Wow.
FYI, As I regular participant to the delphi discussion board regarding the International Churches of Christ and an ex-member of the group I can vouch that everything written are true. Five years ago when I left the group I left the faith altogether in order to break the binds of spirituay tyranny and the power it has. After reading the that document and then participating the delphiforum I can tell you it's like scales falling off my eyes the first time in years and I begin to see how wrong I was then and now and how they played a role in my spiritual with God.
It's been a year since that came out and there's been a lot turmoil in the International Churches of Christ as many and some who been around for over a decade are finally waking up and leaving. The sins described in that letter had basis on false theology that is based on works to comply with one man's interpretations of the Great Commisions which he prepetuated down through a one over one discipling paradigm. To this day they had only treated the symptoms but have not dealt with the heart of the matter as to why this happened. Yes there had been exceptions to the rule and yes there had been entire congregations leaving the Interanational Churches of Christ to form their own chruches or re-align themselves with the mainline/traditional Church of Christ or to merge into another church in their respective communities. About one year later the founder Kip McKean now leads the local congregation in Portland, OR (from which I was part of) and may be in the process of re-consosilidating his power, aligning his allies, and preparing restore a fractured movement back to its glory days. Either way he continues to teach the same theology that allowed a culture of sin to thrive on. So far they had planted a new church in Eugene, OR (about 100mi/160km south of Portland). You can follow his recent letters and thoughts on the matter on: http://portland.ucd.net
Here are two letters that best summarises how the International Churches of Christ unfolded since that letter was leaked. They were posted by two seperate individuals over there. NO I did not write the following but I think the writers did an exceptional job asessing the situation.
Why God Doesn’t Seem to Be Blessing Us?
Posted on http://forums.delphiforums.com/ICCDiscussion/messages/?msg=10318.1
by BDiamond32
Well, it’s been nearly a year since Henry’s letter, and honestly, things don’t seem to be going so well for us ICC/Former ICC (whatever you’d like to call us) churches. Our “unity” is shot. Our membership is still way down, and people still seem to be leaving (though more slowly than at first). A lot of us decided that we’d “give it a year” to see how things go with the “changes”. And I’m wondering what we’ll decide now that that year is coming to a close---or whether we’ll have the courage to decide anything.
Now, I don’t presume to speak for God, but if I had to guess at reasons he doesn’t appear to be blessing us, here’s the short list.
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1. I don’t think we ever got to a place of full disclosure of our actions. And this plays out in several ways. There are just far too many sins, manipulations, back-room deals, tit-for-tat retributions, feuds, competitions, and unspiritual corporate-styled negotiations and compromises that occurred for us to be hearing so little about it even now. We hear the stories come out one by one, and there are just too many of them. It shows that we’re simply not done confessing our sins. Instead, the leaders seem to be thinking that to remind everyone is somehow counter-productive to keeping the machine running. I think we’ve taken to a policy of confessing only what we get busted on, and not the unrevealed things that we are guilty of before God.
Also, there’s still way too much about the money that simply hasn’t been revealed. Sure, we had our “town meetings” in the beginning, but the books still haven’t been opened, and the leaders seem to think that accountability from “here forward” is sufficient without any specific accountability from years past. I don’t think this is right. For years, when I would sin, we’d have a big sit down and we’d hash out the whole story, from the beginning through the end, and I’d be held accountable not only for the sin, but ever for isolating myself in the first place in such a way that I was prone to the temptation. I think this is a double standard with which the leaders are protecting themselves. I still want to know where all our money has gone, and who has benefited personally from the huge amounts we have given. And not only that, but I think some folks still need to be fired for this.
Not only that, but we still have, on the corporate level, affiliations and societies of which our congregations are formal members, though the membership knows practically nothing about them. Why are we a member of this “mission society” or that “charter affiliation” or this “unity council” if it has nothing to do with the daily running of the church? Is the global government that we once had simply lying dormant now through these corporations and partnerships until such a time as it thinks it can wrest control of us again? And why did the leaders ever think that the members just didn’t need to know that there are all these corporate entities set up, when all we thought we were doing was “having church”? I think we’re a long way from being transparent. Will anyone EVER explain why these corporations exist?
