Enjoy The Silence

In light of the tenth anniversary of the events surrounding Kip McKean's resignation from the ICOC and the Henry Kriete Letter, I've written an op/ed on the current state of the ICOC entitled Enjoy the Silence. What is the status of the ICOC now? What, if anything, has changed? And where are they going?

You can read the paper at: http://www.reveal.org/library/history/enjoythesilence.pdf.

Declaration of War

In an article on the City of Angels (Los Angeles) International Christian Church's web site posted on April 15, 2012 entitled Degrees of Lukewarmness, ICC founder and top leader Kip McKean concludes the article with this paragraph:

My heartfelt plea is for disciples anywhere and everywhere - whether in the Mainline Churches of Christ, conservative Christian Churches, the International Churches of Christ, those who have drifted into denominational churches, or even fall-aways: Let the Spirit gather us together as one in God's new movement. Let us be unified by being "consumed with [a fiery, hot] zeal for our Father's house" (John 2:17) and "loving one another deeply from the heart." (1 Peter 1:22) Then and only then, will we become "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God" distinct from the world and worldly churches with various degrees of lukewarmness. (1 Peter 2:9) And to God be all the glory!

It's obvious that McKean himself is the locus of unity for this call to those outside of his current movement. It's his false gospel, his methods, and submission to his leadership or nothing at all, even to those who may be "true disciples" in his view in these other churches. McKean has called out the "remnant" before in the 1980's and does so again with not only the mainline Churches of Christ, (Independent) Christian Churches in the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, and other "denominational" churches, but also his former fellowship - the International Churches of Christ. With his new movement at 1,500 members as of early 2012 and with plans to plant (or replant) congregations in San Francisco, Orlando, Paris, Mexico City, and Boston late this summer, nothing is in McKean's way to impede his progress. Kip has declared war on not only the churches that have clearly rejected him (namely the Churches of Christ and the ICOC), but has resumed a full-scale assault against historic, healthy, mainstream Christianity.

The United States wasn't fully prepared for war when Pearl Harbor was attacked in December of 1941. In a similar fashion, the groups Kip has specifically targeted don't appear to be ready either - and some of them are in some sort of weakened state:

• The International Churches of Christ, almost a decade after removing McKean from leadership, is still attempting to take his false gospel (see the previous blog post) and methodologies and re-brand it as their very own without McKean. In the various factions, the same doctrines are still taught, but almost none of them require the same call of commitment as McKean requires. The ICOC remains in serious danger of being run down and run over by McKean's new movement, particularly with those who have grown up and have been brought into the movement in the past decade.
• The Churches of Christ are having a growth and identity crisis of their own. The Churches of Christ are shrinking numerically, especially those bent towards legalism. (Remember that the ICOC arose from these legalistic congregations and the ICC split from the ICOC.) As conservative and progressive elements continue to determine the future of that wing of the Stone-Campbell Movement, few are paying attention to both the ICC and ICOC.
• The Christian Churches, at most a very minor player in the history of the Boston Movement and ICOC up until McKean's departure in 2003, may be blindsided by both the ICC and the ICOC because of their contemporary styles of worship and outward evangelical stances on certain positions. In fact, on the surface, one may not be able to distinguish a Christian Church congregation from an ICOC or ICC congregation.
• The other Protestant denominations and fellowships, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox have largely ignored the problems the Discipling Movement have created the past four decades because of its negligible impact on overall mainstream Christianity. The only Christian and para-church organizations that have even paid attention are those working in apologetic and anti-cult ministries and campus ministries.

In the International Christian Churches Good News E-mail from April 15, 2012, one person from the mainline Churches of Christ has been baptized into the new movement, one was "restored" into the new movement, and several others have joined from the ICOC - the former fellowship. Kip McKean's intentions to pull as many followers as he can into his new movement from churched backgrounds (if you can call an ICOC member "churched") are clear and are currently paying off. My hope is that these other healthy denominations and fellowships warn their members of this new menace and continue to preach and teach the true gospel of grace to Christians within their ranks and let the Holy Spirit do His work to convert the lost in addition to the Church doing their part as the hands and feet of Jesus.

Revealing Your Unplayable Hand

In a post on One in Jesus, blog owner Jay Guin (an elder of a progressive Church of Christ) asked the following question in light of a post discussing the future of the mainline Churches of Christ in light of significantly declining membership: "What do we do?" Out of the many responses, one from Alan Rouse (an elder of the ICOC Co-operation Church in Gwinnett, Georgia - a suburb of Atlanta) stood out as alarming:

"Start making disciples of Jesus. Starting from one person, if each person makes one disciple a year, the entire world will be Christian in a matter of 30 or so years.

Oh, and make sure the first disciple you make is yourself.

That's a snarky answer, I know. But I don’t know of a better one. The real point is, this has NOTHING to do with what your worship service looks like."

This model of exponential growth, which goes back to at least the late 1960's, has been a mainstay of the theology of the Discipling Movement in the Churches of Christ. However, this model is fatally flawed in the light of scripture and plain common sense for several reasons:

1. This model assumes that one remains alive once they are made into a disciple and are making disciples. Clearly someone who is converted early on, say at the age of 90, will likely not make it to see the world evangelized within their lifetime.
2. This model assumes that one doesn't apostatize and leave Christianity once they are made into a disciple and are making disciples. The scriptures clearly teach that some people who are are following Jesus (at least by outward appearance) one day will stop following Him altogether (John 6:66).
   
3. This model eventually (when there are literally billions of people making disciples) contradicts Christ's teachings that few will be saved (Luke 13:22-30).
   
4. This model is nowhere to be found for the New Testament church, particularly in Acts. On the Church's first day at the Pentecost after Christ's crucifixion, burial and, resurrection, the visible Church grew from about 120 to 3,000 in one day (Acts 2:41). Later, the Church grew to 5,000 men (Acts 4:4). During the first widespread persecution of Christians, the congregation in Jerusalem shrunk down to twelve (Acts 8:1)! However, the Holy Spirit continued to grow the Church until it had evangelized the known world, namely the Roman Empire, in thirty-to-forty years. None of these examples prove exponential growth. However, all of the growth was done by the power of God the Holy Spirit.
5. This model clearly collapsed under its own weight if we take the original Boston Church of Christ in 1979 through its growth peak in the late 1980's and early 1990's, flat lining in the mid-1990's and utter collapse at the turn of the millennium. Practically, this model doesn't work, even when driven by men's ambitions and authoritarian control.
   

Those who have been in leadership in the Crossroads Movement, Boston Movement, and the ICOC both before and after 2003 should certainly know that the exponential growth model is a fairy tale. But Alan, in his own words, admits "I don’t know of a better one."

What's more concerning is his second statement: "[M]ake sure the first disciple you make is yourself." Here, Alan Rouse betrays his hand and exposes himself as a false teacher of the god of McKeanism. How can a lost person, a person who is separated from the love and grace of the one, true creator God, make themselves into a disciple - a Christian - a saved person (using the standard McKeanist formula "Disciple = Christian = Saved")? It's impossible! One can't earn or work for Christ's righteousness by their own imperfect righteousness. Even nine years after the events surrounding the Henry Kriete Letter when reforms were promised, the ICOC is still holding a bad hand and doing everything in its power to bluff its members and potential recruits.