Throughout the centuries of church history the Lord has progressively carried out His work of recovery. In this book, Witness Lee shows that the Lord's present advance is to recover the priesthood of the gospel, the organic building up of the Body of Christ, the perfecting of the believers, and the speaking of God's word for the building of the Body of Christ. He concludes with help as to how we can practice these four matters.
Today the Lord demands that we have the recovery of the meeting in mutuality, as unveiled in 1 Corinthians 14:26, by practicing Ephesians 4:11-16. We must have the perfecting of the saints by the gifts that the saints may participate in the work of the unique ministry of the New Testament—the work of the building up of the Body of Christ. The practice of Ephesians 4:11-16 is for the building up of the Body of Christ by the Body itself in the increase of the Body's growth in the divine life. This is accomplished by the wide spreading of the gospel of Christ by visiting people for the producing of the new believers, by home meetings to nourish the new believers, by group meetings to take care of the saints and teach them the truth for their edification, and by church meetings to exhibit and minister Christ to the saints for the building up of the Body of Christ by the developing and exercising of the saints' organic functions.
This writing is a transparent rendering of the history of "the local churches" under the leadership of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee and their ministry(s), which now is in the hands of a group of "blending brothers" who were mentored by Lee and are fully engaged in promoting his ministry in and through the "local churches" associated with them and with Living Stream Ministry. "Living Stream Ministry publishes the works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee providing the authoritative and definitive collections of treasures from these two servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. The writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee focus on the enjoyment of the divine life, which all the believers possess, and on the building up of the church, the goal of God's work with man in this age." (from LSM Home page)The term "local church" is to be applied to Christians in a locality who meet on a ground of understanding that they are one in Christ with every true believer and desire practically to be built up with believers in their own locality according to Christ alone and God's own receiving of them. This is the view seen in the New Testament. It is also the vision we see at the beginning of the Lord's recovery in the Watchman Nee era, but toward the end his view had changed dramatically as the threat of Communist interference rolled across China. The era of Witness Lee parallels that of his mentor: They both began with 1) Christ as life for building up local churches, with "administration local each answering to the Lord"; but ended up inspiring a movement in the churches to 2) "hand over" the reins of leadership to one man and his ministry. This book is to inspire them to come back to the vision at the beginning of the Lord's recovery.
On the day of Pentecost Peter preached the gospel, the Spirit was outpoured, and close to three thousand souls were saved. These newly saved believers spontaneously began to meet together in their homes: "And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart" (Acts 2:46). In these home gatherings, all believers were able to function, and the early church flourished and spread (v. 47). In The Furtherance of the New Way for the Lord's Recovery Witness Lee sounds a call for the church to return to this biblical pattern. Drawing on numerous examples from the Scriptures, he highlights the central role of the home in presenting the gospel to unbelievers and in building up new believers. Returning to the God-ordained way of bringing the gospel to unbelievers and teaching the truth to new believers in their homes will open the way for the building up of the Body of Christ.
