Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 80
International Churches of Christ: Introduction
Carol Giambalvo
Director of Recovery Programs, AFF Thought Reform Consultant
Abstract
After providing historical background on the International Churches of Christ,
troubling aspects of the group‘s functioning are described, including its
pyramidal structure, totalistic influence over members, isolation of members,
and unhealthy personality changes. Although there are signs of positive
reform within the group, it remains to be seen whether such reforms will
change the abusive character of the group.
Let me start this workshop with a brief description and history of the International Churches
of Christ, formerly known as the Boston Church of Christ Movement, aka Discipling
Ministries, and formerly known as the Crossroads Church of Christ Movement. The
International Churches of Christ should not be confused with the United Church of Christ or
the mainline Church of Christ brotherhood, although the movement did grow out of that
denomination. The movement actually has its roots in the ministry of Chuck Lucas, and it
first became known as the Crossroads Movement, named after the Crossroads Church of
Christ in Gainesville, Florida. It was there, in 1967, that Lucas, while working as a campus
minister at the University of Florida, began employing what are known as shepherding, or
discipling, techniques. Following Crossroads‘ termination of Chuck Lucas in August 1985 for
―recurring sins in his life,‖ the leadership of the movement was taken over by Kip McKean,
who, while a student at the University of Florida, had been baptized in 1972 by Lucas and
trained in the discipling methodology.
In November 2001, Kip McKean and his wife, Elena, stepped down from leadership in the
movement, replaced by two leadership couples. The reason for Kip to take this ―sabbatical‖
was to ―enable the McKeans to address some serious shortcomings in their marriage and
family.‖ Rumors have it that their daughter had ―fallen away‖ from the church. One thing
the McKeans made clear was that their leaving was a sabbatical—meaning it would be
temporary.
However, on November 6, 2002, Kip McKean tendered his resignation from leadership. The
movement quickly rallied a ―Unity‖ Conference and issued a statement of Unity on
November 15th. On February 2, 2003, however, Henry Kriete, a church leader in England,
published a very critical letter describing the abuses and authoritarianism of the movement
and calling for movement-wide changes, apologies, and repentance. This letter was quickly
followed by a published apology by the movement‘s mother church, the Los Angeles Church
of Christ. This apology recognized: arrogance in its staff, weakening other churches by
calling for people and money to be sent to the LA church, encouraging contributions through
compulsion, authoritarian leadership and discipling techniques, improper teaching that they
are the one (and only) true church, measuring spirituality of members by how many people
they recruited, improper (and unbiblical) hierarchy of leadership, and abusive accountability
to church rules and attendance. While these are definitely steps in the right direction, it
remains to be seen whether such changes can take place in a movement sullied by abusive
dynamics for so many years.
Hence, we remain concerned about the International Churches of Christ movement because
the discipling techniques are well established in the hierarchy. Concerns about the
movement emanate from observations indicating that the following have reflected the
group‘s functioning to a troubling degree:

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 81
 The pyramidal structure of the movement: Kip McKean is self-appointed and not
ordained, and he claims to have an exclusive view of the scriptures.
 The nature of the group: It affects every area of the member‘s life, including where to
live and with whom, how to spend one‘s time, whom to date, whom not to date, who
one‘s friends are, personal finances, the marriage relationship, how to discipline one‘s
children ...and on and on.
 The isolation of the group: Outside relationships and influences are discouraged and
discredited so that individuals become dependent on the group for their only feedback.
The group becomes the ultimate authority in all areas of members‘ lives.
 Phobia induction within the group: It has the Truth. No other religion has the truth, and
if members leave this group, they are leaving God. Individuals begin to fear loss of their
salvation and try even harder to do the work of the group.
 The confession of sins/shortcomings: Members confess to their discipling partner, and
often to the family group.
 Unhealthy personality changes: These changes are documented in Dr. Flavil Yeakley‘s
book, The Discipling Dilemma.
 Consistency with Lifton‘s criteria: The group meets all eight of Lifton‘s criteria for a
thought-reform program: milieu control, mystical manipulation, the demand for purity,
the cult of confession, the ―sacred science‖, loading the language, doctrine over person,
and the dispensing of existence.‖
As some of you may know, I‘ve retired from doing intervention work. But for most of the
years I‘ve done interventions concerning the ICC movement, I‘ve worked with Jeff Davis,
who still does interventions. The last few years we worked together, we concentrated
heavily on family preparation—implementing a family prep session before we even
scheduled an intervention. We expected the entire family team and the intervention team to
take part in the prep session, and we found that doing so enabled the intervention team to
assess the assets of each member of the family team and better determine the roles they
would be able to play during the intervention. This involvement also gave the family a much
better idea of how an intervention worked and the seriousness of undertaking an
intervention. It also better prepared them for the resistance they would meet from the
group member.
I want to point out one particular family we worked with whose daughter was in another
state, deeply involved in the ICC. One brother, a sister-in-law, and her two parents would
be the family team. I‘ve rarely encountered a family who worked harder to prepare
themselves for the intervention. When the intervention team arrived to do the family prep,
the mother handed every member of both teams a notebook. The notebook contained the
following:
 all the important documents from the ICC‘s own site that we had asked the family to
read
 chapters from Captive Hearts/Captive Minds and Cults In Our Midst that I had asked
them to review
 the ―Ethical Standards for Thought Reform Consultants‖
 the critique of the movement‘s pre-baptism studies, as well as the movement‘s
documentation on the studies and