The International Churches of Christ

A worldwide fellowship of congregations that grew from a campus ministry in Florida and a church in Boston: they immerse believers for the forgiveness of sins, keep the Supper weekly, stress making disciples, and since 2003 have taken down the central hierarchy they once had.

The International Churches of Christ Statement of Shared Beliefs, Leaven 18:2 (Pepperdine, 2010)

"About the ICOC," Disciples Today (the ICOC's communications channel; current page)

"ICOC Leadership" list, Disciples Today (updated September 2026)

"ICOC Leadership Timeline 2003 - Present," Disciples Today (18 August 2017)

Plan for United Cooperation Summary (ICOC History archive, uploaded 28 January 2021)

Los Angeles Church of Christ elders and evangelists, apology letter of 28 February 2003 (ICOC History archive)

Henry Kriete, Honest to God: Revolution through Repentance and Freedom in Christ, open letter of 2 February 2003 (ICOC History archive)

Mike Taliaferro, "HotNews Responds to the ICC," ICOC HotNews (2008), reposted by Disciples Today 6 January 2017; labeled "not an official voice of the ICOC"

Roger Lamb, "Do You Hear God Singing on YouTube?" Disciples Today (13 May 2020)

"The Holy Spirit: An Overview," Disciples Today (2 December 2019), on the Ministry Training Academy course

City of Angels International Christian Church, "Core Convictions" (the SoldOut Discipling Movement's Distinguishing Core Convictions; ICC)

Atlanta International Christian Church, "Plan Your Visit" (ICC)

Exploring ICC, "Kip McKean forced into retirement" (1 May 2024), quoting the letter of Raul Moreno of 29 April 2024 (a watchdog site run by a former member; the letter is quoted from the ICC)

Exploring ICC, "Senior ICC leaders start new offshoot movement" (20 October 2024), quoting the open letter of 62 ICC leaders

Bobby Ross Jr., "Revisiting the Boston Movement: ICOC growing again after crisis," The Christian Chronicle (1 September 2012)

Audrey Jackson, "Lawsuit against ICOC alleges 'systemic scheme of abuse'," The Christian Chronicle (27 January 2023)

"International Churches of Christ in Upheaval," Christian Research Journal 26:1 (2003), Christian Research Institute

World Religions and Spirituality Project, "International Churches of Christ" (timeline, 2016)

Bobby Harrington, "Who Are the International Churches of Christ?" Christian Standard (1 March 2023), a Christian Church minister's outside assessment

Steve Staten, "The ICC and ICOC - A Concise Distinction" (ICOC History archive, 14 November 2016)

Robert Carrillo, "The International Churches of Christ (ICOC)," Leaven 17:3 (Pepperdine, 2009), an ICOC writer's account

"Brothers' Letter to Kip McKean," Disciples Today (13 October 2005), signed by sixty-five ICOC leaders (Wayback copy of 9 March 2014)

"Brothers' Statement to Kip McKean," Disciples Today (2 November 2005, posted 4 November), sent by eighty-six ICOC leaders (Wayback copy of 9 March 2014)

Kim Roberts, "Women Sue International Churches of Christ for Concealing Alleged Abuse," MinistryWatch (13 December 2024)

The story has three parts. A method of close, one-to-one discipling grew in a Florida campus ministry in the late 1960s. In 1979 Kip McKean built it into a fast-growing church in Boston and then a movement ruled from one office, which broke from the Churches of Christ and took the name International Churches of Christ in 1993. In 2002 and 2003 its leader stepped down, its members and leaders wrote letters of repentance, and the central structure came down. McKean then began a second body that rebuilt it.

A campus ministry in Gainesville

Chuck Lucas's campus ministry at the Crossroads Church of Christ in Gainesville, Florida, baptized many students and developed the one-to-one discipling method. The Christian Chronicle traces the movement's roots to it.

Boston

Kip McKean, whom Lucas had converted, planted the Boston Church of Christ with a group he had called to total commitment. The ICOC's own account says it "began in 1979 with about 30 members." It became the center of the discipling movement.

Crossroads separates

The Crossroads church where the method began disassociated itself from the movement it had started. Sources differ by two years on this date; see the fold under History.

