A History of the Church in Los Angeles
February 2004

Our Beginning
   Prior to 1962 a group of Christians were meeting in Los Angeles seeking something of the church life apart from the divisions of denominations. Some of them had sought fellowship with Witness Lee (www.witnesslee.org), Watchman Nee’s closest co-worker in China (www.witnesslee- watchman-nee.org), on his 1958 and 1960 visits to the United States. From the beginning of 1962 a few brothers met almost every morning for an hour to pray. They sought guidance from Witness Lee when he returned to the United States in April 1962. However, his only word to them was to pray. A few weeks later a number of brothers had the deep feeling that they had to meet together on the ground of oneness for the Lord’s sake and for His testimony. In May 1962, about 25 began meeting in this way (www.localchurch.org).

   In the fall of 1962, while Brother Lee was on the visit to the United States that had begun in April, the indwelling Lord constrained him to move his ministry from Taipei to Los Angeles.
In November Brother Lee moved to Los Angeles and at the end of the year he spoke at a conference in Los Angeles. The messages from that conference are now the book The All-inclusive Christ.

Early Years
   In the following years Brother Lee ministered in many of the church meetings in Los Angeles and also traveled to many parts of the United States for conferences. Every summer he held a conference in Los Angeles followed by a three- to six-week long training. A number of seeking Christians had been reading books by Watchman Nee (www.watchmannee.org) and heard about his co-worker being in the United Sates. Some of them moved to Los Angeles to be in the church life, but due to their lack of experience and their diverse Christian backgrounds, it was difficult for them to enter into the reality of the Body life. During this period Elden Hall was purchased; it was the first building owned by the church.

Enjoyment and Expansion
   In the fall of 1966 the pray-reading (taking the word of God by means of prayer as in Eph. 6:17-18) enabled every believer to exercise their human spirit (the innermost part of man - the second word “spirit” in John 3:6 and Rom. 8:16). This caused a great increase in the enjoyment of the Lord and the flow of the Spirit in both daily life and in meetings.

   By the spring of 1967 there were about 120 meeting in Los Angeles. Every summer some who attended the conference and training moved to Los Angeles to practice the church life. Most lived near Elden hall or in clusters in nearby areas, so that most could walk to others houses for morning revival and other small gatherings.

   By the summer of 1970 there were more than 500 meeting in Los Angeles. That summer we hosted an international conference and training with about 100 believers from Asia and the first visit of believers from New Zealand, Australia, Europe, and Africa. After the training about 50 moved to Chicago and 50 to Atlanta to begin the church life in those places.

   In the summer of 1971 we began meeting in four halls to spread the church life and to give more believers the opportunity to function. In 1972 hall 5 began meeting and in 1973 hall 6 began meeting. Both summers some of us moved to other parts of North America, and in 1973 hall 5 moved to Long Beach to begin the church life there (www.churchinlongbeach.org).

Spreading and Suffering
   In 1974 a large number of believers from Los Angeles and Long Beach moved to Anaheim and Huntington Beach to have a new start in the church life and to afford a good audience for the beginning of the Life-study ministry. The Stream Publisher, which had published the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee in Los Angeles, also moved to Anaheim and became Living Stream Ministry (www.lsm.org).

   Only two halls remained in Los Angeles. Between 1972 and 1976 hall 2 gained many students from the campus of California State University Northridge (CSUN). A good number of students and other young adults moved to Orange County in 1976 with others from around the country to begin a period of training.

   In the latter part of the 1970s the church suffered from the speaking and actions of those who left the recovery in 1978. In reaction, there was a tendency to isolation and coordination between the two halls declined. As a result there was no increase and little campus work for many years. In 1982 the believers who had been meeting as hall 1 moved to Rosemead and, after the problems there, to San Gabriel to meet as the churches in those cities. Nevertheless, during the early to mid 1980s Spanish-language and Chinese-language meetings began in hall two, a Chinese-language meeting began in west Los Angeles, and some believers moved to Thousand Oaks to meet as the church there (www.churchinthousandoaks.org).

