The Recovery of the Local Churches

The Spread of the Local Churches

Elsewhere, Witness Lee elaborates on the spread of the local churches in China under Watchman Nee’s ministry:

It is easy to know the church because it is visible. But to know the Body of Christ is not easy. Seventy-four years ago the Lord reached China and raised up Brother Nee. He was saved as a young student. Two years after he was saved, he put out publications to preach the gospel and teach the truth. He expounded the Scriptures in a way that shocked even the top missionaries. Brother Nee first presented us a clear view of God’s salvation. The missionaries brought the gospel to China and preached it. We thank the Lord for that. But God’s full salvation was never made clear as a complete spiritual thing until Brother Nee was raised up.

After presenting a clear view of God’s salvation, Brother Nee went further and presented the church to us. When the missionaries went to China, they did not bring the church to the Chinese people. Instead, they brought their denominations. The Chinese believers honored the denominations because it was through the denominations that they heard the gospel and were saved. They were grateful to the denominations. All of a sudden, to their surprise a young “native boy” put out clear publications telling them what the church is and strongly declaring that all the denominations are divisions of the church, not the church itself. Thus, Brother Nee made the local churches so clear and precious to us who were attracted by the Lord to follow Him according to His holy Scriptures. We treasured the local churches.

(Witness Lee, Practical Points, 10-11)

The spread of local churches in China was through both Watchman Nee’s travels and the move of by believers meeting in existing local churches to other cities where no local church yet existed. Witness Lee elaborates:

Brother Nee then left Foochow and went to a place called Pagoda. In 1925 he began to publish a magazine called The Christian. At the end of 1926, he was led by the Lord to go to Shanghai and Nanking, the capital of China at that time, to start a work. The church was raised up in Shanghai at the end of 1926 and the early part of 1927. Eventually, the church in Shanghai became the biggest church, the leading church, and the central church in China. From Shanghai the church practice spread throughout China. In 1932 the practice of the church life spread to the north, beginning in Chefoo, my hometown. It spread to Tientsin, the biggest seaport in the north, and to Peking. In 1933 the church practice also spread to Manchuria, the place where Japan began its war against China. In 1934 the church life continued to spread to many places in China proper from Shanghai and from Chefoo. In 1937 many of the Chinese retreated to western China due to the Japanese invasion. Many brothers also went to the west to begin the church life. The church life began in 1937 in Chungking, the capital of China during the war. From 1938 to 1939 the church life spread to Hong Kong. In 1943 the church life migrated to Inner Mongolia from my hometown.

Within about one year, over forty local churches were raised up in Inner Mongolia through seventy who migrated there from Chefoo. In 1948 and 1949 after the war, there was a great revival among us. Through that revival the church life spread into most of the cities. By 1949 there were hundreds of local churches in China. There were local churches in each of its thirty-three provinces and in all the leading cities.

It was also in 1949 that the Communists took over mainland China. About three hundred fifty to five hundred saints among us went to the island of Taiwan from mainland China. Some went there in 1947 to begin the church life with a very small number. In 1948 the number was strengthened. In 1949 I was also sent by the work to Taiwan. Within the next six years, our number grew from about five hundred to about twenty thousand. Now on the island of Taiwan there are about seventy local churches. The church in Taipei today has over twenty-one thousand saints meeting in fourteen halls (editor’s note—this was in 1973).

(Witness Lee, History of the Church, 58-60)

Main

The Reformation

The Moravian Brethren

The Plymouth Brethren

A New Beginning

Watchman Nee’s Calling

Watchman Nee’s Revelation

Watchman Nee’s Care for the Local Churches

The Local Church in Foochow, China

Witness Lee’s Revelation

The Spread of the Local Churches

Bibliography

Links