International Churches of Christ

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The International Churches of Christ, is an autonomous, non-denominational christian church, a part of the Restoration Movement. It has also been called the Boston Movement.

Origins

Restoration Movement

The roots of the International Churches of Christ lie in the Restoration Movement of the 19th century, which promoted a return to the practices of the 1st century Christian churches as described in the New Testament. In 1979 Kip McKean (former leader) led 29 people into what became known as the Boston Church of Christ. The ICOC grew out of the Churches of Christ (non instrumental).

Crossroads Movement

A chief influence on the development of the ICOC was the "Crossroads Movement", growing out of the campus ministry of the 14th Street Church of Christ (later called the Crossroads Church of Christ) at the University of Florida. Campus minister Chuck Lucas created a very successful style or method of ministry and evangelism. The church established a school of ministry to teach its unique and controversial discipling methods. These methods may have been learned from the "Shepherding Movement" that came to prominence within Charismatic and Pentecostal churches in Florida during the 1960s and 1970s. Kip McKean and other "Boston Movement" leaders, including McKean's brother Randy, were trained at the Crossroads school. However, Lucas resigned in 1985, in the wake of a sexual scandal, leaving the Crossroads movement essentially rudderless and paving the way for McKean to guide the burgeoning movement. Though the Crossroads Church of Christ eventually repudiated McKean's "Boston Movement" in the late 1980s, its foundational role cannot be overlooked. McKean and others developed their methods based on those taught by Lucas.

Ministries aimed at college students, or "campus ministries" were not very common among the churches of Christ at the time the Crossroads Movement came to fore, though they had existed at larger universities for some time, primarily in Texas and Tennessee. Between 100-200 Crossroads-trained campus ministers began serving at churches of Christ throughout the country, primarily at public universities, and were successful in the conversions of many new members using small group Bible studies, called "Bible talks" or "soul talks." In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many of the campus ministries came under fire, both within their sponsoring congregations and in the public arena, for using discipling techniques that were considered too controlling. Many campus ministers resigned, or were dismissed, and formed new congregations, typically in the same cities and often with the encouragement of Crossroads-movement leadership. Campus ministries were occasionally precluded from holding meetings on campuses when too many complaints about their methods were received by university officials. To date, the ICOC has been banned from such prestigious universities as Harvard, Princeton, NYU, Boston College, and Boston University #redirect . McKean himself had been working with the Heritage Chapel Church of Christ in Charleston, Illinois, receiving financial support from the prosperous Memorial Church of Christ in Houston, Texas. However, in April 1977, Memorial withdrew its financial support from McKean and another evangelist, due to McKean's methodology and doctrinal positions. McKean stayed on with the Heritage Chapel Church of Christ despite this lack of funding for another 2 years.

Evangelization Proclamation document

Church plantings on whole word

The Lexington Church of Christ, outside of Boston, Massachusetts, was considering closing its doors when they decided to hire Kip McKean as minister in 1979. Within two years, the Lexington church grew from 30 members to over 300. In 1981, McKean and the church began to fulfill a "vision" of organizing churches in key world metropolitan centers, especially those with populations greater than 100,000. By the early 1990s, almost 150 churches had been organized. While this growth was widely publicized, McKean determined that a central strategy for funding and organizing new church "plantings" was needed. Until that time, individual congregations would organize, train, and fund their own mission teams. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ICOC went through a period of rapid growth and new church plantings. A hierarchy of churches was established with the world divided geographically into seven World Sectors. A single ICOC church was established as a "pillar" for each sector and this church became responsible for missionary work in that area. Lines of authority were also laid down from one church to another, with the Boston Church of Christ as the flagship.

In 1990, Kip McKean moved from Boston to head the Los Angeles Church of Christ. Los Angeles quickly became the new central authority for the growing movement. Though still widely known as the "Boston Movement", the official name was adopted in 1993. The official website claims the church had 135,039 members in 434 congregations by January of 2003. However, such figures are widely disputed outside of ICOC. Moreover, after 2003, ICOC has suffered severe losses of memberships mainly due to offending religious practices. Currently, the total memberships of ICOC is around 95,000. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Changes in the ICOC

The first major challenge of the ICoC leadership occurred in 1994, when Ed Powers, evangelist for the Indianapolis Church of Christ, openly questioned several of the more controversial aspects of the ICoC, including mandated giving and the exclusivity doctrine of salvation. The Indianapolis Church of Christ was surpassing 1,000 in attendance at that time and was a major congregation in the Midwest region of the United States. In a special meeting of the congregation, Ed Powers challenged several of the ICoC-enforced practices which he recognized as quenching the joy and spiritual health of the members of the congregation. Upon learning of this special meeting, leaders from across the United States, including Kip McKean, flew into Indianapolis and effectively split the church. As a result, there were now two congregations in Indianapolis: the newly formed Indianapolis International Church of Christ and the now-estranged and renamed [Circle City Church.] Ed Powers later retired from the ministry of the Circle City Church and Keith Bradbury became evangelist for the congregation.

