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国际基督教会(ICOC)官方资料　http://www.icoc.org

自我介绍:

The International Churches of Christ are a family of Christian churches whose members are ommitted to living their lives in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in the Bible. We read and strive to abide by the entire Bible and hold it to be inspired and inerrant. We expect every member to be a disciple of Christ as defined in his teachings. The International Churches of Christ were built on the revolutionary and biblical conviction that every person must first make a decision to become a disciple and then be baptized.

历史：

1999

As of September, we have 372 churches in 158 nations, with a Sunday attendance of 185,954. Growth Charts.

Manila Church has 35,000 attendance at 10th Anniversary Service and Concert.

20,481 attend LA Church services in one weekend.

2,300 attend 10th Anniversary Service in Tokyo, Japan - "the Mount Everest of mission work."

1st International Youth Ministries Conference "Revolution X" held in LA.

1988

World Sector Leaders chosen. Churches planted in Mexico City, Hong Kong and Cairo.

Release of Songs of the Kingdom 1st edition.

1979

On June 1, in Bob & Pat Gempels' living room, Kip McKean calls 30 "would-be disciples" to be totally committed to Christ. (The church later becomes known as the Boston Church of Christ.)

信念：

There is one true God who reveals himself to the world as The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)

Jesus, the Son of God, is our one and only Lord and Savior, crucified for our sins and physically resurrected from the dead on the third day. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Corinthians 15)

The Bible is the only written message of God inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error. (2 Timothy 3:16,17; 2 Peter 1:19-21)

As with the first Christians, when a person repents and is baptized their sins are forgiven and the Holy Spirit works in their life. (Acts 2:36-41; Romans 8:5-11)

Only baptized disciples are members of Christ's church. (1 Corinthians 12:23, 24)

After baptism every new Christian needs to be taught or "discipled" by another Christian to obey all of Jesus' teachings (Matthew 28:20).

Every disciple must be committed to the vision of making disciples of all nations. (Mathew 28:18-20)

神学观念：

Core beliefs of the ICC and the mainline Churches of Christ are:

Both claim to believe in the Bible only as the sole authority for Christian doctrine and practice. The ICC, however, is considerably more willing to institute a doctrine or practice which does not appear in the Bible, on the grounds that the Bible does not specifically forbid it. In this they are more like the so-called "Independent Christian Churches", a somewhat less conservative offshoot of the same religious movement which also gave birth to the Churches of Christ.

"Probably some critics will no doubt say that we begin some practice and then go to Scripture in order to justify it. But the issue is whether or not the Bible does, in fact, justify it....

-- Gordon Ferguson　 Progressive Revelation　 Boston Bulletin, May 1988

Both accept the doctrines in the Nicene Creed on the nature of God, Christ, and the Trinity, although they reject the actual creed because it believes that all creeds are human teachings, not the Word of God. Unlike the mainline Churches of Christ, though, the ICC does not emphasize theological issues in its preaching or teaching; it has a utilitarian, results-oriented approach. The ICC tends to view serious theological study as a waste of time for most of its members.

"Any religious group who strongly emphasizes doctrinal accuracy runs a risk of losing perspective and losing God... An insistence that we have 'book, chapter, and verse' for anything new has virtually guaranteed that we will have nothing new, even if the old is a failure...."

-- Gordon Ferguson　Progressive Revelation　Boston Bulletin, May 1988

Both believe in one Church, and hold that denominations and sects are sinful and not of God. Unlike the mainline Churches of Christ, the ICC also believes that there should be only one church per city or town in order not to destroy the unity of the Church. Because of this, there are never two ICC-affiliated churches in a single city or town. Finally, the ICC sees itself as the "remnant" of God's people -- it believes that the ICC IS Christ's Church in "this generation." It no longer views the mainline Churches of Christ as true churches.

"If you are not in a discipling ministry, you need to move to one. Why do you resist the spirit and not move?... God is trying to forge a remnant.... There are divisions between us and the mainline church becase, as it says in 1 Corinthians 11, there has got to be divisions so they can show which ones of us has God's approval."