2. We’re still not close to God. What I mean is this--a year ago, so many of us were stunned by Henry’s letter, like deer caught in the headlights. We lacked basic conviction about the issues, and even worse, we lacked the character to search out these things for ourselves. Instead, we leaned on “leadership” to discern for us what is right and just and fair. In other words, we adopted a surrogate relationship with God. Yet after a year, we still don’t seem to be personally interested in the facts about what God says. We still seem eager to follow men, or to follow a “system” or a “program” or a “church”--whatever you’d like to call it---but I just don’t sense in our number that there are many who are saying “hold the presses until I go home and do a thorough Bible study on this or that issue”. We’re still closer to the movement than we are to the God that we think inspired the movement. Why aren’t we as individuals getting our convictions FIRST from his Word? Why do we consider our primary source for spiritual information and spiritual thinking and spiritual growth and spiritual changes to be the PULPIT? (Could it be that we are trained that our input will be to no avail?)
Whatever needed to change to put the spiritual aspect of the church back in the relationships between God and its individual members has simply not happened. Further, I don’t think there’s even a plan for fixing this. I don’t think we know how. And when I talk about it, no one seems to be moved to action.
3. We have disobeyed the passages that command us not to associate with false teachers. Hardly any of us have disassociated ourselves with those who are continuing in the old ways of the movement, such as Kip McKean, Russ Ewell, and some others. We used to be unafraid to take a stand, but now we seem unafraid NOT to take a stand where God has commanded that we do.
And this is not just an issue on the movement-wide level. We are continually disobeying in our own congregations. The Bible is being abused more and more in our own meetings, and we sit by idly, letting it continue. (All this is just another proof of my point #2 above, that we are closer to “church” than to God.)
4. We have purposely compromised some things in order to fit in with mainstream Christendom. For instance, I NEVER heard the word “tithe” used in the ICC until this last year or so. We USED to teach that the tithe was an Old Testament ritual under the Law of Moses, and that giving in the church wasn’t to be a matter of law, but of cheerful volunteering. Yet now, it seems that many of our congregations are using the word tithe. I can only guess as to why. Perhaps it is that, even though the New Testament says NOTHING about a “regular contribution”, and even less about a “special missions contribution”, practically every single denomination out there teaches the “tithe”, so the ICC/Former ICC churches think they can get away with this, based upon it being such a generally popular error in the religious world.
Also, our leaders are starting to appear at religious meetings held by mainstream groups. But I know that they don’t agree with those other groups, and never will on some issues. Are we really considering wallowing in the mud again after being washed? Do we really want to go back to a place where accountability for our own sins is taboo, and where tradition rules supreme? Do we really want to go back to where evangelism is only a hope, and not a regular practice? Well, if we do, then it just backs up my point # 2, that we don’t know God for ourselves, but are content to try to know him somehow through “the church”, whatever its beliefs and practices may be.
I’m wondering if this notion of some sort of loose “unity” with the mainstream is an attempt to garner some sort of authentication for ourselves--a way to have someone else give credence to our validity so that we, ourselves, can continue to believe in it. It simply makes no sense otherwise. That is, unless we have simply lost whatever good convictions we may have previously had.
5. We’re really not doing a thing about “restoring New Testament Christianity”, which was the supposed reason for splitting off from the mainstream in the first place. We still have offices in the church that aren’t in the Bible. We still have “evangelists” who don’t travel and start new churches as in the Bible, who are leading around our “elders”, many of whom are not “apt to teach”, or who are not active in teaching, and are not acting as “shepherds” for individual sheep. And on the note of “shepherding”, it seems to me that too many of our elders consider themselves shepherds of “the flock” much more than they consider themselves shepherds to the individual sheep that comprise the flock. What I mean is that they seem more concerned with keeping the machine running than with helping that brother over there with his problems. They seem more concerned with keeping the peace than they do with continuing to discover the truth from scripture. And they cannot account for how many of the sheep are spiritually sick and dying, yet they are plenty proud to be a “shepherd”. This makes my heart sick for the sheep.
