Local Church

The Local Church is a Christian movement following the teachings of Chinese evangelists Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Usually considered a restorationist movement, they shun denominational titles and believe that all Christians in each given city belong to "the Church" in that city, following the New Testament model. The movement became popular as an underground movement in Communist China, where Watchman Nee was imprisoned by the government from 1952-1972. Their affiliated publishing house Living Stream Ministry publishes the English-language Recovery Version of the Bible, which they give out for free. However, there are some evangelical Christians who consider the Local Church movement a cult, or at best slightly heretical. The Local Church sued John Ankerberg for including them in a book about cults and heresies, while Hank Hanegraaff on the other hand considers the Local Church movement to be within the bounds of orthodox Christian belief and not heretical.