The Rising Threat of One Man

Over the past few years, the outlook of the ICOC becoming a power once again seemed doubtful. However, recent events in my home town of Cincinnati, Ohio have shown that the local ICOC, the Cincinnati Church of Christ, may have reached a threshold where they should be considered a serious and very dangerous threat, especially to students at the local college campuses. This threat may help accelerate the drive of the entire ICOC back to the intensity of its controlling practices when it was lead by Kip McKean.

In the beginning of 2013, the Cincinnati ICOC hired Doug Lambert of the Baltimore ICOC as its Lead Evangelist. A little over a year and a half later, in late August of 2014, Lambert spoke the the ICOC's annual International Leadership Conference (ILC) in Singapore. He spoke the first half of a lesson entitled "Building with Costly Stones". That cost for the members of his congregation is heavy. In his lesson, we learn the following:

1. Men make the church grow, not God.

"You see, the Bible says here 'God makes it grow'. So if it's not growing, it's not God's fault. [affirmations by the audience] OK, we understand it, if it's not growing, it's not because God's not doing His part - because He makes it grow. It's not because of the workers, it's not because of the field, it's not because of the situation, it's not because of the challenges, we've got to look at ourselves and say 'am I the man to make it grow?' Because God makes it grow."

Doug Lambert - Lead Evangelist - Cincinnati Church of Christ, ICOC International Leadership Conference (Singapore) "Building with Costly Stones", August 28, 2014 [6:21-6:55]

2. Growth is the increase of the number of members and the amount of money taken in through the weekly offerings.

"And I believe that as a leader, it's important that I bring faith to my church and to the situations. [affirmations from the audience]. The church in Cincinnati was very, very stuck. Except for a few campus and teen baptisms, it wasn't growing. And we came in; we said, 'we believe all ministries can grow'. We believe the members can get engaged and that the marrieds and the singles can grow. We believe our contribution can grow. [loud 'Yeah!' from the audience]"

Doug Lambert - Lead Evangelist - Cincinnati Church of Christ, ICOC International Leadership Conference (Singapore) "Building with Costly Stones", August 28, 2014 [7:56-8:22]

3. ICOC congregations are not autonomous.

"But coming to Cincinnati, the challenges were so daunting, with the eldership and the staff and the other churches in the area, I thought: I've got to write things down. I mean, I've got to have detailed plans, four typed pages of what I need to focus on."

Doug Lambert - Lead Evangelist - Cincinnati Church of Christ, ICOC International Leadership Conference (Singapore) "Building with Costly Stones", August 28, 2014 [10:55-11:12]

In the entire context of his lesson, it appears that Mike Fontenot, leader of the Hampton Roads ICOC in Virginia may have sent or allowed Doug Lambert to go to Cincinnati. Doug Lambert apparently has influence and authority of other ICOC congregations in the Ohio Valley area (covering Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia). In other words, Doug Lambert's role and authority is no different than the role and authority of the Geographic Sector Leader (GSL) in the ICOC before 2003. Consequently, Mike Fontenot's authority appears to be that of a World Sector Leader (WSL) in the ICOC before 2003.

4. Re-establishing an eldership is not a priority whatsoever.

"We focus a lot on building infrastructure: great Sunday services, great midweeks... staff meetings, getting the HOPE work really going, women's ministry, missions, children's ministry, great events, working with our board... building a leadership group, really getting the youth and family ministry really great... We've built our campus ministry. We have ministry training programs and internships. The big focus now is on our singles and our young marrieds..."

Doug Lambert - Lead Evangelist - Cincinnati Church of Christ, ICOC International Leadership Conference (Singapore) "Building with Costly Stones", August 28, 2014 [11:50-13:00]

Note that in context, "building a leadership group" means continuing to build himself and staff roles below him in the discipling hierarchy, not establishing a plurality of spirital men to lead the congregation as elders where Lambert would work at best alongside them.

5. Needs of the rank-and-file members are subordinated to the plans to build the church (numerically).

"But having a plan requires focus, doing it well and thoroughly, and completing it and then moving on to the next task. There's still a lot to do in the church. We've got a lot of holes and a lot of needs. Part of the problem: we've raised expectations now so that everybody's saying, 'Hey, what about this and what about me, how about over here?' And I'm like, 'We'll get to it!' [affirmations by the audience] It's going to take five years. So I told the church when we came in: it's going to be five years to build what we need to build."

Doug Lambert - Lead Evangelist - Cincinnati Church of Christ, ICOC International Leadership Conference (Singapore) "Building with Costly Stones", August 28, 2014 [13:20-13:50]

6.  An ICOC Evangelist still has unilateral authority to discipline ICOC Elders, even implicitly call for their resignation.

"When we came to Cincinnati, the eldership that was in place was very divided. And we had many conversations and I finally said, 'You know, this has been going on for a long time. We're setting a five month time limit on this. And within five months, this situation will be resolved because it has gone on too long.' I believe that I have the authority as an Evangelist to discipline elders if I need to. And so after five months, we got the elders together and they met and they decided that they needed to step down."

Doug Lambert - Lead Evangelist - Cincinnati Church of Christ, ICOC International Leadership Conference (Singapore) "Building with Costly Stones", August 28, 2014 [15:07-15:43]

1 Timothy 5:19-20 clearly states that two or three witnesses are needed to bring a charge against an elder. However, Lambert did not mention any other witnesses besides himself. (Making the other elders be the other witnesses makes no sense, of course!) In addition, Lambert has the authority to correct the unrepentant elders in front of the entire congregation, but no authority to make them step down from their role.

