Nee's Local Churches

Watchman Nee, a Chinese evangelist in the early 20th century, developed a view and ideal called "local churches," being that there should be only one Christian church in each city, named according to that city-- such as "the church that was in Jerusalem." According to Nee, this means that "the church in her locality must be inclusive, not exclusive," that is, it "must include all the children of God in the whole spectrum of Christian faith and practice." He believed in a plurality of elders, but rejected the distinction between clergy and laity. The local churches practice mutuality in their meetings based on verses such as First Corinthians 14:26: "Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up"--participants are encouraged to request hymns, make brief comments, or offer prayers or praises at will. He believed the gatherings should center around the Lord Supper. I suppose this didn't disclude the need for meeting in smaller groups, but only that those groups within a particular city would be the church of that city. The churches of the New Testament writings were identified by the city they resided in. Of course ideals like this can rarely become the norm, because of the freedom to believe and practice what you think how the church should look and function. And tradition once developed is hard to overcome. And there is the debate as to whether the New Testament is giving a prescription or description of Church function. But surely First Corinthians 14 is not merely descriptive, since Paul was instructing the Church about how it should function to accomplish its purpose to edify.