We all know that, as the believers in Christ, we need to meet together in churches with our fellow believers; the new life we have received in Christ drives us inwardly to seek such fellowship. And yet, as important as this is, the New Testament gives us no instructions regarding how to form churches. Rather, as Watchman Nee points out, what it shows us is that, wherever the gospel was preached and people believed in the Lord, these saved believers simply came together, without any planning or other consideration, to be the church in that place: the church in Jerusalem, the church in Corinth, the church in Ephesus, etc. This is the New Testament pattern, and if we desire to follow the Lord according to His desire, it will be our way as well. That is, we will simply meet together with our fellow believers in the place where we live as the one unique church in our locality. However, what we see instead among believers today are so many sects and divisions, which are different kinds of fellowships which are outside of, and in opposition to, the unique New Testament fellowship of God’s Son we have been called into as the believers in Christ: God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. — 1 Corinthians 1:9; cf. 1 Corinthians 1:2, 10-13, Revelation 1:11 So in this episode, after stressing again the importance of simply meeting in the Lord’s name, we go one to consider some of these other kinds of fellowship that believers set up for their gatherings today.
To download the pamphlet we use as the basis for this study, go to this page: “What Is God’s Purpose for the Church?” To view the pamphlet online, go to the “Look Inside” page.
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Bible Verses for this Episode See Episode #140: “The Way of the Church (4): Simply Meeting Together in the Lord’s Name”
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RESOURCES Pamphlet: “What Is God’s Purpose for the Church?” Look Inside: “What Is God’s Purpose for the Church?” Previous Episodes in this Series: Podcast Series: “What Is the Church?” Video: “How I Found the New Testament Fellowship.” The Website for the Church of the Chicagoans: ChicagoMeeting.org Books E.H. Broadbent, The Pilgrim Church Witness Lee, The Genuine Ground of Oneness Witness Lee, The Life and Way for the Practice of the Church Life Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Church Life
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Recorded… in Chicago, Illinois on Tuesday, 30 June 2025
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