Editing Local churches (affiliation) (section)

===Origins===
The development of the local churches can be traced to the conversion of Watchman Nee in [[Fuzhou]], China. Nee began to meet outside of denominations with a small group of believers in 1922.<ref>Liu 2016, p. 99.</ref> At an early age, Nee committed his life to Christian ministry and began to publish his works on the Christian faith and on church practice after moving to [[Shanghai]] in 1927.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Lee | first = Joseph Tse-Hei | title = Watchman Nee and the Little Flock Movement in Maoist China | journal = Church History | volume = 74 | issue = 1 | year = 2005 | page = 72| doi = 10.1017/S0009640700109667 | s2cid = 202318215 }}</ref>

Nee appreciated the teachings of the [[Plymouth Brethren]], especially [[John Nelson Darby]],<ref>{{cite book | last=Woodbridge | first=David | title=Missionary Primitivism and Chinese Modernity: The Brethren in Twentieth-Century China | location=Boston | publisher=Brill | date=2019 | isbn=9789004336759 | oclc=1055568760 | pages=57–58}}</ref> and many of Nee's teachings, including not taking a name, plural [[church elder|eldership]], disavowal of a clergy-laity distinction, and worship centered around the [[Eucharist|Lord's Supper]], mirror that source.<ref>Miller 2009, p. 10.</ref> From 1930 to 1935, there was communication internationally between the local churches and the branch of the [[Plymouth Brethren Christian Church]] associated with James Taylor, Sr. The Taylor group of Exclusive Brethren saw the churches in China as a parallel work of God.<ref>{{cite book | last=Gardiner | first=A. J. | title=The Recovery and Maintenance of the Truth | location=London | publisher=Stow Hill Bible and Tract Society | date=1951 | oclc=559074464 | page=216}}</ref> However, Nee and other Chinese leaders disagreed with their prohibition of celebrating [[Holy Communion|The Lord's Supper]] with Christians outside of their own meetings. Matters came to a head when Exclusive Brethren leaders discovered that Nee had broken bread with non-Brethren Christians, including [[T. Austin-Sparks]] in London and Thornton Stearns in Hartford, during a 1933 visit to the [[United Kingdom]] and [[North America]]. After a series of letters exchanged between leaders in New York, London, and Shanghai over a two-year period, on 31 August 1935, the Exclusive Brethren in London wrote to Shanghai terminating their fellowship.<ref>Woodbridge 2019, pp. 49-75.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Buntain | first=William E. | title=The Exclusive Brethren, Watchman Nee, and the Local Churches in China | journal=Brethren Historical Review | editor-last=Dickson | editor-first=Neil | volume=15 | date=2019 | issn=1755-9383 | pages=40–72}}</ref>

Nee's seminal works expounding his view of local churches&mdash;''The Assembly Life''<ref>{{cite book |last=Nee |first=Watchman |author-link=Watchman Nee |title=The Assembly Life |location=Anaheim, CA |publisher=Living Stream Ministry |date=1995 |isbn=9780870838552 |oclc=46477411}}</ref> and ''Concerning Our Missions''<ref>{{cite book |last=Nee | first=Watchman |author-link=Watchman Nee | title=Concerning Our Missions | location=London | publisher=Witness and Testimony Publishers | date=1939 | oclc=9902598 | pages=112–113, 128–129}} Republished as {{cite book | title=The Normal Christian Church Life | location=Anaheim, CA | publisher=Living Stream Ministry | date=1980 | oclc=461709259 | pages=97–98, 111}}</ref>&mdash;were written against the background of his experience with the Exclusive Brethren.<ref>Buntain 2019, pp. 60, 68</ref> Nee taught that there should only be one church in every city, that Christians should meet together simply as believers living in the same city regardless of differences in doctrine or practice. Nee believed that this would eliminate divisions between Christians and provide the broadest basis upon which all believers could meet.<ref>Lee 2005, p. 75.</ref> Both Nee and Witness Lee emphasized the New Testament's references to churches by the name of the city (for example, in Acts, the Christians in Jerusalem being referred to as "the church which was at Jerusalem" (NKJV), as well as other verses with the same convention, including 1 Corinthians 1:2; Revelation 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7 and 14). Since Nee and Lee taught that there should only be one church in each city, and that that city was the extent of a church's jurisdiction, members of the local churches usually refer to their congregations as "the church in (city name)."<ref>Nee 1939, pp. 112-113, 128-129; 1980, pp. 97-98, 111.</ref><ref>{{Citation | last = Piepkorn | first = Arthur C | title = Profiles in Belief | volume = II–IV | place = San Francisco | publisher = Harper & Row | year = 1979 | pages = 78, 79}}</ref> According to Nee, this means that "the church in her locality must be inclusive, not exclusive,” that is, it “must include all the children of God in the whole spectrum of Christian faith and practice."<ref>{{cite thesis | last=Lu | first=Luke Pei-Yuan | title=Watchman Nee's Doctrine of the Church with Special Reference to Its Contribution to the Local Church Movement | type=PhD | location=Philadelphia, PA | publisher=Westminster Theological Seminary | date=1992 | page=257}}</ref>

Though Nee took the lead among the local churches in China, it was through one of his co-workers&mdash;[[Witness Lee]] &mdash;that the local churches spread worldwide.<ref>Pitts 2014, p. E621.</ref> The two men first met in Lee's hometown of [[Yantai]] in 1932.  Two years later, Lee moved to Shanghai to work with Nee. One of Lee's responsibilities there was the editing of some of Nee's publications.<ref>Liu 2016, p. 101</ref> In the following years, Nee published many works and held regular conferences and trainings for church workers. Nee, Lee and other workers established over seven hundred local churches throughout China before the [[Chinese Communist Revolution|Communist Revolution]] resulted in the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.<ref>{{cite book | last=Jones | first=Francis Price | title=The Church in Communist China: A Protestant Appraisal | location=New York | publisher=Friendship Press | date=1962 | oclc=550843 | page=17}}</ref> Near the end of the Communist Revolution, Nee sent Witness Lee to [[Taiwan]] to ensure that their work would survive the political turmoil.<ref>Liu 2016, 102.</ref>