The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church

Additional Quotes about the Local Church by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee

In another hymn, Witness Lee exalts Christ as the center of the local church meetings:

1. In daily walk and in our meetings too,
   Christ is the center, Christ is everything;
   ’Tis not for form nor doctrine good and true,
   But ’tis for Christ alone we’re gathering.



2. Christ is the way and Christ the light of life,
   In Him we walk and by Him we are led;
   Christ is the living water and the food;
   Of Him we drink and we with Him are fed.



3. Christ is the truth, ’tis Him we testify,
   Christ is the life, ’tis Him we minister;
   Christ is the Lord, “tis Him we magnify,
   Christ is the Head, and we exalt Him here.



4. Christ is the All in all to God and man—
   With Him both we and God are satisfied;
   Christ, the reality within the Church—
   By Him are life and numbers multiplied.



5. By all the hymns and prayers we offer here,
   Christ the reality we would express;
   All the activities in fellowship—
   Christ thus in operation manifest.



6. ’Tis in His Name we meet, in Spirit act,
   With nothing in our mind to formalize;
   ’Tis by His pow’r we pray, in unction praise,
   And with Himself in spirit exercise.



7. All things forgetting, cleaving unto Christ,
   Applying Him until maturity;
   Let us count everything but loss for Him,
   For Him, our All in all, eternally.

(Witness Lee, Hymns, 795)

Witness Lee describes on the history of the local church meetings:

Both Brother Nee and I came out from Christianity. Brother Nee’s grandfather was a pastor, and my mother was a third generation Christian. We studied in Christian schools. By the Lord’s mercy, we began to meet outside of Christianity to have the Lord’s recovery. Although we had come out of Christianity, we realized that we still unintentionally maintained some parts of the practice of Christianity as a kind of unconscious tradition in our meetings.

According to the natural concept, a Christian meeting must be a meeting with a large congregation. However, according to the principle of Matthew 18:20, only two or three are required for a Christian meeting. Nearly all of the local churches began with a small number. In the early days of the Lord’s recovery in mainland China, many churches began with not more than five saints. Spontaneously, these localities grew to a larger number.

Eventually in 1948, Brother Nee began to say that the Lord’s Day morning meeting among us was not so good. He uttered his strong feeling definitely to us. He indicated strongly that we should stop the Lord’s Day morning meetings and spend that time to preach the gospel (see Church Affairs—chapter four). He told us that our way of meeting was altogether not according to the Scriptures. He pointed out to us that the most clear word in the New Testament concerning the way the believers should meet is in 1 Corinthians 14. He especially stressed verse 26, which says that when we come together, all of us should have something. He also pointed out that the proper Christian meeting should be fully in mutuality.

(Witness Lee, Eldership (1), 7-8)

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