Witness Lee kept Nee’s “one church in one city” as the basic principle but turned it into a tightly articulated **ground**, identity, and practice for a global “Lord’s recovery” movement, with detailed ways to build up local churches (the “God‑ordained way”).[1][2][3]

## From Nee’s principle to Lee’s “ground of locality”

– Nee articulated that there should be only one church in each city, named simply “the church in [city],” to express the one Body of Christ and avoid denominational division; the city is the extent of a church’s jurisdiction.[4][1]
– Lee preserved this but sharpened it into the “unique ground of locality”: the city boundary is the God‑ordained ground for a local church’s existence and the practical **ground** of oneness; all believers within that city are, in principle, part of “the church in [that city].”[2][5][6]

## From house‑church pattern to defined structure

– Under Nee, “local church” mainly meant non‑denominational, city‑based house‑churches with plural eldership, no clergy–laity distinction, and a focus on the Lord’s Table and inner life.[7][1][4]
– Lee retained plural eldership and no official clergy, but he systematized the relationship of local churches to the universal Body: “the universal church is composed of all the local churches, and the local churches are the practical expression of the universal church.”[8]

## “Local church” plus “Lord’s recovery” identity

– For Nee, the local-church principle was a biblical pattern for unity and testimony; it did not yet function as a global, branded identity.[1][4]
– With Lee, “the local churches” became self‑consciously “the Lord’s recovery,” a coordinated network that sees taking the local ground as part of God’s ongoing recovery of genuine church life, and therefore views locality‑ground churches as the proper continuation of New Testament practice.[3][9][1]

## Practical development: the God‑ordained way

– Nee emphasized that all believers should function and that the locality church should inclusively gather all the Lord’s children in that city, but he left the “way” comparatively less programmatic.[4][1]
– Lee developed a four‑step “God‑ordained way” for the building up of each local church:
1) gospel preaching (begetting),
2) home meetings to feed new believers,
3) group meetings to perfect the saints,
4) church meetings of mutual prophesying for building up.[10][3]
In this schema, the gifted persons perfect the saints, and the perfected saints build up their local church, which in turn expresses and builds up the universal Body.[3]

## Boundary and inclusiveness

– Nee stressed that the local church in a city “must be inclusive, not exclusive,” embracing all genuine believers in that locality regardless of secondary differences.[1]
– Lee’s followers repeat this inclusiveness verbally—“all believers within the boundary of the city should constitute the one unique local church within that city”—while also insisting that meeting on any basis other than locality is an unscriptural ground, which practically sharpens Nee’s concept.[5][11]

In sum, Lee takes Nee’s city‑based, anti‑denominational local church idea and (1) codifies it as the “unique ground of locality,” (2) embeds it in a global “Lord’s recovery” identity, and (3) adds a detailed, repeatable “God‑ordained way” for practically building up each local church.[2][5][8][3][1]

Sources
[1] Local churches (affiliation) – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_churches_(affiliation)
[2] Practical Expression of the Church, The, глава 8 https://bibleread.online/all-books-by-Watchman-Nee-and-Witness-Lee/book-practical-expression-of-the-church-the-Witness-Lee-read-online/8/
[3] According to the God-ordained Way – Local Church http://www.local-church-building-up.org/local-church-god-ordained-way.htm
[4] The “Local Church” as Movement and Source of Controversy (Part 1 … https://www.equip.org/articles/the-local-church-as-movement-and-source-of-controversy/
[5] The Unique Ground of the Church – in the Genuine Oneness https://www.agodman.com/unique-ground-church-one-church-one-city-oneness/
[6] Witness Lee Illustrates the Ground of the Local Church http://www.local-church-ground.org/illustrations-ground-local-church.htm
[7] Watchman Nee and the House Church Movement in China https://www.dwellcc.org/essays/watchman-nee-and-house-church-movement-china
[8] the Practicality of the Universal Church – The Local Church http://www.local-church-practicality.org/more-local-church-quotes.htm
[9] Witness Lee and Local Church Doctrine: The Lord’s Recovery and … https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueChristian/comments/1eitufg/witness_lee_and_local_church_doctrine_the_lords/
[10] Witness Lee teaches the God-ordained way for the building of the … http://www.local-church-building-up.org/local-church-feeding.htm
[11] Concerning the Boundary of a Local Church – Shepherding Words https://shepherdingwords.com/concerning-the-boundary-of-a-local-church/
[12] THE BOUNDARY OF A LOCAL CHURCH https://www.ministrysamples.org/excerpts/THE-BOUNDARY-OF-A-LOCAL-CHURCH.HTML
[13] What is Witness Lee’s Local Church Movement about? – Bible Hub https://biblehub.com/q/what’s_witness_lee’s_local_church.htm
[14] Book – History of the Church and the Local Churches, The https://bibleread.online/all-books-by-Watchman-Nee-and-Witness-Lee/book-history-of-the-church-and-the-local-churches-the-Witness-Lee-read-online/
[15] The History of the Church and the Local Churches – Google Books https://books.google.com/books/about/The_History_of_the_Church_and_the_Local.html?id=pauPp8euqhIC&hl=en
[16] Practice of the Church Life according to the God-ordained Way, The … https://bibleread.online/all-books-by-Watchman-Nee-and-Witness-Lee/book-practice-of-the-church-life-according-to-the-god-ordained-way-the-Witness-Lee-read-online/2/