- click here to hear this quote in
RightCyberUp HOME search comment
“I’m not going to lie if there’s any other way to do it.”
-- Al Baird; see full quote
It has been said that any group claiming to be the true church should start by telling the truth. The International Churches of Christ (ICC) has a history of contradictory statements and apparent deception from top leaders. This section takes a closer look.
Officially, the International Churches of Christ (ICC) has denounced lying, saying in a study for teens, “Satan is behind every lie.” (1) However, it seems ICC leadership has granted itself license to lie, particularly to help it expand into new countries around the world, as spokesman Al Baird said in a BBC interview:
- click here to hear this quote in
Al Baird: “There are times, certainly, that the only way to get into a country, would be to get in illegally, because there are many, many places in the world that it’s against the law to preach Christ and Christianity. In those cases, the Bible would say, you have to ignore those laws.”
[Note: Baird’s claim that the Bible condones “ignoring laws” is suspect. (2) ]
BBC interviewer: “You say you mustn’t lie, but your church has lied in other situations, too.”
Al Baird: “Jesus must be preached, everywhere.”
BBC interviewer: “And you’re willing to lie to do that?”
Al Baird: “I’m not going to lie if there’s any other way to do it.” (3)
Baird’s statement implies that if there’s no other way to do it, leaders can lie.
Untruth and deception have been used in leadership’s efforts to plant churches around the world. According to the High Court of the Republic of Singapore, someone lied when planting the movement’s Singapore church in 1987:
By this time, the ICC had become a controversial group in America because of its aggressive evangelising on university campuses. The LCC [London Church of Christ] had also become controversial in England. In order to ensure a smooth passage in the application to the Registrar of Societies for registration of the church here [in Singapore], it was decided by the leadership to avoid the use of a name with the words "Church of Christ" (a la, for example, London Church of Christ). That is how a rather atypical name, Central Christian Church, was chosen. When asked by the Registrar of Societies what foreign affiliation the church had, instead of saying the London Church of Christ from which it originated, a name of a church in Huntsville Alabama, which apparently had no connection at all, was put forward. (4)
Remarks made by ICC founder Kip McKean from the pulpit illustrate that the ICC is willing to mislead (i.e. deceive) authorities in order to help establish churches overseas:
“About three weeks ago, I went back to Saigon with Alex Win from South Central…Frank Kim was supposed to go with us, but he had sent in to the authorities that he was with the church. And so they rebuked – or, ah, revoked his – probably rebuked him, I was about to rebuke him – they revoked his visa. And that shows you how tense things still are in Saigon. You put ‘church’ down on your visa, they’re not going to let you in… So just Alex and I went on in, we were a little bit leery. I said, ‘Alex, how do you think we’re going to get on in.’ He says, ‘I think we’ve got to start an English school.’ I said, ‘Well, what would happen if we just maybe could find a really great English school for our – at least a couple of our kids to teach in.’ So we looked all around, we found the best looking one we could find – which was the Marie Curie school. Alex said, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said ‘Let’s just walk in and tell them – as we would – that we’d be coming this summer and, we’d like to teach English, you and me.’” (5)
Kip McKean (World Missions Evangelist), Evangelization Proclamation, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape #8275, 1994.
McKean described the ICC’s solution for getting into Iraq, saying that an ICC leader helped a Jordanian man to secure land and establish a business in Baghdad – staffed by ICC members. (6) Unable to legally start a church, the ICC instead started a restaurant:
“In 1995 the Holy Spirit launched a mission planting into Baghdad Iraq. Now that’s challenging, amen? And the brother that led it was a brother named Sammy. And he got the idea that the way to launch the team on in there was to do it as a restaurant. There were six brothers and sisters that went. And they had to have a good job, so they all went, and they all, you know, thought they could cook. Now there’s been some reports by some of the other disciples that Sammy could not cook – I cannot confirm that. But they literally established a restaurant. In the next two years they saw 50 people baptized into Christ.”
Kip McKean, Singapore sermon, RealMedia file, February 24, 1999.
Granted, Christianity has at times gone “underground” in the past. But rarely with such a willingness to deceive. The urgency driving these kinds of audacious church plantings seems to have come from the ICC's "Six-Year Plan" of world evangelism.