A formal break and a new name

The group organized under the name International Churches of Christ and separated from the Churches of Christ. The Christian Chronicle puts the split in the early 1990s and, in 2023, at 1993.

The sabbatical

After counsel from several elders and evangelists, McKean resigned as leader of the Los Angeles church, according to that church's own 2003 letter. The Christian Research Journal says a year-long sabbatical from his world duties followed.

McKean resigns

Christian Research Journal reported that his resignation followed a year-long sabbatical from his duties as World Missions Evangelist and head of the World Sector Leaders. His resignation letter began: "My leadership in recent years has damaged both the Kingdom and my family."

Two letters

On 2 February Henry Kriete, an evangelist of the London church, circulated a 39-page open letter to elders, teachers and evangelists. On 28 February the Los Angeles elders and evangelists issued a written apology, which says it was prompted by Kriete's letter. Other churches followed.

Apologies exchanged

At the Abilene Christian University lectureship, leaders of the ICOC and the mainline Churches of Christ shared apologies. The ICOC leaders apologized for authoritarian discipling and "judgmental elitism."

The Plan for United Cooperation

On 11 March the Plan was released for each church to ratify. It set regional families of churches. Delegates and Service Teams followed in 2007.

The International Christian Church begins

In October 2005, sixty-five ICOC leaders signed a letter calling McKean to repent of "arrogance" and "divisiveness," and in November eighty-six sent a further statement that warned the churches. Carrillo, writing in Leaven, says McKean then "withdrew his fellowship from the ICOC, establishing the International Christian Church as his new movement in 2006." McKean was then leading the church in Portland, Oregon.

Lawsuits

Five women filed suit in California on 30 December 2022 against the ICOC and its associated ministries, the ICC and McKean among others. The complaint alleges that leaders concealed sexual abuse of minors and pressed members to give. MinistryWatch reports that the federal suit was voluntarily dismissed in July 2023 and that similar suits by twenty women followed in a Los Angeles state court; the ICOC's answer denied that it was responsible for the harm alleged. These are allegations. No finding is cited here.

The ICC loses its founder, then its leaders

On 29 April the ICC's new World Missions Evangelist wrote that McKean was stepping down because he "has faltered spiritually." In October 62 senior ICC leaders announced by open letter that they were leaving, over the central leadership.

Chuck Lucas

Minister of the Crossroads Church of Christ in Gainesville. His campus ministry developed the discipling method and converted McKean. He is named in the 2022 complaint, which names his estate.

Kip McKean

Led the Boston church from 1979 and then the worldwide movement. He resigned in 2002 and started the ICC in 2006. In April 2024 the ICC's own letter said he was stepping down.

Henry Kriete

An evangelist of the London church. His open letter named a "top to bottom hierarchy" and called on leaders to repent. It set off the apologies.

Mike Taliaferro

An ICOC evangelist whose public statements on the change of heart are quoted by The Christian Chronicle and in HotNews.

Moufid Tohme and Ron Conkling

They chair the Catalyst Team, the global leadership body formed in 2017 from elders, teachers, women's ministry leaders and regional representatives.

Raul Moreno

Took the ICC's central office when McKean stepped down. The October 2024 letter was addressed to him and the ICC's World Sector Leaders.

Two dates that sources give differently. McKean's leaving: the Los Angeles elders' letter (28 February 2003) says that in November 2001 he "resigned as the leader of the LA Church"; the 2005 Brothers' Letter says the same and adds that he resigned as "Missions Evangelist and recognized leader" in November 2002; the Christian Research Journal (2003) dates his resignation as world leader to 6 November 2002; The Christian Chronicle (2012) and the World Religions and Spirituality Project (2016) also say 2002. The sources do not conflict once the two steps are separated: a sabbatical and the loss of the Los Angeles post in November 2001, then the resignation of the world office in November 2002. The Crossroads break: the World Religions and Spirituality Project (2016) and The Christian Chronicle (2012) both say 1988.

