The Normal Christian Church Life – Watchman Nee

I first read The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee in 1977. It was only a few months ago, though, that a friend, Chris Welch, mentioned he had also written The Normal Christian Church.

What you’ll find below are some key quotations from the book and a few personal comments where relevant.

Some context:

Have you noticed during the Pandemic that many preachers are crackling with static electricity, presenting a range of prophetic indicators about the future of the church on the basis that the pandemic has afforded us an opportunity for a re-set, a pause, a time-out, and a re-think. This, of course, is mirrored in the world: the name of the 50th World Economic Forum in 2020 was ‘The Great Reset’.

If you’re familiar with Naomi Klein’s book ‘Shock Doctrine, you’ll see how Milton Friedman free-marketeers are similarly disposed to respond to disasters, such as the Boxing Day Tsunami 2004, taking the opportunity of destruction to reconstruct economies in a way that suits their purposes.

In the mid-1970s when I, a poorly informed agnostic, was considering Christianity seriously, there was much discussion of Jesus’ parable of ‘new wine and new wineskins’ and looking at the early church, as recorded in Acts, for inspiration as new churches were forming. In other words, whilst the experience of the baptism in the Spirit was sweeping the parts of the church that were thirsty, they turned to scripture for guidance.

Watchman Nee’s Normal Christian Life, a series of lectures on Romans, and The Normal Christian Church, a series of instructions to his co-workers, do the same; open to God but looking to scripture for inspiration.

In this exercise, I am like a small boy throwing stones into a pond. Each of these quotes is one of those stones. You’ll see by my occasional comments that I’m not saying he is ‘right’ but I do feel as if his thoughts, written in 1939, are worth a fresh airing.  

One final comment before the ‘off’: if you haven’t read The Normal Christian Life…I thoroughly recommend it.

Quotes from The Normal Christian Life

Quote #1

“If we belong to any human organisation, then divine headship ceases to be expressed in our work”

This will be a recurrent theme, that once a group has human leadership in place to execute a purpose, the persons employed in that purpose obey the human leader. This is not how the church should be.

Quote #2

“A stationary apostle is a contradiction in terms”

By apostle Nee is not referring to just the 11 originals. One more apostle was selected from among Jesus’ disciples after Judas departed. Then Paul and Barnabas were appointed apostles and sent out from the church in Antioch. Nee takes the view that the Spirit sends out certain members of churches as apostles to break new ground. But once new converts are formed into a church the apostles appointed elders to govern the church and they moved on.

Quote #3

“One of the reasons why so many present-day converts are not filled with the Spirit is that the apostles  settle down to shepherd them and take upon themselves the responsibility that belongs to the Holy Spirit”

Quote #4

“The present pastoral system is quite unscriptural; it is an invention of man. In scripture…there was always more than one elder…in a local church”

By ‘present pastoral system he is referring to churches that have one leader e.g. a Vicar, a Priest, a Minister, a Pastor, a Leader

Quote #5

“The failure of Protestantism is that it has substituted organised churches for the Church of Rome instead of returning to the divinely ordained local churches”

Whilst this is historically accurate for several groups it is worth noting that since the very beginnings of the church in the First Century there have been groups that have rejected any ‘organisation’. They have often found themselves at the butt end of rifles, persecuted non-conformists that defy the authority of organised churches. EH Broadbent’s excellent book The Pilgrim Church researches many of these groups.

Quote #6

“In…divinely constituted companies…authority is spiritual, not official”

To do justice to this quote I would have to quote a few paragraphs but this is the essence of his argument. Like the opening quote, in a human organisation authority comes from rank whereas in a church, if it is divinely constituted, it is run by the Head of the church just like our heads coordinate what our bodies do. And Christ is the Head of any local church and His will is made known by the Holy Spirit. It is an entirely different modus operandi.

Quote #7

“The trouble today is that men are taking the place of the Holy Spirit…workers have no direct knowledge of the divine will, but simply do the will of those in authority over them”

Quote #8

“A good organisation of men serves often serves as a bad substitute for the power of the Holy Spirit, by holding itself together even after all its vitality has gone”

Quote #9

“Central control has many evils. It makes it easy for God’s servants to disregard the leading of the Spirit and readily develops into a popish system”

I don’t want to diminish the size of that stone as it lands in the pond. That’s more rock than stone perhaps?

Quote #10

“In not a single scriptural church do we find mention of a “minister” controlling its affairs; such a position is always occupied by a group of local elders”

By ‘scriptural’ he is referring to the various churches recorded in the New Testament

Quote #11

“In God’s word there are local elders, but no local apostles”

The word ‘apostle’ is Greek for ‘one sent out’. The Greek words that have often been translated elder are otherwise translated as overseer or bishop. The term bishop tends not to be used in non-conformist denominations in the UK that have distanced themselves from the Church of England. The CofE and other more hierarchically organised churches tend to reserve the use of the word Bishop for those that oversee a number of Priests or Vicars in local congregations.

A few personal reflections

I was brought up in a family that attended the local CofE church, so my introduction to church included a model of leadership of a one-man leader, the Vicar, who was paid a salary. The next church I attended was a Baptist Church led by a Minister, paid for by the church. He was an excellent bible teacher and introduced an eldership, but he was still the paid Minister. After, during my University years, I was in a ‘charismatic church’ with a group of elders one of which was the lead elder. I don’t know if he received any income from the church. Then a church that originally had an eldership none of whom were paid by the church. That has evolved into a church that employs several workers and, in certain circumstances, pay their congregational leaders. I supported this trend. I’m reviewing that now in the light of scripture.

NB At first sight you might think that Watchman Nee is simply pushing the ‘Brethren’ or even the ‘Quaker’ view of church. Not really. They may mimic certain structural ‘church government’ thoughts but the essential mix Nee is looking for in the church, to make it truly scriptural, is that the eldership is not only formed around leaders of good character but they must be baptized in the Spirit and led by the Spirit, exercising gifts of the Spirit, exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit, and recognising that the same Spirit is at work in each member of the church; hence Paul’s description of typical church services in 1 Cor 14 with the underlying theology of gifts and fruit in 1Cor 12 and 13. You can have a Brethren Assembly with an eldership as dead as a Dodo and an Anglican one-man ministry who is leading his congregation into the fullness of the Spirit. Take your pick!

I have benefited immensely from each church I’ve been a member of. But this exercise is a meditation on scripture. A meditation in the Spirit, not just an academic exercise, treating the NT as a manual, like a Haynes Manual (just to show my age!).

I lob these quotes out there for your reflection.