The Recovery of the Local Churches

Watchman Nee’s Burden for the Local Churches

Elsewhere, Witness Lee discusses how Watchman Nee brought all the positive scriptural practices and truths of the past centuries into the practice of the local “church life,” and how he conducted his life and work according to the vision he saw regarding the local church as revealed throughout the New Testament:

He saw clearly that the church as the Body of Christ was Christ’s expression with Him as its life and content. He also saw that the church could only be practical with the existence of local churches. He saw too that only churches in localities could carry out God’s eternal purpose to have the church built up in a way which the gates of Hades could not prevail against. He thoroughly realized that to recover the proper church life on the proper ground is God’s present economy. He did not teach mere doctrines concerning the church. He received a full revelation from the New Testament, not only regarding the content and reality of the church, but also regarding the practicality of the church. Through the years in his ministry, he not only stressed the experience of Christ but also emphasized the practice of the church life. His vision was not only Christ, but Christ and the church. Christ was his life, and the church was his living. He suffered for the church more than for Christ. The persecutions which came upon him from the denominations came mostly because of his emphasis on the church. He was burdened to carry out his vision concerning the practicality of the church life. He desired to see a local church in every city in China.

(Witness Lee, Seer of the Divine Revelation, 329)

Although he faced much opposition from other Christians concerning his ministry on the truth and practice of the local church, Watchman Nee was faithful to the vision he saw regarding the revelation of the local church in the New Testament. Witness Lee remarks:

In an open letter published in the twelfth issue of Collection of Newsletters, July 1935, Watchman stressed this goal again with the following brief, strong word: “We are clear that God wants us to manifest the life of Christ in the local churches. Hence, the reality of our work is the life of Christ, and the outward expression of our work is the local churches."

HIS FAITHFULNESS TO THE GOAL

Watchman Nee’s ministry was received by many Christians, but the goal of his ministry was rejected by the majority. They appreciated his ministry of life, but they would not care for his goal of building up the local churches. Some even considered him wrong in having such a goal. Actually, however, it was not that he was wrong, it was that they did not see that the Lord had revealed to him God’s desire to have Christ expressed in local churches. Fairly speaking, at the time Watchman Nee was raised up by the Lord, among millions of Christians with all kinds of Christian work, where was there one proper church built up with Christ in oneness without any element of division? In a situation filled with division and confusion, he received the heavenly vision that the Body of Christ should express in one church in each locality what was in the heart of God. He was a man after God’s heart, testifying to his fellow Christians the vision he had seen, but he was fully misunderstood and rejected in this matter. Because of their strong backgrounds in the denominational structures, his fellow Christians were veiled from seeing the clear vision of God’s heart’s desire. Some criticized him as being narrow-minded. Others considered him a “sheep-stealer.” Others even accused him of being wrong in the matter of the church. Actually, he was neither narrow-minded nor wrong; he was faithful to his Master’s goal and took that goal as the goal of his ministry. He knew the price and was willing to pay the price for this. He even paid this price at the cost of his life. He cared for nothing but his Master’s heart’s desire—the local churches expressing Him in a corporate way. He was not a “sheep-stealer,” but a true witness of his Master, who loved the church and gave Himself for it. He had no intention whatsoever to build up his own “church” or to build up anything for himself. His concern was for God’s heart’s desire. He had a heart large enough to receive all the children of God, and he loved all the Lord’s redeemed ones, even though he was misunderstood and rejected by many. His deep longing was that all would receive the light to see what the Lord was really after and seek the Lord according to His heart.

(Witness Lee, Seer of the Divine Revelation, 270-271)

In a personal testimony given by Watchman Nee, he reiterates his leading from the Lord to build up local churches:

When the Lord called me to serve Him, the prime object was not for me to hold revival meetings so that people might hear more scriptural doctrines, nor for me to become a great evangelist. The Lord revealed to me that He wanted to build up local churches in other localities to manifest Himself, to bear testimony of unity on the ground of locality so that each saint might perform his duty in the church and live the church life. God wants not merely individual pursuit of victory or spirituality, but a corporate, glorious church presented to Himself.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 26, 479)

In the following paragraph, Witness Lee recounts a dream that Watchman Nee had concerning the local churches in China in order to illustrate how desperately Watchman Nee desired to see the local churches raised up:

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)

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