How McKean and the ICOC parted. The ICOC's own record is two public documents of late 2005: the Brothers' Letter of 13 October, signed by sixty-five leaders, and the Brothers' Statement of 2 November, sent by eighty-six. A paper in the ICOC History archive (tagged to Steve Staten, 2016) says the ICOC has published no new position on him since then, "when about eighty ministers affirmed a disciplinary position against Kip." Carrillo, writing in 2009, puts it from the other side: McKean "withdrew his fellowship from the ICOC" and began the ICC in 2006. Both are true: the ICOC rebuked him in 2005, and he formed a separate body in 2006.

What changed after 2003. The ICOC's own account of its structure has the Catalyst Team, 36 regional family chairs, and delegates, with one vote for each delegate at the annual leadership meeting. The 2006 Plan commits the regional families to "mutual discipling." No ICOC page found says that discipling partners ended. Mike Taliaferro wrote in 2008 that "most of our churches have Bible Talks and Discipleship Partners," and that men still carry out work like that of the old geographic sector leaders, without the title.

The Bible is God's inspired and infallible word and the one authority; the ICC adds that it is a "Bible church," not only a New Testament church.

The ICOC's Statement of Shared Beliefs calls the Bible "the inspired and infallible Word of God." The chart found no ICOC creed, and the ICOC names its roots in the Stone-Campbell movement. On the use of things the Bible does not mention, an ICOC evangelist, Mike Taliaferro, wrote in 2008 that he knew of no ICOC leader who held that a practice not mentioned in the Bible is unscriptural. Such things are fine, he wrote, "as long as they are helpful," and he was not speaking officially. The ICC states a like principle as a core conviction: where the Bible does not prohibit a practice or name, "we are free to use our God-given creativity."

The Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God.

We are free to practice or name something as long as it does not contradict the Scriptures.

The ICC adds, as its first distinguishing conviction, "We Are A Bible Church, Not Simply A New Testament Church," and says the Old Testament applies to our lives "as much as the New Testament — except for the Mosaic Law and any teaching in the New Testament that supersedes the Old Testament." Its fourth conviction, "A Central Leadership With A Central Leader," is argued from Moses, Joshua and David. Both are in the ICC's own pages. The ICOC does not hold either.

A person is saved by grace through faith at baptism: belief, repentance, "embracing discipleship," confession, then immersion for forgiveness.

The ICOC teaches that salvation depends on God's work and not on good deeds, and that the person who hears, believes and obeys the gospel is redeemed "through baptism into Christ." Its statement gives an order of steps: belief in Jesus as God's Son, then repentance, embracing discipleship and the confession that Jesus is Lord, and then immersion in water "for the forgiveness of our sins and the promise that God will give us the gift of the Holy Spirit." It does not say a person is saved by faith alone. Its page says that "anyone, anywhere, who follows God's plan of salvation in the Bible and lives under the Lordship of Jesus will be saved." The movement taught for years that only baptism in an ICOC church counted; its own leaders have since repented of that teaching (see the One True Church fold below).

Subsequent steps must include unmistakable repentance of sin, embracing discipleship, and confession that "Jesus is Lord." Finally, we become Christians at the miracle of rebirth with our immersion in water for the forgiveness of our sins and the promise that God will give us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Christians are saved by the grace of God, through their faith in Jesus Christ, at baptism.

The ICC's own pages, as saved, give its teaching only in outline. Its leaders say discipling is "a command of God and not optional." Critics say the ICC rebaptizes those immersed elsewhere; the chart found no ICC primary text that says so. The ICC's own October 2024 reform letter, signed by 62 of its senior leaders, asks that the ICC drop "excessively long conversion cycles that are not found in Scripture, along with extensive unbiblical requirements for baptism or restoration that have been unnecessarily added to New Testament conversion." That is an ICC leader's testimony that such requirements existed.

The Lord's Supper is a weekly sharing in the presence of Christ.

The Statement of Shared Beliefs names the Supper in the same sentence as God's Word, prayer and fellowship and calls it "a weekly sharing in the presence of Christ as a sacred event." The Christian Chronicle reports that, like the mainline Churches of Christ, ICOC churches "partake of the Lord's Supper each Sunday." Nothing found describes a priest, a sacrifice or an offering of the elements to be adored. Both the bread and the fruit of the vine are named.

Our community worship includes our devotion to God's Word, prayer, fellowship, and the Lord's Supper as a weekly sharing in the presence of Christ as a sacred event-breaking the bread and drinking the fruit of the vine together.

