The Recovery of the Local Churches
The Recovery of the Local Churches |
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The Spread of the Local ChurchesWatchman Nee had the clear view that the local churches would spread from China to the Western world: I wish the brothers in China today would see that the church is local. Later, by God’s mercy, we may have several hundred or several thousand local churches raised up. The churches may also spread to foreign countries, to turn back to the Western world from where the gospel came. I hope our brothers in China will not be influenced by congregationalism. There is nothing in congregationalism but one word—division. It divides a locality into many divisions. I hope the brothers and sisters will have a fearful heart in setting up new churches, daring to do anything but set up a church. We must seriously see that the Body of Christ is expressed in the locality. Of course, we cannot force others to take this way. If there is a denomination in a locality, that is another matter. If there is a division in a locality, that is also another matter. But if there is already a church in that locality, we must not establish another church. If we do this, I think the church in China will have a better way to go on. (Watchman Nee, Further Talks, 127-128) In 1992, Witness Lee while sharing about Watchman Nee’s burden for the local churches, spoke of the number of local churches on the earth at that time: The second main item of the Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the local church life (Acts 9:31; 14:23). Brother Nee stressed this very much. In one of his publications Brother Nee said that he had a dream in which he saw that in every city of China there was a local church. This indicates how much Brother Nee was for the local church. Although he saw the local churches in his dream, under the Lord’s sovereignty he was not allowed to see the fulfillment of that dream. I believe that if he were alive today, he would be happy because he would see that, not including the churches in mainland China, there are more than twelve hundred local churches on the earth. In Southern California alone there are forty-three local churches. Although a number of these churches are small, all of them are practicing the local church life. (Witness Lee, Church Life, 14) 1. In ChinaThe first local church raised up was in Foochow, China in 1922 by Watchman Nee and some others believers. By 1952, there were almost 400 local churches in China. Witness Lee says: The achievement of his ministry consummated in the establishment of hundreds of local churches, mostly in the Far East. By the time he was arrested [by the communists for his belief in Christ] in 1952, approximately four hundred local churches had been raised up in China. Approximately one hundred of these were in the county of Ping-Yang in the province of Chekiang in southern China; over forty were in the province of Suiyuan in northwest China; approximately twenty were to the north in the province of Kiangsu; and over twenty were in the province of Taiwan. The rest were scattered in major cities and seaports throughout the provinces of China. If the situation had not changed, it is possible that these local churches under Watchman Nee’s ministry could easily have evangelized the entire country of China. (Witness Lee, Seer of the Divine Revelation, 276-277) |
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