Christ is the life and content of the church life, but what is the proper ground of the church life? In this book Witness Lee unfolds biblical principles from both the Old and New Testament concerning the proper ground of the church and the importance of oneness in God’s eyes. Lee continues with some practical points related to the proper way for Christians to meet together.

In relation to leading new believers, we have the following publications: Messages for Building Up New Believers by Watchman Nee and The Crucial Truths in the Bible in Chinese. After serious consideration before the Lord, I feel to give some practical material for teaching new believers. Lesson 1 is ?Knowing That We Are Saved.? In leading new believers, we need to lay a firm and solid foundation in the matter of salvation. Otherwise, we cannot expect them to grow, to walk the way of the Lord, to consecrate, or to serve the Lord. A person must be clear concerning his salvation, having a firm and solid foundation, in order to grow, walk, consecrate, and serve the Lord properly. Hence, the foundation is very important.

This is Watchman Nee's three-volume work on the practical aspect of the local church, written for the most part as messages delivered in training sessions over the course of his illustrious career as a pastor-teacher in China.

Witness Lee speaks of the church in The Practical Expression of the Church, not only from the viewpoint of God’s eternal purpose, which is the church triumphant and universal, but also from the viewpoint of the believers’ experience and enjoyment of the riches of Christ, which produces a local expression of the church, an expression that displays the oneness of the Body of Christ and brings in God’s commanded blessing (Psalm 133).

The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1968, volume 1, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from January through early August 1968. Brother Lee remained in Los Angeles until the end of January, after which he visited Dallas, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama; and Orlando and Miami, Florida, on his way to Sao Paulo, Brazil. He returned to Los Angeles in late February. There is no record of his speaking in the cities outside Los Angeles. In the middle of March Brother Lee traveled to the eastern part of the United States, visiting Lubbock, Texas; Greensboro and High Point, North Carolina; Birmingham, Alabama; New York City and Buffalo, New York; Toronto, Canada; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Mansfield and Cleveland, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Indianapolis, Indiana, before returning to Los Angeles in the middle of May. During this same trip he might also have visited Boston, Massachusetts; Montreal and Ottawa, Canada; and Louisville, Kentucky. The only record of Brother Lee's speaking on this trip was in High Point and New York City. At the end of May Brother Lee visited Dinuba, California, for two days and returned to spend the next week in Los Angeles. In the middle of June he traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada; San Francisco, California; and Corvallis, Oregon, before returning to Los Angeles, where he remained until the end of July. There is no record of his speaking in Las Vegas or Corvallis. From late July through the middle of November Brother Lee visited the Far East. From July 25 through August 22 he was in Taiwan, where he was joined by over one hundred forty brothers and sisters from the United States and Canada, along with some saints from Brazil, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Denmark, and West Germany. During those days he ministered in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. The contents of this volume are divided into eight sections, as follows: 1. Twenty-three messages given in Los Angeles, California, from January 1 through July 7. These messages are included in this volume under the title Various Messages in Los Angeles. Two pairs of messages were combined. 2. One message given in High Point, North Carolina, on March 24. This message is included in this volume under the title Message Givenin High Point, North Carolina. 3. Four messages given in New York City on March 30 and 31. They are included in this volume under the title Various Meetings in New York. 4. Four messages given in Dinuba, California, on May 29 and 30. These messages are included in this volume under the title Knowing and Experiencing Christ as the Spirit by Exercising Our Spirit. 5. Four messages given in San Francisco, California, from June 14 through 16. They are included in this volume under the title Life Principles for the Proper Practice of the Church Life. 6. Ten messages given in Los Angeles, California, on July 4 through 7. They are published in this volume under the title Christ in the Stage of the Spirit in the New Testament. 7. Twenty-four messages given in Los Angeles, California, on July 9 through 19. These messages were previously published as a twenty-two-chapter book under the title The Practical Expression of the Church. 8. Thirteen messages given in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, from July 26 through August 3. The first ten messages, given in Taipei, were previously published as a standalone book in Chinese under the title Turning the Age and Living in the Spirit. These ten messages are included in this volume, together with the three messages given in Taichung and Kaohsiung, under the same title.

In the Lord’s recovery during the past five hundred years the church’s knowledge of the Lord and His truth has been continually progressing. This monumental and classical work by Brother Witness Lee builds upon and is a further development of all that the Lord has revealed to His church in the past centuries. It is filled with the revelation concerning the processed Triune God, the living Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the experience of life, and the definition and practice of the church. In this set Brother Lee has kept three basic principles that should rule and govern every believer in their interpretation, development, and expounding of the truths contained in the Scriptures. The first principle is that of the Triune God dispensing Himself into His chosen and redeemed people; the second principle is that we should interpret, develop, and expound the truths contained in the Bible with Christ for the church; and the third governing principle is Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. No other study or exposition of the New Testament conveys the life nourishment or ushers the reader into the divine revelation of God’s holy Word according to His New Testament economy as this one does.