Each congregation decides its own affairs, within regional families led by chosen leaders and delegates. The ICC keeps a World Missions Evangelist over World Sector Leaders.

The ICOC says its leadership is built "to avoid two extremes: disconnected autonomy and overly-centralized authority." Its statement puts a congregation's decisions with that congregation. Above the congregation sits a Catalyst Team formed in 2017, 36 regional families led by chairs, and delegates who vote at an annual meeting; the ICOC says that "there is no overall legal entity." Between 1979 and 2003 it was different. The Chronicle reports that nine leaders of world sectors reported to McKean, and in 2003 Kriete wrote of discipling partners at every level. Henry Kriete, an ICOC evangelist, wrote in 2003 that "we have become a top to bottom hierarchy." The ICOC took it down. Bible Talks and discipling partners continue in most churches, by one ICOC evangelist's account, as voluntary relationships. The ICC kept the hierarchy: a World Missions Evangelist over World Sector Leaders over congregations.

We believe our leadership is best structured in order to avoid two extremes: disconnected autonomy and overly-centralized authority.

The decision-making responsibilities of established congregations belong to the individual congregation.

In the first century, congregations were a collective movement — not autonomous, not self-governing.

The ICOC's regional plan has a feature the ICC lacks: the Plan commits regional families to "mutual discipling" and "mutually respectful, agreed accountability." The Statement speaks of "the authority of exemplary leadership." The page on the Catalyst Team lists "two elders, two teachers, two women's ministry leaders" among its members. The ICOC's Statement assigns women a vital ministry to women and girls, and Harrington notes that the ICOC allows women to use their gifts "within the moderate bounds of male leadership."

Most ICOC congregations use instruments. A cappella singing is loved, and some congregations keep it; the ICOC has no rule either way.

The ICOC's own statement lists worship as God's Word, prayer, fellowship and the weekly Supper, and does not mention instruments. Its writers speak plainly about practice. Robert Carrillo wrote in Leaven in 2009 that "Early in the Boston period the ICOC churches began to use instruments in worship services," because most of the thousands of new converts did not come from the a cappella churches. In 2012 The Christian Chronicle reported that, unlike the a cappella fellowship, "a majority of ICOC churches use instruments in worship assemblies," and Lamb said that all the churches sing a cappella beautifully and many "will also use instruments when the occasion and talent calls for it." In 2008 a lead evangelist, speaking for himself, put the same fact more flatly. The ICOC does not teach that instruments are forbidden. Lamb said: "We don’t really have a concept of instrumental or non-instrumental." The ICC's pages, as saved, say nothing about instruments; its Atlanta congregation speaks only of a worship team and a mix of music.

All of our churches love and sing a cappella music beautifully. Many will also use instruments when the occasion and talent calls for it.

most of our congregations use musical instruments in their worship services.

Our singing has always been a highlight

The Spirit lives in believers and is given at baptism. No ICOC or ICC statement found says whether the miraculous gifts continue.

The ICOC's statement says the Holy Spirit "lives in us and empowers us to overcome the workings of the sinful nature," and that God gives the Spirit as a promise to the one who is immersed. The ICOC's Ministry Training Academy has a course called "The Holy Spirit: An Overview," with lessons on how disciples are filled with the Spirit and on 1 Corinthians 12 to 14; the Disciples Today page lists the topics and not the answers. None of the statements gathered here says that tongues, prophecy or healing continue, and none says that they ceased. Harrington, writing from the Christian Churches, called an "inadequate theology of the indwelling Holy Spirit" one of the ICOC's weaknesses, on the ground that the movement did not treat the indwelling Spirit as the sign of salvation. That is an outside judgment, and it is attributed to him.

the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and empowers us to overcome the workings of the sinful nature

the promise that God will give us the gift of the Holy Spirit

Faithful to the end, and God as judge. No ICOC or ICC statement found on the return of Christ or the order of the end.

