Tim Samoff // Weblog (old)

December 16, 2004

Checking Sources: More on the "Local Church"

I picked up the latest copy of ChristianityToday Magazine at church yesterday morning and, while leafing through, came to an article called, “The Chinese Church’s Delicate Dance,” by Mark Galli (the managing editor of ChristianityToday Magazine). The article is interesting — it’s about the duality of the Christian church in China; it’s government-registered segments. the “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” and “China Christian Council,” and the unregistered, or “underground” segment.

As I was reading, though, two things caught my eye: (1) Galli was on a trip to China with Living Stream Ministry; (2) Galli mentioned Watchman Nee’s “Little Flock” movement ( which he said was also called the “Local Church“ ).

But, what is so significant about these two subjects? Well, I haven’t written about my family’s ties to the Local Church in quite a while (you can read some here and a little more here), but we were involved in this church-turned-cult for some time back in the 70s. Within the last couple of years I have done a good amount of research on the Local Church, and can safely say that I feel like they are, in fact, a legitimate cult.

A couple of facts: (1) Living Stream Ministry is the publishing house for today’s strain of the “Local Church,” founded by a Chinese fellow named Witness Lee (please read more about him in the links I provided); (2) Watchman Nee’s Chinese version of the “Local Church,” the “Little Flock,” was based in China and — as far as I can tell — was fairly well-rooted in sound theology — the “Local Church” didn’t actually become a cult until Witness Lee brought it to the U.S. around 1962.

The “Local Church” is still an active and quite wide-spread group of people around the world. In fact, the “Local Church” had one of their annual conventions here in Kansas City just last winter… They usually don’t call themselves the “Local Church” publicly anymore, but rather “The Church in ‘City’” (e.g., The Church in Anaheim). Go ahead, try it: type “churchincity.org” into your web browser, replacing “city” with your city’s name and see if there’s a “Local Church” near you. You’ll be surprised.

Anyway, finding these little tidbits in the ChrisitanityToday article — an article written by one of the editors at that — really got me thinking. Do we, as Chrisitans need to be more careful with whom we accept as “fellow believers” or should we trust that God will protect us in all circumstances? I’d like to believe the latter, but I do hate getting queezy feelings when I open a magazine that I respect.

I don’t think that Mark Galli is, in any way, affiliated with the “Local Church,” nor do I fault him for accompanying Living Stream to China and writing about them without mentioning who they are. Not everyone needs to know the background of ever ministry they associate with.

Of course, I did feel like I needed to mention all of this here, but I come from a much different place.

I pray that God uses the “Local Church” in ways that I can never imagine. I pray that their members receive the gifts of God, sans manipulation. I pray that Galli’s article is just that… An article.

Amen.

(I’ve sent this to the editor of ChristianityToday.)

Posted at 11:25 am

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Praise the LORD Jesus! I thought maybe I was one and maybe a few that seen these on personal level? Maybe I was wrong. My name is David Maxie and I’m a believer in LORD Jesus who has walked out of a few cults in my time. The local church is one of them on a personal level, and just as dangerous as the United Pentacostel church. Well, on a personal level, I used to be into black magic along time ago as well. But to me this is a long road of ministry. My advice as well is to leave the “local church” as well. They do not read the Word of God and replaces it with their own version. On a personal level, please leave this church to read the Word of God for yourselves, I implore you. God Bless!

David () - September 20, 2005 at 9:04 pm