Witness Lee (李常受 Pinyin: Lǐ Chángshuò) was born in Chefoo, Shandong Province, China in 1905. He converted to Christianity in 1925, and later came under the influence of the late Chinese evangelist and mystic Watchman Nee. Witness Lee moved to Shanghai several years later to become a disciple of Nee. He became a full-time church co-worker with Watchman Nee in 1933. Watchman Nee appointed Witness Lee to continue his ministry in Taiwan in the late forties as the communists were advancing on the mainland of China.
According to Witness Lee and the local churches, the Lord's recovery began when God raised up Martin Luther and the reformers, and continued in recovering lost biblical truths through others such as Madame Guyon, Father Fenelon, Brother Lawrence, Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian Brethren, John Darby, the Brethren, Watchman Nee, and today with Witness Lee.
In 1948, Lee extended his ministry from Taiwan to other Malaysian and Indonesian cities. In 1950 the movement reached the Philippines in Manila, Japan in 1957, the United States in 1958, Brazil in 1959, Canada in 1963, South Korea in 1965, New Zealand and Australia in 1970, Germany and Nigeria in 1971, and Ghana in 1972.
Witness Lee visited the U.S. in 1958 and 1960. He began meeting with a number of Christian fellowships in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. In 1962, Lee returned to the U.S. and established his residence and the first local church in Los Angeles.