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Recruiting is the ultimate thrust of the International Churches of Christ (ICC) organization; practically every part of ICC revolves around bringing in more members. In this section, we will examine unethical methods the ICC uses to recruit and retain its members.
[Note: If some readers object to the term “recruiting,” click here for more about terminology.]
“The ends justify the means” is the central ethic of ICC recruiting. Since bringing new people into the organization is the ideal “end,” pursuing this end leads to some very suspect “means,” including the misuse of influence and friendships.
ICC leadership views influence as a recruiting tool:
“…we rub shoulders with our multitudes in the world daily and must figure out ways to influence as many as possible in order to get them into a relationship with God.”
Gordon Ferguson (Kingdom Teacher), Discipling: God’s Plan to Train and Transform His People, DPI, Woburn, M, 1997, p. 26.
From the time of a recruit's initial contact with the ICC, friendship – or the expectation of friendship – will be used to create openings for recruitment:
“…we’ve got to just try, and I believe that a major part of that is just starting conversations. Getting in and talking to people. ‘Nice sweater,’ ‘nice shoes,’ ‘pretty day outside,’ ‘terrible day,’ ‘don’t you hate the weather?’ I mean, I don’t care what it is. …we need to just relate to people, and talk about whatever there is, and work the conversation around to spiritual things. Work it around to talking about, maybe what your hobbies are, what you do on Tuesday nights, and ‘Well, I go to Bible study,’ or you know, ‘I’ve got a friend involved in that [hobby] and she goes to the same Bible study group that I go to…’”
Lisa Johnson (World Sector Leader - Women), By All Possible Means, 1985 Women’s Inspiration Day, Crossroads Tape Ministry, Gainesville, FL, audiotape.
Friendship in the ICC becomes a lever to get people to join the group. Friendship influences prospective members’ decisions, as the ICC recruiting handbook Shining Like Stars says in a section on “reaching out” to foreigners:
“It is amazing to think that within a few weeks or months after meeting someone, you will challenge him from Scripture to give up smoking, drinking or immorality, or to change his job, schedule or travel plans. You will challenge him to leave behind his family's religious beliefs, no matter how devoutly or sincerely held. These are hard decisions for anyone to make. . . We need to be people's best friends so that we can encourage and persuade them to make these kinds of decisions and so that they feel loved and supported in them.”
Douglas Jacoby (Kingdom Teacher), Shining Like Stars: The Evangelism Handbook for the New Millennium, mil. ed., DPI, Woburn, MA, 2000, pp. 63-64.
Being “best friends” to recruits typically includes regular phone calls, bonding time and invitations to social events, all geared toward getting prospects further involved in the ICC. Shining Like Stars says that having relationships with several members will help recruits "to make the right decision,” and suggests having the “whole Bible discussion group reaching out to each of the visitors, especially those who are progressing well.”(2) Prospective members may find themselves with many new ICC “best friends.” But when prospective converts choose not to become members, these “friendships” are often discontinued – evidence that the relationships lost their usefulness the moment prospects decided not to join.
Manipulation of friendships also helps the ICC’s retention, as mandating friendships with ICC members – and curtailing friendships with non-members – helps to keep new members faithful to the organization. Once members join, they are told that their “best friends should be in the kingdom,”(3) and that their assigned discipling partner should be their closest relationship:
“But I’m here to tell you, that we have to call the Christians [ICC members] – and you remind them in the study the week before – to set their mind, and set their emotions, to make Christians their best friends… And so when you’re studying the Bible with someone, the discipler needs to say to the young Christian, ‘I want to be your best friend, but I’ve got to have you wanting to be my best friend.’ That’s got to be the kind of relationship we have – I mean, that’s how you influence people’s lives. Can you honestly say to the person discipling you, that you’re my best friend?”
Kip McKean (ICC founder), Follow-Up Study 3: Best Friends for All Time, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape #10078, recorded circa 1989.
