A Local Church Having No Particular Name

In the New Testament record, there was always simply one local church in every city. The believers in Jerusalem, though numbering in the tens of thousands (Acts 21:20), were still collectively referred to as the church in Jerusalem (Acts 11:22). The New Testament is replete with verses proving that the boundary of each local church was in the city in which it existed (Acts 8:1, 13:1; Rom. 16:1; Rev. 1:11). Time and again in his writings concerning the local church, Witness Lee faithfully reiterated this New Testament principle of one local church in one city. Here, as one instance of many such writings, Witness Lee expounds upon Revelation 11:1:

This verse is composed in a very important way. Here we see that the sending of this book “to the seven churches” equals sending it to the seven cities. This shows clearly that the practice of the church life was that of one church for one city, one city with one church. In no city was there more than one church. The jurisdiction of a local church should cover the whole city in which the church is; it should not be greater or lesser than the boundary of the city. All the believers within that boundary should constitute the unique local church within that city. Hence, one church equals one city, and one city equals one church. This is what we call the local churches.

(Witness Lee, Brief Presentation, 51)

The first characteristic of the New Testament local church is its having no particular name. Since there was only one local church in each city, the local church necessarily must include all the believers in that city, and there was no need for a local church to take a name to distinguish itself from other assemblies. The thought of differing sects and denominations is foreign to the New Testament, and each local church was simply known as the church in that city. Keeping the local church nameless, that is, undenominated, precludes the possibility of excluding believers of other races, languages, and innumerable other criteria. Witness Lee notes:

Once a group assumes a special name, it has become a denomination, for taking such a designation separates that group from all other groups.

(Witness Lee, Spirit and the Body, 210)

Watchman Nee, Witness Lee’s predecessor and co-worker, agrees:

Here God shows us that the churches in all the places do not have any name. The Christians in Ephesus were merely called the church in Ephesus. The Bible only calls each church by the name of the place where it is. There is no other name. The church is denominated because of names. The word denomination in Latin means “a name.” Whenever there is a name, there is a denomination. Hence, we must never have a certain church in a locality. We can only have a church in a certain locality. We will only say this much concerning the organization and name of the church. Those who will follow the Scriptures will receive guidance from this.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 1, Vol. 4, 278)

The term “local church” as used in Scripture is not the name of the church; it is merely a designation of the nature of the church. Witness Lee explains this distinction:

Do not say that our name is “the local church.” We do not have a name. The moon, for example, has no name; it is just the moon. We should simply call the moon “moon.” Some people have said that the American moon is brighter than the Chinese moon. But there is no such thing as an American moon or a Chinese moon. The most you can say is the moon in America or the moon in China. It is one moon. There is only the one moon. Likewise, the church is simply the church. The term “local church” is not our name; it is the designation of our nature. We are not the divisive and divided so-called churches; we are the church in a locality. Thus the term “local church” denotes our nature; it is not our name. Do not consider “the local church” as a name. The most we can say is the church in a certain locality, such as the church in Los Angeles, the church in Anaheim, etc.

(Witness Lee, LS of Genesis, 457)

In summary, a scriptural local church has no particular name. In order to preserve the oneness of God’s people locally within a city, a genuine local church should be referred to simply as the local church in that city.

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