Our church life began in 1920. At that time the Lord raised up in China a group of young people, mostly college students. Later in Foochow the Lord gained a young student by the name of Watchman Nee. Since his grandfather had been a pastor, he was a third-generation Christian. However, he was not assured of his salvation until he was seventeen years old, in the year 1920. Shortly after he was saved, he fervently loved the Bible. He was very good at studying; he not only knew the Bible well, but he also saw much light in the Scriptures. He compared the truth and revelations in the Bible with the various conditions in Christianity at the time and discovered that many things in Christianity are not found in the Bible.
At that time Brother Nee was a sophomore in college, and he was very proficient in the English language. Therefore, he read many books published in English and also many biographies and lectures of famous people, and he also thoroughly studied the history of Christianity. He deeply felt the need to put something into practice—a group of Christians in China coming together to meet and to worship according to the Bible. That was the beginning of the meeting among us.
In this way, the first meeting took place in 1922 in Foochow. In 1949 the brothers felt that a portion of the saints should leave mainland China and go overseas for the spread of the Lord’s work. So that year a group of brothers and I came to Taiwan. Back then the number of saints who came from the mainland was at most four or five hundred. These four or five hundred saints spread throughout the major cities in Taiwan and began to meet. Soon afterward I was invited to the Philippines. I worked in this way for ten years, going back and forth. In 1961 I deeply felt that we should start the work in the West, so I went to the United States to observe the situation there. In the following year, 1962, I received the burden, settled down in the United States, and began this recovery work in English, which has continued to this day.
We are speaking of the church life in particular for a few reasons. First, we hope to eliminate denominational divisions. The situation of denominational divisions is the outward, present condition of Christianity. Of course, this divisive condition of denominations has not come into existence only recently. This situation of denominational division began, at the latest, from the time of Luther during the Reformation and has continued to this day. Certainly this is not according to the Bible at all. However, this kind of situation had occurred at an even earlier time, in the time of the apostles. For example, some among the believers in the church in Corinth went as far as saying that they were of Paul, others said that they were of Cephas, and still others said that they were of Apollos; one faction who thought highly of themselves told others that they were of Christ (1 Cor. 1:12). Paul very much detested this and exhorted them to do away with this situation.
Therefore, since we worship God according to the Bible, we cannot accept the traditional denominations nor participate in the traditional divisions. Therefore, we do not take a particular name; we say only that we are Christians. We truly do not desire to take another name. This may be compared to the natural world in which there is only one moon. In the United States there is the one moon, in all the countries in Asia there is the one moon, and in Europe there is still just the one moon. The moon is simply the moon. If you must give it a name, calling it “the moon in the United States,” or “the moon in Taiwan,” it is all right. But regardless of what you call it, it is still the same moon; it simply appears in various places. For this reason, we are very careful with the matter of name.
However, in this age and in any country, as long as there is a religious gathering or a religious activity, it must be officially registered with the government for permission. That is why we applied and registered with the government as “Assembly Hall of the Church in Taipei.” Normally, we still call ourselves the church in a certain place. For example, in Hong Kong we are “the church in Hong Kong,” in Taipei we are “the church in Taipei,” and in New York we are “the church in New York,” and so forth.
We do not recognize denominations because we do not agree with division. All believers, regardless of their differences in the doctrine or practice of baptism, as long as they have genuinely believed in the Lord and received the Lord, are those who belong to the Lord as the members of the church. If they are in Taipei, they are the members of the church in Taipei; if they go to Los Angeles, they are in the church in Los Angeles. This principle saves us from the division of denominations.
Second, the clergy system must be abolished from our church life. The so-called “clergy system” is a group of people in Christianity who, after studying theology and receiving a theological education, come out to do the evangelical and ministerial work. In a typical Christian organization, we can see a group of people who are the preachers, pastors, teachers, and choir directors. They are the clergy. Once these clergymen come to a meeting, all the other saints merely sit there passively. Related to the church, the saints do not have to do anything other than attend the meeting and offer money, because from the time they are saved, they are never taught to do anything.
According to the Bible this practice is altogether against God’s desire. God desires all who are saved to be the members of the Body of Christ. The church is the Body of Christ, just as we have our physical body. This body has different members, and different members have different functions. If all the members of my body do not function accordingly, I will become paralyzed and numb; my body will not be a body anymore.
This is the general condition of Christianity today. Only the clergy is active in the meetings, and the congregation is inactive. Metaphorically speaking, the saints are not living; they have become numb. According to the Bible we can never accept this. Therefore, among us we do not want the so-called preachers and pastors and other practices of the clergy system. We hope that some brothers and sisters will be able to serve the Lord full-time, but this does not mean that being full-time is their lifelong occupation. If this year they come out to serve the Lord full-time, and after four years they have the leading from the Lord and are willing to do something else, then they can go and do according to the Lord’s leading. This is like the apostle Paul; although he was the greatest gospel preacher, he did not have preaching the gospel as his job. On the one hand, Paul preached the gospel, but on the other hand, he made tents with his own hands. He did not make tents for his own living only; he even labored with his hands to provide for the needs of those who served and preached the gospel with him (Acts 18:3; 20:34).
According to the Bible, therefore, there is not a profession of “preacher.” We are now encouraging the saved college students not to go to work immediately after graduation but to spend one or two years learning to serve full-time, if possible. On the one hand, they will endeavor in the learning of truth, getting to know the spiritual things, and on the other hand, they will be exercised in the matter of service in the house of God. If after two years, after they have been equipped in this way, they go out to get a job or do some business, this will be very good. Therefore, we truly hope that every brother and sister can be perfected and participate in some kind of service. Some brothers and sisters may feel that they can go full-time right away; that would be the best. Some may feel that they can go half-time and some one-quarter time, while some may feel that they can set apart their nights and holidays. These all serve the Lord; these are all good. In any case, we all should minister; we should all participate in some kind of service.
At this time there is a meeting in almost every home, and we very much encourage all who are saved in each household—the husband, the wife, the children, and the parents, every member of the household—to be active in the home meetings. For example, the little brother can call a hymn, the big sister can pray, the older brother can read the Bible, and the younger brother can say a little word. Everyone can function in a home meeting, building up one another. Of course, the new believers may not know very much, so some who have been saved for a longer time need to have a home meeting with them. This is not going to their homes to be their family pastor or their family preacher; it is to meet together with them as a saint in the church.
We do not have preachers, we do not have pastors, and we do not have gospel giants preaching the gospel while others listen. We are simply a group of saints—some only eighteen, nineteen, or twenty years old accompanied by one or two older ones—going out together to knock on doors and visit people to bring the gospel to them. Thank the Lord, people are happy and willing to open the door and receive us. This is truly the work of the grace of the Lord. Therefore, we all need to see that there is no clergy system in our church life.