   In the late 1980s further confusion and discouragement came in as a result of the second rebellion in Orange County. Although the effects lasted many years and there was very little increase, yet during this time some living north of Los Angeles began meeting as the church in Santa Clarita (www.churchinsantaclarita.org) and a Korean-language meeting began in Los Angeles.

UCLA
   There had been an English-speaking church life in Santa Monica for over ten years when, in 1991, the believers there decided to move to west Los Angeles to restart the gospel work on the UCLA campus. To replace them in Santa Monica the Lord raised up a Spanish-speaking church life. The next year the Church in Los Angeles purchased an apartment building near UCLA for students’ living and and for meetings. Through coordination with the Full-time Training in Anaheim (FTTA) and the church, the work at UCLA grew. The students have a club on campus (www.bol.ucla.edu/~christns) which distributes gospel literature and has Bible studies on campus as well as a number of off-campus activities. The number of freshman coming to UCLA from other churches increased and each year some UCLA graduates go the FTTA (www.ftta.org). After graduating from the training some have returned to Los Angeles to serve full time and some FTTA graduates who came from other churches are also serving full time at UCLA.

An Interlude
   In 1993 the churches in Los Angeles, Santa Clarita, and Thousand Oaks began blending meetings every Lord’s Day (the name for Sunday used in Rev. 1:10). Further blending began when the 1994 earthquake caused the rented meeting place in west Los Angeles to be unusable. A Spanish-speaking group in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles began meeting with the church in 1993 although in the following years most of them moved to other local churches.

  Through the 1990s we labored, but too slowly, to bring ourselves out of the routine church life and into the practice of the God-ordained way. The external frustrations to more church life are too much time devoted to work or travel to and from work and, other than those living close to the campuses, there are large distances between many of our homes.

Graduate Students at USC and UCLA
   By 1994, through the praying of two couples, a work began on the USC campus among the Chinese-speaking graduate students from Asia. Later, the church rented and then purchased a large house near the campus. The Chinese-speaking believers meeting in west Los Angeles began meeting at this house to support the student work. Many students who were saved and brought into the church life here moved to other places after their graduation and participate in the church life there. In 2003 an English-language meeting was begun at this house to reach additional USC graduate students and others in the community (www-scf.usc.edu/~usccs/English/Main.htm).

   In 1999 a work was started among the graduate students from mainland China attending UCLA. In 2000 some believers moved to Los Angeles from other churches in Southern California to care for these students. The number in the meetings has grown and in 2003 an English-language meeting was begun to reach additional UCLA graduate students and friends.

   In 2001 meetings of the Church in Glendale began. We have frequent contact with them and have meetings together about once a month.

Our Current Situation
   At present about 450 are meeting on the Lord’s Day. Most live in Los Angeles; others live in about a dozen small nearby cities. On the Lord’s Day we have meetings in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean in the hall in San Fernando valley, in Chinese and English in west Los Angeles and in Chinese, English, and Spanish near USC. Once a month we have a Lord’s Table with all the languages together. During the week there are meetings in many parts of Los Angeles. There are weekly college meetings at USC, UCLA, and CSUN. Our junior high and high school young people gather on Saturday nights. We also have prayer meetings during the week and group gatherings in many homes.

   In the past few years we have begun to meet with some who have responded to the Living Stream Ministry’s radio broadcasts of Life-Study of the Bible with Witness Lee (www.lsmradio.com). A Spanish-language meeting began recently near USC because of the large response to the Spanish-language version of this broadcast (www.lsmradio.com/espanol).

   We have also been distributing materials with the offer for a free Recovery Version New Testament (www.recoveryversion.org) in cooperation with Bibles for America (www.biblesforamerica.org). Some from Los Angeles attend the middle-age section of FTTA. Each year in July and December about 200 of us attend the trainings at the Living Stream Ministry’s facilities in Anaheim.

Our Goal
   The goal of our church life is the building of the Body of Christ for the Lord’s return. For this we seek the Lord individually and together, and we have fellowship with other local churches. We come to the Lord in His word (John 5:39-40) with the help of the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Though the year we enjoy joining with many others from around the world for conferences and trainings for the sake of seeing and gaining more of Christ that we may grow up into Him in all things for the building of His Body (Eph. 4:15-16).