VII. THE RECOVERY OF THE CHURCH GROUND
Following the above six main items of the Lord’s recovery, I would like to add two more items, that is, the recovery of the church ground and the recovery of the practice of the local churches.
A. The Definition of the Church Ground
1. Not the Foundation but the Site
The word ground that we use in reference to the church ground does not carry the denotation of a foundation, like the foundation of a building; it bears the denotation of a site, like the site on which the foundation of a building is laid.
2. The Three Crucial Elements
of the Church Ground
According to the divine revelation of the New Testament, the church ground is constituted of three crucial elements, as follows:
a. The Unique Oneness of the Universal Body of Christ
The first element of the constitution of the church ground is the unique oneness of the universal Body of Christ, which is called "the oneness of the Spirit" (Eph. 4:3). This is the oneness that the Lord prayed for in John 17. It is a oneness of the mingling of the processed Triune God with all the believers in Christ. This oneness is in the name of the Father (John 17:6, 11), denoting the Father’s person, in which is the Father’s life. This oneness is even in the Triune God through sanctification by His holy word as the truth (John 17:14-21). This oneness is ultimately in the divine glory for the expression of the Triune God (John 17:22-24). Such a oneness was imparted into the spirit of all the believers in Christ, in their regeneration by the Spirit of life with Christ as the divine life; this oneness has become the basic element of the church ground.
(A Brief Presentation of the Lord's Recovery, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
