The Replanting of Boston

Kip McKean has thrown down another major gauntlet to his old ICOC. In his Good News for October 31,2010, he mentions the planting of a new church in the United States in 2011. The target? Boston!

"Coltin & Mandee Rohn will be sent from LA to plant a sister church in Boston, Massachusetts. They will be accompanied by a shepherding couple from LA and ten disciples from New York City, and be discipled by the Smellies in New York City."

This planned planting has deep implications. First, it's setting up a "sold-out" church in the same city where the "Boston Movement" got its name. This is where Kip ceased from being a campus minister in charge of a campus ministry to a lead minister in a church. Later on, he was appointed the World Missions Evangelist in the ICOC. (He currently holds the same title in the ICC.) There will be two churches in the same city: the original Boston Church of Christ and now a new "Boston International Christian Church" (the name is to be determined). Long-time members of the Boston Church of Christ will now have an alternative church in their city fighting for their attention. Second, the Boston Church of Christ is known for a lot of long-time leaders and members who have been completely entrenched in McKeanism and its doctrines. Many specific doctrines of McKeanism have sprouted in Boston, including discipling for every member, "Christian = Disciple = Saved", and "disciple's baptism" (among others). The new church planting may start to draw significant numbers or at least curiosity from "old timers" from the heyday in the 1980's. Third, Boston is still a major metropolitan area with many influential college campuses. It stands to reason that many of these campuses that have banned the Boston Church of Christ will allow the new "sold-out" church on their campuses - but likely only for a short time. Time will tell what will happen, although planting a new church in Boston will certainly raise some eyebrows in the ICOC churches in New England and perhaps in the entire movement.

The couple chosen to lead the new Boston church planting, Coltin and Mandee Rohn, were converted into the International Christian Churches directly at the City of Angels ICC in Los Angles. Not much is known about them, but a video of Coltin (and special guest Mike Patterson) has been found online. (Coltin is sitting next to the cameraman and Mike is sitting diagonally across the table.) Remember that this is the man who will be fully trained and chosen to assume Kip's mighty spiritual mantle in Boston once more.

Spiritual Pornography - the Blog

Many years ago, the domain kipmckean.com was bought and was used to house information about the International Churches of Christ, particularly the time line and personal details of Kip McKean. When McKean started the "Sold-Out Discipling Movement", his group bought the domain kipmckean.org and put information there that put him in a good light. Somehow the old domain kipmckean.com expired or was bought by the International Christian Churches and now both the dot-org and dot-com point to the same site.

So what happened to the information? It's moved to a new web site, spiritualpornography.com. It's a WordPress blog and it should be easier to find information. Plus, it has a great new look! Hopefully more information will be posted to it soon.

Caught In The Act

A classic video of Kip McKean recently surfaced on YouTube. It was recorded during the ICOC's zenith (March 5, 1995 to be exact) and offers an insight to the false Jesus he teaches, but the delivery methods of his heresies as well.

He's speaking so fast that it's hard to determine what he's saying! Here's the transcript:

Well, you know this prayer needs to be prayed by disciples. And know this: you say "Well, why did Jesus need to pray for three hours?" It took him three hours to get his heart right. ("Amen" from audience) Does that help you relate to Jesus? ("Amen" from audience) You see, a lot of times we say "well, I don't want to do this" or "the leaders want me to do this" or "I've got to go on a mission team" or I "do this" or "do that" or "I don't want to be nice to my wife" or "I don't want to do that at work" or whatever, you say "What do I do about it?" Pray. ("Amen" from audience) Why do I pray? You pray not my will by God's will be done. ("Amen" from audience) "Well, how long do I pray?" Well, you pray until that's where your heart is at. Are you with me right here? ("Amen" from audience) See how that works? ("Amen" from audience) That's why prayer always works. You can't stop praying until you're there. ("Amen" from audience) I remember... (end of clip)