ICC leadership has made inconsistent, contradictory statements about the timing of Evangelization Proclamation – the most significant document in its short history. The Proclamation, authored by Kip McKean in February 1994, spelled out the ICC’s plan to plant churches in every national by the year 2000. McKean said at the time, “All of the World Sector Leaders have signed this. Not just in pen and ink, but with their lives and with their blood.”
It all began with McKean’s call for members to sacrifice to reach this goal by the year 2000:
1994
- click here to hear this quote in
“… in the presence of God and Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead and in view of his appearing and his kingdom we give you this charge: Give to God your dreams, energies, health, finances, intellects, families, and yes, even your life, to plant churches in the remaining 111 nations by the year 2000.”
Kip McKean, Evangelization Proclamation, February 1994. (about audio clips)
The Proclamation itself was signed and dated February 4, 1994 by the ICC World Sector Leaders, with the same goal: “by the year 2000.” (7)
[Click here to see visuals (60K jpg) of the original document plus hear a
Periodic updates from ICC leadership measured the progress towards the 2000 goal:
1995
“We have 94 countries yet to reach by the year 2000.“
Al Baird (World Sector Leader),Breaking Away Editorial!, icoc.org, August 13, 1995.
1996
“In 1995, the International Churches of Christ averaged more than one new church planting each week… We have now passed the halfway mark to our goal of reaching every nation with a city of 100,000 by the year 2000.”
And the growth continues -- One new church each week, News, icoc.org, February 15, 1996.
1998
“In 1994, the ICC adopted a Six-Year Strategic Plan, which provided guidance for the planting of churches leading up to the year 2000. The priority was placed on establishing a congregation in every nation with a city of at least 100,000 people… We are well on our way to accomplishing this incredible goal by the end of next year [1999].”
American Commonwealth Region, 1998 ACR Special Missions Contribution, brochure.
This brochure said that the ICC’s “six year plan” was for the six years “leading up to” 2000, and forecasted the ICC completing its Evangelization Proclamation by the end of 1999.
1999
Around 1999, it seems senior ICC leaders began adding a year to the plan, saying that the original goal had been the end of the year 2000:
“And as you know, about five years ago, we penned the Evangelization Proclamation by faith. And the World Sector Leader brothers and sisters, we all said listen, here’s what we’re dedicated to doing. That by the end of the year 2000, we are dedicated to seeing a church – a true church of disciples – planted in every nation...”
Kip McKean, Singapore sermon, February 24, 1999.
Because of the discrepancy, some ICC members naturally became confused, and Steve Johnson described the controversy and leadership’s response in his online column:
“One brother asked for clarity on the exact terms of the goal, taking issue with whether or not we set out to plant a church in every nation with a city of at least 100,000 population by midnight December 31, 1999 or by the following New Year’s.
“…after sitting in the room discussing this issue with all the other
[World Sector Leaders] …I don’t think we ever had the same thought on the subject. But we’ve now firmly agreed that we will plan on accomplishing the goal and celebrating the victory in June of next year [2000].”
Steve Johnson (World Sector Leader), Come Hell or High Water, acesonline.org, April 1999.
Amazingly, Johnson was now saying that the World Sector Leaders hadn’t understood the exact deadline of the 2000 goal – even though McKean originally said they had signed the document “with their lives and with their blood.”
Even more remarkable was Kip McKean’s claim by late 1999 that “God will allow us to complete the six year plan five months early by July of 2000.” (8) By that time, the six year plan would be nearly six and one-half hears old.
[Note: There are prior inconsistencies. A Boston Church of Christ document from as early as 1995 listed several countries to be “planted” in 2000 (not before). (9)]
2000
Finally, after years of contradictory statements, ICC leadership in July 2000 claimed victory for completing its “six year plan” early – after taking six years and five months to do it – and had the audacity to invoke the “power of God” for its achievement:
“Friday night, July 7 in Washington D.C., Kip McKean made the historic announcement that the Nation Countdown for the International Churches of Christ is now complete. Compelled by the Spirit of God in 1994, Kip and the World Sector Leaders signed the Evangelization Proclamation challenging true disciples by faith to plant churches in every nation that had a city of at least 100,000 by the end of the year 2000. By the power of God, that goal has been reached six months early.”
Roger Lamb (Director of Media), “Historic News: Nation Countdown Complete,” kingdomnewsnet.org, July 8, 2000.
[Click here to see visuals (60K jpg) of the original document plus hear a
Whether these inconsistencies result from actual confusion among ICC leaders or intentional deceit, it is troubling that the ICC organization asked its members to sacrifice their “dreams, energies, health, finances, intellects, families” and lives for such a mutating and arbitrary goal.
