The Normal Christian Church Life (#1) - Preface

Before going to the Preface of Watchman Nee's book, "The Normal Christian Church Life", I want to write a personal note about the topic of this book.

For most of my walk with the Lord, I have not given attention to church forms and models, thinking that it didn't matter. I was even taught that the book of Acts should not be used as a model for church life.

In the past few years, I've been slowly waking up to how important the way we "do church" is to God and am increasingly aware of how the beauty and power of Jesus is obscured by the way we "do church". So I've been on a journey related to this topic, and in my journey I have made the delightful discovery of this book by one of my favorite authors. Because I didn't have a grid before for this issue, I was not even aware that Watchman Nee had written about it (even though I thought I had read almost every book of his).

I'm sharing this as one who has been steeped in the present model of church life all of my life and as one who is very much in the beginnings of exploring this topic, so my intention is not to debunk what I've known all my life but rather to share a bit of my journey into a different mindset concerning the way we have traditionally practiced Christianity together as God's people. Of course, in the process of exploring the New Testament model of church life, questions about how we have done church for centuries will come up because of how far we have strayed from God's design. My desire is that what I share from Nee's book will help awaken desire to seek the Lord along these lines and to pray for Him to have His way in His Church as we draw near to His appearing.

The Holy Spirit in the Apostle Paul yearned over the Corinthian believers, jealous that nothing seduce them from pure devotion to one Husband (II Cor. 11:1-3). I pray that the same Spirit that burned in Paul will remove all that gets in the way of God's people seeing Jesus clearly in our day.

In this posting I will only cover the short preface. Next week I'll cover the longer Introduction. If you want to read along, this book is available in its entirety online and you can access it by searching in Google Books.

Preface

"This book as it now stands is a greatly abridged and slightly revised edition of the Chinese...Because of the vastness of the subject and the importance of its issues, I have not found it easy either to write or translate the book...

To do the book justice, the reader is asked to finish reading it before passing judgment. The book is not intended for anyone and everyone. It is for those who bear responsibility in the Lord's service. But more than this, it is for such as honestly and truly mean business with God...The book may test one's sincerity and honesty to no small degree... The whole matter will grow upon the reader and become clearer with relaxed contemplation...

By prayerful openness of heart, the Spirit of Truth should be given a chance, and then what is of Him will cause all our natural reactions to die away. What is set forth in these pages is no mere theory or teaching, but something we have actually tested out."