-- Kip McKean　Why Do You Resist the Spirit?　1987 World Missions Seminar, Boston

"This church [the Boston Church of Christ] is truly the Jerusalem of God's modern day movement."

-- Kip McKean　McKean Becomes Mission Evangelist　Boston Bulletin, June 26, 1988

Both believe that a person must be baptized by immersion for forgiveness of sins in order to be saved, and both practice baptism of adults only -- they do not baptize infants or children who have not reached "the age of understanding". The ICC has a unique teaching, though, that a person must be "baptized as a disciple" in order to be saved. This means that a person must have what the ICC views as the correct understanding of baptism at the time of baptism, must have fully repented of their sins, and must have committed to living as a disciple of Christ, prior to baptism, or the baptism is invalid and the person unsaved.

"For a long time in the Church of Christ... [people] were taught... the five point plan of salvation -- hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized.... I believe an essential element has not been emphasized in the area of repentance.... We need to get it straight, who is a candidate for baptism. It is the individual who is a disciple... There has become an innate doctrinal difference, but they [the mainline Churches of Christ] don't recognize it because it looks like a methodology."

-- Kip McKean　Perfectly United　 1987 Boston Women's Retreat

"I taught what was clear in Acts 11:26: SAVED = CHRISTIAN = DISCIPLE, simply meaning that you cannot be saved and you cannot be a true Christian without being a disciple also. I taught that, to be baptized, you must first make the decision to be a disciple, and then be baptized.... I taught that their baptism was invalid because a retroactive understanding of repentance and baptism was not consistent with Scripture."

-- Kip McKean　Revolution through Restoration　Discipleship Magazine, April 1992

It believes that the Great Commission of Christ, as stated in Matthew 28:18-20, applies equally to all believers and mandates that each member engage in aggressive, active proselytizing ("evangelism") as their primary personal responsibility before God. They also believe that proselytizing non-members is the primary responsibility of the church as a whole.

Based also on Matthew 28:18-20, the ICC believes in a system of discipling, which means that every member is assigned another member as a mentor, to whom he/she reports, confesses sin, and which he/she is expected to obey and emulate.

-- Kip McKean　Discipleship Partners　 1988 Boston Leadership Conference

-- Teresa Ferguson　 Boston Bulletin, October 22, 1989

Both believe the Bible sets out the proper structure for the Church. In no other area, though, has the ICC moved farther from its roots in the mainline Churches of Christ. The mainline Churches of Christ are all independent bodies ruled either by a group of older men in the congregation (called "elders") or by the men of the congregation as a whole. The evangelist or minister is subordinate to the elders or the men of the congregation. The mainline Churches of Christ object vociferously to any earthly authority outside of or above the local congregation.

The ICC has a hierarchy frequently compared to that of the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, the ICC's hierarchy has far more control over its members in far more ways than the Catholic Church's heirarchy has had in history or at present, and ICC congregations have little autonomy or control over their own affairs. In ICC congregations, the evangelist leads. Elders are subordinate to him in fact, if not theory. Many large, old ICC congregations do not even have elders.

"The evangelist without elders in the congregation is the authority of God in the congregation. The only time he is not to be obeyed is when he calls you to disobey Scripture or disobey your conscience, and even if he calls on you to do something that disobeys your conscience, you still have an obligation to study it out and prayerfully change your opinion so that you can be totally unified."

-- Kip McKean　 Why Do You Resist the Spirit?　 1987 World Mission Seminar

Because the ICC believes in following the "Bible only", it denies the validity of human interpretations of the Bible. This does not prevent it from interpreting the Scriptures, of course. The ICC does not recognize that their interpretations of Scripture are interpretations, however, and insists that they are simply statements of what the Scriptures teach and which no honest person could disagree with.

Due to its insistence on "perfect unity", its rejection of interpretation and ambiguity, and its insistence that all must understand the Holy Scriptures in the same way it does, the ICC believes and teaches that only ICC members are saved. Most ICC members will, if pressed by an outsider, avoid stating this or soften it by insisting that there may be some people who came to the correct conclusions about the Bible outside of the ICC. In practice, though, the ICC believes they are the one and only true Church at present, and that it is highly unlikely, if even possible, for anyone to be saved elsewhere.