In 1993 and 1994, television reporters confronted World Sector Leader Al Baird with the allegation that a Boston ICC leaders had exchanged members’ confession information in the form of a typed “sin list.” (Note: printed sin lists passed between leaders are not common in the ICC, but sharing confessions verbally is).
Baird was shown the same printed Boston sin list three times, and he contradicted himself in the three interviews. The first time he was shown the Boston sin list, Baird said such a list was wrong. In the second interview, Baird again said that he didn’t approve, and denied ever seeing such a list. But by the third interview, Baird went from opposing the list to defending it, saying that ICC leaders must know their people.
- click here to hear these quotes in
ABC 20/20, October 1993:
Interviewer: “Do you keep these confessions confidential?”
Al Baird: “I absolutely keep them confidential, and I teach that they should be kept confidential.”
Interviewer: “Then what about this ‘sin list’ that’s passed around?”
Al Baird: “I don’t know of a sin list that gets – I mean, show me a sin list that gets passed around by leaders of the church.”
Interviewer: “Okay.”
(Interviewer hands list to Al Baird)
Interviewer: “You haven’t seen this?”
Al Baird: “I’m not familiar with this. If this exists, this is totally wrong. And if I found out that someone did this, this could even be grounds for their dismissal.”
“Believe it or Else”, ABC 20/20, October 15, 1993.
CBC 5th Estate, December 1993:
Interviewer (holding list): "This is dirt on people. How they’re performing and recruiting people, what their sexual peccadilloes may have been.”
Al Baird: “I don’t know what you want me to say. I said I don’t approve of that.”
Interviewer: “Scott Deal says that this information wasn’t always written down, but that it was passed around, talked about, in order to control them.”
Al Baird: “We do not keep lists like that. I have never seen a list like that.”
“A Matter of Control”, CBC’s 5th Estate, December 1993.
Inside Edition, May 1994:
(list given to Al Baird)
Al Baird: “It wasn’t circulated. That was a list from one leader to another, and someone took the list, and gave it to you, and 20/20, and other people…”
Interviewer: “The things on this list should have never gone beyond the person he’s discipling.”
Al Baird: “That’s exactly, that’s exactly – the leader of that group. The leader of the group must know his people.”
Interviewer: “Oh, so the leader should know my sins?”
Al Baird: “No, not all of your sins. But he’s got to know the sins that you’re, ongoing basis, struggling with.”
Inside Edition, May 1994.
Baird’s contradictions in these televised interviews are startling. Baird first said confessions are confidential, but later says “the leader of the group must know his people.” Apparently Baird was saying on North American TV that the ends justify the means – helping members with sin justifies violations of confidentiality.
Ironically, years earlier Baird once co-taught a lesson with Kip McKean in which McKean said that confidentiality of confessions must be respected:
“But I’m saying that we need to get it really clear on what it means to be confidential. I would say that we err most of the time in the area of gossip. And we feel sort of comfortable to share about other brothers’ lives with other people, or other sisters’ lives with other people. Let me tell you something, we need to repent of that. I know I’ve done that in the past, and it hurt my credibility, so the brothers that I was working with, because they were scared I was going to share with all the other brothers what their problems were. I’ve had to repent. It hurts your discipling. Don’t do it, and besides that, it’s sin.”
Kip McKean, Confidentiality/Disfellowship & Falling Away, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape #3011, 1986.
In less than a decade, ICC confidentiality breaches went officially from “sin” (10) to standard practice.
“…as of tomorrow or probably later on tonight, in all likelihood, I will be fired.”
Ed Powers, Unity or Uniformity?, Indianapolis Church of Christ, audio tape transcript, February 27, 1994.
Winter 1994 marked one of the darkest episodes in ICC history: the division of one of its larger Midwestern churches. By the end of the affair, hundreds of Indianapolis Church of Christ members would be disenfranchised, their leaders disparaged, and an entire movement misled about what had happened.
It began when ICC Indianapolis evangelist Ed Powers called a Sunday night congregational meeting to present four issues that he and the Indianapolis staff wanted to change in the local church:
1.) the legislation of rules and doctrine from outside of Indianapolis
2.) teaching that only members of the International Churches of Christ are saved
3.) the practice of giving money by compulsion
4.) the use of pressure through arbitrary statistics and quotas (11)
In excerpts from his address, Powers clearly stated that his intention was for the Indianapolis church to change those things, but not to leave the ICC:
“I’m not saying, in conclusion, I am not saying that I want to leave the movement…
“I am not saying that we don’t want to be a part of them.
