Kaung and Lee Lines in America - A History

[Indiana]

Originally Posted by Indiana

"...He presented a number of serious concerns to Brother Lee and asked him to bring all these things to the Lord. Brother Chu told me that Brother Lee listened quietly and passively to all his points (with one exception), making no comment, neither admitting nor denying. The exception was a point he made concerning Brother Lee’s son, Philip Lee. In conclusion, Brother Chu told Brother Lee, "All the sweet feeling we had in the past is lost. All the rest in our spirit is over."

*I will mention just a few more comments made by Brother Chu. He said that he feels very sorry for the present state of things -- he gave his whole life to this. He has received letters from elderly ones in Taipei that are full of blood and tears. There are very few elderly ones there who are not discouraged or withdrawn. The warfare now is fiercer than in Watchman Nee’s day when the issue was that of leaving the denominations. We are at a critical juncture. We cannot be silent regarding the change of nature in the Lord’s recovery. We should have no part in it. This is a day for further recovery. We need a new beginning to recover us back from the change of nature to the Lord’s original intention. We must discard all the changes of nature. The main direction is to come out of the system; it cannot change.

(From Speaking the Truth in Love, J. I.)

Advertising a minister of the age is unnecessary and troubling to many people. If Paul wasn't dubbed a minister of the age in the scriptures then neither should Watchman Nee or Witness Lee receive that designation.

However, the Lord Jesus did receive a designation. He was "designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead" (Rom. 1:3-4). What a man! What a God-Man! We have to spare our brothers, Nee and Lee, of man's uplifting of them, inordinately.


This is far away from the early vision of Nee and Lee in China who held that oneness was with Christ alone, and would never have expanded the oneness to a man and a ministry also, and it's exaltation in the church. In LSM's one publication proclamation, Benson Phillips states that "the ministry of Witness Lee is indispensable to our oneness".

But in the beginning it wasn't so.

1963 Witness Lee

Do not say, “I am of Paul” or “I am of Apollos” or “I am of Peter.” Do not regard someone as higher than others. If their ministry is a help to you, take it. You have to realize that you are not for any ministry, but you are for the church, for the expression of the Body of Christ. Do not say that you are for this brother or that brother. This is something fleshly (1 Cor. 3:4). We recognize that all the servants of the Lord are sent by the Lord and are given as gifts to His Body and that they have different ministries. We take all the good matters of these ministries. But if there is anything factious, divisive, we have to be careful.

None of us is here for the ministry. We are all here for the Body, the church. The workers should take the attitude that their work is not for their own ministry, and all the local saints should learn the lesson not to stand for anything other than the church. Simply stand for the local expression of the church, because the local church, not the ministry, is the lampstand for Christ.

By the Lord’s mercy, I am a brother with a ministry here. If the saints here are standing for my ministry instead of the local expression, I have to tell you that you are wrong. You should not stand for any ministry, even my ministry. What you have to stand for is the church, the local church. Any minister with any ministry or any worker with any work who comes here must be for the local church. If it is not for the local church, you have to say, “No, you are going to build up something other than the lampstand, something other than the local expression of the Body. We would not go along with this.” (The Life and Way to Practice the Church Life)