Here is an excerpt from an article I received this past weekend written about Poul Madsen. I can make the whole article available if any are interested:
Poul Madsen versus Witness Lee
In early 1957, Madsen travelled to Taiwan and India with his wife and Austin-Sparks. He characterized this visit as a disappointment.36 In Taiwan he met, among others, Witness Lee. Lee held gigantic meetings where some 5000 believers would gather for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. During the six weeks they spent in Taiwan, the Madsens grew increasingly surprised and perplexed.
During one specific gathering, Lee suddenly turned towards Madsen, enquiring: “What is the local church?” Madsen responded that the local church is the total sum of all genuine Christians within a certain geographical area. Lee then “corrected” him in public by reeling off 10 criteria which had to be fulfilled in order for a local church to be rightly constituted. One of these criteria, Lee asserted, was rightly appointed elders. Madsen immediately countered: “I totally disagree!” Madsen felt more and more that Lee, instead of leading a Christian church, had established an organization ruled with a rod of iron and characterized by exclusiveness.
If we ignore the typical culture shock which most first-time visitors to the so-called Third World encounter,37 the tone in the letters he sent back to Denmark was chiefly positive - “Everywhere, however, we have been received with a heartfelt sincerity which has truly touched us.”38 Even Madsen’s observation of the “spiritual training” within the church with the newly converted ones seems to be positively taken - “personal desires, inclinations and peculiarities had to be put aside in favor of the much larger goal of serving the whole, i.e., serving Christ in His Body.”39 It was much later when Madsen’s anxiety came to the surface:
As previously mentioned, many of the assemblies in Taiwan have gone through schism. They have been through painful struggles. Much is still going one which causes grief and sadness. This is evident, in particular, with the large work connected with Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Everywhere in the Far East, these assemblies struggle with serious internal difficulties.40
Later Madsen observed that Witness Lee had moved from Taiwan and relocated to the U.S.:
This talented man now follows a new line of thought. Many have a hard time accepting his teaching. He needs much prayer so that his gifting and energy will be used in the best way possible for the Lord. He wants to serve the Lord with his whole heart. However, Watchman Nee’s name is now connected to things which many feel he would not approve of if he knew about it.41
In spite of an earlier respectful reference to the Chinese leaders, Madsen’s anxiety is specified every time these very same individuals are mentioned in
Mod Målet:
Witness Lee and Stephan [sic] Kaung have received American citizenship. They are very energetic and attract hundreds of people. I feel a deep anxiety when I reflect on their work. They have been entangled in something fatally exclusive and sectarian, in spite of their rich giftings. We must keep them in our prayers.42
After having studied Nee’s book
The Normal Christian Church Life Madsen thought (in hindsight) he was able to detect a seed of the exclusivity he witnessed with Witness Lee’s work in Taiwan. After Lee moved to the U.S. and became even more extreme, Madsen asserted this was a direct result of Lee rigidly following the principles laid out by Watchman Nee.43 Madsen observed that Nee’s teachings had a positive impact in many places which gather around the message of the Cross and its significance for the individual believer. However, Madsen believed he saw a danger in an overemphasis on the subjective. The church-oriented books, in turn, according to Madsen have had harmful effects.44