The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church

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

In the following selected excerpt Witness Lee speaks of singing, praising, and prophesying in God’s house:

The house is also the place to sing praises unto the Lord. We do need an abundance of singing in God’s house. We may need a few messages and a little listening, but how much more we need the singing of praises! All these things are in the house. I just love the house!

…In God’s house the saints speak of God’s glory: “In his temple doth every one speak of his glory” (Ps. 29:9). Everyone speaks. This corresponds with I Corinthians 14:31, “Ye can all prophesy one by one.” What is it to prophesy? It is just to speak the glory of God. Everyone can speak the glory of God in His house, and everyone in the local churches must speak.

In God’s house the saints are under the shadow of God’s wings, enjoying His precious lovingkindness: “How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God!” (Ps. 36:7). In God’s house they are satisfied with the fatness of His house: “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house” (36:8). In the local churches we do have fatness. In God’s house the saints are drinking of the river of God’s pleasure: “Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures” (36:8). In the local churches we are really drinking of divine pleasures. In God’s house the saints partake of the fountain of life: “For with thee is the fountain of life” (36:9). And in God’s house the saints see light in God’s light: “In thy light shall we see light” (36:9). Here we have the river of pleasures and the fountain of life; and here, where life is, there is always light, for the life is the light of men. All this is in the local churches.

(Witness Lee, Christ and the Church, 62-63)

Watchman Nee saw the need for the believers’ spiritual exercise in the local church meetings:

When the local church meets, it is the gifts that are brought into use.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 30, 179)

Witness Lee exhorts all the believers to function in the local church meetings:

If you come to the meeting and just sit there waiting for others to function, you are still under the influence of the Nicolaitans. You must be delivered, you must escape, you must break through, even if you have to shout. Today in the local church there must be neither “nico-,” nor “-laitans,” neither clergy nor laymen. All the brothers and sisters must be functioning, praying, testifying, shouting and praising brothers and sisters.

(Witness Lee, Christ v. Religion, 169)

Watchman Nee understood and testified regarding the need for all the members to function in the local church meetings:

In the church meetings, “each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation” (1 Cor. 14:26). Here it is not a case of one leading and all the others following, but of each one contributing his share of spiritual helpfulness. True, only a few of those present take part, but all may; only a few are actual contributors to the meeting, but all are potential contributors.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 30, 172-173)

Concerning all the believers participating in the meetings of the local churches, Watchman Nee has helpful comments:

If therefore the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak in tongues, and some unlearned in tongues or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are insane?…What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two, or at the most three, and in turn, and one should interpret; but if there is no interpreter, he should be silent in the church, and speak to himself and to God. And as to prophets, two or three should speak, and the others discern. But if something is revealed to another sitting by, the first should be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints (4:23, 26-33).

…An opportunity is given to each member of the church to help others, and an opportunity is given to each one to be helped. One brother may speak at one stage of the gathering and another later on; you may be chosen of the Spirit to help the brethren this time, and I next time. Everything in the meeting is governed throughout by the principle of “two or three” (vv. 27, 29). Even the same two or three prophets are not permanently appointed to minister to the meetings, but at each meeting the Spirit chooses any two or three from among all the prophets present. That such assemblies are assemblies of the church is seen at a glance, because the stamp of mutuality is clearly upon all the proceedings.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 30, 173-174)

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