There would be many who were not ready for doctrine or who were not receptive to spiritual life. They need to be saved and trained in other ways. They must first learn that the lord saint is real. Then they must like young children be told what to do.
For the mission of the lord saint, there was no choice but to start off with the discipline and devotional phase. When the temple or mission was initiated, who were those who came?
They were those who were like insects attracted to the flower for nectar. Blame not the flower for insects coming to it. This the lord saint said.
Then the next step was to motivate them to do good, to help the needy and destitute. They might do so with view to seek approval of the men of the land. This was better than no good works at all.
But this must give way to doctrine phase, The lord saint said that "the image is the doctrine and the doctrine is in the image." Sad to say that the image might be there 365 days a year but hardly anyone will notice or feel its presence, let alone the doctrine it is meant to bring to the lives of men.
Thus above is the reason of why there were the devotional and welfare phases before the doctrine phase. But the problem is that the mission might be derailed by men at the welfare phase should they fail to grasp doctrine.
Let us sum up the mission planning by the lord saint - mission via discipline and welfare phases before doctrine phase.
Lord Bo Tien said that the universe is the premise of the temple or mission. The sky or Heaven is the roof. Religions and sects in all the cardinal directions are the pillars. All under Heaven are in the mission or temple.