Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Hampton Roads and Dayton Campus Update


I discovered some links on reveal.org of stories published in 2002 in the Wright State University (in Dayton, Ohio) student newspaper concerning the ICOC. The first was a general article about cults and high pressure groups that describes the Dayton Church of Christ's campus ministry. The second is a response to the article. The third is a response to the article from a current (at the time) member of that campus ministry!

From Hampton Roads, Virginia, it looks like Kirk Valencia's campus ministry at Old Dominion University has been busy baptizing people (in fountains on the campus?) Even more concerning is the hiring of a campus minister in the ICOC's London Church. (Side note: this article mentions the "London Church" as a singular entity. But didn't they split into many different autonomous congregations after 2003?) The new campus minister, Ian Mohlie, was first converted at Virginia Commonwealth University. Second, after graduating he started leading the singles ministry in the Richmond (Virginia) Church of Christ. Now, he's heading to London. Remember in the Name That Campus episode when I pointed out that both the ICOC and the ICC recruit young, impressionable college students and put them into important positions of leadership in their churches? Ian Mohlie is a practical example. Sadly, he's not the only one that has been put through the ICOC assembly line. He ascending the ladder and leaves a trail of hundreds of people who aren't "sharp" enough back in the rank and file.

There's one more connection between Hampton Roads and London I want to draw. The Tattler submitted another article about people serving the London Church (again, as a singular entity, not a collection of autonomous churches). Look who's in the list of people helping out: Mike and Terrie Fontenot and Ed Anton, all three from the Hampton Roads Church (of Christ). I agree with Tattler that there's a party going on over there, but it's with the new emerging high-level leaders of the ICOC exerting their new authority.

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