The Recovery of the Local Churches

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This Website concerns the critical matter of the recovery of the truth and practice of the local church, the practical local expression of the universal Body of Christ. Shortly before His departure from this earth, the Lord Jesus prayed to the Father, “That they all may be one…that the world may believe that You have sent Me” (John 17:21). Throughout history these words have never failed to resonate with every genuine believer, regardless of creed, practice or denominational tie. Why is this? It is because the very Lord who prayed for the oneness of His believers has also imparted Himself into them as the one Spirit through His death and resurrection to be their oneness. It can thus be said that Christ is the very oneness of His believers in fulfillment of His own prayer. This is why the apostle Paul charged the Christians to be “diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3). Paul realized that the believers’ oneness was of the Spirit and was even the Spirit Himself. Paul further realized that every believer, by virtue of regeneration, possessed this oneness. It was therefore not something to be sought after, but rather something to be maintained, thus the charge to be diligent to keep it.

It follows logically, then, that if there was such a spiritual oneness among the early believers, there must also have been a corresponding practical oneness—a oneness that was actually a visible manifestation of their spiritual oneness. This truth is more than evident throughout the New Testament. Not only did all the believers belong to the one universal church of God, but they also belonged to a particular community of believers—the local church.

The phrase “local church” is one that is seldom appreciated in its proper scriptural context. At its most casual level, the local church may be understood to mean the church in closest proximity. Leaving this colloquial usage aside, one can find a more precise interpretation in ecclesiastical history, although some latitude for interpretation still remains. The phrase “local church” as understood and used by most church historians refers to the local assembly which was to be found in any given city during the New Testament age, such as “the church which was in Jerusalem,” (Acts 8:1) or “the church of God which is in Corinth” (1 Cor. 1:2). This local assembly, as most historians maintain, was composed of all the believers in a given city, who enjoyed universal fellowship with all the other local churches while maintaining their own admnistrative autonomy.

After the first century, due to a number of factors—chief among them being the church’s union with Rome and Ignatius’s erroneous teaching promoting a hierarchgy of elders and bishops—this practice of the local churches was lost. Oneness was maintained through the turbulent second and third centuries, but at a cost. By the end of the sixth century there still existed a number of churches in various localities, but all of them paid deference to Rome as their “mother church.” The oneness claimed by Rome was a perverted, political oneness, not a scriptural oneness. By the time the Reformation occurred in the sixteenth century the practice of the local churches had been lost. There remained something of an outward semblance of oneness in the form of local diocese, but these were not the genuine local churches spoken of in the New Testament.

Not until the Reformation would the Church begin its long journey back to the simplicity described in the New Testament. The purpose of this Website is to present to the viewers excerpts from the ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, two visionary Christian writers of the last century, concerning the recovery of the local churches as seen in church history.

The Recovery of the Local Churches

A. The Reformation

B. The Moravian Brethren

C. The Brethren

D. The Lord’s New Beginning on Virgin Soil

E. Watchman Nee’s Salvation and Calling

F. Watchman Nee’s Seeing of the Truth Concerning the Ground of Locality

G. Watchman Nee’s Burden for the Local Churches

H. The First Local Church in Foochow, China

I. Witness Lee’s Revelation and Taking of the Way of the Local Church

J. The Spread of the Local Churches

1. In China

2. In the Far East

3. In the West

4. In Russia

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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