A previous post discusses the resignation of the elders in the Cincinnati Church of Christ and its conclusions and ramifications.

7. Additional restrictions (specifically membership in a shepherding group) are required to be a member of the church and thus keep one's salvation.

"And we decided we were going to have high expectations. ['Yup' from the audience] And we were not going to compromise. We're going to expect everybody to come to midweeks, we've heard that, right? [affirmations from the audience] But that is the expectation. And then we said everyone in the church, to be a member of the church, has to be in a small group. [affirmations from the audience] You don't want to be in a small group, you're welcome to attend as a visitor. [affirmations from the audience] But you will not be a member of our church - that was not without controversy."

Doug Lambert - Lead Evangelist - Cincinnati Church of Christ, ICOC International Leadership Conference (Singapore) "Building with Costly Stones", August 28, 2014 [17:05-17:33]

8. The destructive practice of pruning has returned to the ICOC.

"And as discipling began to spread through the church, I prepared the leadership. I said... we will have more fallaways in 2014 than we had in 2013. Because as discipling spreads through the church, there will be a slow bleed. [affirmations from the audience] Because some of our members actually like the fact that there was no discipling. [more affirmations from the audience] some of our members actually like the fact that Jesus was not Lord of the church or of their lives and kind of liked the way the church was and so as we're getting where we need to be, we knew that we would lose people. Now what's been encouraging is way more people have got on board because in their hearts, deep down, they really do want Jesus to be Lord. [a chorus of 'Right!' from the audience] But we couldn't be afraid of what was going to happen if we did what was right."

Doug Lambert - Lead Evangelist - Cincinnati Church of Christ, ICOC International Leadership Conference (Singapore) "Building with Costly Stones", August 28, 2014 [18:02-18:48]

Clearly if the ICOC's upper echelon of leadership chose Lambert as an example of how to build and grow an ICOC congregation a decade after the resignation of Kip McKean and the events of the Henry Kriete Letter, then their long-term intentions are as clear as crystal. Now that the organization has stabilized, the leadership intends to return to implementing controls (albeit some slowly) across the entire organization as McKean singlehandedly did throughout his twenty-three year head of the Boston Movement and ICOC.

It's a dangerous time to be a disciple.

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.

Death of a Dream in San Diego

A former ICOC member named Janice Franklin has written a powerful testimony of her time in the San Diego Church of Christ called Death of a Dream. It goes from the time when that congregation (originally known as the Mission Church of Christ) started practicing discipling before it joined the Boston Movement and goes through six months after the release of the Henry Kriete Letter in early 2003. What makes this powerful is the mixture of her personal story and recovery and in-depth scriptural analysis of some of the biggest McKeanist doctrines that ensnare people and leave them confused once they leave the cult. Janice covers true worship, reliance on the law and works instead of faith, the McKeanist take on discipling, and tolerating leaders at the top of the discipling hierarchy.

The last time something like this was released was around the time of the Henry Kriete Letter itself. The release of this paper now clearly underscores the fact that things in the ICOC have not changed, now nine years after the HKL's release. Great job, Janice!

The URL for the paper is: http://www.reveal.org/library/stories/people/deathofadream.pdf

Failed Interpretations: The Narrow Road

The next episode of Xraydio that I had been working on has been put on hold indefinitely. It may show up as a "lost episode" some day. But I've chosen a replacement and have started breaking it down. Hopefully that one will be out soon. In the meantime, I'm going to break down some common mistakes in exegesis that ICOC and ICC people make in a commonly used teaching of Jesus.

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." - Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB)

What does this passage say?

Jesus commands His listeners to enter through a small, narrow that leads to live. There's another wide gate that many people enter through, but it's a broad road that leads to destruction. What are these gates Jesus talks about? A parallel passage gives us the answer:

And He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. And someone said to Him, "Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?" And He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, 'Lord, open up to us!' then He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know where you are from.' Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets'; and He will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you are from; DEPART FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS.'" - Luke 13:22-27 (NASB)

The narrow gate, or door, is a relationship with Christ. So Jesus says that the path to life is through a relationship with Himself. In addition, He says that few will find it because they will not be able to. Why? The passage in Luke mentions having a casual, not intimate relationship with Christ. The next few verses in the Matthew passage mention false teachers (Matthew 7:15-20) and lack of obedience (Matthew 7:21-23). These are the roadblocks to the narrow gate that will put someone on the path to destruction.

What does this passage not say?

This passage does not say that one can flip-flop between the narrow and wide roads. The ICOC/ICC attempts to use this passage to justify that someone can easily get back on the narrow road and consequently lose their salvation. The scriptures don't teach "once saved, barely saved". Scripture supports two possible cases: someone comes to Christ and are saved forever or someone comes to Christ and they permanently fall away from grace later.

This passage does not say that the narrow road gets narrower and more difficult as one travels upon it. Jesus's focus is getting people to go through the gate, not the difficulty of the journey once they made it through. (Conversely, it doesn't say that the broad road gets broader and easier to travel as a traveler continues on its path.) The ICOC/ICC attempts to use this passage to say that the narrow road MUST get narrower and more difficult as time goes on. And if it's not, a disciple must be on the broad road.