Witness Lee and the "Local Churches": A Personal Testimony
by Daniel Azuma
Part 2: A "Normal Christian Life"
"Caring, unity, fellowship, forcusing on the word of God, experiencing a Christian life to the fullest..." Those are some of the basic ideals that nearly every Christian seeks in a relationship with Christ.
Those words were spoken around ten years ago by a Local Church member at the University of Texas at Austin, to describe the church and its affiliated campus club, which was called "Christians on Campus" at the time. A cursory look at the life of a typical member of the "Local Churches" would reveal that these elements are present in great abundance; indeed, in some cases, in greater abundance than in your typical "mainstream" Christian denomination.
It is a well-known psychological phenomenon that a newcomer, be it a new member of a cult or someone just learning a new hobby, will often pursue the new activity with an uncommon zeal, devoting nearly bottomless time and energy. It seems to happen a lot to new Christians. Generally, I think most people would consider it a good thing because it gets newcomers involved, teaching them not to become passive; however, it sometimes also propels them into leadership positions too quickly, before they are ready. I didn't become a leader, but I did get involved very quickly, even to the point of attending a major international conference just a couple of weeks after first coming to Christ, and giving a short testimony in front of the more than three thousand in attendance. I wanted to get involved as much and as quickly as possible. The Lord had shown Himself to me-- even now I know this to be true-- and I felt I had to respond in any way I could.
One of the most important activities for a Christian is to meet with other believers, but this was a little difficult to start off. I was, of course, encouraged by my new friends to associate with members of their church, but at Caltech, I was fairly isolated from centers of "Local Church" activity. At the time, there was one other member here, a student like me, and nearly all my involvement was either with him or through him. We would get together, just the two of us, once or twice a day, to sing, pray, and read. He liked to meet once early in the morning for "morning revival" (or "morning watch", as it is sometimes called), and again in the late afternoon just before going to the cafeteria for dinner.
The reading material came primarily from little booklets that he seemed to have in great abundance. One that I remember in particular was a pair of small green booklets entitled "Life lessons"; they contained a series of ten short lessons for new Christians, on basic matters of doctrine and Christian living. We would read through each lesson, and afterwards, my friend liked to have a sharing time where one or the other of us would talk about what we felt the lesson meant, and how it could be applied. He had obviously been through them a number of times previously, and had a lot to say.
Larger meetings are typically structured similarly. We got a ride across the city to UCLA every Friday to attend the "Local Church" affiliated campus club's weekly Bible study and outreach meeting. Messages were usually typed-up excerpts from a set of published Bible commentaries called "Life Study Messages." The commentaries are, for the most part, cleaned-up transcriptions of spoken messages that have been given over the past thirty years or so by Witness Lee, the movement's leader. After a time of singing and praying, the group would read, then discuss, a message from the "Life Study." "Discussion" involved individuals standing up and giving short testimonies relating to the topic of the messages, usually lasting one or two minutes or less. A typical (short) testimony might go something like this:
If any warning bells went off as you were reading that, you're not alone. It took a few months, but subtle warning bells eventually started going off within me as a result of testimonies like this, and later as a result of the reading material that sparked them.
The style of singing and prayer common in the "Local Churches" is quite different from what many of us are probably used to. Group prayer is very vocal and very lively; one member will shout out a series of short phrases, punctuated by unison "Amens" from the rest of the congregation. It might sound like:
And so forth. Singing of hymns and worship-related songs is similar. Immediately after singing through a hymn, a congregation would typically spend several minutes "praying" the verses of the song, with individuals or small groups spontaneously shouting them out, line by line, punctuated by "Amens" from the rest of the congregation. This continues for a little while until members have "run out of steam" on the current song, after which a new song is suggested and the process repeats.
Also related are the rather controversial practices of "calling on the Lord" and "pray-reading". "Calling" involves individuals or groups within a congregation chanting "Oh, Lord Jesus!" in unison, over and over, often as part of a prayer. "Pray-reading" is the practice of "praying" passages from the Bible, by breaking a short set of Bible verses into words and small phrases, and shouting them out, to responses of "Amen!", "Hallelujah!", "Praise the Lord!" or something similar. Both these practices are common both in group settings and during individual devotion.
Accompanying practices such as these is a subtle but definite pressure to participate. Unlike many more "traditional" expressions of faith, the average attendee at a Local Church meeting is very active and vocal in a church meeting, and it is often not the active but the passive member who stands out in such an environment. A common practice in large meetings is for entire rows or sections of people to stand up simultaneously and "call on the Lord" several times, and anyone in that area of the congregation who chooses not to participate becomes highly visible.
