The Church and the Work: Church Affairs

212 Pages·2003·0.93 MB·English

by  Watchman Nee

The Church and the Work
III
Church Affairs

W N
ATCHMAN EE

Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc.
New York
THE CHURCH AND THE WORK
(In Three Volumes)
Copyright ©1982
Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc.
New York
All Rights Reserved
ISBN 0-935008-57-8 Cloth Edition
ISBN 0-935008-58-6 Paper Edition

Available from the Publishers at:
11515 Allecingie Parkway
Richmond, Virginia 23235
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
Ten years after the original publication in Chinese of Rethinking
∗
the Work (1938), there arose in China a need for a further
reconsideration of the Work. Yet it was not because the principles or
practices of the church laid down in that book proved to be wrong or
impracticable, but because light on the parallel subject of the Work
was found by that time to be insufficient. Thus in 1948 further
instructions concerning the principles and practices of the Work were
given during training sessions held at Mount Kuling to the workers
who gathered there.
Rethinking the Work had in its day dealt especially with the
understanding that the church is local, based as that book mainly was
on Acts chapter 13 onwards; but later, by means of the Kuling talks
which now comprise this Church Affairs volume, the fact that the
Work was found to be regional was presented in 1948 on the basis of
Acts chapters 1-12. And this latter book thus makes more complete
the author’s treatment of the overall subject of the church and the
Work.
The opening chapter of this final volume of the trilogy serves as
∗∗
an introduction, for it sets forth the complementary concept of the
Work as being regional. Following this, twelve different aspects of
church affairs are then discussed. Since these talks were originally

∗
The reader needs to have it brought to his attention again that this Chinese publication of
January 1938 appeared in English in Great Britain under the title Concerning Our
Missions (London, 1939), and was much later published in the United States under the
more popularly known title of The Normal Christian Church Life (Washington, D.C.,
1962). For the complete publishing history of the book, see the copyright page of Volume
Two of this present trilogy.—Translator
∗∗
Which is the substance of an address given by the author to fellow workers at Mount
Kuling near Foochow, China, on August 19, 1948.—Translator
spoken to younger fellow workers, a special approach to the subject
will be evident to the reader. They were never meant to be a general
treatise on behavior in the house of God; instead, they were
presented in a form for helping younger workers to know how they
were to conduct themselves as they were sent forth by the Lord to
establish churches everywhere. It was not unlike the apostle Paul in
his giving instructions to young Timothy so that the latter might
“know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the
truth” (1 Tim. 3.15).
These talks are now being offered to the reader as guidelines and
not as rules and regulations. The aim in the publication of such a
volume today is not towards uniformity of out ward appearance, but
is only meant to illustrate that these principles can in fact be put into
practice. Spiritual principles must be applied spiritually. They will
become letters if only applied technically; and, as we know from the
Scriptures, “the letter kills” (2 Cor. 3.6). May those who read this
volume keep this in mind continually so as not to be tempted to treat
this study as a technical manual or some kind of fixed procedure
which they must follow, but instead be truly benefited by receiving
whatever divine light (or principles) may be found in its pages.
CONTENTS
Introduction 7
1 The Order of Church Offices 21
2 Priestly Ministry 43
3 Levitical Ministry 59
4 The Minister of God’s Word in the Church 67
5 Various Meetings in the Church 79
6 The Deacons Office 89
7 District Meetings 109
8 The Local Assembly That Is Also a Work Center 115
9 The Relation between a Local Assembly and the Work 125
10 The Coordination of the Workers 137
11 Co-Workers and Apostles—Who Are They? 165
12 The Matter of Finance 183
Let Us Talk 197
Scripture quotations are from the
American Standard Version of the Bible
(1901), unless otherwise indicated.
∗
Introduction
∗∗
During the disturbed period which has now passed, we had to
acknowledge that we found some practical difficulties in the conduct
of the Work of the Lord. This has led us to inquire again of Him and
of His word; and accordingly, in recent months, in conferences at
Foochow and Shanghai, we have spent considerable time in seeking
God’s help to solve our problems. What follows is the outcome of
those inquiries.
Whereas in the past we had received from the Scriptures much
clear light on the church, we confess that we have had insufficient
light on the parallel subject of the Work of God. Rethinking the
Work, which was published in January of 1938 after our 1937
conference for workers at Hankow, presents what we understood at
that time on the matter of the church. What we saw then, and stated
plainly in that book, is that the question of the churches is one of
locality, and that this local character of the church cannot be clearer
to us even today. With regard to the Work, however, we have lacked
the same clarity, and we now see the reason for this. It was because,
in our approach to the matter then, we took as our guide the history
which began with the sending forth of Barnabas and Saul, and
overlooked what went before. We stressed Antioch and practically
ignored Jerusalem. We made Acts 13 our starting point and missed
the purpose of Acts 1-12. We did not, at that time, have sufficient
light to understand this.
But now God has in mercy come to our aid. The difficulties and
trials of the past decade or so have driven us back to those earlier
chapters in Acts and shown us their value in a new way. So with

