MY GLEANINGS FROM WATCHMAN
NEE’S
"THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH LIFE"
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MY INTRODUCTORY NOTES…
I first set my eyes on this book, I think,
in 2005, when my friend and brother, Olasunkanmi Okeniyi (we used to call him Sukisuka, those
school days) brought it to my Adamasingba office. I asked him to lend me but
that somehow didn’t happen until I stumbled upon it in Goodnews (CAET) bookshop
in December 2007. I immediately bought it and on reading just the introduction, I realised I had caught a real treasure.
Though I have always had a profound respect
for Watchman Nee, I never knew that he was actually a leading light in the
“house church movement” (for want of better expression really. I think “a
return to the divine pattern of the nature of God’s work” will describe it
better), an early pioneer of what the Lord taught us in the 1999-2003 period
and what some of us still stand for in spite of its unpopularity.
So it was with much relish that I ravished
the book because he was speaking 100% my language. Until then, I have never read
anybody who spoke so pristinely about the convictions of my heart – except “Baba”
Gene Edwards. In fact, as I read Nee, I saw so much similarity between his
thought and that of Gene that I began to wonder if one copied the other. It was
much later, reading Gene’s profile somewhere, that I realised that he had been influenced
much by Watchman Nee and that at one time, he even travelled to China for a
period to learn under Nee. Only recently, I got to know that Nee himself was a
student of T. Austin Sparks and much of his understandings about the deeper
Christian life and the divine pattern of the church were chiefly influenced by
Austin Sparks, and some other notable names like Jeanne Guyone (Nee’s biography
is now in public domain).
I confess that, for the peculiar nature of
my work, I have not been as studious as I ought to, so even though I have
started reading the book since 2007, and have recommended it to lots of people
(one of such people bought 5 copies and gave them out to some of our elders in
the Ibadan House Fellowship) and have bought it for a friend, and have lent out
my copy to several others, I myself have not gone more than half way through
the book. But I am determined to finish it with this summarisation that I am
undertaking of it.
One thing with me, if I am going to read a
book, is to read from cover to cover. So I noted that the book was written in
1939, undertaken by Nee himself, not like most of his other books that were
written on his behalf, through a compilation of his teaching notes. So as I
started reading back then, 8 years ago, I was seriously moved to tears. Have
these truths been around for so long yet the church has remained in darkness
regarding the truth of the pattern? I do well know that many of our present-day
fathers in the land have read and do have a profound respect for Watchman Nee.
I assume a good number of them should have read this book. Why then have they chosen
to disregard its very fundamental message and to continue in the very things
the book fingers as contradictory to the divine pattern and intent? Is that not
why many of them today have, in the name of doing God’s work, ended up building
empires in their own names? Well, Lord have mercy!
So, I am presenting my gleanings to those
who can see right through the makeup of popular Christianity today, and are
sincere enough to admit, at least to themselves, that what is on ground in the
name of church and ministry today are far from the ideal and their hearts are
crying for the truest expression of the life of Christ in His people to become
a tangible reality in the midst of us. They are not only desirous, they are
willing to pay prices required to bring it about. It is for such that I have
made this considerable effort.
I sincerely hope, after going through these
excerpts, you do not dismiss this with a wave of the hand as merely Nee’s
subjective views. Like I did point out, these are not just Nee’s views; he had
forebears like Sparks and down through the ages, there have been movements
which have kept the torch of the testimony of the truth concerning the divine
pattern. I believe there will be men in our generation who will dare to follow
the truths of God’s word rather than the traditions of men. I pray you are one
of such.
In this excerpt compilation, I make very
little personal explanations; most of what you will read here are direct
quotations from the book. My own notes, I kept in colours and for emphasis, I
underline or capitalise. Read through with a prayerful heart and afterwards, do
try to get a copy of your own (though it’s very scarce today) as well as its
sequels: Further Talks on Church Life, The Glorious Church and the Assembly Life.
God bless you real good.
Temidayo
31 Jan 2015
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