When the organization later reassigns discipling partners, members will typically switch “best friends.”
When friendship becomes a means to an end, it is not true friendship. While the ICC claims to practice “unconditional love,” ICC friendship depends on a person joining and staying in the ICC.
ICC recruiting often violates the ICC’s own standard of deceit. The following ICC definition comes from a study for teens.
“How would you define ‘deceit?’
- a.) shading the truth
- b.) not telling the whole truth, usually to make yourself or a situation look better
- c.) not saying what you are really thinking, not being open…”
Phil & Kris Arsenault (Evangelist, Womens Ministry Leader), “Honesty,” Character Studies for Young Teens, Leaders’ Resource Handbook, Volume One, DPI, Woburn, MA, 1998, p. 48.
Presumably, the conditions for deceit would be the same for ICC teens, ICC adults, or ICC leaders: deceit is deceit. If “shading the truth” is wrong for teens, it is also wrong for adults. If “not telling the whole truth…to make a situation look better” is wrong for ICC teens, then it is also wrong for ICC members trying to recruit.
ICC founder Kip McKean gave a similar definition of lying for new converts:
“See, lying can take many, many forms. I think one of the things that is very important is to be totally open. You know, telling a half-truth is lying – see a lot of times we don’t think it is. We may say everything that is truthful and rationalize that we’ve been truthful, but in fact we’ve been deceitful.”
Kip McKean, First Principles: Follow-Up Study #2: Christ is Your Life, DPI, Tape # 10077, recorded circa 1989.
These ICC definitions are revealing as we consider whether ICC leadership encourages deceit in recruiting. We will discover that the organization has ignored its own definition of deceit.
One ICC recruitment vehicle is the Bible Talk, a small weekly group meeting – typically in members’ homes – to which visitors are invited. Visitors will probably not realize, however, the degree to which the Bible Talk is focused on them. Bible Talks, by design, are orchestrated to assist the recruitment of visitors. ICC articles outline how members are to participate in the meetings:
“What do the Christians [ICC members] do during the Bible study?
- A. They need to affirm the Bible study message from their personal lives – visitors can relate to the Bible having such practical applications…
- B. Comments should be on the topic and supportive…
- E. You’re not there just to learn, but to accentuate the message.
- F. Do not condemn your old denomination or denominations as a whole.
- G. Do not ‘aim’ your comments at your visitors.
- H. Do not say anything that is ‘off the wall’ – the first thing that comes into your mind…
- L. This is not a time for Christians [ICC members] to ask questions.”
Roy Larson (Evangelist), “Dynamic Bible Talks,” The Leader’s Resource Handbook..., 1998, pp. 70-71.
Bible Talk visitors may get the false impression that they are participating equally, and that members are sharing candidly – not realizing that members “are there primarily as hosts and secondarily as students.”(4) Visitors won’t know that their Bible Talk hosts have been instructed not to “use religious jargon” like “quiet time” and “discipleship partner” or told not to “disagree with the leader in public.”(5)
Visitors also won't know if the person who invited them has told the Bible Talk leader about them in advance, “so that the leader can be acquainted with the needs of the non-Christians in planning the Bible study.”(6)
Visitors may be initially misled by the casual nature of a Bible Talk invitation: “You are invited to an informal Bible discussion group,”(7) but Bible Talks are hardly informal. A meeting where member interaction is orchestrated without visitors’ knowledge is hardly an “informal” discussion group.
The ultimate agenda of Bible Talks may remain hidden, known to ICC members but not their visitors.
When prospective recruits are first “met” by the ICC, they may have no idea what kind of organization they are meeting – or that they’re being recruited by an organization at all:
“…and then as you meet people, you can just decide how to do it…people do it a lot of different ways, and it doesn’t matter how as long as you do it…some people invite them always to church or always to Bible study right at first to figure out who’s open…Others don’t mention the church or Bible study at first…and then work through and just pray that God will help them find the open people. And, either way, I think, just to do it is what’s important…”
Lisa Johnson, By All Possible Means, 1985.