We refuse to alter our “Lord’s Supper” practices. We’ve known for some time that the way we do it is not the way it was done in the New Testament, but we think that having a full meal would be too “inconvenient”. And we pretend that this doesn’t matter. Frankly, though, I think that a full meal with the corresponding spiritual conversation might be the ONLY spiritually-focused meal our members would have all week.
And why aren’t we meeting in the homes? Does it need to be any more clear from the text that the church did not rent or buy buildings to meet in? What excuse shall we offer for ignoring their example? And what excuse shall we offer that there are poor among us while we spend money renting meeting spaces?
6. We’re still not studying the Bible for its own sake. Our sermons and classes are still agenda-driven. The leaders won’t relax and trust the text to lead us. They have to lead us themselves, using the text where it suits their agenda, and ignoring it where it doesn’t apply to where they want to go. By now, we could have gotten very good at studying the text, but I think the leadership has believed that putting out fires was more important than leading us to the “living water”. Frankly, I just don’t think they know how to study the Bible. And WE have put up with it. (Not that many of US know how, either, but we ought to know better.) It’s OUR fault; and theirs.
7. And point #6 really leads to this point, which again , is evidence of point number 2, that we don’t know God for ourselves. Why don’t we, the members, feel that it is OUR church? Why are we still afraid to ask about things that don’t look right? Why are we still afraid to disagree with a leader’s use of scripture, or with his actions? Why do we still default to letting someone else fix things that are broken? How bad do things have to get before we take a stand for ourselves? Good question, huh? Well, I believe that the sad truth is that we’ll NEVER take such a stand unless we are told to by our leaders! And they will likely never tell us to. The BIBLE tells us to “see to it“, mind you, but our leaders will never echo these commands. Will we never obey God unless it is alright with our leaders?
Where’s the guy who sees something in his own study that he brings to the attention of the elders and pursues until there is deliberate and thorough change? Frankly, I think that the men like that have left already---and they left because they learned through experience that our leaders WON’T respond to the scriptures by making such changes.
8. We are simply twisting the truth on many issues. For instance, we keep telling ourselves over and over again that we are “waiting on the Lord” to see us through, and that we are exercising “patience”. And these phrases seem to work excellently for us for two reasons: 1) they both can actually be found in the Bible; and 2) they both offer an immediate justification for why things haven’t changed yet. We use these phrases like an addict would abuse liquor; whenever the stress gets too bad, we try to drown our sorrows with “patience”, etc. But how long will it take us to notice that our troubles are simply NOT getting better? Again, how long will it take us to calculate that the fact that we don’t even have a plan for overcoming means that our prospects of improving are dismal? How long can we keep thinking we are “The Kingdom” while also telling ourselves that we’re really only PART of the Kingdom? How long can we keep pointing out what’s wrong with other churches, while neglecting to fix things that are wrong with us? Or how long can we keep pretending that our church is just part of a big, happy family of God’s churches, when we simply know better from scripture---that is, that the other churches have fatal flaws of doctrine, practice, or inaction?
We are purposely staying double-minded, it seems. We’re trying to juggle these issues keeping them up in the air as long as possible. And when they land back in our hands, we simply throw them up again, more comfortable not to have a handle on them than to have the deep convictions that we once sought as “spiritual”. I’m not sure that we can handle the truth. We don’t seem hungry for it. Not at all.
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Those, in a nutshell, are the most basic reasons I see that God would not be blessing us. These are, after all, the same things that we have condemned (from scripture) in the other denominations for years, are they not? Isn’t this just a simple case of “you who teach others not to steal, do you steal yourselves?” Isn’t it a case of “he who knows the good he ought to do, and doesn’t do it, sins”? Aren’t we like Saul, who wanted God to bless him in spite of the fact that he was covering up the herds of the enemy that he had failed to destroy per God’s command?