First, Kip claims that Jesus had "to get his heart right". From the perspective of Christ's humanity, He had hours left before He had to go through the stress and agony of the crux of His earthly mission: to die a sacrificial death, taking the sin of the world upon Himself so that we can have a relationship with the Father. He even sweated drops of blood! Now, were any of the feelings, thoughts, or physical reactions sinful? Absolutely not! Jesus is God. Jesus is perfect. Jesus can't sin. So how do we reconcile this immutable fact (one of the bedrock doctrines of Christianity) with Kip's claim that Jesus's heart wasn't in the right place? In McKeanist terminology, "having your heart in the right place" means that your feelings, thoughts, and actions correspond to what the discipling hierarchy and leadership expect, not necessarily what God expects. So either Jesus was in sin by not living up to Kip's expectations (Jesus would have "toughed it out") or Kip's assertion is incorrect and is heretical.

Second, notice that the list of things Kip says that involve God's will revolve around the leadership giving commands to the common disciple and the disciple not having "the right heart" to follow the command. Kip's rapid speech, hand gestures, and call-response with the audience manipulate his hearers to believe that Kip's misapplication of scripture is true and is a valid method to correct their hearts when they don't want to obey their discipler or leader.

Third, praying until you have a "right heart" by repeating a formula is not prayer - it's more like a mantra. Prayer is not a formula, it's communication from a Christian to God that builds intimacy between them. Many ex-members have been given the advice to pray about something until their "hearts are right" and most end up dejected and depressed because they can't get to the point where they feel like they can't get there. Ultimately, it's just manipulative tactics to give the discipling hierarchy and leadership power over everyone - with Kip McKean himself at the top.

Overall, this is one of many examples of Kip McKean's teachings that are ingrained in both the old International Churches of Christ and new "sold-out" International Christian Churches. It's a good example for people studying and attempting to leave and recovering from the movement to study though.

High-Profile Converts

One of the key targets the ICOC has consistently focused on was the conversion of "opinion leaders", people who have the power to sway others to join the church and follow their leadership. A special category of opinion leaders are celebrities. Actress Andie McDowell was part of the New York City Church of Christ in the 1980's and fortunately left the cult later on. Others, like musician and rapper Speech remain in the organization and have high leadership positions. Both the ICOC and ICC have recently gained some notable new recruits to their fold.

On the ICOC side, NBA superstar Deron Williams has joined. His wife is the daughter of former ICOC evangelist Nick Young. (Young was one of the ICOC's harshest leaders.) He plays for the Utah Jazz and his church home is presumably the Salt Lake Christian Church. (Don't let the label "Christian Church" fool you. It's still an ICOC church. In fact, it used to be part of Kip's ICC.)

You can see Deron in action here. (Unfortunately I couldn't embed this video.)

On the ICC side, Miss Arizona 2010 Brittany Bell has joined. She lives in Phoenix and is a member of the Phoenix International Christian Church. She recently spoke at a Women's Day event in the "Jereusalem" of Kip McKean's new movement, the City of Angels International Christian Church. Not much is known how she was drawn in. I believe she may be or have been a student at Arizona State University or another college in the Phoenix or Chandler area when she was met and recruited.

Here's a video of her being crowned:



I'm praying that they both be lead out of these cultic movements soon. The sooner they gain their freedom, the sooner they may get to know the true Jesus Christ of truth and grace and not be high-powered pawns in this game of politics with souls.

Spiritual Pornography - GraphJam Style!

Thanks for the director of reveal.org for the inspiration!

Mark Driscoll on Fundementalism

This video from Mark Driscoll (pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle) completely nails much of the underlying theology of the ICOC and ICC. It's too good to pass up. Enjoy!

Show #6 - We Need (Old School) Discipling

Hello, Cleveland! For episode #6, we visit the home of the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame and so does visiting evangelist Doug Lambert from Baltimore. It's a jam session with some familiar tunes as Doug preaches traditional doctrines of discipling. Unfortunately it looks like the ICOC isn't getting out of the theological dog pound any time son.

Doug Lambert's sermon entitled We Need Discipling was preached on November 1, 2009 at the Cleveland Church of Christ.