唯一观念：

What Makes the International Churches of Christ Unique?

There are several things that make us unique. First, we are committed to continually searching the Bible for truth about our lives and God's will for us as His church.

Second, we believe and expect every member of the church to be fully committed to living according to that truth. These convictions, as straightforward and obvious as they may seem, do not characterize the convictions of most of the religious world around us. To our knowledge, we are the only group that teaches the biblical principle of discipleship as a necessary part of the salvation process. We believe that an individual is not a candidate for baptism, and, therefore, salvation, unless he or she is ready to repent of sin and make the commitment to live each day of his or her life as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Another unique quality of our churches is the diversity found in our fellowship. Sadly, it has been observed that Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week for most Americans. Most churches only talk about diversity; we live it. We believe that any religious group that allows racial, social or economic segregation does not reflect the unity and love of God our Father and, therefore, cannot be the true church of Jesus Christ. God's true church is made up of all kinds of people, coming together as one common body to share one common love.

回应批评：

The Critics Say: The International Churches of Christ claim that one　must belong to their group to have any chance of going to heaven. How can this be, since they did not even begin until 1979?

WE SAY: Jesus did not mince any words when he talked about his church and following him. He said, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt. 7:14), and “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who　

does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21), and “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). As the late, well-known author C. S. Lewis wrote, “the words of Jesus are so radical and extreme that Jesus was either a liar, lunatic or who he claimed to be.”

Jesus did not die to establish hundreds of churches, but only one church (i.e. Matt. 16:18; Eph. 1:22-23: 4:4; Col. 1:18), with a single congregation meeting in each city (i.e. 1 Cor 1:2; 1 Thess. 1:1; Rev. 2:1,8,12,18;3:1,7,14). When Christians walked into Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth or Rome, they did not have to ask for their kind of church. There was only one and everyone knew who the disciples were (Acts 11:26; 1 Cor. 1:2). Today that one original church has been broken into hundreds of disjointed pieces, contrary to Jesus' dying prayer (John 17: 20-21). Throughout history since the first century, brave men such as Luther, Calvin, Zwingley, Wesley and Campbell have attempted to return to the original church with varying degrees of success. As people would leave the narrow way, God would raise up a remnant to return to be the church Jesus taught about and built with his own blood.

Today there is a tremendous need to return to the basics of Christianity as mandated in the Bible. The vast majority of churches offer a watered-down, ineffective imitation of biblical Christianity that involves varying degrees of commitment. In his latest work, The Second Coming of the Church, George Barna, author of numerous books on trends in society and religion, compares the modern church to the Titanic. “It is large, elegant, and sinking fast.” He reports that the average person in a denomination who “accepts” Christ lasts only eight weeks in a church. Countless studies continue to show that church membership is not even growing as fast as the increase in population, that less than half of those who call themselves Christians even attend within any given week, that less than half of members' children will become members and that the influence of churches on society is ever decreasing. Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions, writes “…mainline Protestant groups are ‘in terrible trouble,' having lost 25% of their membership in the last 25 years.” In 1998, the Southern Baptist Convention board found that fewer than half of the people on the Southern Baptist rolls are in any way active. A study conducted by Christianity Today, an evangelical Christian periodical, revealed that only 1% of its readership had recently shared the gospel with another person.

The International Churches of Christ are not interested in adding another denomination to the already cluttered landscape of dying churches. We are not trying to start a new church. We are calling as many people as possible to become a part of the one and only church that Jesus Christ founded nearly two millennia ago. In 1979, as a small group in Boston, Massachusetts, under the leadership of Kip McKean, we began a determined effort to restore the church that Jesus built. Since that small beginning, we have continued to change according to what we find in the Scriptures about God's purpose and plan for his church. We continue to call all people of the world, in churches and out, to be a part of his church. In that short time, God has blessed the International Churches of Christ to spread into more than 150 nations.

