The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church

The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church

Small Group Meetings (Home Meetings)

4. Small Group Meetings (Home Meetings)

Watchman Nee and Witness Lee also saw the importance of the small group meetings, the home meetings in which all the believers are able to function, from the youngest believer to the most mature. From the very beginning of the church age as recorded in the book of Acts, the believers met from house to house (Acts 2:46). These meetings, which are still held in the homes of the believers, afford the believers the way to be nourished with the Word of God and to enjoy the Lord through prayer, singing, fellowship, and Bible study. In these meetings all the believers can mutually participate in teaching, asking and answering questions, and caring for one another’s needs. In this way all the believers can be helped practically and all can exercise to minister Christ to others for the building up of the Body of Christ.

In this section, Watchman Nee expounds on the small group home meetings in the local churches :

Everything must begin at the beginning. When a church is founded, the believers from the very outset must learn to meet by themselves, either in their own homes or in some other building which they are able to secure. Of course, not every church is a church in a house, but a church in a house should be encouraged rather than considered as a drawback. If the number of believers is great and the sphere of the locality wide, they might need to meet, as the saints in Jerusalem did, in different houses (which may mean homes, halls, or any other building) instead of in one house. There was only one church in Jerusalem, but its members assembled in different houses. The principle of houses still applies today. This does not mean that the whole church will always meet separately; in fact, it is important, and of great profit, for all the believers to gather together quite regularly in one place (1 Cor. 14:23). To make such meetings possible, they could either borrow or rent a public place for the occasion, or, if they have sufficient means, they could acquire a hall permanently for the purpose. But the meeting place for the believers could generally be in a private home. If this is not available, and not suitable, of course other buildings could be acquired. But we should try to encourage meetings in the homes of the Christians.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 30, 169)

Witness Lee further explains the need for the small groups in the local churches:

The small groups comprise the major portion of the church life. If a local church is to be strong, the number of people attending the groups must be high. It is better that the number of people attending the group meetings exceed the number attending the Lord’s Day meeting. If this is the case, our church life will not merely be worship services, but a practical church life.

(Witness Lee, Vision of the Divine Dispensing, 61)

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