My Unforgettable Memories: Watchman Nee and Shanghai Local Church Paperback – March 29, 2013

As a former Local Church member, I'm stunned to learn the truth about Watchman Nee. I'm even more stunned that this information was exposed as early as 1948, and was exposed even more widely in 1956. Lily Hsu was not the first! Witness Lee not only left mainland China with this knowledge, he left Taipei and established his own ministry in the US based on deceit, lies, and his worship of Watchman Nee. Since Lee's death in 1997, the Local Churches and Lee's publishing arm Living Stritream Ministry have traded on Nee's reputation as its path to establish credibility among mainstream Christianity. To me this could almost be the greater tragedy in this story.I was surprised by the tone of Dr. Hsu's account of her personal experiences. There is no bitterness. She tells her story with dignity and grace. Her honesty about her own responsibility in the events of 1956 are refreshing.There will be attempts to discredit this book by those who most likely have not read it, and will not read it. This is part of the MO taught by Nee and carried to new lows by Lee, in order to protect the "delegated authorities" as written about by Nee in Authority and Submission. You will read about the roots of this Watchman Nee teaching in the book.As a friend put it, "We have to question everything we ever heard from Lee. Everything."There are editing issues which might be expected due to a language barrier. I didn't find the miscues to be significant or distracting. The story is far too compelling for that.

Update to my original review: I have changed by rating from 4 stars to one.“ALL things [even those intended for evil by our Enemy] work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.“ This book is no exception. For those of us who were greatly influenced by Watchman Nee’s life and writings, even knowing and being taught by some fellow workers of his, this book is an opportunity to find the grace and love of our Lord in a deeper way. We have the privilege of personally praying, as David did, “search me, O God, and know my heart;Try me, and know my thoughts;And see if there is any wicked way in me,And lead me in the way everlasting.“This is an opportunity to be open before, and drawn closer to, Jesus. And so it has helped me to see areas in my life that I thought I excelled at but were in fact just religious zeal on my part, not the life of Jesus in me at all. For that, I thank Lily Hsu and Dana Roberts for their dubious tell-all.However, his personal reputation aside, this book is particularly damaging to the ongoing ministry of Nee’s books now that all witnesses are gone. How are we to know the truth of this testimony? The evidence given is based on Mao’s propaganda division’s display at Watchman Nee’s public unmasking in Shanghai in 1956.Dr. Hsu obviously believed all they told her about him but neither his wife, Charity Chang, nor his sister, Guizhen Li, believed it.A very good reference was recommended by Stephen Rabasco in his review here on Amazon. “Shanghai Faithful” by Jennifer Lin, grand-niece to Watchman Nee, was carefully researched by her. She is an experienced journalist so this book contains only fact, has little passion and no discernible bias. (It is furthermore, a very interesting study of the takeover of a country by socialist communism and its aftermath.) I recommend it as part of “the other side of the story.”Besides the evidence in “Memories” being sketchy and from an unreliable source, the voluminous repetition of the same facts over and over and in disconnected ways, smacks of yellow journalism.For these reasons, I caution readers to carefully weigh these “memories” against the good that God gained from this man’s life. Who can stand under scrutiny? There are whole chapters of our lives that we wish could be ripped out - and thankfully the memory of them has been erased forever in God’s mind because of the sacrifice of His Son. That any Christian should defame another publicly without the benefit of defense, is a sad day indeed.Original comment:How can be review a written work that is so personal, both to the writer and the reader? I know some of the people in this book. I, too, grew up under the influence of Watchman Nee (his writings) and Witness Lee (his early ministry in the US). This book was a shock but also a refining fire revealing the danger of revering a man too much, especially a leader who is asking for total acceptance and control. I gave the book four stars because it is an important documentation of the truth behind a highly esteemed ministry and work. However, the writing needed a lot more editing. The same things were repeated many times and the time sequencing was difficult to follow.

The book was difficult to read, mainly because of the Chinese names. However, the firsthand report of what happened in China regarding the movement and the times is enlightening. Watchman Nee’s books so much influenced my generation. There was nothing else on the market in the early 70's that was anything like them. Because the revival at the time was outside the institutional church we found in the writings an encouragement to what we saw the Lord doing. The books were the only literature at the time, that were easily accessible, that had any semblance of application to what God was doing among us. We naturally looked up to Nee as a result. So, to state it lightly, it comes as a great surprise and disappointment to see our brother Nee in the way this book portrays him. His moral failures are disheartening. Yet, to see the discrepancy between what he did, in regard to the churches, and what he taught is even more so. The autonomous local assembly is what he taught: apparently this was not what he practiced. In fact, most of all that we thought he taught, on most subjects, is not what he did. What he required of others he did not apply to himself. I do not understand how those who printed his books could do so knowing the truth is that he didn't practice what he preached. Even more so, I wonder how they could print the books that even we as young believers knew were wrong, such as Spiritual Authority… knowing what it did in China. Also, how could they, knowing that he plagiarized from Jessie Penn-Lewis to write The Spiritual Man, print it as well? I think they have some explaining to do. Could it possibly be that they were, and still are, caught up in the idolization of Nee the author speaks of? I’ve heard one brother speak on the history, who was there with Nee when these things took place, but he never revealed what this book does. I am greatly saddened to learn of these things but I am thankful for the book. Surprisingly it is somehow liberating, reinforcing that we alone will answer to God and we do not follow men. The book explains a lot and still gives the glory to God. Whether are not one is convinced concerning this testimony matters not if it but helps to get us out from under men to live freely in the fellowship with the Father and the Son. Let us identify with Christ alone, no movement, denomination or group, while fellowshipping with all that call upon the Lord in sincerity. Brother Nee will stand before the Lord; let us hope he as well as we are shone much grace.

I have been blessed for many years by the writings of Watchman Nee however I find the historical details of this book believable. It reminds me to have only one on a pedestal of worship, the Lord Jesus.