The ICOC's statement says that the redeemed "continue to remain faithful unto death." Its section on the church names the hope of heaven and the gift of eternal life, and its page says that "ultimately God decides who will be saved." The statement does not treat the return of Christ, the resurrection or the order of the last events, and the chart found no other ICOC text that does. The ICC pages, as saved, give only convictions one to five, which do not speak of the last things. Harrington, from outside, counts "The eternal stakes of fulfilling or not fulfilling the Great Commission" among the ICOC's strengths.

continue to remain faithful unto death

ultimately God decides who will be saved

Discipling and the hierarchy of 1979-2003

A discipler over each member, and a chain of leaders to one man. Taken down in the ICOC after 2003, rebuilt in the ICC.

From 1979 each member was matched with a discipler, and the disciplers answered to evangelists, sector leaders and the world leader. In 2003 Henry Kriete, an ICOC evangelist, called this a hierarchy and said the concept of discipling partners "as presently practiced in most of our churches has failed." The ICOC's leaders now say they were "too pushy in the past" and that "advice is good. But no one gives orders." Taliaferro wrote in 2008 that most ICOC churches still have Bible Talks and discipling partners. The ICC holds that discipling is "a command of God and not optional," and that it begins as a teacher and student relationship that matures to a peer relationship.

That we have become a top to bottom hierarchy is not in question. The truth is we are.

We were too pushy in the past. Today, we have deep convictions in this area. Advice is good. But no one gives orders.

Discipling is teaching obedience to scripture

But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, even the Christ.

The command to disciple is the Lord's: "make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19-20). The ranks built on it were not. From 1979 to 2003 a member answered to a person above him, and that person to another above, to one man. Jesus said that among his people the great ones are servants, and Peter told elders not to be "lording it over the charge allotted to you" (1 Peter 5:3). The ICOC's own evangelist said the chain was a top-to-bottom hierarchy, and the ICOC's repentance in 2003 is to its credit, because few bodies have taken down such a structure from the inside. The ICC's rebuilding of it, with the claim that it is commanded and not optional, repeats the error at full strength. Brothers may counsel, teach and admonish one another, and that is the "one another" work of the New Testament, but no verse sets a man over a brother's private life. What replaced the chain in the ICOC is voluntary, and that is better; partners who remain are within the pattern only as brothers, with no line of report running above them.

The ICC argues from 1 Corinthians 4:15-16, where Paul writes "in Christ Jesus I begat you through the gospel," and from Titus 1:5. Paul was an apostle with the authority of the Lord. He told Timothy and Titus what to teach. Neither text gives an evangelist an office over the elders of a congregation or sets a chain of partners over every member. Mike Taliaferro made this point against the ICC in 2008: that the apostles "refrained" from appointing one over the world church.

Making a disciple before baptism, and rebaptism

Baptism only after a person has taken the step of "embracing discipleship." Those baptized elsewhere were rebaptized.

The ICOC's order of conversion puts "embracing discipleship" before immersion. In the movement's practice that meant a person was not baptized until he had become a disciple on the movement's terms, and a person immersed before in another church could be baptized again. Carrillo, an ICOC writer, records that when Boston "reconstructed" congregations of the Churches of Christ in 1987 to 1989, many of the members "were 'rebaptized.'" In 2003 Kriete wrote that in earlier days the church had "'re-baptized' hundreds" and counted them on its stat sheets as first-time baptisms, a counting practice he said had ceased. The ICOC's present teaching, in Taliaferro's words, is that anyone "who believes the message, repents and is baptized is saved" in any century. The chart found no ICOC rule on whether converts from other churches are rebaptized today. In October 2024, 62 ICC leaders asked their own movement to drop requirements for baptism added to New Testament conversion.

Subsequent steps must include unmistakable repentance of sin, embracing discipleship, and confession that "Jesus is Lord."

Anyone, in any century or any continent, who believes the message, repents and is baptized is saved.

extensive unbiblical requirements for baptism or restoration that have been unnecessarily added to New Testament conversion

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls.

