The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church

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

Witness Lee speaks of the prayer meeting for the Lord’s move in the local churches:

Regardless of how large a local church becomes, there is still the need for the whole church to come together periodically. Such a gathering will be a great stirring up and encouragement to the saints.

In the Lord’s new move in the churches, we need the home meetings, the truth lessons, the Lord’s table, the prayer meeting, and we also need big meetings periodically to gather all the new ones together.

(Witness Lee, Eldership (1), 12-13)

One reason for the church to meet is for the purpose of prayer. Watchman Nee shares:

There are several purposes for which the church meets, as recorded in Scripture. First, for prayer (Acts 2:42; 4:24, 31; 12:5); second, for reading (Col. 4:16; 1 Thes. 5:27; Acts 2:42; 15:21, 30-31); third, for the breaking of bread—which are not meetings presided over by a single individual who bears all responsibility, since reference is made to “the cup of blessing which we bless…the bread which we break” (1 Cor. 10:16-17; Acts 2:42; 20:7); and fourth, for the exercise of spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14). The last type of meeting is a church meeting, for the phrase “in the church” is used repeatedly in the passage which describes it (vv. 28, 34-35). Of this meeting it is said that all may prophesy.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 30, 175)

According to the Bible, the prayer meeting is a meeting of the church. Watchman Nee states:

According to the Bible, there are generally five different kinds of meetings—the gospel meeting, the bread-breaking meeting, the prayer meeting, the meeting for the exercise of the gifts, and the meeting for the preaching of the Word. The Bible shows us these five kinds of meetings during the apostles’ time. Today, if the church is to be strong, it must have these five kinds of meetings. We must know how to meet in a proper way in each kind of meeting. If we do, we will receive the profit from these meetings.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 3, Vol. 48, 193)

Watchman Nee confirms that a local church should have a prayer meeting as one of its meetings:

The church should have the following kinds of meetings: gospel meetings, new beginners’ meetings, prayer meetings, the Lord’s table meeting, the meeting referred to in 1 Corinthians 14, sisters’ meetings, and children’s meetings. The local church need not maintain a message meeting on the Lord’s Day.

(Witness Lee, Seer of the Divine Revelation, 220)

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