The Governing Principles of the Practice of the Local Church

1. Based on the Word of God

As Witness Lee expresses in this excerpt from his Life-Study of Judges, the practice of the local church —one church in one city—is according to the clear revelation of the New Testament.

Every item in the Lord’s recovery must be according to the Bible. For example, calling on the name of the Lord and pray-reading are scriptural practices (Gen. 4:26; 13:4; Eph. 6:17-18). When we call on the name of the Lord, our inner man is refreshed. When we pray-read the Word, we are fed.

The difference between the churches in the Lord’s recovery and Christianity is that the local churches in the recovery try their best to do everything according to the Bible, the Word of God. The Bible reveals that the church as the Body of Christ is universally and uniquely one. Because all the members of the Body of Christ exist on earth in different cities, this unique Body of Christ is expressed among people on earth in many cities—one city, one church. …In the Scriptures there are no house churches, street churches, state churches, or district churches. Instead, there are local churches. The local church in a city is a part of the Body. Therefore, we practice the local churches, and we also practice the universal Body of Christ.

(Witness Lee, LS of Judges, 59-60)

In his book The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcendent Christ, Witness Lee also exhorts Christians to return to the Bible to see what it teaches about the church and about God’s economy for the producing of the church.

Our constitution is the Bible. We must come back to our constitution and check everything of today’s situation with what the Bible says. We must come back to the Bible and see what the Bible says about the church. God’s economy is not for the purpose of having only individual believers to be saved, to be spiritual, and then to go to heaven. This is not God’s economy. This is the teaching of fallen Christianity. The Bible tells us God has a desire, and He has made an economy to dispense Himself into His chosen people and make His chosen people His many sons. Then He transforms them into His treasure and seals them with His life element unto the redemption of their body. Through the transcending Christ’s transmitting, He brings them together to make them one church. This is why we say that there is the need of a recovery of the proper church life according to God’s economy.

(Witness Lee, Issue of the Dispensing, 76-77)

Elsewhere, Witness Lee again implores the believers to come back to the Scripture in order to receive the Lord’s pure speaking.

By the way, I would add a little word. In our fellowship many of us are used to saying, “Brother Lee says…” I beg you, from now on, not to say, “Brother Lee says…” Instead we should say, “First Timothy says…”; or “First Corinthians says…” From the very beginning of the Lord’s recovery in the United States, I have passed on the Lord’s word to you. You may have received the Lord’s word through my speaking, through my teaching, but what I spoke was His word. We all need to come back to the pure Word of God and discern accurately what His pure Word says.

(Witness Lee, Eldership (1), 52-53)

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