Recruits of any organization have a right to know what they are getting involved in – Rutger’s sociology professor Benjamin Zablocki says recruits of a group actually have an “inalienable right” to full disclosure about that group:
New members or prospective members of the community have a right to expect that they will be told honestly from the very first meeting the aims and procedures of the community. By the same token, members of the community who are asked to do witnessing and/or proselytizing for the community have both the right and the responsibility to present the aims and procedures honestly to all those to whom they are witnessing.(8)
No such standard exists in the ICC. From the moment ICC recruits are “met,” they may have difficulty giving their informed consent to the organization, because they’ve been hindered from knowing what’s actually going on:
Later, as recruits weigh their decision to join the ICC, they may still not have complete information about the group that they are joining:
The ICC's lack of full disclosure to recruits is like the "bait-and-switch" technique practiced by unethical salespeople: Customers are enticed to commit (“bait”), and then the proposition is changed by the salesperson (“switch”).(9) Without complete information, the ICC's recruits have no way of giving their “informed consent” to the organization they are joining.
[For information on the hidden costs of becoming an ICC member, click here to see the hypothetical ICC Membership Contract]
“Campus ministry may be described as ‘the goose that laid the golden egg.’”
Douglas Jacoby, Shining Like Stars…, 2000, p. 48.
Considering that colleges and universities are citadels of progressive thinking and tolerance, it is significant that the International Churches of Christ is banned from sanctioned activity as a student group on at least 39 college campuses according to US News & World Report.(10) The ICC cries religious persecution when disciplined by schools, claiming that students’ freedom of speech and religion are being impinged. However, the ICC’s campus wounds are largely self-inflicted – the ICC has continually broken rules governing student groups on campuses. Typical charges against ICC campus ministries include recruiting in off-limits areas like dorms and dining halls,(11) ICC leaders posing as students to recruit on campus,(12) persistence to the point of harassment,(13) and declining grades among ministry students.(14)
It might seem puzzling that campus proselytizing could generate so much controversy, until we look at the ICC's own words. Quotes to follow from the ICC evangelism handbook Shining Like Stars(15) give a glimpse into the relentless thrust of ICC campus recruiting.
In the first two weeks of the school year, just when students should be acclimating to campus life and coursework, the ICC finds its best hunting:
“During those precious few days virtually everyone is looking for new friends. There is an openness to new relationships that will soon begin to fade dramatically.”
The ICC promotes the “strategy” of moving students on campus early to get a head start on recruiting:
“Getting into the dormitories and around the campus at the earliest possible opportunity is also a good strategy. Frequently, dorms and other facilities are open several days before the first day of classes. Christians should move in early, get themselves settled in and then begin helping others, building friendships through serving.”
The ICC sees college dorms as recruiting grounds:
“…dormitories are the evangelistic paradise for Christians. They provide the best environment imaginable for seeking and saving the lost. Next to having a campus minister, having students in the dorms is the most obvious asset a campus ministry can have.”
The ICC seeks to influence Resident Advisors (RAs):
“The resident advisor, or RA, is the most immediate symbol of authority most dorm residents face. It is important that Christians develop good relationships with the RA before the Bible studies begin. Then in the event someone complains, the disciple will be seen as a friend and not as ‘that religious nut’ in Room 18.”
The ICC encourages recruitment in campus dining areas:
“Everyone likes to eat. Fortunately, in a university setting, people generally eat together with dozens and often hundreds of other people. Mealtimes are superb evangelistic opportunities… Whether eating two or three meals each day, plan to make them count. When not sitting with someone else, a disciple can seize the opportunity to go and meet a new group of people.”
