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It will not be possible to recount the events of the thirty years of ministry allowed Nee. Instead, we will summarize the major trends and characteristics of his ministry and doctrine before considering the legacy of his ministry in China today.24
Nee was said to be, ". . . a very active and mischievous youngster who always ruined furniture and dropped vases. When playing among either brothers and sisters of neighboring children, Nee always took a leading part and initiated all kinds of new tricks. From his very early days Nee displayed his gift of leadership."25
Nee's conversion came at the age of 16 in 1919. His Mother, Huo-ping, had reaffirmed her commitment to the Lord at a series of evangelistic meetings led by Dora Yu, the female evangelist who had impressed Huo-ping during her college days. When Huo-ping went to Watchman and confessed to unjustly beating him, Watchman decided to attend the meetings as well, and was powerfully converted. He offered his entire life to God for His service that day, and never changed his mind thereafter.26
During the early 1920's, Nee was involved in itinerant evangelistic preaching, based out of Foochow. He would usually go out with a small ministry team to preach in a village that had not previously heard the gospel. Kinnear says that Nee was usually successful in reaching good numbers of people on these trips.27 Some trips were undertaken with his mother (who also preached), including trips outside of China, to Indonesia. Nee's method of church planting was to begin with a small group of people meeting in a house. Later, a building would be sought if the group became large. From then on, they would hold both home meetings and meetings in the building. They would invariably train indigenous leadership for these groups.28 Nee also received a bachelor's degree during this period from Trinity college in Foochow. During the later 1920's he lost at least two years of work because of his tuberculosis. It was during this period that he married Chaing Pin-Hwai, a family friend who had graduated in literature from the famous Yin King University. Her knowledge of literature would assist Nee in his writing and translation work. He remained with her until he was imprisoned.29
During the 1930's, Nee traveled widely in China focusing more on church planting than he had previously. The base for his operations moved to Shanghai in 1932. During this period, he also made a trip to England, attending the Keswick convention, and eventually having a falling-out with his hosts, the Exclusive Brethren of the "London Group", because he refused to separate himself from other Christians.30
When The Japanese attacked China in 1936, freedom of movement gradually became more difficult. The economy also suffered. Nee seems to have been able to travel into Japanese occupied territory with some frequency, although he spent most of his time in nationalist areas. It was during this period (in 1942) that he went into business with his brother who was a research chemist. He became chairman of the board of China Biological and Chemical Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company. His declared reason for doing so was the fact that many of the leaders of the Little Flock were short of money, and this was a way that he could make tents and support "those with him" like Paul did.31
His fellow workers were against this move on his part, and eventually demanded that he cease preaching in the church in Shanghai. Therefore Nee was under church discipline, and not involved in preaching for several years in the mid 1940's.
In 1947, Nee was restored to leadership in the Little Flock church in Shanghai, and again was active in church-planting and training of Christian workers. During the last few years of ministry before the revolution, the Little Flock became involved in migration evangelism, based on the scattering of the church in Jerusalem in Acts 8. This tactic, involved moving an entire house church into an area that was unreached.32 The results of this work were apparently striking.33
Although some of Nee's time was spent preaching to a large (5000-7000 attendance) church in Shanghai, the main result of his work was the founding of hundreds of house churches throughout China. These were lay-led groups that centered on Bible study, witnessing to the neighbors, and fellowship. Singing, prayer and communion were also practiced.
Mao too power in 1949. During the next several years he consolidated and extend his control of the country. In January of 1956, Nee was brought up on charges by the local authorities in Shanghai, and they held a public "accusation meeting." In front of over 2500 people he was accused of espionage, licentiousness and stealing church funds. His doctrine was also denounced because his preaching on the "last days" tended to demoralize the workers. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Days after his release in 1972, Watchman Nee died in his home province. He was 69 years old.34
It is interesting to compare Nee to John Wesley. Wesley's work won, and incorporated into his fellowships about 120,000 people over the course of his 52 year ministry. Because of his work, and its aftermath, he is known to most people in the western world. The books on Wesley in an average library usually take up whole shelves, analyzing every aspect of his life and teaching.
Watchman Nee, probably exceeded Wesley in terms of the actual size of his ministry, even though the duration of his ministry was only a little over one-half as long, and was carried out under circumstances including an 11 year-long world war. As will be seen later, the Little Flock movement probably reached a size of 150,000-300,000 active participants by the time of the revolution. He also appears to have spawned a striking aftermath. Yet he is virtually unknown to westerners, and most libraries have nothing on his biography at all!35
Read on to the next section of Nee and the House Church Movement
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