitored all the work within the scope of my responsibility in a timely manner, and promptly resolved deviations and gaps that I found to ensure the normal progress of the church’s work. That was my duty. But I was tricky, cunning, and avoided responsibility. I had a position as a supervisor but didn’t do actual work, and didn’t follow up on work details. As a result, I didn’t promptly find or resolve the group’s existing problems. So the work wasn’t very effective, which had a negative impact on the normal progress of the church’s work. How could that be considered doing my duty? Obviously, that was holding a position without doing actual work, being blatantly deceitful. I was so untrustworthy! The church arranged for me to do some work and asked me to take some responsibility, but I took a hands-off approach. I really didn’t deserve to do such important work. If I was always so irresponsible about my duty and didn’t do actual work, God would ultimately detest and eliminate me! That thought frightened me. So I prayed to God to ask Him to guide me so I could turn this state around. I wanted to be conscientious and attentive in my work, and fulfill my responsibilities and duty.

Later on, I found a path of practice in God’s word: “People who truly believe in God perform their duties willingly, without calculating their own gains and losses. No matter whether you are someone who pursues the truth, you must rely on your conscience and reason and really make an effort when you perform your duty. What does it mean to really make an effort? If you are merely satisfied with making some token effort, and suffering a little physical hardship, but you do not take your duty seriously at all or seek the truth principles, then this is nothing more than being perfunctory—it is not really making an effort. The key to making an effort is putting your heart into it, fearing God in your heart, being considerate of God’s intentions, being terrified of rebelling against God and hurting God, and suffering any hardship in order to perform your duty well and satisfy God: If you have a God-loving heart in this way, you will be able to perform your duty properly. If there is no fear of God in your heart, you will have no burden when you perform your duty, will have no interest in it, and will inevitably be perfunctory, and go through the motions, without producing any real effect—which is not performing a duty. If you truly have a sense of burden, and feel like performing your duty is your personal responsibility, and that if you don’t, you are not fit to live, and are a beast, that only if you perform your duty properly are you worthy of being called a human being, and can face your own conscience—if you have this sense of burden when you perform your duty—then you will be able to do everything conscientiously, and will be able to seek the truth and do things according to the principles, and so will be able to do your duty properly and satisfy God. If you are worthy of the mission that God has given you, and of all that God has sacrificed for you and His expectations of you, then this is really making an effort” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. To Perform One’s Duty Well, One Must at Least Be Possessed of a Conscience and Reason). After reading God’s word, I felt a tremendous sense of shame. For years, I believed in God and ate and drank so much of His word. But when doing my duty required making a little more effort and putting more thought into it, I thought it was too much trouble and too tiring, so I took a hands-off approach. I was too selfish and lazy, totally insincere toward God, and bore no real burden in doing my duty. I was a supervisor, but didn’t do the work a supervisor should do. That was truly a dereliction of duty! Even a family dog can watch over the house and be loyal and devoted to its owner. I am a created being, but I didn’t fulfill the duty of a created being. Did I deserve to be called human? I thought about the many brothers and sisters in the church that were responsible for more work than me. They were sincere about doing their duty, and could suffer and pay a price. They spent more time doing their duty, but I never saw any of them collapse from exhaustion. Instead, the more they were considerate of God’s intention, the more they harvested, and the more they continued to make progress in life. Thinking back, my workload was reasonable and certainly achievable. As long as I was willing to rebel against the flesh, suffer a little bit more, and pay more price, it was absolutely possible to follow up on the work of each group. After that, I rearranged my work schedule, followed up on everything I was responsible for based on the new schedule, and there were no work delays in my area of supervision. One day, I was reading group messages, and discovered some deviations in one group’s work. I quickly analyzed and summarized the situation with the group leader, and together, we found ways to resolve the problems. At the time, I lamented that doing actual work doesn’t mean spending all day just staring at people in the group while doing nothing else. It just takes putting a little more heart into it. After that, I made appointments with each member of the group to learn about their work, and once again discovered some deviations. So the group leader and I fellowshipped with them about principles. The deviations were quickly rectified, and thereafter work effectiveness improved. Although I was a little busier those couple of days, that kind of practice made me feel peaceful and at ease.

Through these experiences, I came to a better understanding of my selfishness and laziness. I also saw that being irresponsible and coveting comfort not only delays work progress, but when serious, can disrupt and disturb the work of the church. So I can no longer take a hands-off approach. I must supervise and follow up on the work often, and actually identify and resolve problems. Doing my duty that way is the only way to achieve good results, and satisfy God’s intention.