What gets me, as I said before, is that there is no plan. We have no plan. Ask an elder. As an evangelist. There is no plan for improvement. The closest thing you’ll get is the “waiting on the Lord” thing I mentioned before. And even when they do come up with something that sounds more promising, you can watch for 6 months and realize that it never came to pass. There is simply not a plan for overcoming. Perhaps we don’t know how. Or perhaps we don’t really want to, though I can’t imagine us ever admitting that publicly. But regardless of the reason, there simply is no substantial plan for overcoming. And I just can’t get over this. I suppose I could try once again to put off my reasoning abilities with the “liquor” of “waiting on the Lord”, but my Bible says that “the spiritual man makes judgments about all things”. So if I continue in NOT making judgments about these things, then I’m not being spiritual, am I? The Bible convicts us. Reason convicts us. Our track record convicts us. Yet we are not compelled to action.
I cannot put up with this any longer. I said I’d give it a year, and I’ve done that. And in that year, I’ve seen what appeared to be some softening in the beginning, but after that, things have hardened again to a state that’s only slightly altered to where we were before Henry.
I don’t want to invite anyone to church, because it’s just not a healthy environment for a new Christian, should I be able to convert someone. If I did convert someone, how could I possibly tell them not to come to my church? Indeed, why do I think that a new convert shouldn’t come, but that it’s healthy for ME to come? Is smoking any less unhealthy for me than it is for my kids?
I think a lot of us are stumbling over “where else to go”. We still see straight enough to see that the other churches out there are caught in a quagmire, too. A lot of us have visited the mainline church of Christ, and initially, I think we’re impressed with some of their freedom. But eventually, we see past the handful of impressive things to discover that they, too, are caught in a rut.
So where’s my main loyalty going to lie? I mean, I feel guilty for “abandoning” the church, but the church just isn’t going in a direction that I think pleases God. So I thought about just having church at home, right? But that would be “forsaking the fellowship”, right? Well, that’s not the way I see it anymore. Jesus PROMISED that “wherever two or more are gathered in my name, I will be there”. In fact, even our “mission teams” are small groups, and we never teach that God isn’t “with them”, do we?
So I’m starting a “mission team” to my neighborhood. My family and I are starting a church in our house. And we’re not going to follow the ICC pattern for everything we do, because we can see very plainly that not all of that pattern is working. We’re going to study the Bible with people. We’re going to have the Lord’s Supper as a meal. We’re going to study the Bible to find out what IT says, without using it to bolster our own agenda. In fact, our “agenda”, if you want to call it that, is to get to know for ourselves what God wants us to do. We no longer care for the security of having someone else tell us what God wants---not after having been told wrong about so many things. Rather than being “secure” like that, we choose to go out on a limb and learn for ourselves. We have a few like-minded friends around the country, so we’ll get our “fellowship” via telephone and email.
Our leaders hate our decision. They call us “loose cannons” and “independent”. But these are the men who have no plan, where OUR plan is to learn for ourselves what God says. The leaders say “there is no perfect church”, and “wherever you have humans, you’re going to have imperfections”. But I asked them a question they couldn’t answer. I asked them to look at the “imperfections” that exist in the ICC now and to tell me if it’s OK if those things NEVER change. They hedged about a bit, and said, “well, they DO need to change, but God is patient with us”. So I asked, “HOW patient? How long do we have?” And they said they didn’t know. And I asked how long God would be patient with the fact that we don’t even have a plan, and that we’re doing NOTHING to change these things today. Again, they had no answer. And I asked what would happen if they let me have my own “family group” to lead WITH a plan for overcoming---I asked if they’d be comfortable letting me be a “David”, going after this “Goliath” while the rest of the troops were standing idly by and quaking with fear. They did not like this idea. They called me “idealistic”. So I said, “Aha! You really DON’T believe things can change, do you?!!!” Again, no answer. I believe they have finally come to the point of the fox, who after failing to reach the coveted grapes, declared that they were sour anyway. The ICC failed to overcome, so now they defend themselves by teaching, more or less, that NOBODY can really overcome (but, apparently, that the ICC can overcome more than the other denominations can?)