“…we ask you as a church tonight what direction do you want to go in the future. Keeping in mind that I am not talking about leaving the movement.”
Ed Powers, Unity or Uniformity?, February 27, 1994.
[To read Powers’ entire historic sermon online at the REVEAL Web site, click here. ]
Powers then asked the Indianapolis members to either vote “yes” to retain him and the local staff and make these changes, or “no” to not make the changes and have Powers and the staff resign. The vote was overwhelming (See Figure 1):
Figure 1: The Indianapolis Vote
Yes No abstained 596 1 6 Key:
"Yes" = make changes, retain Ed Powers and staff
"No" = no changes, Powers and staff resignSource: Unity or Uniformity? transcript, February 27, 1994.
The ICC mobilized quickly from Los Angeles and Chicago to stem the damage, immediately starting another church across town called the Indianapolis International Church of Christ, declaring that Ed Powers and the Indianapolis church had left God, and orchestrating a campaign to lure members to the new congregation.
ICC leadership even deceptively accused Ed Powers and the Indianapolis church of voting to leave the movement, with Al Baird reading the following statement aloud to the new Indianapolis congregation:
- click here to hear this quote in
“To all the disciples in the International Churches of Christ around the world.
“From Kip McKean, Al Baird, Marty Fuqua, Ron Drabot, and the Elders of the Chicago Church of Christ.
“This announcement is to inform you of the actions of Ed Powers, evangelist of the Indianapolis Church of Christ, which have resulted in part of that congregation being led astray from God’s movement.
“On Sunday night, February 27th, 1994, Ed called a meeting of the Indianapolis church in which he asked for and received a majority vote of confidence from the congregation in a move to separate itself from the International Churches of Christ. This meeting followed his having convinced the staff of the congregation to support the move. It is clear from subsequent conversations with several members, that the congregation in general did not understand the implications of the vote.”
Al Baird, Indianapolis message, audio tape, March 17, 1994. (about audio clips)
The ICC’s response was disappointing, deceptive, and dishonorable. Kip McKean addressed the new congregation on March 17, 1994, “marking” members of the old congregation and discrediting Ed Powers.
After the Indianapolis debacle, McKean summarized it as follows:
“A very sad chapter in our history was written in March of this year. Ed Powers, the lead evangelist of the Indianapolis Church of Christ, like Korah, being filled with bitterness and selfish ambition, deceived the entire congregation and caused many to lose their faith and turn away from God. Several World Sector Leaders, namely Doug Arthur, Al Baird, Marty Fuqua, Bob Gempel and I flew to Indianapolis to confront this division in the body of Christ. The victory is that 220 of 700 remained faithful to God, his church and his movement. As for those who continue to oppose us, they are lost--not because their baptism became invalid, but the Scriptures are clear that those who oppose and grumble against God's leaders and divide God's church are, in fact, opposing God (Exodus 16:8; Numbers 16). Thus, the rebellious become lost because they do not have a true faith.”
Kip McKean, "The Ultimate Challenge: Unity," Revolution Through Restoration, Part II, The Twentieth Century Church, icoc.org, 1994.
McKean and the ICC’s leadership condemned hundreds of members merely for agreeing to change four things as a congregation. For this, McKean even declared them “lost.” The ICC’s message was clear for the Indianapolis church or anyone who questions its authority: “It’s our way or the highway.”
[For a detailed chronology of the Indianapolis Church of Christ split compiled by an Indianapolis leader, click here. ]
When Kip McKean spoke to the divided Indianapolis Church of Christ in March 1994, he accused Powers of lying by saying that the Indianapolis church had grown faster than any Midwest ICC church in 1993. But in fact, Powers had based his statement on real ICC numbers (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: 1993 ICC Midwest Family Congregations
Congregation Membership Attendance Jan Dec gain Jan Nov gain Champaign 236 278 42 357 420 63 Chicago 2152 2125 -27 3391 3286 -105 Cincinnati 377 381 4 650 553 -97 Cleveland 0 29 29 0 58 58 Detroit 258 265 7 355 423 68 Indianapolis 672 734 62 914 964 50 Lousville 187 184 -3 299 295 -4 Milwaukee 322 165 -157 529 265 -264 Minneapolis 321 330 9 509 523 14 Syracuse 0 51 51 0 95 95 Totals 4525 4542 17 7004 6882 -122 Source: International Churches of Christ, 1993 Midwest Family stat sheet.