The requirements for membership are no different from those of the first century church. Every member must hold the Bible to be God's inspired word (2 Tim. 3:16). Every member, relying on the grace of God, must accept Jesus, not only as personal savior, but as Lord of every area of his/her life

(Luke 9:23). Every member must be born again (immersed in water as a believing, committed adult for the forgiveness of sins) (John 3:1-5; Acts 2:38). (Link to Baptism Article ). And every member must have the samepurpose as Jesus - “to seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:10; Heb. 12: 15).

Certainly we do not have a corner on the truth. Our Bible is the same as everyone else's. It is possible for anyone anywhere to read, apply God's word and become Jesus' disciple; however, it is difficult for most people to see through the traditions with which they were raised without someone to help. Some people have become disciples on their own, but they are always eager to unite themselves with a group who is teaching and practicing what they have found to be Christianity according to the Bible. We are aware of no other group anywhere today that teaches and holds to these standards for every member to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and a member of his church. Even our critics say that what we teach is unique in the religious world.

Perhaps our stance seems hard, but we can only follow the path that Jesus prepared, the “narrow road.” Mainstream churches are failing to bring a lost and dying world back to God. Only a total commitment to God and his way, and a total dependence on his power holds any eternal hope for any of us. Check out who we are, what we teach and how we live; and come join us in our quest to be the true church of Jesus Christ.

领袖文章：

Revolution Through Restoration

From Jerusalem to Rome, from Boston to Moscow

Restoration in Boston

During my last year in Charleston, the elders of the Lexington Church of Christ in Massachusetts, contacted me to be their pulpit and campus minister. Though this mainline church was desperate as they considered closing their doors because their number had shrunk to about 30, I hesitated for five months. I told the people in that congregation that in order for me to come, every member must vow to become (in the terminology of that day) "totally committed."

On June 1,1979, history was made as 30 would be disciples gathered on a Friday night in the living room of Bob and Pat Gempel. Our collective vision was a church where not only the college students were totally committed, but also the teens, singles, marrieds and senior citizens. This was a radical concept not witnessed in any other church or movement in my experience to this day. Another building block in our ministry came about when Pat Gempel and I had a strong disagreement during our first month. It was quickly settled by Elena, myself and Bob and Pat as we vowed, as the two most influential families in the church, to always be unified in Christ. The four of us became best of friends. This commitment to unity laid the foundation for a great church and a movement that was truly family - the family of God.

As in all families, a commitment to unity is not a onetime event. It is a lifetime process. Satan continually attempts to divide the believers and sow mistrust and insecurity. Elena' s and my relationship with the Gempels taught us how to build and maintain family in the church. (Since then this godly principle has helped us form a team approach to leadership which maximizes the talents and contributions of each leader.) To this very day, our friendship with the Gempels has been nurtured through times of victory and peace as well as misunderstanding and actual conflict. I personally dislike conflict, as most people do, but conflict Scripturally resolved forges closer relationships (Matthew 5:23,24; 18:15-35).

This commitment to honesty, forthrightness and caring has been repeated over and over throughout the Kingdom. "Family" lasts a lifetime and weathers the storms because our foundation is not each other' s perfection, but the rock of Jesus' love and grace. [Now there are over 100 churches! In every one of them there is a different ambience, but every disciple feels at home in any of our congregations, no matter their race, sex or nationality. The unselfish unity and warmth among the churches and their evangelists, elders and other leaders distinguish our movement as disciples. "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another" (John 13:34,35).]

Early on I developed a series consisting of nine Bible studies on the "first principles" (Hebrews 6:1-3). The members of the church were called to memorize these studies and then teach others to become Christians. The most impacting was called "Discipleship" where, from my study of Scripture, I taught what was clear in Acts 11:26: SAVED = CHRISTIAN = DISCIPLE, simply meaning that you cannot be saved and you cannot be a true Christian without being a disciple also. I purposely developed this study to draw a sharp biblical distinction between the Lexington (later renamed Boston) Church of Christ and all other groups. I taught that to be baptized, you must first make the decision to be a disciple and then be baptized. I saw that people in and outside of our fellowship had been baptized without this understanding and then, in time, developed a disciple's commitment to make Jesus Lord of their entire life.

