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[Note: The following speech was given at the Manhattan Church of Christ on April 5, 2003. The Manhattan church, a "mainline" church of Christ, and Right Side Up, its ministry to former members of the ICC, held a three hour open forum about the ICC that was attended by many current and former members of the movement. I was invited to give a presentation on the occasion. The following was my prepared text -- DA. ]
It’s good to be back here today, and I’m going to talk briefly about Pitfalls on the Road to Healing in today’s International Church of Christ (ICC).
It has been exciting recently to watch many churches in the movement travel down a new road, one that could lead to much change and healing. But I hope that the healing in the movement will be complete. My two main concerns are, will the healing be broad enough, and will it be deep enough?
When I say broad enough, I mean, will this revolution of freedom in Christ be felt everywhere? Not just in Manhattan but in every zone of the New York City Church of Christ? Not just in New York, but in cities like San Francisco? Not just in the US, but in the many churches around the world. Will the revolution reach every member? I hope so, but I fear it will not. I’m concerned that the new autonomy in the movement will allow some churches to reach for reform, while others may revert to old ways of doing things – reverting to habits learned too well during two decades of legalism and abuse.
When I say, will the healing be deep enough, I mean, will it be complete healing? I see three things (at least) that will be crucial for the movement to have complete healing and these are:
A deep understanding of the problem(s)
Outside help
An understanding of history
If the movement doesn’t have these three things, I fear they will become pitfalls on the road to healing. I don’t want to see the movement fall into any pit, however, it has fallen into each of these before.
So let me talk more about these three potential pitfalls.
“…If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Jesus, Matthew 15:14
During this time, we’ve all heard leaders in the movement using the phrase “getting it” or “not getting it.” “Getting it” has become a term for the paradigm shift (shift in thinking) needed to address the problems.
I think it will be important for leaders and members to “get it” from at least three perspectives:
In my experience working with former members, those who have understood these three perspectives have recovered the best (fastest and most completely). And although Henry Kriete didn’t use this terminology, I think his famous letter “got it” from all three angles. He talked about the movement’s unbiblical practices (that’s theological). He talked about things going on that are just plain wrong (that’s ethical). And he talked about what he called the movement’s “Cult of Personality” (its psychological dynamic).
Many of the movement’s problems can be looked at from all three of these perspectives. Let’s take, for example, the teaching “God is in control”, which I wrote about recently on RightCyberUp.
Now, after years of this, it has become very obvious that, although God was and is sovereign, he was not “in control” of the movement and its leadership. God was sovereign, but the leaders were in control.
“Plans fail from lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Proverbs 15:22
For many years, the movement taught a form of discipling that was unbiblical. However, one of the thoughts behind discipling was a sound one: the idea that others outside of us can sometimes see us more clearly than we can see ourselves.
While this idea was used in discipling relationships, the movement as a whole didn’t seek outside accountability. (All those outside the movement were “lost” and “deceived”, so why ask for their help?) This has been short-sighted, and now at this crucial time, it will be a pitfall if the movement continues to be insular and does not seek outside counsel.
But from whom should the movement get help?
Pitfall #3: Failure to Learn from History
“Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” -- unknown
The International Churches of Christ is in a better position now to learn from its own errors than ever before. The many church apologies are a great first step. But it also needs to know where it came from, and to learn from the mistakes of its ancestors, and others.
As tempting as it may be for people in the movement to believe that Kip McKean built the church on some of the biggest strengths of the Churches of Christ and avoided all its weaknesses, it was also built on some of the biggest historical weaknesses. Traits like elitism, legalism, and a sense of “historylessness” described so well by a paper on the REVEAL website written by Russell Paden.
Not surprisingly, the ICC ended up falling into some of the same pits. I would hope that in the future, mainline Churches of Christ and ICC churches would not reinforce any of the legalistic traits from their common past. In fact, you might find that mainline churches have already changed and grown themselves in the fifteen years since their division from the ICC.
[Note added later: If the ICC seeks fellowship with no one except the Churches of Christ, it will be a sign the movement has not have repented fully of the “one true church” teaching, and gotten past it.]
It’s also important to know the history of discipling or “shepherding” techniques, since the movement is now deciding in some locations what to do about them. I hear that many zones in New York have discontinued discipling partners, and that’s an important step. If you look at the history of other groups, I think you’ll find that any discipling that is either mandatory, assigned, or one-over-one has historically ended in abuse. (The discipling practiced by the ICC was all three.) Many of you know that the Crossroads movement preceded the Boston Movement and baptized many of its leaders. Crossroads even had voluntary “prayer partners” that members could pick and choose. And if you look at that history, you’ll see that Crossroads still had almost identical abuses to those of the ICC. So it’s important to learn from this history, too.
In closing, I hope the International Chuches of Christ becomes a group that achieves broad, deep reform and allows its members to heal and enjoy their freedom in Christ.
I hope the pitfalls I’ve mentioned can be avoided. The opportunity is tremendous, the stakes are high. May God be with you always. Thank you.
Copyright © 2003 Dave Anderson. All rights reserved.
