Our Shared History

[Friedel]

What follows here is by way of introduction. There are other brothers far more qualified than I am, brothers who had been there, who could provide much needed detail. However, I assume only the role of reporter and I look to the Lord to make these posts of benefit to all and fair to all concerned.

SOME ASPECTS OF THE HISTORY OF THE LOCAL CHURCH MOVEMENT

Introduction

Before we can come to understand the history of Witness Lee, Living Stream Ministry and the Local Church Movement, I believe it is important to very briefly go back to the history of Watchman Nee. More specifically, we need to in a few words examine Nee’s relationship with three different people because they had a profound influence on his life and subsequently would have an effect on Lee and eventually on members of the Local Churches.

The three people I believe are critical to the history of Watchman Nee are Margaret Barber, Jessie Penn-Lewis and Theodore Austin-Sparks. (There are others but for the sake of this history, these three stand out.)

It is not necessary to examine Margaret Barber’s individual history but suffice to say that she was the most profound influence on Watchman Nee’s earlier life. She nurtured within him a love for the Lord, she encouraged him to learn the lessons of the cross and she instilled within him a desire to be absolute for the Lord. He really appreciated her and often confessed that he was greatly indebted to her for his spiritual growth.

Margaret Barber also introduced him to the writings of Jessie Penn-Lewis, albeit indirectly. She felt he was not yet ready for Penn-Lewis’ but he nevertheless ordered books directly from her. Penn-Lewis’ works must have had a major influence on Nee and along with the writings of Madame Guyon probably account for his “mystic” tendencies. War on the Saints, co-written by Penn-Lewis and Evan Roberts came out seven years after the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905.

The Welsh Revival lasted about nine months and a hundred thousand people were converted but it is reported that within six months there was very little evidence left of the revival. The remaining fruit was extremely limited.

Penn-Lewis and Roberts collaborated on the writing of War on the Saints and this book probably had the most enduring influence on Watchman Nee in preparation for his writing of The Spiritual Man. Nee also read all he could by Otto Stockmayer on the questions of soul and spirit and the triumph over satanic power. He simply did not have the life experience to write the book and much of it was theory. The first volume of The Spiritual Man appeared in 1926 and he completed it in 1928, when he was 26.

However, it was his friendship with Theodore Austin-Sparks which had the most profound effect on his life. For the first time he had met a brother with whom he could fellowship on an equal basis. As a matter of fact, he wrote Sparks upon his return from England: “You know, with the brethren here, because of their juniority, everything I say goes, despite their seeking the mind of the Lord. As a younger man, regarding you as a senior brother in the same testimony, I think I need this fellowship in a very real way.”

The fellowship between Austin-Sparks during 1938–1939 was mutually rewarding. It was also during this time that they extensively discussed the matter of locality and Watchman Nee translated Rethinking the Work (later published as The Normal Christian Church Life) and it appeared in London just before he left in 1939 under the title Concerning Our Missions. (Witness Lee in later years claimed that Austin-Sparks did not print it because he realized “it had something against his [Sparks’] work”. In fact, Austin-Sparks was intimately familiar with the content and his publishing company, The Witness and Testimony published the book. He just had the spiritual maturity to accommodate his younger brother, although he disagreed with his views on the ground of locality.)

Nee spoke in Shanghai on 11 June 1940:

“Our position is that, in any place, all who are the Lord’s are therefore ours because we ourselves are His, and only those who are not His are not of us. If Hardoon Road [the meeting place in Shanghai] ever comes to be a method of working in which concern for the local churches gives way to a mere concept of ‘localism’ then may God have mercy on us and smash it, for it will cease to have spiritual value. We must never forget that all in whom the Lord has liberty are ours in Him, and that in any place it is not even a spiritual local church but the Body of Christ we are called upon to build up.”

This is only by way of introduction. As we trace the years from 1940 onwards, when Witness Lee started to come to the fore more and more, it will become abundantly clear that Theodore Austin-Sparks was probably the greatest thorn in his flesh. It was also his inability in later years to work and fellowship with Austin-Sparks that caused a lot of damage within many localities.

Nee and TAS never saw each other again and had limited correspondence by mail after 1939. (For further reading on these sections, I heartily recommend the anthology of poems by Margaret E. Barber, entitled, Anchored to Infinity, but ignore the exclamation on the back cover: No Margaret Barber, No Watchman Nee!; also Against the Tide, the Story of Watchman Nee by Dr. Angus Kinnear, the son-in-law of Theodore Austin-Sparks, who had also met Nee and had known him in London.