The ICC sees student activities as recruiting forums:
“Clubs, student government and sports are good ways of developing friendships, but Christians must be careful not to flood their schedules with activities that may be evangelistic dead ends. . . . The challenge is to become genuinely interested in things that interest other people, while never losing sight of the fact that the activities are tools and not ends in themselves.”
Considering these ICC instructions, it's unsurprising that campuses get concerned about the ICC's urgent recruiting, or that the ICC organization gets accused of breaking proselytizing rules on campuses. Problems are not simply the result of “a few overzealous converts,” as leadership might say. Problems result inevitably from ICC leadership’s pressure on students to successfully recruit.
Facing opposition from the media, former members, parents and public institutions, the ICC must inoculate its members against criticism to keep them.
The first tactic of ICC leadership is a pre-emptive strike to warn members about the criticisms before they occur:
“Don’t you dare underestimate how doubts can come into people’s minds through persecution. People who seemed so secure – you’ve got to warn them, you’ve got to lay it out, you’ve got to let them see what’s about to happen. And even after you warn them, it’s still going to shake them a little bit.”
Kip McKean, Follow-Up Study 4: The Mission, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape # 10079, recorded circa 1989.
As part of the inoculation against criticism, members may be taught during initial studies that any criticism of the organization is “persecution.” New members are taught to expect “persecution” from all directions:
“Persecution can come from family, friends, business associates, denominational churches, the news media, the Internet. Guard your heart against Satan's attacks.”
New York City Church of Christ, The Secret Weapon Studies, acesonline.org, February 4, 1999.
Members may be told specifically that if their family tries to initiate an exit counseling intervention with them, they should leave immediately and not participate:
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“You know one of the big words right now against us is that ‘those people are a “cult” and their people need to be “deprogrammed.”’ Well, even the deprogrammers started to get a little criticism for that word, so now they've changed the name to ‘exit counselor.’ I'm here to tell you, if your family invites you, and one is there, get out. You don't discuss things with a wolf in sheep's clothing.”
Kip McKean, They Hated the Dreamer, Boston World Missions Seminar, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape # 6353, August 25, 1989. (about audio clips)
The ICC has specifically warned members to steer clear of critical information on the Internet:
“Even ‘spiritual pornography’ has found its way onto the information superhighway. Instead of building lives for God, enemies of the church and disgruntled former members are uniting to attack the Kingdom and destroy people's faith. They present their ‘facts’ and their ‘stories’ in such a way as to picture the church as an abusive, authoritative, greedy and evil cult. Of course, the danger in reading such material is that only one side is presented in personal stories of hurt, and no way exists to ever learn the other side.”
Al Baird (World Sector Leader), You’ve Got Mail, kingdomnewsnet.org, May 25, 1999.
ICC leaders may also prohibit viewing books or materials critical of the ICC, even asking members to destroy or discard them:
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“You know, there is a proliferation – literally, throughout the world – of not only anti-cult material – little packets, but booklets, books, videos. Preston Shepherd calls this stuff ‘spiritual pornography’…. Some people say, ‘Well, hold it. If you're strong enough – if there isn't anything wrong in this stuff, then why shouldn't I read these anti-Boston materials?’ Well, let me ask you this: you've been a Christian for a while, and prayerfully you're strong in the Lord. Why can't you just open a Playboy and just see how it goes? Let me tell you something – I've been a Christian for 17 years, I don't dare get close to one. And you shouldn't get close to that spiritual pornography, the thing that's driving you there is curiosity, that is Satan – get it out of the house.”
Kip McKean, They Hated the Dreamer, August 25, 1989. (about audio clips)
ICC leadership's use of the term “spiritual pornography” puts it in poor religious company. Cult leader David Koresh reportedly used exact same term for “any attempt by families to expose wrong doings” -- before the many tragic deaths involving his Branch Dividian group in Waco, Texas.(16)
[For more thoughts about the ICC's "spiritual pornography" teachings, click here]
ICC leadership says its members are free to leave, even though its words and actions show otherwise:
“…if you decide to leave, you are absolutely free to go at any time.”