∗
See the second footnote of the Translator’s Preface above.—Translator
∗∗
A reference to the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).—Translator
8 The Church and the Work: Church Affairs
humility we can say this, that just as at Hankow in 1937 we
confessed that never before had we such clarity concerning the latter
part of Acts which deals with the churches, so today, because of the
help we have recently received at Foochow and Shanghai, we can
thank Him that never till now have the first twelve chapters of the
book of Acts been so real to us.
The Work Is Regional
Among several things which have been shown to us, the first is
the important principle of region or area. Whereas the. churches are
local, the Work, we have come to see, is regional. To us this is
something which has become crystal clear from the Scriptures. To
put the matter differently, a church is in one locality, whereas for
purposes of the Work, many such localities together form one region.
This is evident from the New Testament, although ten, or even five
years ago, we did not have the light to see it. It is apparent to us now
that the Twelve worked in one region, while Paul, Silas, Timothy and
Barnabas worked in another—or in more than one. And if we study
the Epistles we shall discern a number of such different regions. Let
us note also the words in 2 Corinthians 10, where we find Paul
writing of his labors as follows: “Now we will not boast out of
measure, but according to the measure of the rule which the God of
measure has apportioned to us, to reach to you also” (v.13 Darby).
He seems here to allude to the matter of appointed spheres of work,
as though God drew a circle for them and drew another circle for
another group of His servants, and that within these limits was to be
found the sphere of work of a particular company of workers.
This, therefore, is the difference of operation, as we see it,
between the church and the Work: that the Work is regional, but the
churches are not. No church can exercise jurisdiction over other
localities, for its authority is essentially local. The sphere of the
Introduction 9
Work, on the other hand, is wider and embraces several localities in a
single area or field.
At one time we tended to confuse the sphere of the Work with the
locality of the church. Today we see clearly that the Work comprises
a number of localities, and that its sphere of operation is wide. For
example, we find Peter and John cooperating as a team or unit in the
Work of one region, while Paul and Timothy labor together as
another unit in a different region. The different groups of workers
maintain contact and have fellowship with one another, yet they
equally have their respective working areas within which they move.
The Region Has a Center
We come now to a second principle. Each region, we find, has a
center; whereas the churches, of course, have no such center. The
church in Jerusalem cannot—as a “central church”—rule the church
in Samaria. No local church can control another local church, nor can
one church control several churches. The widest scope of a church’s
authority is its locality; no more. There is no such thing as a regional
church or an association of churches. The Church has neither
regional council nor headquarters. But with the Work it is otherwise.
The Work has a region and the region has a center, and that is why in
the book of Acts we see Jerusalem as a center and Antioch as another
center.
This will help to explain what may until now have been a problem
to some of us. If we have not yet seen that the Work is centralized in
this way, then we shall probably have found Jerusalem a difficulty to
us rather than a help. We have not understood its special character.
While the whole New Testament confirms that the Church—in its
practical expression—is local, nevertheless there seems something
special to be learned from both Jerusalem and Antioch. What we
have come to realize today is that the church in Antioch is one thing,
while a Work taking Antioch as its center is another. From the
10 The Church and the Work: Church Affairs
standpoint of the churches, Jerusalem and Antioch are of an equal
level with, say, Samaria; but from the standpoint of the Work,
Jerusalem is a center and Antioch is also a center.
At the beginning of Acts the Lord’s promise is that, when the
Spirit is come, they shall witness “in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (1.8). Here
Jerusalem is distinctly a working center in the divine plan. Again, in
the thirteenth chapter, there emerges a new beginning at Antioch.
The Holy Spirit makes a new departure, and from there men arise
and go forth to work in other places. Thus Antioch is constituted
another center of the Work. It was the Spirit who made a beginning
at Jerusalem, and now it is the Spirit who makes a beginning at
Antioch.
In Jerusalem Peter, we must remind ourselves, was an elder. Here
is something of value we have discovered through reconsidering
Jerusalem. In days past we have stressed Peter as apostle, but have
overlooked Peter as elder. In Jerusalem he had a double ministry.
With regard to that city he was—like James and John—an elder of
the church; but with regard to the whole Work that was centered
there, he was an apostle and so were they. For this reason, when
writing to the church at Antioch they wrote as “apostles and elders”
(Acts 15.23). How otherwise could elders in Jerusalem write a letter
giving command to the church in Antioch? Are they elders who
write? But there are also elders among those to whom they write!
Going outside their locality as elders, they would automatically
become involved in a conflict of authority. If, however, they were
not only elders but also apostles, then the letter they sent to Antioch
in fact carried the weight of the Spirit’s witness, both in the church at
Jerusalem and in the Lord’s Work through the apostles.
So today we see how the Work of God operates regionally. God
would have His Work in an area centered in one place, from which
workers go and to which they return. In the local churches it is elders