The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church

The Local Church Meetings

Both Watchman Nee and Witness Lee realized that in order to be proper Christians, we all need a vision and an appreciation of the local church meetings. It is very clear from the Bible that believers in the local church are a meeting people. From the beginning of the New Testament era, the believers have been gathered together to meet as the church (Acts 2:41-45). In this section, Watchman Nee and Witness Lee reveal the importance of the local church meetings and of the believers’ participation in and enjoyment of the riches of Christ in the meetings, as well as describing the various kinds of meetings. The ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee also describes the meetings of the local church, beginning with the meetings revealed in the New Testament, as very practical, focused on Christ, full of enjoyment, and in mutuality for the participation and spiritual exercise of all the believers. As the Scriptures exhort us, we must not abandon our assembling together, as the custom of some is, but rather, we meet all the more as we see the day of our Lord’s return drawing near (Heb. 10:24-25). This fellowship was given by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee in order to help the believers see the importance of the local church meetings, to understand the proper Christian meeting life, and to learn how to function in the meetings of the local churches. This first section contains quotes from Witness Lee, while the “more quotes” section includes quotes from Watchman Nee.

In How to Meet, Witness Lee makes the following statement concerning the importance of the local church meetings:

We must realize that we Christians are a meeting people. A Christian is a meeting person. Without meeting, there is no Christian life and no church life. It is rather difficult for any Christian to grow without attending the meetings. There is no way for any Christian to serve God without meetings, and it is impossible for Christians to express Christ if there are no meetings. The church life is a meeting life. When we read the first chapters of the Book of Acts, we see that in the early days, in the first local church, the Church in Jerusalem, the saints were meeting daily. Every day they met together; so they were a sound and strong church….We must meet all the time if possible. Hebrews 10:25 tells us that we must build up a habit and not lose that habit.

(Witness Lee, How to Meet, 7)

In the following portion, Witness Lee states that the content of the meetings in the local churches should be simply Christ:

I hope that all the meetings of the local churches will be meetings full of Christ, full of the Spirit, full of the flow of the anointing, full of the dew, and full of life.

I say again that all this depends on our daily life, our daily experience of Christ and of the Spirit. When we come to the meetings, we must have our hands full of Christ to share with others, to contribute to others, and to minister to others, while at the same time, we hope to receive some help from others as our food supply in the Spirit.

(Witness Lee, Life and Way, 149)

These passages highlight the importance of the meetings in the local churches. As Witness Lee states, “Christians are a meeting people.” We also see that Christ is the content of the local church meetings. Such fellowship, corroborated by Watchman Nee in the additional quotes section, encourages the believers to be a meeting people filled with Christ.

Main

Meetings

Lord’s Table

Prayer

Prophesying

Small Group

Gospel

Children’s

OT Type

Spiritual Exercise

Reading

Praying

Singing

Speaking

Thanksgiving

Praising

Serving

Calling

Pray-Reading

Bibliography

Links