I taught that their baptism was invalid because a retroactive understanding of repentance and baptism was not consistent with Scripture. Upon conviction by the Scriptures, most people in the Lexington (Boston) church were rebaptized: Doug Arthur, Joyce (Crosby) Arthur, Lynne (Hembree) Green, the Morehead family, the Foss family, the Crosby family, and, just before he arrived, Steve Johnson. Others like Bob and Pat Gempel, Paul and Helen McNiel, Lisa Johnson, Chris (Timmis) Fuqua, Jim Lloyd, Don Lee and Doug Blough were not rebaptized, as they felt after studying the Word, their conversions were true. Out of these convictions from the Scriptures came one of the crucial characteristics unique to our movement--a true church is composed only of disciples (Luke 9:23; John 4:1; Acts 2:41,42).

I have never believed or taught that anyone has to be baptized into the Boston Church of Christ to be saved. The Scriptures clearly teach you must be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and then, the Lord adds you to his church (Acts 2:36-47; Romans 6:3,4; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Acts 2:41,42). However, I do not know of any other church, group or movement that teaches and practices what we teach as Jesus taught in Acts 2:41,42: one must make the decision to be a disciple, then be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins to be saved and receive the Holy Spirit. When one is born again at baptism (Titus 3:5), one must have Jesus' heart and attitude to do anything, go anywhere and give up everything for God. After baptism each disciple is taught to obey all the commands of Jesus as one grows and goes making disciples. If this is what God teaches in the Bible, then we are God's movement.

One very interesting and crucial event occurred in the fourth year of our existence a building we bought in downtown Boston burned down. We were all heartbroken, but God was just guiding our way. Church history, we found that the first church buildings did not exist until the third century. We concluded that buildings had taken too much money from people and slowed the growth of the church. We then rented the Boston Opera House for Sundays and we met in homes (house churches) for our midweek services. In this way, the elders and I decided to invest our funds in people instead of mortgages, interest and stone.

At that time, we were the only Church of Christ of any kind in Boston proper. We took the name, the Boston Church of Christ, because the churches in the Bible were simply called by the name of their city. In time, we also came to a conviction from chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation that there was to be only one church in one city, according to the Bible. After all, if one church multiplied disciples, then it would, in time fill the whole city with the teachings of Jesus (Acts 5:28).

During these times, we altered the form of our worship. No longer did we have Sunday school or Sunday evening services (both of these began in the 1800s in America). But we intensely studied Bible passages individually every day and together at our midweek service. On Sundays our church services became two hour celebrations of singing, communion, prayers, baptisms, fellowship and exhortive preaching from the Word!

Perhaps also unappreciated by the casual observer was the challenge to meet the needs and keep faithful the unprecedented number of new Christians - over 2,000 in the first six years in Boston! In the '60s and '70 s in the denominational world, there had been much discussion and writing on the "body life" of the church and "shepherding" one another. Thus, in the Crossroads movement, one another Christianity was expressed in a buddy system called "prayer partners," where each person chose their own "buddy."

With so many new Christians in the Boston church, I felt this approach was not directive enough. Building upon this concept, I came up with "discipleship partners." In these relationships, the evangelists, elders and women's counselors, after discussion and prayer, arranged for an older, stronger Christian to give direction to each of the younger, weaker ones. They were to meet weekly, but have daily contact (Hebrews 10:24,25). (Obviously, the younger discipleship partner also gives input and advice to the stronger disciple, as in any healthy relationship.)

We also saw in Scripture that Jesus primarily trained men through groups the apostles and the 72 (Luke 10:1-24). Therefore, we began discipleship groups for every Christian. (This group would usually meet at the midweek service.) Through this approach, each Christian could naturally build relationships with other Christians in addition to their discipleship partner.

Studies were done by several church growth experts that proved the greater the number of relationships in the church a new Christian possesses is directly proportional to his likelihood of remaining faithful to God. Interestingly, Dr. Milton Jones in Discipling: The Multiplying Ministry insightful comments, "A new Christian who has good relationships on all levels will achieve a maturity in Christ that is greater than other Christians who have been Christians for years, but only have [casual, non focused] relationships.