And as they went on the way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper country came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples: and he said unto them, Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed? And they said unto him, Nay, we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was given. And he said, Into what then were ye baptized? And they said, Into John’s baptism. And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him that should come after him, that is, on Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

The apostles baptized penitent believers at once. Three thousand were baptized on the day they received the word, and the eunuch said "what doth hinder me to be baptized?" and was baptized there. A test of discipleship, set on top of faith and repentance and passed on a church's own terms before the water, is a hindrance the New Testament does not place. The same sequence turned into a weapon when it was joined to the rebaptizing of people already immersed for the forgiveness of sins elsewhere. Where a person's first baptism lacked the right meaning, as with the men Paul found at Ephesus who knew only John's baptism, the apostle baptized them again. A penitent believer who was immersed for the remission of sins needs nothing further, and to tell him that he must be baptized again into a movement is to bind what the Lord did not. The ICOC is right to have given up the teaching that only its own baptisms count. Its statement still lists "embracing discipleship" as a step before the water, and the ICC leaders' own letter confirms that such extra requirements were added.

Harrington, a Christian Church minister who has met with ICOC leaders, lists among the ICOC's weaknesses "Advocating that only disciples could be baptized, based on a faulty exegesis of Matthew 28:18-20." The text says "make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them" and does not set a test of discipleship before the water. Making disciples is done by baptizing and teaching, and the same verse says so. The strongest text for such a test is Luke 14:25-33, where Jesus tells the crowds to count the cost. That is a call to every hearer to weigh the cost before he follows, and it is answered by the hearer, not by a church's judgment of his readiness. The eunuch counted the cost on the road and asked for the water there.

"The one true church" claim

For years the movement taught that it alone was the true church. Its leaders have repented of it.

The World Religions and Spirituality Project records that McKean and the ICOC claimed to be "God's true and only modern movement." The Christian Research Journal said in 2003 that the teaching was that only its members are true Christians. The ICOC's leaders have since repudiated it. The Los Angeles elders wrote in 2003 that their teaching of the one true church "has come across as exclusive and arrogant." Kriete wrote: "We are the church, but we cannot say the ICOC is the One True Church." Taliaferro said in 2012: "We in the ICOC do not believe ourselves to be 'the one true church,'" The ICOC's own page says that "anyone, anywhere" who follows God's plan is saved. Critics doubt that the teaching has wholly faded. In 2003 Kriete himself wrote that many in the ranks held it "as a matter of life and death." The chart found no ICC primary text that makes the claim.

our teaching of the one true church has come across as exclusive and arrogant.

To summarize: We are the church, but we cannot say the ICOC is the One True Church.

We in the ICOC do not believe ourselves to be ‘the one true church,’

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

Now this I mean, that each one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized into the name of Paul?

There is one body, and Scripture says so (Ephesians 4:4-6). It does not say that the one body is a fellowship of congregations with a particular leader, plan or name, or that it ends at the list of one movement's members. Paul rebuked Corinth for saying "I am of Paul" and asked "Is Christ divided?" A movement that lines up behind a man and a method, and tells others they have no part in Christ, repeats that sin. The ICOC's public repentance of this teaching is a rare thing and is credited. Where the claim lingers in the ranks, as Kriete said it did, it is the same sin.

The Los Angeles letter says the teaching should be changed to the "one way to salvation" as taught in the Bible, "and let God determine who is in his one universal church." That is the right distinction: one way of salvation, with the Lord alone knowing every member of his body. Kriete's statement of it, that the church's boundaries "can never be, will never be known," is sound.

The ICC's central leader and evangelist rule

A World Missions Evangelist over World Sector Leaders over every congregation, argued from the first century.

The International Christian Church holds as a core conviction "A Central Leadership With A Central Leader." Its argument: God's people were unified under Moses, Joshua and David; "Local congregations had an overseeing evangelist"; and by the Jerusalem Council the leadership "had passed to Jesus’ oldest half-brother James," whose "judgment" was then "bound on all the churches." McKean held the office until April 2024, and Raul Moreno took it. In October 2024, 62 senior ICC leaders wrote that the direction of the movement under its central leadership "has fatally strayed from Scripture," and asked for a "total overhaul of our leadership hierarchy." ICOC writers reject the model.