[Click here to see a visual (62K jpg) of the original stat sheet. ]
Obviously, by these numbers Indianapolis grew by more members than any other church. But shockingly, here was McKean's take on the Indianapolis numbers:
- click here to hear this quote in
“…it was stated to you that the Indianapolis church was the fastest growing church in the Midwest. I read to you the stats that Ed Powers himself had turned in. And essentially, they started with 950 in attendance of January 1993, never went over a thousand average all of 1993, and ended at 950 attendance in 1993 in December. That’s the fastest growing church? I think not.…
“But see, the twisting right here comes: you not only didn’t have a non-growing church, you had a church that was going negative in growth.…
“Jesus said you will know a prophet by its fruit. Was the Indianapolis church the fastest growing church in the Midwest? No, you were deceived… Not only were you not the fastest growing, you weren’t even growing, period.”
Kip McKean, Indianapolis message, audio tape, March 17, 1994. (about audio clips)
Judging from the available facts, McKean misled the Indianapolis church. His claim, “you weren’t even growing, period” appears false. McKean substituted attendance statistics for membership statistics, obscuring that the Indianapolis church really did grow by more members than any church in the Midwest Family, just as Powers had claimed. (12)
Astonishingly, the next year Kip McKean chastised an audience of 1,700 ICC leaders for statistical inaccuracy in their sermons:
- click here to hear this quote in
“You know, too many of us are given to exaggerations – I’m tired of that stereotype. I think far more of us are given to downplaying the bad. I put before you that as a preacher, we don’t need to try to kind of hit the target, we need to hit bulls-eye’s in our preaching. When we say an attendance, that’s what it is. When we say a membership, that’s what it is. When we say a problem, that’s what it is. I don’t want people kind of extrapolating out how good or how bad – what I’m really saying: My word needs to be truth.”
Kip McKean, Preach the Word, World Missions Leadership Conference, Johannesburg, audiotape, August 9, 1995. (about audio clips)
Truth, indeed. The apparent failure of top ICC leadership to tell the truth about Indianapolis has scary implications for the movement. Perhaps, as Al Baird once implied, the ICC will lie when there's "no other way to do it" -- even to its own members.
(1) Phil & Kris Arsenault (Evangelist, Women’s Ministry Leader), “Honesty,” Character Studies for Young Teens, Leaders’ Resource Handbook, Volume One, DPI, Woburn, MA, 1998, p. 48. (See also A Definition of Deceit).
(2) See Romans 13: 1-2, 5.
(3) Audio File.
(4) Judgement, Suits Nos. 846 to 850 of 1992, High Court of the Republic of Singapore, Judge Warren Khoo, November 7, 1997.
(5) In Kip McKean’s continuing version of the story, when this approach doesn’t satisfy the school official, McKean then reveals that starting a church is their ultimate goal.
(6) Kip McKean (ICC founder), Preach the Word, World Missions Leadership Conference, Johannesburg, audiotape, August 9, 1995.
(7) Kip McKean and World Sector Leaders, “The Evangelization Proclamation,” Upside Down, Issue 11, August 1994 (signed document dated February 4, 1994), centerfold.
(8) Kip McKean, memo to all evangelists, elders, women’s ministry leaders and churches, International Churches of Christ, File 08.01.01, October, 1999.
(9) Boston Church of Christ, "Nations Planted and to be Planted," Presentation on Church Growth, Congregational Workshop, January 6, 1995, pp. 6, 7.
(10) Kip McKean’s 1986 words on confession are somewhat of an anomaly: by that time, movement confidentiality violations were already common.
(11) Ed Powers, Unity or Uniformity?, Indianapolis Church of Christ, audio tape transcript, February 27, 1994.
(12) In an interview years later, Powers said that McKean had quoted December attendance statistics rather than the November numbers typically used by ICC leadership to estimate year-end growth accurately. Powers said the ICC used November attendance statistics because December numbers were distorted by members and especially students away during the holidays. [Ed Powers, phone conversation, December 9, 2000.]
Copyright © 2001 Dave Anderson. All rights reserved.