With the previously discussed system, everyone in the church would have people to meet their needs, and the multitudes of people being baptized would remain in Christ by continuing to be taught and making disciples themselves (Matthew 28:20). These restorations caused incredible controversy. However, the retention rate through all these years of all the baptisms has been about 50%, which is over five times as high as the rate in the various elements in the Churches of Christ.

Revolution Through Restoration

From Jerusalem to Rome, from Boston to Moscow

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism

From 1983 on through the 80's, many people, especially leaders from the various elements of the Church of Christ, moved to Boston or our plantings to be disciples and to train to build churches. They were in awe of God and the unprecedented growth the Holy Spirit produced in Boston and our daughter churches (Acts 9:31).

Men and women came from traditional mainline Churches of Christ, Christian churches, Crossroads campus ministry churches, Milton Jones campus ministry churches, Springfield, Missouri (John Wilson, Tom Jones) campus ministry, bus ministry influenced churches (Garnett Road in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Williamstown in West Virginia; and Lindbergh Road in Anderson, Indiana), Stanley Shipp influenced churches, one cup churches, anti Sunday school churches, anti cooperation churches, the "black" Churches of Christ, and several students from Church of Christ sponsored colleges: Harding University, Harding Graduate School of Religion, Oklahoma Christian University, Abilene Christian University, International Bible College, Great Lakes Christian College, Northeastern Christian College, and several schools of preaching (of special note were Sunset and Preston Road in Texas).

The amazing thing is that many of these groups had several philosophical and doctrinal conflicts with each other. However, in Boston, the elders, their wives, Elena and I made every effort to forge a bond of unity between all these leaders from the Scriptures and through our working side-by-side with each other for one purpose (1 Corinthians 1:10; Philippians 1:27). We have always welcomed people from any background who are truly seeking God and we continue to be open to still others joining in our revolution through restoration of the Scriptures today more than ever.

All of these leaders either went to Boston or our plantings and secured a secular job, hoping some day to be selected to be an intern or they were immediately hired as interns. But all (no matter how extensive their experience or Bible background) had to begin their training as if they were young Christians. For example, everyone was encouraged to take the First Principles Class. We found that these leaders had to unlearn their past traditions and misconceptions before they could really learn how to build churches. The training for someone baptized out of the world in Boston and for someone who moved to train in Boston was exactly the same. Before any man was sent out to lead a church, he had to become a proven builder in Boston or one of our plantings.

It was during these days in 1985 that Chuck Lucas left the ministry for personal spiritual reasons. This left a void of leadership for many churches he influenced. Crossroads campus ministry movement faded. The some fifty churches they directly influenced then splintered into many different doctrinal directions. With the passage of time, the mainline Church of Christ's concept of autonomy and the restorations in Boston, my relationships with others converted at Crossroads had eroded. Realizing this, in the ensuing two years I made a concerted effort to reach out to the leaders of this campus ministry element of the Church of Christ. Many moved to Boston.

Of special note were Sam Laing and Tom Brown who were then leading struggling congregations only partially composed of disciples. I vividly remember going to see Tom and his family in Berkeley, California. He pleaded, "I need people in my life. I want myself, my family and, if possible, the church in Berkeley to be 'grafted into' the Boston churches." I also remember flying down to see Sam and his family in the Atlanta area and bonding again through our tears. He had become discouraged and even considered leaving the ministry. God used our time together to give him a vision for one church that could evangelize all of the Atlanta area. Just before Sam moved to Boston, the church that he was serving split. Those who desired to be disciples became the foundation for our Atlanta Church of Christ planting. As Paul wrote, "There are divisions among you...to show which of you have God's approval" (1 Corinthians 11:18,19). Tom and Sam moved to Boston in the summer of 1987, as simply interns training to build churches. Others converted at Crossroads, many of whom were former friends, resented my efforts to pull them into the Boston movement. They became some of our most verbal opponents. At this time, the Crossroads church publicly distanced itself from the Boston movement because of the Atlanta planting and the many restorations from Scripture that Al Baird and I taught there. (Today the Crossroads church is simply another mainline Church of Christ with less than 400 in attendance.) In all of these trials, the elders, my fellow evangelists and I determined to stay focused on the mission.

