WHO WAS WATCHMAN NEE?
There are some names that seem to shine long after the voice itself has fallen silent. Watchman Nee is one of those names. He was not famous in the way the world counts fame. He didn’t build a grand cathedral or lead a movement that bore his own name. He simply gave his life to Christ — and then gave that life away for the sake of the gospel.
Watchman Nee was born in 1903 in Foochow (now Fuzhou), a coastal city in southern China. He was converted to Christ as a young man through the witness of a Chinese evangelist named Dora Yu, and from that moment his heart was set aflame with a single purpose — to know Christ and make Him known. He often said that when he surrendered to the Lord, he saw clearly that his old life had been crucified with Christ. From that moment forward, he lived only for the glory of God.
He never traveled widely outside his country, yet his influence spread far beyond it. In his twenties and thirties, Nee began teaching, preaching, and writing with a clarity and depth that startled even seasoned believers. He gathered small groups of Christians in homes, not to start a denomination, but to restore the simplicity of New Testament fellowship. He believed the church was not an organization but a living body — Christ expressed through His people.
His ministry became known as the “Local Church Movement.” It was not built around structure but around life — the life of Jesus flowing freely among His members. Through his sermons and writings, Watchman Nee called believers to abandon self-effort, pride, and religious striving, and to live by the indwelling Christ. His words were not lofty for the sake of loftiness; they were spiritual truths forged in prayer and obedience.
One of his most enduring books, The Normal Christian Life, was compiled from a series of messages he gave in England in the 1930s. In it, he describes the believer’s life not as a struggle to imitate Christ, but as a surrender that allows Christ to live His life through us. The cross, he taught, is not only for our forgiveness but for our deliverance from the old self. That book has changed countless lives, drawing hearts back to the simplicity of abiding in Christ.
But his life was not easy. When the Communist government rose to power in China, public Christianity was declared a threat. Nee was offered the chance to compromise his message in exchange for freedom, but he refused. In 1952, he was arrested for his faith, accused falsely of political crimes, and imprisoned. He spent the last twenty years of his life behind bars. His health failed, his body weakened, and most of his writings were banned. Yet even in chains, his faith remained unbroken.
In 1972, Watchman Nee died in prison, a quiet martyr for the Lord he loved. When his family was finally allowed to collect his few belongings, they found a small scrap of paper on which he had written his final testimony: “Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and was resurrected after three days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my belief in Christ.”
This was obviously his way of letting his loved ones and the world know that he had not abandoned his faith, despite the fact that he had been cut off from the outside world for two decades under intense pressure to do so. Those words, simple and pure, carry the fragrance of his whole life.
Watchman Nee’s influence continues today through his writings and the spiritual fruit of those he discipled. I don’t agree with every position he took and I don’t recommend everything he wrote. But when it comes to the things that matter most — our life in Christ and how to surrender more to Him — Nee was a God-gifted genius. He reminds us that the Christian life is not about religious performance but about spiritual reality. It is not what we do for Christ, but what Christ does in us. His life stands as a living witness that even in suffering, God’s power can flow through a yielded vessel.
Many have called him a theologian, a pastor, a reformer. But perhaps it’s truer to call him what he always desired to be — a watchman. One who stood on the walls of a darkened world, sounding the call to awaken, to repent, to trust in Christ alone. His words still echo that call today.
May we live as he did — watchful, faithful, surrendered to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Bryan Dewayne Dunaway