In early 2001, some of the World Sector Leaders (Regional Evangelists directing geographic areas of churches) began to question the effectiveness of the present leadership structure as well as the qualifications of Kip and Elena McKean to continue in their global leadership role. By September, the issue had reached a head in which the majority of World Sector Leaders agreed that significant changes were necessary. In November 2001, the McKeans announced that they were stepping down from leading the Los Angeles Church of Christ in order to take a sabbatical for an unspecified amount of time in order to focus on "marriage and family issues." All of the McKean's adult children had disassociated themselves from the movement. This was not the only issue for the sabbatical, but it was a visible "thorn" in McKean's side.

At this time, the ICOC administration, under the leadership of Andy Fleming (former missionary to Scandinavia and the Soviet Union), began to formulate a plan for a massive reduction in the overhead of the worldwide organization. The goal of this administrative plan was to refocus the resources of the local congregations on building up their own ministries as well as guaranteeing continued 'goodwill' in future missions contributions. By the end of 2002, the overhead had been reduced by 67%, and Fleming resigned as the Chairman of the Board.

Kip McKean's Resignation

In November 2002, the McKeans announced their resignations from their roles as World Mission Evangelist, Women's Ministry Leader and Leader of the World Sector Leaders. The World Sector Leaders also announced the disintegration of their leadership group with the suggestion that a new representative leadership group including evangelists, elders and teachers, be formed with an initial meeting in May 2003. In February 2003, Henry Kriete, a leader in the London Church of Christ, wrote an open letter titled "Honest to God: Revolution Through Repentance and Freedom" transcript to the leadership of the ICOC, criticizing many of its practices. Kriete called for the leaders of the ICOC to renounce, abandon and repent of its systemic abusive practices, financial capriciousness, prideful attitudes, and controversial teachings. While perhaps originally intended for leaders' eyes only, many rank-and-file members were able to read copies of it. It remains massively distributed to this day. The majority of churches throughout the ICOC eventually accepted the letter. While it caused large rifts and many hurt feelings and scarred faith, it is now generally regarded by church members as from God. Many churches in the ICOC no longer require the strictly assigned discipling relationships that once characterized the ICOC. Overall, the leadership and the general membership are far closer than in the past and there is far less intimidation of "ordinary" members; there is now open opposition to leadership when they are not perceived to be doing what is right.

Cultural, philosophical and doctrinal changes within the former ICOC

Since the period of time in late 2002/early 2003, many of the ICOC have gone in different directions. Some have chosen to stay with the distinctive ICOC characteristics and practices, whereas some have pursued reformation. Results of each course of action vary from church to church; some thrive, while others stagnate with traditional ICOC methodology, while some thrive and others stagnate, having chosen to utilize a reformed or progressive approach. As of 2005 there are three (sometimes overlapping) groups within the ICOC. There are those who have held firmly to what has traditionally distinguished the ICOC; discipling, Bible Talks (small groups), baptism and evangelism. Some Reformed congregations have sought to eliminate controversial elements while still holding to the key characteristics such as baptism and evangelism. Other churches are gravitating toward Evangelicalism and Protestantism. The Circle City Church (formerly the Indianapolis Church of Christ) is now an independent and non-denominational congregation, but has made several overtures to open dialog with the now largely independent congregations of the ICoC, including the Indianapolis International Church of Christ congregation. As part of the cultural, philosophical and doctrinal changes within the former ICOC (Pre 2002), efforts are being made by some Progressive ICOC members to also reconcile with mainstream Churches of Christ and Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ. In March 2004, Abilene Christian University held the "Faithful Conversations" dialog between members of the Church of Christ and International Churches of Christ. ¹ Those involved were able to apologize and initiate an environment conducive to building bridges. A few leaders of the Church of Christ apologized for use of the word "cult" in reference to the ICOC. The ICOC leaders apologized for alienating the Churches of Christ and implying they were not Christians. Although a better atmosphere for cooperation and understanding was generated, there are still fundamental differences within the fellowship. Early 2005 saw a second set of dialogs with greater promise for both sides helping one another. Harding University is contemplating a distance learning program geared toward those ministers who were trained in the ICOC. ²

Kip McKean separates from Reformed & Progressive ICOC

In July 2003, Kip and Elena McKean moved to Portland, Oregon to lead the Portland International Church of Christ. Since that time McKean has been making an effort to reunite as much of the former ICOC as possible yet maintain what he sees to be biblical convictions.

