My Experience with the Local Churches and the Ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, Justin Yap

I received the Lord Jesus in college, and for a number of years attended several Christian denominations, including Baptist, Presbyterian and Congregationalists. I had many positive experiences in each of these denominations and enjoyed genuine fellowship with many other believers.

I moved to a new city to start graduate school, and it was there that I first directly came into contact with the local church and with the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. A friend I had met when I was in college had once given me some books by Watchman Nee, including The Normal Christian Life, that he said greatly helped him in his Christian life, but I had never gotten around to reading them. Soon after I started graduate school, this friend came to visit me and invited me to have dinner with some Christians who met with the local churches. I was immediately impressed with the simplicity and genuineness of their enjoyment of the Lord Jesus and the way they shared their enjoyment with one another. Two of the brothers there asked me if they could call me to read the Bible in the evenings, and also if I would like to meet them to study the Word on campus. I said yes.

It was in this way that I was introduced to the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. During our meetings on the campus, we read parts of various writings by both Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. I was particularly impressed by their clear and impeccable handling of the truth in the Bible, as well as their ministry concerning how to experience Christ as life (Colossians 3:4). I learned that I had a human spirit with which to contact God, and that one of the most enjoyable ways to contact Him is to call on His name (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Romans 10:13) I learned how to enjoy Scripture in a deeper way by praying over the Word as I was reading it. Although I had already had very real experiences of Christ before this time, I found that fellowshipping with the believers in the local churches and reading the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee greatly helped me to experience God in a deeper, richer, fuller, and more living way than I ever had before.

Although I enjoyed reading and studying the Word with the brothers on campus, it wasn't until I went to Los Angeles to complete a summer internship that I entered fully into the fellowship of the local church. When I arrived in Los Angeles, I was drawn to the day-to-day church life of the believers in the church in Los Angeles. They had a genuine care for each other that expressed itself in their daily living and in their corporate life in their different homes. Earlier, I had read Acts 2:46-47, “And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God and having grace with all the people....” After reading this verse, I had wondered where there was a group of believers who practiced the church life written about in the book of Acts. After my experience in the local church, I realized that I had found them, and that I was home.