The Churches Of Christ: A Comparative Essay :: essays research papers

The Churches of Christ A Comparative EssayOver the past ten years there has been a lot controversy in the Christian andsecular media about the International Churches of Christ (ICC), and the united(or mainline) Church of Christ (CoC). This controversy has stemmed from theICCs misuse of funds, doctrinal problems, fragment abuse, and mind-control. Thedifferences between the CoC and the ICC are important for Christians know andunderstand.The CoC began in 1957 when these four groups merged The Congregational Churches,The Christian Church, The Evangelical Synod of North America, and The ReformedChurch in the United States. These churches had firm Protestant roots inEngland, Germany, Sweden, and the United States, totaling over 49 years in theirown traditions and fellowship. On June 25, of 1957, the four churches held asynod meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, to commit more fully to unity, liberty,freedom in Christ, and the evangelism of the world. These groups, under thehead of the Uniting G eneral Synod, became the United Churches of Christ. Todaythe CoC has over two thousand registered churches in the world.By 1979, the roots of the CoC were firmly in place. It was then that ChuckLucas, a pastor at the Gainesville Church of Christ (mainline), met a youngcollege student, log Zs McKean, and began discipling him. Kip was a bright studentand showed great potential for leadership in the church. However, something inthe discipling process went wrong. Kip was expel direct from the Gainesville churchlater that year for reasons dealing with spill from the CoC doctrine,manipulative attitude, unclear motivation, and controlling of others lives.Kip and his wife Elena moved to capital of Massachusetts and started a small church that grewrapidly from thirty to over three century disciples in two months. Kip (who, bythis time, proclaimed himself as "Gods man for Gods mission") then declared inhis Evangelism Proclamation speech in 1981 that disciples of his Boston churchwou ld be sent out to start sister churches in London, Chicago, New York, Toronto,Providence, Johannesburg, Paris, Stockholm, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Bombay,Cairo, and throughout the United States by the year of 1985. His success withthis goal led him to present another Evangelism Proclamation in 1990 that saidthat every city in the world with a population of over 75,000 will have a sisterchurch by the year 2000. Today the ICC is in over seventy two countries, with arecorded attendance (as of January 1997) of 920,000 people. It is important tonote that the ICCs original "fall-away (members who leave the church) rate" is