So I’m going home. I’m taking my family with me. My wife and I are in agreement. And so far, the Bible and I are in agreement, too. And if we hit a snag with the scriptures, we’re committed to be the ones to conform. We refuse to conform the text to fit our existing religious habits. “Well what are you going to do when problems come up in your idyllic little house church? You WILL have problems, you know?” That’s what they ask me. And I told them that we will refuse to institutionalize those problems, as the denominations (including the ICC) have done. We’re not just going to park on a problem and say, “Oh well, isn’t it interesting how HUMAN we are that we have this problem, and isn’t it great that God gives us all this power from the Holy Spirit but that he will sit feebly by for decades, watching us protect our problems and refuse to overcome them?” No, no one would ever SAY this, but this is certainly what the answer has to come down to, if these folks had the integrity to draw a conclusion.
For years we told people to leave their churches because they were fraught with sin and compromise. And a lot of those people had enough character to want to “stay and help make changes”, but we pressured them to leave, as they were disobeying God to be associated with ungodly institutions. Yet today, the call is the reverse in a way: “I know we’re still ungodly in a lot of ways, and that we’re not making any progress in these things, but we need you to stay and help make the changes (that we’re really not willing to make).”
I’m not buying it, ICC. I KNOW you. I’ve seen you operate. If you were ever sincere before, you are CERTAINLY not sincere now. Your inaction gives you away.
Remember the tree in Jesus’ parable--the one that bore no fruit, but for which the gardener pleaded another year’s chance to change?
Well, it’s been a year, and you haven’t changed.
Is this what God would say to you? Am I “judging” you wrongly? Regardless of what you think, I’m judging ME according to this scripture, and I am afraid before God to stay around and make excuses about my lack of obedience to scripture. I must leave and go where I am free from your massive inertia--where I can make changes freely without having to fight your leaders to do it. Where my conscience being right before God is the PRIMARY consideration of my life, and not just something to be achieved as long as it’s alright with “the church”.
And what will YOU do---those of you who also promised to “give it a year”? Somebody on this forum last year told one of us who was arguing in defense of our church’s sins, “OK, you don’t want to admit how bad it is, so why don’t you do this: Why don’t you decide today just how bad you’ll let it get before you are willing to pass judgment on the church and leave?” That was a good challenge. Made sense to me. If it stays unchanged for a year---for ten years---for twenty years---how long is too long to still be “of God”? Or if it gets worse? What will you put up with?
And whatever your answer to that question is, you need then to ask yourself what GOD will put up with? Why do you think that he accept behavior from your church that YOU wouldn’t put up with from your own kids?
As of today, my family and I are free from you. May you, too, seek the Lord with all YOUR hearts, even if it is an uncomfortable and unfamiliar venture.
Your estranged friend,
BDiamond32
Next letter posted on:
Posted on http://forums.delphiforums.com/ICCDiscussion/messages/?msg=10214.1
by JN1512
To the former and current members of the ICOC,
Last year with the receiving of Henry Kreite’s letter the church was given an opportunity by God to realize and repent of much sin that we had allowed to prevail in our leadership and in our fellowship. We realized that we had created a system of leadership that abused its authority over the flock and became self promoting. Our leaders often sought out how they could be served by the members, often tied up heavy bundles for the members to carry and lorded over God’s people by forcing them to participate in a controlling system of "discipling" relationships. They required the tracking of endless statistics and placed value on performance rather than on fruits of the Spirit. They also mismanaged and abused the offering given to them, in good faith, by the Saints. Due to these abuses, and others, many people left, or where put out of our fellowship, hurt and abandoned without a shepherd. Within our fellowship members often chose to seek the praise of these leaders and not of God, following their dictated rules even when they went against good conscience. We frequently promoted new converts, or unqualified people to a leadership status, when the scripture clearly instructs us not to, creating demanding leaders without understanding or compassion but filled with much pride and arrogance. Our assemblies and events were promoted as being "awesome" when they have often been poorly planned and disorganized. Over the years these wrong doings were pointed out to various leaders on various occasions but were never properly dealt with.
