The curriculum of the training follows its goal to build up the trainees to grow in the divine life, to equip the trainees in the divine truths and to cultivate their spiritual capacity for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. The Full-time Training curriculum is designed to convey the central items of God’s new Testament Economy, and is structured to match the Lord’s present move and the high peak of the Lord’s up-to-date revelation.
Truth
The majority of the time in the Full-time Training is devoted to receiving, studying, and ministering the truth that is contained in the Bible and expounded through the ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. These brothers taught according to the pure word of the Bible, building upon centuries of recovered truths to fully unveil God’s eternal purpose and economy. The Training is privileged to speak these things, teach these things, and minister these things until the Body of Christ is built up and the bride is prepared for our Lord’s satisfaction and desire.
The training classes on the truth along the central line of the divine revelation include the following subjects:
The Word of God
The Triune God is the content of and is revealed through His Word. The Bible as the Word of God tells us about God, who is the prime reality in the universe, and reveals Christ, who is the Word and embodiment of God in person, to us for our experience and enjoyment. Through the Bible, we can know and experience God in Christ and we can grow in Christian life and function. Moreover, it is through the Bible that we can enter into God’s move in His economy for His purpose. For this, it is not enough to apprehend the facts and see the revelations in the Bible, but most importantly, these revelations must become the vision for our move according to God’s economy.
The Triune God
The word of God reveals that God is triune for His dispensing in His economy in order to make us the same as He is. However, if we do not know Him, that is, if we do not know His person, we cannot enjoy, experience, or participate in His divine dispensing in His economy. Thus, we must know who He is. The Triune God class presents the Biblical revelation concerning the nature and operation of the Triune God so that we, His believers, can live in and with the Divine Trinity. The trainees are led to apprehend portions in the scriptures revealing the Divine Trinity in His move and in their experience, and are led to live in and with the Divine Trinity in their experience.
God’s Economy
God’s economy is His plan to dispense Himself into His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated believers. Trainees consider the basic principles, issue, and goal of God’s economy, and the way to live the Christian life with a view to its fulfillment. God’s divine dispensing is to make the believers the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead, with the ultimate goal of God gaining a corporate expression to consummate the New Jerusalem.
The Full Ministry of Christ
The full ministry of Christ in His three divine and mystical stages is the entire content of God’s economy in the New Testament. In this class, trainees study the three stages of the person and work of Christ in His incarnation, inclusion, and intensification. With a deeper appreciation of Christ’s person and work, trainees learn to apply these truths to their daily life and service.
The Spirit
This class is designed to unveil crucial points concerning the Spirit, who was processed through Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. This process was ultimately consummated in the all-inclusive Spirit for the believers’ experience and growth in life today. As trainees examine the numerous aspects and functions of the Spirit in the Scriptures, they gain the invaluable experience of touching the living God as the Spirit in their human spirit.
The Body of Christ
The church as the Body of Christ is not an organization but a living organism constituted of all the regenerated believers as the members of Christ. The first part of this class develops a scriptural basis concerning the Body of Christ and emphasizes the practical administration, meetings, and course of the church from the first century onward. Then, it goes on to emphasizes the intrinsic and subjective reality of living as a normal, functioning member of the Body of Christ.
New Jerusalem
This course explores the New Jerusalem as the total composition of the entire revelation of the Bible and the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose. In this course, trainees see that the New Jerusalem is not a physical city but a reality that we are enjoying and becoming today.
Life
The classes on life examines the basic principles of knowing and experiencing Christ as life. Topics lead the trainees to know the parts of man, deal with the parts of our inward being for the growth in life, and enjoy Christ as the Spirit in our human spirit. Trainees not only study crucial Bible verses, but also learn to apply these principles in every aspect of a proper, daily Christian life.
Character
“Our character is our very person. A person’s usefulness, the things which can be entrusted to him, the responsibilities he can bear, and the things he is able to accomplish altogether depend on his character” (Character, p. 17). This class focuses on the crucial practices revealed in the Word that cultivate and maintain the divine life we received at our regeneration.
Service
Genuine service to the Lord is not a matter of method or activity but of person and character. In light of this principle, this class orients trainees toward a proper view of service through the lens of God’s economy. Trainees also explore basic spiritual and life principles necessary for ministry, as highlighted in the lives and work of the ministers of the age.
The God-ordained Way
The four steps of the God-ordained way are the preaching of the gospel, the nourishing of the new believers, the perfecting of the saints, and the prophesying of the believers to build up the Body of Christ. Trainees examine the biblical foundation of these steps and begin to practice the God-ordained way that builds up the church as the Body of Christ.
Children & Young People’s Work
In this class, trainees gain a vision of the importance of the younger generation in the Lord’s move on the earth today. The work with children, young people, and college students is presented as one inclusive work, requiring vision, training, and a spirit of love to care for the spiritual growth of young believers.
History of the Church
In this class, trainees can see how the Lord has moved in the past among His children for the accomplishment of His purpose. The course first covers the history of the church in a general way, and then proceeds to see the history of the local churches under the Lord’s present recovery, revealing the progression of the Lord’s present move to accomplish His purpose in His economy. In studying our history, we do not only know the facts but also learn, from the experiences of the saints, valuable lessons crucial for our going on in the unique flow of Lord’s recovery until the fulfillment of the His desire.