A Local Church Having No Particular Fellowship

God has called us, all the believers in the local churches, into the fellowship of His Son (1 Cor. 1:9). The fellowship of His Son is our communion, our joint participation with His Son. Christ Himself should be the very center and sphere of the fellowship shared by the believers in the local church. In an enlightening footnote in his study Bible, the Recovery Version, Witness Lee relates this fellowship to the unity of the believers in a local church:

[To be called into the fellowship of His Son is]to partake of the fellowship of the union with God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and of the participation in Him. God has called us into such a fellowship that we may enjoy Christ as our God-given portion. This word, like the word in v.2 concerning Christ’s being theirs and ours, stresses again the crucial fact that Christ is the unique center of the believers for the solving of the problems among them, especially the problem of division… We should concentrate on Him, not on any persons, things, or matters other than Him. We should focus on Him as our unique center appointed by God, that all the problems among the believers may be solved. It is into the fellowship of such a One that we have been called by God… Such a fellowship, which is carried out by the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14), must be unique because He is unique; it forbids any division among the members of His unique Body.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 680-681)

To preserve the unity of the Body of Christ, the scriptural local church does not center upon a particular fellowship or a particular teaching to the extent of rejecting any non-adherents. This was the mistake of the Corinthian believers, who preferred one minister of the Lord over another (1 Cor. 1:12), and certain practices (1 Cor. 11:16, 14:39) over others. Paul therefore rebuked them for having such divisions within the local church (1 Cor. 1:10). Concerning the absence of any particular fellowship in the local church, Witness Lee states:

Every sect or denomination has a special fellowship. But we Christians should have just one unique and common fellowship, the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:9). When we were saved, we were brought into the fellowship of the Lord. Therefore, as Christians we can have fellowship with one another. The denominations, however, have a special fellowship. For example, when certain Southern Baptists learn that others are Presbyterians, they would stop having fellowship with them. They may talk with them about business or politics, but they will not have fellowship in common concerning spiritual things. Those who insist upon the practice of foot washing also have a special fellowship, for they limit their fellowship to those within their own circle. Others limit their fellowship to those who have the same practice regarding the wine or juice used at the Lord’s table. All this is sectarian, and we must abandon it. We must abandon all special names, special teachings, special practices, and special fellowship.

(Witness Lee, Spirit and the Body, 213)

Regarding this same matter of the proper local church having no particular fellowship centered on things other than Christ, Watchman Nee strongly concurs with Witness Lee, :

Christ is the common center of all the churches, but any company of believers that has a leader, a doctrine, an experience, a creed, or an organization as their center of fellowship, will find that that center becomes the center, and it is that center by which they determine who belongs to them and who does not. The center always determines the sphere, and the second center creates a sphere which divides those who attach themselves to it from those who do not. Anything that becomes a center to unite believers of different places will create a sphere which includes all believers who attach themselves to that center and excludes all who do not. This dividing line will destroy the God-appointed boundary of locality, and consequently destroy the very nature of the churches of God. Therefore, the children of God must see to it that they have no center of union apart from Christ, because any extra-local union of believers around a center other than the Lord enlarges the sphere of fellowship beyond the sphere of locality, and thus the specific characteristic of the churches of God is lost. There are no other churches in Scripture but local churches!

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 30, 69)

The proper and biblical local church is obligated to be inclusive of all genuine Christians, regardless of differing doctrinal persuasions. The local church that practices universal fellowship must receive everyone whom Christ receives (Rom. 15:7). Witness Lee elaborates:

In the church we receive all genuine Christians. We receive those who speak in tongues and those who do not speak in tongues; those who have been immersed and those who have been sprinkled; those who wear a head covering and those who do not wear a head covering; those who practice foot washing and those who do not practice foot washing… We receive all Christians, no matter what kind of Christians they are.

(Witness Lee, Young People’s Training, 192)

Witness Lee also points out the futility of restricting, to any degree, our circle of fellowship to those most like us, and the troubles which invariably result from insisting upon any interpretive view or opinion, since there are probably no two Christians who agree on every point of doctrine:

It seems that no two Christians are the same in opinion. They all have different opinions about various matters. Praise the Lord that in the church we do not touch these differing opinions. We all have locked our opinions away, knowing that if we bring them into the church, they will cause division. We only care that people believe in the Lord Jesus, are saved, and love Him. We would encourage them all to go on loving the Lord, by growing in His life and by realizing the proper church life to satisfy the desire of God’s heart.

(Witness Lee, Young People’s Training, 192-193)

Both Witness Lee and Watchman Nee emphasized, according to the word of God, that Christ, and only Christ, should be the center of all the fellowship in the local churches. The believers were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor. 1:9). This fellowship is the unique fellowship of the apostles (Acts 2:42) shared among all genuine believers (1 John 1:3) in the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Any other basis of fellowship, no matter how good or scriptural, must be abandoned in order to preserve the unity and harmony among God’s people.

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