In general, "Local Church" meetings are an interesting mix of the traditional and the unusual. Hymns are sung to the accompaniment of piano or guitar-- widely-known hymns and songs such as "And Can It Be", "Just As I Am", and "Seek Ye First", intermingled with others that are unique to the organization. Many of the latter are written by Witness Lee. Communion is taken every week, using the same unleavened bread and little clear plastic cups that I've used in other evangelical churches. Freewill offerings are taken, not by "passing the plate", but through a discrete collection box usually located in the back of the meeting room, a practice that surprised me at first, but seemed to be a good idea, and I was later pleased to encounter it in some "mainstream" churches as well. Another unusual but not unheard of characteristic of the "Local Church" is the rejection of the traditional clergy-laity system. Although a congregation will typically have elders and deacons, and occasionally some full-time workers supported by the freewill offerings of members, these are almost never officially ordained, often have not attended seminary or other official training, and have roles less visible than a pastor in a more typical "mainstream" church.
Another interesting aspect of these meetings, a trait that often tends to rub off onto the personality of members, is an emphasis on organization. Many meetings, from the small youth meetings to the large-scale international conferences, will follow a typed-up outline that is typically distributed to the attendees beforehand. The outline enumerates the points that will be covered in the message, and also often includes Bible verses for the purposes of "pray-reading". They are used for reference, note-taking and corporate reading. Outlines differ from the programs used in some "traditional" church services in that they do not define the overall structure and timing of the meeting, but instead refer specifically and only to the topics covered in the main message. Among some of the more recent developments in the movement has been the emergence of PSRP, "Pray-read, Study, Recite, Prophesy," a practice that was blessed by Witness Lee but has stirred up some amount of controversy within the movement due to its extreme emphasis on outlines. Under PSRP, outlines are often memorized word-for-word, recited, even pray-read, which has led some observers, and even some members, to argue that they effectively become additions to the Bible.
Church activities play a central role in the lives of members. At UCLA, the Friday evening group meetings I attended were held in an apartment complex, operated by the "Local Church," where student members were housed in a communal living environment, called a "brothers' (or sisters') house." As I recall, about 30 students and full-time workers lived there during the time I was involved, maintaining the apartments, running the campus club, attending meetings and evangelizing on campus. The environment created both spiritual and social hubs. Students living together would form strong social bonds, eventually doing nearly everything, from studying to eating to shopping and social activities, with the other members. This kind of arrangment, I learned later, is very common among Local Church members on college campuses.
Communal living situations are common for college students and young single adults, but older members typically live separately with their families. Adult members come from nearly every segment of society, from extremely well-to-do professionals to workers in common low-wage jobs. A few also work full-time in "Local Church" ministry. These diverse members are encouraged to keep in contact with each other, by attending meetings several times a week-- Sunday worship and communion meetings (usually called "Lord's Table" meetings), prayer meetings, youth group meetings, and sometimes other more specialized ones during the week.
The "Local Churches" also have a very well-defined doctrinal structure that has a profound organizational effect on the movement as a whole. One of the most prominent of these organizational doctrines is the rejection of Christian holidays-- Christmas and Easter, an uncommon but not unheard of position. Instead of observing these and other holidays during the year, such as Thanksgiving, Labor Day, and the Fourth of July, members will often take the opportunity to attend "Local Church"-sponsored conferences-- series of large-scale meetings centered around certain topics or speakers. During my involvement, I attended a few of these, most notably a Thanksgiving conference given by Witness Lee himself just a few weeks after I had first come into contact with the group. Members tend to praise this practice of scheduling conferences during key holidays as practical and convenient, but it has also drawn criticism from outsiders who point out that the practice isolates members from non-member friends and family by effectively removing them from holiday gatherings.
Specialized conferences, called "trainings", are also held several times a year. These are dedicated to instruction and are given by those in leadership. In the Los Angeles area, the conference during the Christmas/New Years week, for example, was a "Winter Training", usually given by Witness Lee. Immediately following the Winter Training are often additional specialized trainings such as one focusing on college students. I myself never went to a training, but what I heard from friends suggests that they typically involved several large group meetings a day. Trainings would also include "testing" sessions, in which individuals are asked to speak before the group, summarizing and commenting on what had been taught. Trainings tend to be strictly organized, employing registration procedures and preassigned seating, and members are usually restricted from many common social activities for the duration of the training.
One special training program is referred to by members as the "Full-Time Training". This program involves one and a half to two years of full-time study and service, usually with some amount of financial support from the church. "Full-timers" commonly enroll after completing undergraduate study in college, and cover a curriculum heavy in the study of the Bible and the writings of Witness Lee and his predecessor Watchman Nee, although I also got the impression that other topics such as Biblical Greek and Hebrew are also being covered. Indeed, except for the emphasis on Lee's teachings, the curriculum doesn't appear to be too different from that of an actual accredited seminary. Trainees also work for the church in its various ministries-- most of the "full-timers" I met were working with the UCLA campus club.
Most of the aspects of member life that I have discussed so far are not unheard of, and usually do not tend to constitute a problem. Indeed, in many ways, "Local Church" members greatly outperform the average Christian in their devotion, and many of us can learn much from a study of some of their methods. However, this image is tainted by a few other characteristics of the group, and their effects on the lives of members, and although as a new member, I didn't have much of a clue to start off, I gradually became aware that things were not quite right in the movement that I thought had found the ultimate truths of Christian living.
