Editing Local churches (affiliation) (section)

{{Short description|Christian movement started by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee}}
{{About |the group started by Watchman Nee |other uses|Local church (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox Christian denomination
| name = The Local Church
| image =
| imagewidth =
| caption =
| main_classification = [[Christianity|Christian]]
| orientation = [[Nondenominational Christianity|Nondenominational]]
| polity = [[Congregationalist polity|Congregationalist]]
| founder = [[Watchman Nee]]
| founded_date = 1920s
| founded_place = [[China]]
| leader/moderator = 
| separated_from   =  
| separations = 
| fellowships =
| associations = [[Living Stream Ministry]]
| hospitals =
| nursing_homes =
| headquarters = 
| congregations = 
| primary_schools = 
| tertiary = 
| website = 
}}

The '''local churches''' are a Christian group which was started in [[China]] in the 1920s and have spread globally. The basic organizing principle of the local churches is that there should be only one Christian church in each city,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Olson |first1=Roger E. |author1-link=Roger E. Olson |last2=Atwood |first2=Craig D. |last3=Mead |first3=Frank S. |last4=Hill |first4=Samuel S. |title=Handbook of Denominations in the United States |edition=14 |location=Nashville, TN |publisher=Abingdon Press |date=2018 |isbn=9781501822513 |oclc=966194680 |page=328}}</ref> a principle that was first articulated by [[Watchman Nee]] in a 1926 exposition of the [[Seven churches of Asia|seven churches in Asia]] in [[Revelation 1]]:11.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Nee |first=Watchman |author-link=Watchman Nee |title=The Things Which You Have Seen |magazine=The Christian |issue=4 |date=February 1926 |page=4}} Published in an English translation in {{cite book |title=The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Volume 4: The Christian (2) | location=Anaheim, CA |publisher=Living Stream Ministry | isbn=0870835890 |date=1992 |pages=194–195}}</ref> The local churches do not take a name, but some outsiders referred to the group as the "Little Flock" as they sang from a hymnal entitled ''Hymns for the Little Flock''.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Nee |first=Watchman |author-link=Watchman Nee |title=The Dawn of Revival |magazine=The Present Testimony |date=1928}} Published in an English translation in {{cite book | title=The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Volume 8: The Present Testimony (1) | location=Anaheim, CA | publisher=Living Stream Ministry | date=1992 | isbn=0870835890 | page=23}}</ref>

From early on, members of this group emphasized a personal experience of Christ and the establishment of a pattern of church practice according to the New Testament.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Miller |first=Elliot |title=The "Local Church" as Movement and Source of Controversy| magazine=[[Christian Research Institute|Christian Research Journal]] |volume=32 |issue=6 |year=2009 |pages=10–11 |url=https://www.equip.org/article/the-local-church-as-movement-and-source-of-controversy/}}</ref> Though assemblies identifying as "local churches" can be found worldwide, there are no definitive statistics available on membership, partly because the largest number of members are in China. Estimates range from 500,000 to 2,000,000 members worldwide.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Liu | first=Yi | title=Globalization of Chinese Christianity: A Study of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee's Ministry | journal=Asia Journal of Theology | volume=30 | number=1 | date=2016 | page=110}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Pitts |first=Hon. Joseph R. |author-link=Joe Pitts (Pennsylvania politician) |title=Watchman Nee and Witness Lee |journal=Congressional Record |volume=160 |number=62 |date=29 April 2014 |page=E621 |url=https://www.congress.gov/113/crec/2014/04/29/CREC-2014-04-29-pt1-PgE621-3.pdf}}</ref>