Many of the men who were leaders in the different elements of the Churches of Christ, who came to train to build churches of disciples, discovered they had not been baptized as disciples themselves. In the world's eyes, they were rebaptized. In God's eyes, they were baptized into Jesus Christ (Acts 19:1-5). Of special note are: Nick Young, Preston Shepherd, Willie Flores, John Bringardner, Jerry Jordan, Reese Neyland, Bill Hooper, John Mannel, Dave Peden, Mike Taliaferro, Steve Kinnard, Steve Sapp, Steve Brown, John Lusk, Curt Simmons, Mike Rock, Scott Green, Grant Henley, Ed Powers, Andy Fleming, Gordon Ferguson, Tom Jones, Jeff Tabor, Ed Heinlein, Kevin Robbins, Roy Larson, Dr. Richard Rheinbolt, Tom McCurry, John Reus, Gregg Marutzky, Gregg Metten, Barry Mahfood, Mike Leatherwood, Sonny Sessions and Joe Garmon.

Others were not rebaptized, as they felt they had made the decision to be disciples (usually not with that terminology) when they were baptized: Dr. George Gurganus, Sam Laing, Cecil Wooten, Jim Blough, Marty Fuqua, Dr. Marty Wooten, Ryan Howard, Henry Kreite, Joe Woods, Jess Asper, Ed Townsend, Jimmy Allen, Jr., Jimmy Rogers, John Porter, Dave Eastman, Tom Brown, Dave Weger, Phil Lamb, Bruce Williams, Randy McKean, Mike Fontenot, Douglas Jacoby, Ron Drabot, Mark Mancini, Wyndham Shaw, Gerry Frederick, John Partington, Sam Powell, Tom Marks, Steve Gooch, Tim Huffman, Elena' s brother-in-law Martin Bentley, Camaron Corr and Dr. Jerry Jones (who later left the Boston movement). Many more came to train. A few of these later turned back in bitterness because of the "hard teachings" they could not "accept" (John 6:60-66).

Revolution Through Restoration

From Jerusalem to Rome, from Boston to Moscow

A Remnant Returns

In late 1986, because so many leaders from so many different elements of the Church of Christ had moved to Boston or our plantings, we decided to call to repentance all types of mainline and all types of campus ministry churches who were willing to pay the price to multiply disciples. First, we would ask the interested church's lead minister to move to Boston to be discipled and further trained. We replaced them with a Boston-trained evangelist to serve the church.

During the initial weeks of this changeover, each member was called to renew their commitment at baptism to be a disciple of Jesus, to be baptized as a disciple of Jesus, or to leave. Sometimes elders were rebaptized: Dr. Al Baird, Roger Lamb, George Havins, and Ron Brumley. Criticism came from outside our churches because, in the mind set of some, since these elders were just baptized, they became novices in the faith. The Bible teaches that a person should not be an elder as a novice so he will not become conceited (1 Timothy 3:6). Since they were already serving in this capacity, and were now humbling themselves, there seemed little chance for them to now become conceited. Thus, this character requirement was not an issue.

After these radical changes, these churches grew equally as rapidly as our plantings, for, in fact, there was now no difference. Each church would be composed solely of disciples. I called these efforts "reconstructions" after the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem in the book of Nehemiah. We always renamed the church after the metropolitan (city) area in which the church was located. First of all, we did this to be biblical, as these were the names for local congregations in the Bible (i.e. the church in Ephesus, Revelation 2:1 , etc.) And secondly, it gave the disciples a vision to evangelize all of their metropolitan area.