A Central Leadership With A Central Leader

our central leadership group must return to the Bible as the final governing authority rather than relying on its consensus

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge;

Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:

The apostles held an office the Lord gave them, and it ended with them. After them the pattern is elders appointed "in every church" (Acts 14:23), told to "Tend the flock of God which is among you" (1 Peter 5:1-3). Titus was left in Crete to appoint elders, and the elders then oversaw their own churches. Nothing in the book shows an evangelist who rules a set of churches by right of office, and no later man takes James's or Peter's place. At the Jerusalem Council the decision was made by "the apostles and the elders, with the whole church," and the letter went out in their names. The ICC's rule rests on the Old Testament and on one reading of Acts 15. The ICC's own senior leaders, by their 2024 letter, now say the hierarchy has failed the Bible.

Taliaferro's 2008 answer to the ICC is fairer to the text. He allowed that an older congregation may help a young church, as Titus did in Crete, and wrote: "The time for authority, however, has long passed."

The plumb line is the New Testament: what the apostles commanded, and what the churches practiced with their approval. Each position above is set against it. The ICOC and the ICC share a root, and the wall shows the ICOC, the body most of this chart describes. Where the ICOC stands nearer the pattern than others, it is credited plainly. Where it binds what the apostles did not bind, or has done so within living memory, that is said at full strength too. The ICC is named where its answer differs, and it stands farther out on leadership.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for the one against the other.

The ICOC holds that the Bible is "inspired and infallible" and writes no creed beside it. That is where the apostles stand. One of its evangelists also says that what the New Testament does not forbid is open to use, which is wider than the pattern the apostles gave: a general command leaves the means to judgment, but a specific one, such as the command to sing, excludes other kinds. In practice, for years the teaching of the movement's leaders stood above the text, as Kriete's letter and the Los Angeles apology admit. The score stays at the lineage mean because the ICOC has repented of that, but the ICC, which adds the Old Testament and a central leader, stands farther out.

The ICC's first conviction is that it is "a Bible church" and that the Old Testament applies to us except the Mosaic law. Paul writes that Christ blotted out the bond "written in ordinances" (Colossians 2:14), and the teaching that the Old Testament pattern of a central leader binds the church today goes beyond what is written.

And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name.

Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

The ICOC teaches the immersion of a penitent believer for the forgiveness of sins, and that is the apostles' teaching in Acts 2:38 and 22:16. It baptizes penitent believers only, by immersion, for the remission of sins, and it does not offer a sinner's prayer or faith alone. Who is baptized, how, and for what: on all three it stands on the line, nearer the apostles than most of the bodies in this series, and that is credited plainly. What the ICOC set in front of the water is a different fault. The test of "embracing discipleship," passed on the movement's own terms, and the rebaptizing of those already immersed for remission elsewhere are terms of entry and bound teaching, not a change in the meaning of baptism. They are weighed at full strength under "Making a disciple before baptism, and rebaptism" below.

A fair word for the ICOC: Acts 19 shows that baptism with the wrong meaning was done again. A person who was sprinkled as a baby, or who was immersed because he was already saved, has not obeyed Acts 2:38, and the ICOC is on solid ground to say so. The wrong lies in making a church's own terms of discipleship the test, and in treating the baptism of penitent believers in other churches as void.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

The first Christians gathered on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 20:7), and the ICOC does the same each Sunday, with the bread and the fruit of the vine and no priest or sacrifice. This is the example the apostles gave. It is credited at full strength and sits on the line.

The ICOC's statement calls the Supper "a weekly sharing in the presence of Christ." The wording is general. It is not a claim that Christ is bodily in the elements, and nothing in the sources found says it is.

The pattern is elders in every church, each overseeing its own flock and no one lording it. The ICOC now says that decisions belong to the congregation and that no one has an overall legal entity above it, which is nearer the pattern than the hierarchy it kept from 1979 to 2003. It stays out from the line for two reasons. The regional families, their chairs, the Catalyst Team and the delegates who vote at an annual meeting are a body of real weight above the congregation, and in Acts each church answered to its own elders (Acts 20:28). And the offices of the old order did not all go: Taliaferro, himself a "lead evangelist," wrote that men still "carry out similar responsibilities" to the old sector leaders without the title, which is oversight of churches by men who are not their elders. The ICC, with a World Missions Evangelist over every church, stands farther out.