San Antonio Church of Christ Jesus, “The Church,” First Principles, no date.
Even while the organization says that its "doors are open," it erects doctrinal obstacles which prevent members from leaving. One such obstacle is an interpretation of “unity” that denies leaving the ICC as a valid choice:
“God calls his disciples to be united – even in the midst of difficulties. There is never an option given – it's interesting thing how the Lord works in his people – there is never an option given to leave. There just isn't. Even in a situation like this [regarding former Chicago elder Isaiah Pickett], where there are issues that had to be worked out, it was – leaving was never an option. Not being united with one another was never an option. Working things out is never, and never will be an option in the Lord's church.”
John Mannel (Elder), Chicago Midweek Service, North Shore Region, audiotape, October 6, 1999.
Another ICC obstacle is leadership's teaching that members must stay connected to the ICC – which they claim is the “body of Christ” – in order to stay connected to Jesus:
“The church is the body of Jesus. We cannot have a relationship with Jesus and not have a relationship with his body, the church.”
New York City Church of Christ, The Secret Weapon Studies, 1999.
As discussed elsewhere, the ICC teaches that leaving the ICC means leaving God and going to hell. Members who want to leave can be caught in a bind: they might be physically free to leave the group, but not doctrinally or intellectually free.
Members might not realize how difficult it is to leave the organization until they actually try to. In an article called “Working with the Fallaway,” ICC elder and evangelist Wyndham Shaw shows how to explain the consequences of leaving to a departing ICC member:
“III. Talk about the consequences of falling away [leaving the ICC].
- A. Lostness – too many leave without understanding that they are lost.
1. Do they have the right conviction?
2. What have we done to deepen their convictions on this point?
- B. Personal degeneration – into the pits
1. 2 Peter 2:20-22
2. Divorce, adultery, removal from their own children, etc. may result.
3. People have to be told what is going to happen to them [after leaving], and even though they don’t agree to start with, they may well remember it all later
C. Body impact [on the ICC] – 1 Corinthians 12
- 1. There are going to be casualties, to be sure, but it will not happen without pain inflicted on the church.
- 2. Talk with disciples [ICC members] most affected about how to view the situation…”
Wyndam Shaw (Elder/Evangelist), “Working With the Fallaway,” Leader’s Resource Handbook..., 1998, p. 101.
Shaw’s troubling outline shows why many members aren’t emotionally free to leave: if leaders teach members that leaving will cause them to 1. go to hell, 2. ruin their earthly life and, 3. hurt the people they leave behind in the organization, then this will profoundly impact their ability to make free choices about leaving.
The organization and founder Kip McKean depict leaving as the worst thing that could ever happen to a person.
“And very often, when you drift away from the Lord, you get deceived by Satan. And so a lot of our fallaways think they’re okay with God – not really, I mean their consciences and their lives start going down the drain. A lot of them are so miserable, because like the Bible says, their lives have become even more miserable since they’re left the Lord.”
Kip McKean, Singapore sermon, RealMedia file, February 24, 1999.
In spite of it all, ICC leadership continues to spread the myth that members are “free to leave.” In some cases, members who seek fundamental changes in the organization may actually be asked to leave:
“I said in Chicago time and time again, if you don’t like the Chicago Church of Christ, then leave… Kip [McKean] just says ‘If you don’t like the Los Angeles Church of Christ, leave!’ And I say ‘Amen.’”
Marty Fuqua (World Sector Leader), The Cutting Edge, World Missions Leadership Conference, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape # 7777, 1992.
When leadership offers members this "choice" to leave if they don't like the way the ICC operates, it hardly gives them a free choice, considering leadership’s warnings about the dire eternal consequences of leaving. It’s like a reckless driver at 90 miles per hour saying to a frightened passenger, “If you don’t like the way I’m driving, then you can just jump out of the car.”
