The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church

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

Elsewhere Witness Lee observes regarding the discerning of the Body:

My fourth burden in this supplementary word is the discerning of the one Body. First Corinthians 11:29 says that we need to discern the Body. Moreover, it says that if we do not discern the Body, we will suffer some kind of discipline by the Lord.

The first item we need to discern is the bread on the Lord’s table. The bread on the Lord’s table should be a symbol not only of the Lord’s physical body, but also of the Lord’s mystical Body, which is universally one (Eph. 4:4). Although we may take the Lord’s table in many different cities around the globe, we all are taking just one bread, because the bread we partake of is a symbol of Christ’s mystical Body, which is universally one. Thus, 1 Corinthians 10:17 says, “We who are many are one bread, one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.”

(Witness Lee, Brief Presentation, 54)

The Lord’s table meeting is one of the meetings of the local church, as Watchman Nee shares:

We saw quite clearly that there was no need for a local church to maintain the Lord’s Day message meeting, because this kind of meeting is not a church meeting. The messages recorded in The Normal Christian Church Life speak concerning this in a very detailed way. The prayer meeting is a meeting of the church. The supplying by the ministers of the word in 1 Corinthians 14 is a meeting of the church. The table meeting is a meeting of the church.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 3, Vol. 51, 61)

Watchman Nee discusses the Lord’s table meeting as a meeting of the local church:

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)

Similarly, Witness Lee speaks concerning the Lord’s table as a meeting of the local church:

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)

Watchman Nee speaks concerning the Lord’s table as necessary for a local church to be strong:

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 speaks of the Lord’s table as one of the meetings of the local church:

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)

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