ICC Announces Kip McKean Sabbatical (ICOC)

November 12, 2001 (Revised 11/13/01, 11/20/01, 1/08/02)

[Update: Kip McKean resigned from his top ICC leadership positions in November 2002. ]

Two statements released November 11 by Kip & Elena McKean and Al Baird/Bob Gempel announced that International Churches of Christ (ICC) founders Kip & Elena McKean have taken a sabbatical from day-to-day leadership to address "serious shortcomings in [their] marriage and family."

[To read the McKeans' statement and the Baird/Gempel response, click here.]

Reported family problems had previously halted the careers of other senior ICC leaders [Note: former World Sector Leaders Cory & Megan Blackwell (1) and Phil & Donna Lamb (2) also reportedly left leadership in part for unspecified "family" problems and never returned to their posts]. But a look at these statements indicates the McKeans may fare differently:

The McKeans' statement writes that it was their decision to "delegate" their leadership responsibilities to other leaders. Even in disgrace, Kip McKean sounds like a man in control.

Baird and Gempel hint of an eventual McKean return, implying that the McKeans have not lost their full status, giving the example that "when a college president takes a sabbatical, he is no longer involved in the day-to-day activities of the college; however, he still remains the college president." McKean seems to have retained his senior ICC title as World Missions Evangelist.

Although the statements give no specifics about the McKeans' marriage and family "shortcomings," the status of their children in the ICC could be an issue. The year before, Kip McKean himself had said that leaders whose children "fall away" from [leave the movement] are in sin:

"Now, let me tell you something: I am convinced, when a teen falls away, when a teen is not baptized, there are some sinful dynamics in that family, and that family, that mom and dad, need to repent. I have deep convictions about that."

Kip McKean, Known but to God, American Commonwealth Region Conference, Washington, D.C., audio tape, July 7, 2000.

Sources:

Kip & Elena McKean, "Kip & Elena McKean to Take Sabbatical," kingdomnewsnet.org, November 11, 2001.

Al Baird & Bob Gempel (World Sector Leaders), "Response to McKeans' Sabbatical Announcment," kingdomnewsnet.org, November 11, 2001.

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Notes:

(1) Al Baird, “Editorial: The Net”, LA Story, March/April 2000, p. 2.

(2) International Churches of Christ, “20 Years: 1979 - 1999”, LA Story, August 1999, p. 9.