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Originally Posted by Arizona
YPO534,
I was very intrigued by your advocating a new, more narrow, definition of ekklesia as the assembling of the believers with a view to the manifestation of Christ,, as well as restricting the "universal" concept to that which Scripture calls the Body, of Christ. I agree with you that a universal application of "church" inevitably will lead to denominationalism.
I myself have been striving to hold a different foundational concept regarding this. The history of the christian "church" seems to be one of pendulum swings, out of balance, corrections, etc with one and another doctrinal truths arriving at an ascendancy at different points in time. The more important, for me, at this current point in my journey, is that Christ would be manifested, and I am willing to denigrate the universal if necessary.
After many years, I would still hold to the original idea I received in the LC as to the practical oneness of all believers, in locality. But I do hold that the genuine oneness is spiritual and that practicality is manifestation of that which is already true according to God by the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross and is exhibited by His indwelling life in us.
Do you have further?
Much Grace.
Arizona
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Actually, and I would definitely like to open this up in fellowship among those who are somewhat following the light on the point, the brother who I have been fellowshipping most of this with wrote the following message to me yesterday:
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It occurred to me last night, between sleep cycles, out of the blue, that there is, in fact, a God-ordained way to practice and experience the universal aspect of the assembly, that is, the Body, within the context of the assembly. It is the Lord's Table. "Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf." 1 COR 10:17. This bears further investigation because this verse is a little isolated for my current preference. But this could explain a lot. If a few assemble, whether in a living room or a catacomb, they are the assembly. But how do they experience membership in the Body? Not by forming or conforming to a worldwide organization. Rather, they experience the Body-life by partaking of the one loaf, by breaking bread. Beautifully, when we break bread, we reaffirm and even experience our membership in the One Body and we do so in a manner that can ONLY happen in the assembly and can happen in ANY, even the tiniest, assembly. So again, the Body is contained, experienced, and expressed in the assembly. The one loaf is the proof.
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He told me he's releasing this to the public domain so, if you wanted to add to it or republish it or anything, you don't need written permission of his publisher. 
The thing I have been bearing around in me since 1985 is that I had a completely miraculous baptism experience through efforts of the Local Church saints, high revelation and experience on a good number of points, but one thing that I've always sought the light on, before leaving and ever since, was the matter of the bread breaking meeting. Not to be too ugly about it but the way the bread breaking meeting among them was practiced was at least 90% outward form. And if you review brother Nee's written ministry on the topic, you couldn't get much help. Sorry to say, brother Lee's lacks even more. Both of them are especially interested in the proper way to call the hymns for some reason. But, since I had so clearly and definitely touched the solid reality of something in my baptism (I literally and spontaneously jumped up out of the water with my hands raised rejoicing!) I have always known that there must be some similarly exciting and substantial reality in the breaking of the bread. Transubstantiation is obviously not what the Lord intended to impart to us in giving us these instructions, but I have never seen it and have never known anyone who did.
I have come back to this realization repeatedly for the past 20 years since being ejected from the Local Church. I have reviewed different publications and collected and meditated on all the verses. I have prayed on my own to see this light specifically again and again. (Didn't work, but no surprise there since I am not corporate on my own!) This brother and I have especially considered briefly this week that it must be possible to touch this reality because the two on the road to Emmaus recognized Him in the bread breaking. But how to do it is the question? Not how to perform it according to a formula applied either locally or universally. How to touch the reality of Christ in it. It is currently set before us as a practical goal to get there but we are not quite there yet.
One thing at least I am very clear about
: no one needs to be regulated into praise of our Father. Our spontaneous and genuine realization of the corporate sonship in the testimony of our Lord's table meetings will surely issue in the universal praise of the Father through the indwelling Spirit. We can just barely see it. Very exciting times.
To address more directly the question of universality, I really think that what this brother has seen might really be the case - that the only place to ever really concern ourselves with it is in the context of the bread breaking meeting. It's not so much of a denigration as a matter of practicality. There is simply no practical way to connect with the universal Body other than through the local assmebly. I am congizant of the Local Church teachings that the apostles having the authority to command this and that from afar is evidence that some might lay claim to manifestation and representation of the Body in a practical way outside of the bread breaking meeting, but my sense at the moment is that this is precisely the means by which there come to be hidden reefs in the love feasts.
As a footnote, reviewing some of brother Nee's stuff on the practical application of the universal is frankly just appalling:
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If a brother wants to be received into the bread-breaking meeting, we must examine him carefully because we are receiving him not only on behalf of the brothers in Shanghai, but also on behalf of the brothers meeting in Tientsin, Hangchow, Wenchow, and other places. However, when a brother goes to another locality to break bread, the brothers in the locality should not examine him further. All he needs to do is to bring a letter of recommendation with him. The brothers in the other localities should believe what the brothers in Shanghai have done and receive him into the bread-breaking meeting based on the letter of recommendation. We have to be very careful in what we do in order to care for the brothers in the other localities.
Watchman Nee, The Assembly Life
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Some guy shows up with a letter and THAT'S what is required? Yeah, like THAT system couldn't bring some problems in eventually!
This as far as we are right now but I'll keep posting as I can.