In reality, the ICC's "free to leave" policy is bait-and-switch manipulation: members are "free to leave" until they actually try to, then the proposition is suddenly changed.
We have seen that the ICC organization uses hidden agendas, manipulated friendships and even deception to acquire its members. We have also seen that ICC leadership creates obstacles to prevent members from leaving the organization or even hearing criticism of it. Therefore, it appears that many ICC members are caught in a spiritual trap as described in the book The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse:
Several elements need to be present…for any trap to work, including the trap of a spiritually abusive system. First, a good trap makes it easy for the prey to get in, but hard to get out. If it didn’t have this quality, it would not be a trap (this is why fish hooks have barbs, for instance). Second, there needs to be attractive bait. Really good bait will occupy the attention of the prey so thoroughly that the danger will go unnoticed. Third, once in the trap, the more the prey struggles, the more tired and trapped it becomes.(17)
In the ICC spiritual trap, the Bible studies, friendships, idealism, and the affection and approval of group members serve as the “bait.” Upon joining the organization, many members go through a “honeymoon period” of satisfaction as the group meets all their social and spiritual needs.
Once this euphoria fades away, members may realize that the “hook” is barbed in the ICC, just like a fishhook. Leaving the organization may have looked easy before joining, but not after years of membership. When trying to leave, members may experience the ICC’s barbed hook in many ways, like being called a “dog returning to its vomit” for leaving the group, being followed home from work or class and demanded to give reasons for leaving, or being cornered into rebuking sessions in which their reasons for leaving are examined and discredited.
An organization that entraps its members does so because it could not otherwise attract and retain them. Entrapment robs recruits of their free will to join and stay in the ICC.
(1) Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Company, 1981.
(2) Douglas Jacoby (Kingdom Teacher), Shining Like Stars: The Evangelism Handbook for the New Millennium, mil. ed., Woburn, MA: DPI, 2000, p. 33.
(3) New York City Church of Christ, The Secret Weapon Studies, acesonline.org, February 4, 1999.
(4) Jacoby, Shining Like Stars…, p. 260.
(5) Ibid., pp. 260, 261.
(6) Roy Larson (Evangelist), “Dynamic Bible Talks,” The Leader’s Resource Handbook, Volume One, DPI, Woburn, MA, 1998, p. 70.
(7) Frank & Erica Kim (World Sector Leaders), How to Share Your Faith, DPI, Woburn, MA, 1998, p. 23.
(8) Benjamin Zablocki, “Proposing a ‘Bill of Inalienable Rights’ for Intentional Communities,” Communities, Number 88.
(9) In many ways, the ICC's recruitment studies can be viewed as a bait-and-switch. Prospective converts agree to the conclusions of one study, not knowing what the consequences will be in the following study (see The ICC Bible Studies: A Critical Analysis). For example, students in the studies will be convinced to "make the Bible their standard," not realizing that the Bible will be typically substituted with the ICC's interpretation of it.
(10) Carolyn Kleiner, “A push becomes a shove: Colleges get uneasy about proselytizing,” U.S. News & World Report, March 13, 2000, p. 49.
(11) Karen D. Brown, “Christian group's tactics spur probe at University of Massachusetts,” The Boston Globe, April 4, 1999.
(12) Rose Garr, “Concerns surfacing about new religious organization recruiting on campus,” The Tulane Hullabaloo, April 24 1998.
(13) Stephen Huba, “Ruling: church group 'harassed' students,” The Cincinnati Post, December 9, 1998.
(14) Beth Pratt, “Church stirs concerns on Tech campus: Critics claim movement employs tactics of cult,” Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, February 21, 1999.
(15) Jacoby, Shining Like Stars…, pp. 48-50.
(16) “Shrouded In Secrecy,” Women & Home Magazine, London, April 1995.
(17) David Johnson & Jeff VanVonderen, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1991, p. 183-184.
Copyright © 2001 Dave Anderson. All rights reserved.
