What Now?

[PeterG]

Hello everyone,
nice to be here. I can only talk for Germany, where I come from. Please excuse my translator-English. I certainly don't want to deny individual good fruits, but on the whole the way of the Local Churches has been a disaster. The once so many small hopeful groups have disappeared or their original focus has now been swept under the carpet. Or in some places, several “local churches” have competed with each other. And I also believe those who say that Witness Lee's last message was imbued with a deep sense of remorse that he had seen the great mistakes that had been made.

The right starting point
Hardly any thinking Christian would deny that the young Watchman Nee was given a particularly profound insight by God. A realization that Christians at the time of the Bible still took for granted: that God's church simply encompasses all believers in a particular place.

The glorious goal
And it’s also hard to deny that after the many good achievements in the wake of the Reformation, if what Watchman Nee was given were also practiced now, we could actually rejoice in something like the recovery of the biblical ecclesia.

The fundamental error
There is probably this simple, very logical reason why things turned out differently: When believers receive local knowledge and realize that denominations are wrong, they must not become a denomination themselves. They must not become a “church” either.

The narrower path
They must be proclaimers of a prophetic word to the denominations. Their task is to explain in love, clarity and patience how God envisions his church. They must open people’s eyes and guide the sheep correctly, because 99% think that denominations are completely normal and okay.

And most importantly, the proclaimers must not anticipate the thing that is being proclaimed. Instead, they must stand in the gap - just like the prophets of the Old Testament once did. Their task is to re-explain the will of God by calling the church to repentance and conversion.

Two questions may arise
1. Isn't a group of such automatically a denomination? Or at least must be perceived as such? No, this does not necessarily have to happen if the identity as a group serving the church is unmistakably emphasized.

2. Doesn’t such a group again create the appearance of exclusivity? In part. Because it bears the dignity of those who deliver God's Word to the people of God. But that is their only “exclusivity”. It will be hard for her, she will face resistance. And because it is not a church, it does not possess the inner riches that God has reserved for his ekklesia. She is just a little, serving flock. A necessary one.

Grace and blessings
Peter G