In August 2005, Kip McKean effectively divided ICOC churches and members between those willing and those unwilling to follow him by announcing "Portland leadership believes it is time for a progressive 'calling-out of the remnant of disciples' from dying, former ICOC Churches."³ McKean declared that he would call each church to return to biblical teachings, and if current leadership were not inclined to permit this, he would encourage the formation of a new church and lend his support to them. The vast majority of churches within the ICOC have not endorsed McKean's plans and few appear to be inclined to do so in the future. A few churches, notably Phoenix, Boston and Seattle, have publicly announced opposition to McKean's efforts.

United Cooperation

The most recent development is the effort to rebuild and restructure the overall leadership organization for the entire ICOC. Solicitations for governing structures and methods of inter-congregational relationships were requested by November 1, 2005, with the goal of completing a final proposal by February 1, 2006. This effort is seen to have a purpose only to reorganize and coordinate missionary efforts across independent organizations by the now authority-phobic churches, many of whom can trace their roots back to their old egalitarian Church of Christ days, where a major ongoing issue was opposition at almost any cost to any sort or organized, centralized "missionary society". Yet, attitudes vary from church to church as to how much authority, if any at all, should the new leadership structure possess. It seems only a small band of churches welcome the old style back, while many prefer, and wait, for a "new improved" version that could provide an overall vision for this group of churches. According to www.icocinfo.org, an independent ICOC survey group, the membership of ICOC in 2005 is 92,474, which declined 12.5% from 2004.

As of May 15, 2006 a total of 296 Churches agreed to and committed to the Plan for United Cooperation.

Church organization and services

Congregational autonomy

543 Regional Congregations

• Africa 65 congregations

• Asia 111 congregations

• Canada 12 congregations

• United States 144 congregations

• Eurasia 39 congregations

• Europe 59 congregations

• Latin America and Caribbean 72 congregations

• Middle East 12 congregations

• Other Country 29 congregations

List of the International Churches of Christ

Congregational Leadership

Evangelist, Preacher

Other Leaders

HOPE Worldwide relief organization

Chemical recovery ministry

Belief & practices

ICOC have also accepted and adapted certain beliefs and practices foreign to the majority of the Churches of Christ.

Some churches within the ICOC have inherited the exclusivism of its parent body, and not only separate themselves from the majority of Christendom, but the Churches of Christ as well. Whether an individual congregation separated itself from other churches or not, one of the key doctrines of the ICOC has been the "one true church" doctrine (recognizing only repentant baptized disciples as part of the true church). The ICOC teaches that a person is saved by grace through a personal faith and the power of God at the point of repentance and baptism by immersion, and that once baptised, you are added to God's heavenly church, and to the church here on earth. Many congregations today have modified this to now admit that God's church here on earth is not just the ICOC, but the ICOC is a subset of God's church here on earth.

Salvation

1. Hearing the Word of God
2. Believing the Word
3. Repenting of one's sins
4. Agreeing, and confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord
5. Being baptized by full immersion
6. Persevering to the end

Modern Disciples

Controversy

The International Churches of Christ have been surrounded by a lot of controversy over the years; media sources from Christianity Today (an evangelical periodical) to town newspapers to popular magazines (such as Rolling Stone) have included articles about members and by former members.

Criticism

The church has received much criticism, mostly from former members, and other religious groups (mainly pentecostal and evangelical organisation's members) Several common complaints have focused on:

\"Discipling\"

(Today the system of "discipling partner" is not at all to employ or it doesn't work in the classical form.) Much of the controversy surrounds the practice of "discipling", in which each member is assigned to a "discipling partner" with whom the member is expected to discuss every aspect of his or her life including, but not limited to, individual Bible study, daily habits, sins, relationships with the opposite sex, financial contribution to the church, and efforts to recruit new members. This practice was once generally practiced in every ICOC church around the world, but now after the Henry Kriete Letter and Kip McKeans position change, churches in the ICOC see discipling still as a necessity to faith but people are no longer "assigned" but they choose who will disciple them, although the word isn't exclusively applied to one person or people. The world also is used when a person is challenged, encouraged or persuaded to change a decision, character flaw or act that may either be sinful and or unwise. Some ICOC members do admit that some members have and possibly abuse this, but abuse viewed as sinful and hurtful.

A true church & real followers of Christ

ICOC is a "true church" following the Bible. Not the one true church but a true church. This includes but is not limited to denouncing "not true, 'just religious' Christians" and that ex-members are not disciples. (They are not "real" followers of Christ now.) The church used to claim that only its members are saved, but as time has passed and controversy has arisen from such claims the ICOC has altered such theological arrongance and began to accept, not with haste, other members from different churches as christians.

