Recovery of Christ and the Church

Introduction: Many Christians feel that because of the fallen condition and situation of humanity, it is impossible for the heavenly and spiritual nature of the church to be experienced on the earth today. Nevertheless, Witness Lee, a faithful minister of Christ for over seventy years, felt a particular commission from the Lord to recover both the believers’ experience of the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8) and the proper practice of the local church which issues from this experience.

This website presents excerpts from Witness Lee’s book entitled Young People’s Training (Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1976), one of his numerous publications devoted to the crucial matter of the local church, in which he labors to help prospective Christian workers understand the need for a heavenly vision (Acts 26:19) of Christ and of the universal and local church in dealing with new or young believers. The Lord Jesus Himself established this pattern in shepherding His own disciples in the Gospels. His first followers were not pagans, but religious people familiar with the Scriptures, the worship of God, and God’s law. Nonetheless, they needed to be unveiled to see this fresh heavenly vision of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and of His living expression, the church. In order to accomplish this, the Lord had to remove them from the existing religious environment—the holy land, holy city, and holy temple—to Caesarea Philippi, a “virgin” Gentile territory (Matt. 16:13-19). In his ministry, Witness Lee similarly endeavors to bring the believers into the full revelation and practical experience of Christ and of His Body, the universal church manifested in many local churches.