Since Henry Kreite’s letter has come out our lack of Godly sorrow(2 Cor 7:11), as a church, has been evident. Many leaders where quick to apologize before the congregation but then they became more focused on their loss of status rather than on doing deeds to show their repentance. Some members left the fellowship of the church, too weary to deal with any of the issues brought to light. As a body, we have not come up with a plan to repent and reorganize in a manner that will honor God. Our fellowship is deteriorating and it seems that our light is barely shining. We need to fast, pray and show a repentance worthy of our Heavenly Father.
Each grouping of disciples as they now stand should appoint Elders, if they are able, or overseers who must set their hearts on directing the affairs of the church and not on "Lording" over it (1 Tim 5:17). We must make every effort to protect the church and establish a governing body made up of leaders who will truly serve and shepherd the flock. Directed by those Elders/Overseers, regular meetings should be held with the church members to establish a desired staffing and volunteer structure for the church, based on ministry needs (Acts 6:2-7). These meetings of the body will protect the church from bias, favoritism and selfish ambition. These meetings will also allow the church to communicate as a family and to build unity and trust. Again, Elders are to direct the affairs of the church, not to lord over it, we have one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Meetings should be held at a time agreed upon by the congregation. (Midweek services could possibly serve well or Sunday Services could be adjusted for an hour meeting of the body followed by an hour worship service with child care for both.) Future similar meetings should occur from time to time, so as to have an open forum to address any new ideas, issues or to "bring before the church" any matter that need be. It has been stated that "forums are unbiblical", on the contrary, the church must be able to meet as a body and discuss ideas or concerns; how else would any matter be brought before the church as the scripture instructs us? (Matt 18:17, etc...)
"Directed" by the Elders, the congregation needs to produce job descriptions for the various positions needing to be filled (Acts 1:15-26 & 6:2-7). For staff positions, a compensation package will need to be agreed upon by the Elders, and the congregation as well. Salaries should be based on the average income for an equivalent professional in the geographic society that the church is situated in. Once the required positions have been agreed upon they should be announced and made open, for application, to any member of the congregation who would like to work in that position. The Elders should then review the applications and inform the congregation of the qualifications of each applicant and of their recommendation of who they feel would best qualify for the position in question. Determination from a group of men should be left up to a lot (Acts 1:24-26), as seen fit by the congregation. Upon agreement between the Elders and the congregation, the Elders should fast and lay their hands on the individual as they commit him to serve in the position in question. Should any member of the congregation not agree with the Elders’ findings of an individual’s qualifications, it should be brought before the church for discussion until agreement can be made.
In order to follow the example of the Paul we must be completely open with the church’s handling of the "offering" (2 Cor 8:20 & 21). Church members should be informed of the churches budget on a regular basis, as agreed upon by the congregation. A full disclosure, line item budget, including information on the staff’s salary, should be produced and distributed to the church members regularly (1 John 1:5-7). The congregation should agree upon the use of the funds gathered weekly. Among the expenses to be considered should be staff salaries, facility maintenance, regular events, benevolence, special events, missions, etc. Extra funds should seldom be gathered and only gathered upon full agreement and understanding of the congregation.
Since HOPE has been set up as an independent non-profit organization it has masked the fact that the church is the true source of the welfare given by HOPE around the world. Jesus taught, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16). Leaders have tried to convince us that HOPE has been a legal necessity for the church in some countries, but they fail to see that it is a hindrance to spreading the good news. HOPE has been a bowl placed on top of the church and is covering its light. We must not cover the light of the church, but we must let it be known that the service we provide in this dark world is because we are God’s people, and thus glorify our God.
We need one another, in the body of Christ, to help us not be deceived by our own sin. Let us "speak the truth in love" to one another so that we may build one another up (Eph 4:15-16). Let us also communicate as a true spiritual family of brothers and sisters and build God’s church in an orderly manner and with integrity so that we will win the respect of outsiders and possibly win as many as possible for Christ
To God be the Glory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A letter of apology and statement committing to serve and protect the flock should be sent to all former and current members from the newly selected leaders. Pains should be made to make this happen, even if it requires taking an ad in local newspapers to do this.