The Local Churches and Witness Lee, Joshua Porter

My name is Joshua Porter and I grew up going to meetings of the local churches since I was born. My experience meeting with the local churches has been positive to say the very least. As a seeking Christian I have sought to know the beliefs and practices of many different religious factions.

I am not writing this testimony to try to convince anyone that the writings of Witness Lee are true and accurate. Neither am I writing to tell people that the local churches are the only true and proper churches. I am only giving my experience as it relates to these two matters.

The ministry of Witness Lee is, in my opinion, quite good. The local churches are not a bunch of weak minded, brainwashed individuals. They are normal people who want to follow the Lord according to the Bible. There are certain practices such as pray-reading (Ephesians 6:18) and calling on the Lord (Romans 10:13) which some may find objectionable; however, these things are merely practices which are used to touch the Lord in Spirit (John 4:24).

As I said before, I grew up meeting with the believers in the local churches. There was a time in my life when I wasn't meeting. During this time I was in high school. Some brothers would visit me in a normal, caring way. They were in college. They would come over to my house and play video games with me and just hang out. Other brothers who were older would take me to Gepettos pizza for dinner. They would just spend time with me. Sometimes we would talk about spiritual things, but for the most part conversation tended to be about school and what was going on in my life. When I got to college I began to meet with the brothers more regularly; however, after my first two years I became distracted with friends. I stopped meeting again. There was, however, always a feeling in my heart that I needed to meet with the brothers and sisters. Nobody was telling me I should meet. I had a feeling from the Lord within that I needed to be with the Body. When any member is away from the Body for any length of time they just dry up and eventually die. Christ is the head and we are the Body (Ephesians 4:15-16). The local churches are not an organization brought about by the teachings of Witness Lee! We are members of the Body of Christ.