ICC Churches Oppose McKean

“We the leadership of the Boston Church have grave concerns about our brother Kip McKean's actions.” -- Boston Church of Christ

September, 2005

Responding to ICC founder Kip McKean’s “calling out of the remnant” from ICC churches, leaders of several ICC churches have issued letters stating opposition to McKean’s recent actions and threatening McKean with removal of fellowship. This marked the first time that multiple ICC churches have publicly opposed McKean, apparently setting the stage for a split within the movement.

The leader of the Portland (Oregon) Church of Christ since 2003, McKean had declared in August at his World Missions Jubilee that “the Portland leadership believes it is time for a progressive ‘calling-out of the remnant of disciples’ from dying, former ICOC Churches.” He also wrote that “the vision of the Portland Church Leadership is the evangelization of all nations in the 21st Century” – presumably, this vision includes McKean leading the way.

Kip McKean's controversial article "The Portland Story"

Boston, Seattle and Phoenix were among the first and most notable of ICC congregations to respond. (McKean had led the Boston church from 1979 thru the late 1980s and had overseen all ICC churches including Seattle & Phoenix as World Missions Evangelist until 2001.)

On August 28, the Boston church wrote that “Kip's actions are divisive and arrogant and must be opposed.” In particular, the Boston letter noted that Portland appeared to be setting itself up to recruit members away from existing ICC churches (presumably by planting another church in those cities), if those ICC church aren’t willing to follow Portland’s leadership.

The Seattle letter similarly warned of McKean’s divisiveness, but gave more detail about his problematic behaviors. Seattle objected to McKean’s “disparaging” other movement churches in his writings and preaching, and McKean’s making his personal opinions into doctrines that must be followed (passing judgment on Disputable Matters). Seattle added that “while Kip has often apologized for the feelings caused by the kinds of grievances cited above, he has never printed a retraction on his columns, nor changed his disparaging ways of communicating. In fact, his writings have become even more reckless in the past few months.”

Citing “a growing threat among us,” Phoenix agreed with Boston & Seattle about the present, and also found fault with some of McKean’s past methods. Phoenix wrote that it found itself trying to recover from “faulty building principles”, adding that in retrospect it was “abundantly clear that the building of the past 20+ years under Kip's leadership was clearly faulty.” Phoenix also disagreed with McKean’s “performance oriented” approach because of its poor long-term results.

What Does it Mean?

This kind of widespread disagreement with Kip McKean has never happened publicly before, even during McKean’s curious sabbatical from leadership and subsequent “resignation” (ICC leaders now say that he was asked to step down). So what can we now expect?

First, these letters shouldn’t be read as a sign that these ICC churches have reformed or will now reform from all past ICC abuses. If these churches wanted to fully separate from the past and seek reform, they wouldn’t have had to wait for McKean to write any article. With the exception of the Phoenix one, these letters seem to invoke short-term memory, by only criticizing McKean’s mistakes during two years in Portland, rather than the foundational system he had created during his two decades as the ICC’s leader. The Seattle leadership, for example, apparently hasn’t even come to grips with the Henry Kriete letter that rocked the ICC, simply calling the letter “unfortunate and unfortunately exploited.” Since when is the truth unfortunate?

That being said, perhaps separation from McKean can help some ICC churches to more fully understand and denounce his legacy, including its flawed biblical, ethical and psychological machinery. To paraphrase a post from an ICC discussion board: The ICC has denounced McKean. Will it now denounce McKeanism?

Sources:

Boston Church of Christ Elders, "Boston Elders Address the Actions of Kip McKean" bostoncoc.org, August 28, 2005.

Ministry Staff & Deacons of the Seattle Church of Christ, "Response to "The Portland Story" - A Letter to the Seattle Church" seattleicoc.org, circa September 2, 2005.

Phoenix Valley Church of Christ Elders and Ministry Staff , "Response to Kip McKean and 'The Portland Story,'" phoenixvalleychurch.org, September 4, 2005.

Kip McKean, "The Portland Story," portlandchurch.org, August 21, 2005.

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