The fall of the hierarchy in 2003 is one of the most instructive stories in this series. A body that had built the very structure it set out to reject took it down from the inside in a year, on the strength of a letter from one of its evangelists. Few churches have done so. The ICC's history shows how easily it is rebuilt: McKean was put out and began it again within three years.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

The apostles commanded singing: "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19). The whole congregation sings, and where an ICOC church keeps the song unaccompanied it stands on the line, and that is credited. But its own writers say that most of its congregations add instruments, and have done so since the Boston years. The apostles named the instrument, and it is the heart; no New Testament text shows a church using another in its worship. Lamb says the ICOC has no "concept of instrumental or non-instrumental," but the pattern has one: what the apostles commanded was singing. It stands a step off the line, where the instrumental Christian Churches stand. The ICC pages say nothing about instruments.

The ICOC's Roger Lamb says the churches "focus on what will exalt God." That is the right aim, and it is the same aim that the Colossians text gives: "singing with grace in your hearts unto God." The instrument is not required for that, and the early church did not use one.

But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,

Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.

The Spirit is given to the one who is baptized (Acts 2:38) and lives in him (Romans 8:9), and the ICOC teaches that. The miraculous gifts came through the apostles' hands and ceased with them. The ICOC's statement and pages do not teach that tongues, prophecy or healing continue, and the chart found no statement either way, so nothing in its published material asks to be set against the text. The placement is near the line for that reason. A weakness the chart cannot settle is the one Harrington names, that the ICOC did not treat the indwelling Spirit as the mark of a Christian. The chart found no ICOC text on that point and reports his view as his.

This score is authored and rests on silence. If an ICOC statement is found that teaches the gifts continue, the placement should move out.

The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

The ICOC says that the redeemed must remain faithful to the end and that God is the judge, and these are the apostles' teaching. The chart found no ICOC or ICC text on the return of Christ, the resurrection or the judgment, so it credits what the Statement says and does not fill the gap from memory. The score is authored and stands near the line. The failure here was the claim that only the movement's own members were saved, which the ICOC has repented of.

Harrington lists "the eternal stakes of fulfilling or not fulfilling the Great Commission" among the strengths. The stakes are real. The failing was to name a movement as the line between the saved and the lost.

The ICOC holds much that Scripture also teaches. It teaches the immersion of penitent believers for the forgiveness of sins, and it does not teach faith alone. It keeps the Supper every first day of the week. The whole congregation sings, and some of its churches still sing without instruments. It puts the Bible above any creed. It has taken down the hierarchy it built, and its leaders have repented in public of arrogance, of numbers used as a whip and of the claim that they alone were saved. It has worked for racial unity in a divided world, and it sends disciples to every country.

Measured by the New Testament, the ICOC stands near the pattern on baptism and the Supper, and it has done what few bodies have done: it took down a hierarchy it had built. It stands short in four places: a test of discipleship placed before the water, the rebaptizing of those already immersed, a regional layer of leaders above the congregation, and instruments in the majority of its assemblies. In its history from 1979 to 2003 a method of discipling became a chain of command, and the chain stood where 1 Peter 5:3 forbids lording it over the charge.

What the ICOC did in 2003 is what the apostles asked of every church that has lost its way: it repented in the open. The International Christian Church did the opposite. It rebuilt the structure under the same man within three years and called it commanded. In 2024, 62 of its senior leaders wrote that its central leadership had fatally strayed from Scripture. These are the faults of a people who took the Great Commission seriously and then trusted their method more than the Book. The remedy is the plain one. Teach the penitent, baptize him, give him to the elders of his own congregation, and bind nothing the apostles did not bind.

The lawsuits filed from December 2022 allege that leaders concealed the sexual abuse of minors and pressed members to give. These are the claims of the plaintiffs, as The Christian Chronicle and MinistryWatch reported them. The Chronicle said emails seeking comment from the ICOC were not returned. MinistryWatch reports that the federal suit was voluntarily dismissed in July 2023, that similar suits were filed in a Los Angeles state court, and that the ICOC's answer denied responsibility for the harm alleged. No court finding is cited here. Kriete's letter, written by an ICOC evangelist in 2003, spoke of "abuse, coercion and legalism," and the Los Angeles apology said numbers had made some "boastful, proud, manipulative, abusive and deceitful." Those are the movement's own words about its past, not a verdict on anyone named in a suit.

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