Finance

Financial impropriety including allegations made by ICOC critics, former ICOC staff and even current ICOC leaders. Many of these people or groups above claim that ICOC staff live lavish lifestyles with members' monetary donations. A double standard being practiced by the leadership, demanding sacrificial lifestyles from the rank and file and putting a huge emphiasis on giving by the general membership while enjoying an affluent church-funded lifestyle themselves.

Other

• Control (whether real or sensed) of member's lives in such a way that it was directed primarily to the ICOC's goals and its leaders' ambitions, which could come at the expense of a more-fully developed spirtual life of individual members
• Morally questionable devices, including the use of "sin lists" (lists of individual members' sins passed around to leaders, sometimes also including background information on individual members).
• System of disciplining, where one disciple openly points out the "un-christian" flaws of another disciple, in private or public places.
• Elitist ideology. Often members of the Church will refer to non-members as "In the world" and discourage interaction with these people for any purpose other than to recruit them into the church. Members will be encourgaged to go to other members businesses and remain a close knit network of "Disciples"

Ex members

One of the notable features of the ICOC is that the high pressure environment of the church led to a rapid turnover of membership. By the 1990s, though the movement was relatively young, the number of ex-members well exceeded the number of members. Many ex-members insist this church is an unjust cult, while current members deny the assertion and defend the movemant vigorously. A group of former ICOC members maintain the "Reveal" organisation and reveal.org website, which claims it is dedicated "to provid[ing] accurate, completeand criticism information about Kip McKean and the former Boston movement's beliefs and practices".

The conviction of ICOC members about criticism:

\"Discipling\" - theological roots and motivation:

The disciples want to obey to Christ. And a disciples have to teach, other disciples and have to help to other disciples obey to Christ.''

A true church & real followers of Christ

Finance

The ICOC's principle: Leaders can not really fully devote themselves to leadership and evgangelism while encumbered by other job.'' The viewpoint of members: The members to engage full time leaders for the gospel propagation, for the members spiritual preparation, and for Church program to serve.

Other

• Control

• Morally questionable devices,

• System of disciplining,

• Elitist ideology.

Ex members

Advocacy

The group's advocates have long been pointing out the ICOC members' commitment to live out their faith:

• When the divorce rate within the Evangelical churches is relatively the same as the national average, the ICOC boasted extremely low figures in their congregations.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}
• When only one out of every eight churches bother to evaluate their membership's evangelism effort (Barna: 2006), the ICOC determined to live out the Great Commission.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} (However, there are quotes that seem to show that some members of the ICOC have preached to focus on baptising only certain classes of people)

See also

• Restoration Movement
• List of famous people with Restoration Movement ties
• Church of Christ
• Fundamentalism
• Kip McKean

External links

Websites that hold neutral Views or participated by both members and non-members:

• [ICOC Info.org] Latest Updates on the ICOC -Unofficial information.
• [ICOC News.com] News/Opinions concerning the ICOC.

Links of Progressive & Reformed ICOC websites:

• [Disciples Today] A web portal by current Reformed & Progressive ICOC members.
• [Plan for United Cooperation Pdf] 2006
• [HOPE Worldwide] An ICOC relief organization.
• [Chemical Recovery Ministry] An ICOC ministry.
• [Discipleship Publications International] DPI -ICOC Books
• [Boston Church of Christ]
• [International Churches of Christ] Ex official website
• [Aces Online] African church news

Criticism links about Kip McKean and the former Boston movement:

• [ICOC "Brothers Letter" To Kip McKean]October 2005 ICC Divides: Core Separating from Kip McKean Faction
• [KipMcKean.com] Unofficial information about Kip McKean from an ex ICOC-member.
• ["Honest To God" Pdf 2002] A current ICOC leader, Henry Kriete's open letter.
• [Papers on ex Boston movemant] A compilation of academic journal and other articles on the ICOC.
• [ICoCinvestigations.com] Financial documents
• ["Reveal" organisation] by former members for critical information on Kip McKean and the former Boston movement.
• [Rightcyberup] Critical informations of Kip McKean and the former Boston movement controversial teachings.

Kip Mckean's new movement:

• [Portland ICOC], currently led by Kip McKean and now separate from Reformed & Progressive ICOC congregations.
• [UpSideDown21] Website maintained by the Portland church
• [A Heartfelt Apology ]by: Kip McKean 2006

Restoration movement links:

• [Restoration Movement Internet Portal] A web portal for members of Restoration Movement churches.
• [RestorationUnity.com] Representing greater unity among restoration churches

References

 

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