Local churches (affiliation)

The local churches are a Christian movement founded in China whose beliefs and practice are based on the teachings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. They condemn denominationalism and instruct believers to meet together with no name or basis other than the city or locality in which they reside. They emphasize the subjective experience of Christ as well as the Biblical truths regarding Christ and the church. Nee was influenced by the writings of the Plymouth Brethren.

Local churches are found on every continent and claim several million members.^[1][2]

History

Origins

The development of the local churches as a group can be traced to the conversion of Watchman Nee in Fuzhou, China. At an early age, Nee committed his life to Christian ministry. Mostly self-educated, he published his interpretation of the inner Christian life and of New Testament church practices through books and magazines after moving to Shanghai in 1927.^[3]

Witness Lee was an early follower of Nee's. Nee and Lee met for the first time in Chefoo in 1932. In 1934, Lee moved to Shanghai to work with Nee. One of Lee's many responsibilities was editing Nee's publications.^[4][5] In the following years, Nee published many works and held regular conferences and trainings for church workers. Nee, Lee and other workers established over six hundred local churches throughout China and Southeast Asia before the Communist Revolution of 1949.

Because this group did not take a name for themselves, outsiders referred to them as the "Little Flock" because they sang from a Plymouth Brethren hymnal titled Hymns for the Little Flock. From early on, this group, following the teachings of Nee, emphasized an experiential knowledge of Christ and the recovery of the New Testament pattern for the local church.^{[1][6] [7]}

The Plymouth Brethren connection

Many of the movement's ideas, including plural eldership, disavowal of a clergy-laity distinction, and worship centered around the Lord's Supper, were adopted from the Plymouth Brethren, a conservative, low church, nonconformist, Evangelical movement whose history began in Dublin, Ireland, in the late 1820s, with its origins in Anglicanism. From 1930 to 1935, there was communication internationally between the local churches and the Raven-Taylor group of Exclusive Brethren, which saw the churches in China as a parallel work of God, albeit one that had developed independently. However, Nee and other Chinese leaders disagreed with their prohibition of celebrating The Lord's Supper with Christians outside of their own meetings. Matters came to a head when it became known that Nee had worshiped with non-Brethren Christians, including T. Austin Sparks in London and Thornton Stearns in Hartford, during a 1933 visit to the United Kingdom and North America. After a series of letters exchanged between leaders in New York, London, and Shanghai over a two-year period, on August 31, 1935, the brethren in London sent communication to Shanghai terminating their fellowship.^[8]

Nee taught that there should only be one church per city: Christians should meet together simply as fellow believers who live in the same city rather than on the basis of any particular doctrine or person. Nee believed such a practice would eliminate the distinctions that divide Christians from each other and would provide the broadest basis upon which all believers can meet.^[9] Both Nee and Lee emphasized the New Testament's references to churches by the name of the city. For example, in Acts, the Christians in Jerusalem were referred to as "the church which was at Jerusalem" (NKJV). Other verses with this convention include 1 Corinthians 1:2; Revelation 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7 and 14. Since Nee and Lee taught that there should only be one church in each city, and that that city was the extent of a church's jurisdiction, members of the local churches usually refer to their congregations as "the church in (city name)". This statement, however, is not to be taken to mean a claim to exclusivity ("we are the only true church") but rather to inclusivity: "we are only the true church, just like all true believers"^{[10][11][12][13][14]} (see Witness Lee, ‘The Basis for the Believers' Oneness in the Church’).

Developments after 1949

The Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949 led to severe persecution of Chinese Christians, including the Local Church movement. Nee was imprisoned in 1952 and died in a labor camp 20 years later. Nee had already sent Witness Lee to Taiwan to ensure that their work would survive the political turmoil. By 1955, the work in Taiwan had grown to more than twenty thousand members in sixty-five churches.^[1][15][16]

In 1958, Witness Lee traveled to the United States and organized a church in Los Angeles with a group of sympathisers; he moved to Los Angeles in 1962. By 1969, there were local churches in California, New York, and Texas.^[1][6][17]

After moving to the United States, Witness Lee continued to minister. He claimed to be furthering the teachings of Watchman Nee, but some critics have accused him of deviating from them.^[8] In recent years, the local churches have been commended by several organizations and Christian leaders throughout the United States.^{[2][6][18][19][20][21]}

Beliefs of the Local Churches

The local churches teach that they hold the faith which is common to all believers (Titus 1:4; Jude 1:3):^[22]

• The Bible is the complete divine revelation inspired word-by-word by God through the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:16).
• God is uniquely one, yet triune — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (1 Timothy 2:5; Matthew 28:19).^[23]
• The Son of God, who is God Himself, was incarnated to be a man by the name of Jesus Christ (John 1:1; John 1:14).
• Christ died on the cross for our sins, shedding His blood for our redemption (1 Peter 2:24; Ephesians 1:7).
• Christ resurrected from among the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:4).
• Christ ascended to the right hand of God to be Lord of all (Acts 1:9; Acts 2:33; Acts 2:36).
• Whenever a person repents to God and believes into the Lord Jesus Christ, he is regenerated (born again) and becomes a living member of the Body of Christ (Acts 20:21; John 3:3; Ephesians 1:22–23; Romans 12:5).
• Christ is coming again to receive His believers to Himself (1 Thessalonians 2:19).

The local churches practice what they call ‘mutuality’ in their meetings, based on verses such as 1 Corinthians 14:26 which says, "Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up." Participants are free to request hymns, share testimonies, or offer prayers for mutual edification.^[24][25] A significant example of this practice is the "prophesying meeting," in which members endeavor to "[speak] for God and Christ and [speak] forth God and Christ."^[26][27][28]

See also

• Local Church controversies
• Living Stream Ministry
• Bibles for America
• Recovery Version of the Bible
• The Lord's Recovery
• The Shouters

References

Bibliography

• Lee, Joseph Tse-Hei (2005), "Watchman Nee and the Little Flock Movement in Maoist China", Church History 74 (1) .
• Passantino, Gretchen (2009), "No Longer A Heretical Threat; Now Dear brothers and Sister in Christ: Why, Concerning the Local Churches, I No Longer Criticize but Instead Commend", Christian Research Journal 32 (6) .

External links

• Life and Work of Witness Lee .
• Online Recovery Version Bible
• Christian Research Institute Journal on Witness Lee and the local churches