The Practical Building Up of the Local Churches

Additional Quotes about the Local Church

The following quotes express Witness Lee’s understanding of the God-ordained way to build the church:

3. Perfecting the Believers

The following quotes from Witness Lee’s writings address the perfecting of the believers in group meetings of mutuality:

The group meeting revealed in Hebrews 10:24-25, strictly speaking, is not a meeting for gospel preaching, feeding the new believers, or for prophesying. The group meeting is a meeting for mutuality…. According to the New Testament, the group meeting comprises mutuality in shepherding, caring, interceding, teaching through asking and answering questions, perfecting, and equipping. The group meeting is eighty percent of the practical church life. The church life is inadequate without the group meetings. We are weak and very short in our practice of the church life today because we do not have the proper group meetings in mutuality.

The meetings of the church should be in mutuality. Mutuality is different from plurality. The responsibility of the eldership in the church should be borne in plurality. The responsibility of the eldership in the church life should be taken care of by at least three persons. In a local church, there should not be less than three elders. Actually, the more elders the better. The eldership is a matter of plurality.

Mutuality is for the church meetings. Formerly in our practice, we only had one or two speakers in the meetings. Today some may think that, if we arrange to have eight to ten speakers in the meetings, we have mutuality. Actually, this is plurality, not mutuality. The ten speakers would become clergymen, and the rest of the saints would become laymen. In the church meetings, however, everyone can speak to build up the church. This is mutuality.

(Witness Lee, Eldership (3), 95-96)

If every one of us preaches the gospel according to the new way, bringing people to salvation and feeding the lambs, in a few months we will be able to gain two or three persons. A few of us can then bring our lambs together to form a group and establish a group meeting. First, in the group meeting we should not try to conduct worship services. Second, we should not try to meet. Third, we should not sing, pray, or read the Bible in the same way we used to do. When we come together, we should simply be normal. However, we should not be common. Rather, we should be full of praise and thanksgiving within. Spontaneously, there will be the mutual care, the mutual intercession, the mutual shepherding, and the mutual help. You need to take care of all these things in every group meeting. At a certain point, everyone will be very clear how many brothers and sisters there are in the group and what the condition of their family is. Everyone needs to learn to fellowship whenever anything happens and to let everyone else know about it. In this way, the group will have a foundation, and much will develop out of this.

This is why we say that the small groups comprise the major portion of the church life. If a local church is to be strong, the number of people attending the groups must be high. It is better that the number of people attending the group meetings exceed the number attending the Lord’s Day meeting. If this is the case, our church life will not merely be worship services, but a practical church life. Besides the mutual care, feeding, mutual acquaintance, and intercession, another main function of the group meeting is the perfecting. It is best to spend half of the time to do this work. How do we perfect? We do not have appointed teachers or designated leaders. Everyone is a student as well as a teacher. Anyone can ask questions and anyone can answer questions. Some may answer in a shallow way, and some may answer in a deeper way. It is very good, of course, if an answer is correct, but if an answer is incorrect, it does not matter. There will always be some who can wisely make an adjustment. Eventually, all the answers added together will become a very good and complete message. Unconsciously, the attendants will learn the truths. Week after week they will spontaneously obtain nurturing and perfecting.

If you will work on the groups according to what I have told you, I can guarantee you that bit by bit, like a little stream that flows steadily, our number will double every year. You will continuously have new ones added to you. Generation after generation, everyone will be nourished and perfected. In this way, we will truly be the refined and educated ones. I believe that in a few years such a situation will be seen among us.

(Witness Lee, Vision of the Divine Dispensing, 61-62)

The healthy words, after being committed to faithful men, become the good deposit in them (1:14). This word indicates that if someone in a local church has a deposit of the Lord’s healthy words, he should train the faithful ones that they too may have a good deposit from the Lord and be competent to teach others.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 997)

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