The five general means of Watchman Nee's ministry mentioned in the previous chapter are common to all Christian workers. But since Watchman was burdened and commissioned with a specific ministry for the Lord's present testimony in this age, he adopted three further specific means for the carrying out of his particular ministry.
The first specific means Watchman employed in his ministry was the holding of conferences. The regular meetings of the church were not sufficient for the release of the special messages he received from the Lord for the present day. A larger audience composed of those genuinely seeking the Lord and His interest and consecutive meetings held within a designated time span were needed for the release of his specific burdens. For these reasons he held many special conferences. The main conferences were called overcomer conferences, while the rest were simply called special conferences.
The following excerpt from his open letter in the twenty-second issue of The Present Testimony, published in September—December 1931, explains the purpose of his conferences:
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In our conferences our intention is only to speak forth the message of the victory of Christ, not to speak of other matters. The preaching of this message is our particular responsibility....In reality, unless a person knows God in the aspects of trusting and obeying Him, it is of little use to speak to him concerning other matters. We can mention many other matters to those who are faithful, but if we share them with those who are yet unwilling to serve God faithfully, it will only give rise to disputes....Our Bible study meetings, on the other hand, are of a different nature: They are conducted for those who are willing to serve God faithfully and are seeking to have a clearer understanding of Bible truths. For this reason, we are free in these meetings to bring up those things which we would be reluctant to bring up in conferences. We hope that in our future conferences, neither the speaker nor the listeners will bring up, either publicly or privately, any matters outside the victory of Christ, in order that we might have God's full blessing....This does not mean that other matters are not important; but it does mean that when men sincerely desire to receive the victory of Christ and to believe and obey the Lord, He will spontaneously direct their attention to these other external matters, and they will automatically obey...At this stage, if certain things are not clear to some, we would be most willing to help them in the Bible study meetings. We deeply sense that what the church of God urgently needs and what she absolutely must experience today is the victory of Christ—the facts and principles which He declared through His death and resurrection. In this matter we need to be faithful and steadfast, and we need to preach it wholeheartedly.
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