In our first reconstruction in December 1986 in Kingston, Jamaica, Phil and Donna Lamb were a great strength for Elena and me. This experience totally bonded the Lambs and us. I still remember preaching on a very hot and humid Friday night to about 70 people from a weak congregation in Kingston. The lesson was entitled "Rebuilding the Wall" from chapters 1-6 in Nehemiah. After the lesson, I figuratively drew a line in front of the pulpit and said, "If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, and a member of the new Kingston Church of Christ, and if you want to be a part of this pillar church which will evangelize all of Kingston, Jamaica, and, in time, the Caribbean, please come forward." Forty three responded! Immediately afterwards we broke up into men and women's groups. Here those who wanted to openly confessed their sins (Nehemiah 9:1-3; Matthew 3:1-6). By the next morning, all of the 43 were jubilant. Then Phil preached on the power of the Holy Spirit. He charged them to make it their purpose to be fishers of men and to begin by bringing their friends to church the next day. On Sunday, over 200 attended services!

The Kingston church started with 48 disciples, including five young leaders from Boston. The first year 115 were baptized, the second 200. The Kingston church now has over 1,000 on Sundays! Later, in the summer of 1987, I worked with the Greens and the Kims on turning the struggling Berkeley congregation into the San Francisco Church of Christ. Now God has blessed them with over 1,400 in worship on Sundays! Then in December, the Williams and I did the reconstruction in San Diego, where they now have nearly 2,500 every Sunday morning! Of great significance at the same time, London reconstructed Sydney, and Chicago reconstructed seven churches in the midwestern United States.

When we built these churches, we taught against the unscriptural church government system practiced in the traditional Churches of Christ. They believed that each congregation was independent and totally autonomous from all the others. We showed from the Bible how congregations were connected through their relationships and how evangelists directed other evangelists in the region (field) they influenced. (The word "autonomy" is not even in the Bible.) We also taught that the lead evangelist worked with, and, for the most part, led and discipled the elders to direct the affairs of a local church (Titus 1:5; 1 Timothy 5:17).

In all, we preached one worldwide brotherhood (1 Peter 2:17) for we observed that independent autonomy violated the command and spirit of Scripture. This teaching stopped churches from learning from each other and from growing, and simply produced a critical spirit toward other churches and nonimpact throughout the world. Today we have many evangelists who minister to clusters of churches in an area of the world. For example, Gordon Ferguson has recently ministered to the churches in Europe by teaching the book of Romans in short two week periods.

As Isaiah wrote, "Only a remnant will return" (Isaiah 10:21,22). I saw all the way through the Bible that God, from time to time, took the few who were faithful and separated them from the unfaithful to have a purified people devoted to him. This action always precipitated His movement in that generation. The examples are numerous: Noah and his family, Abraham and Sarah, Gideon and the 300, David and his mighty men, Nehemiah and the remnant in Jerusalem, and ultimately, the Jews who became the first Christians in the first century!

In the many elements of the Churches of Christ and Christian churches where there was no desire for help, we felt an obligation to God to call out the true disciples (or people who desired to be true disciples), asking them to move to one of the Boston churches, sometimes called "multiplying ministry churches." Thus, we purposefully set about to glean the remnant into what now was clearly a new, modern day movement of God.

After pushing myself so hard for so long, I was exhausted and became physically sick during Christmas of 1986. While in bed I realized from my condition that I, and all the other Christians, needed to rely more on God through prayer. During the congregational workshop in January, I stressed the need first for myself and then for the entire church to repent and draw closer to God. Consequently, there was a spiritual revival as I began to teach this in all of our churches. We greatly intensified our focus on Bible study, prayer, fasting, the Holy Spirit, and our personal relationships with God to endure the rigors of the Christian life. Frank and Erica Kim were a great comfort at this time.

I found when praying with them that their prayers were very aggressive in fighting Satan and his demonic angels. The Kims have been an upward call for the entire brotherhood as they are always up before daylight to pray to the Father (Mark 1:35).

It was during this period that some of the influential Churches of Christ (Garnett Road and Sunset), as well as the Christian Chronicle, the most prominent Church of Christ publication, stopped considering us a part of the Church of Christ fellowship. The major issues were: who is a Christian, independent autonomy of each congregation and rebaptism. I am convinced that jealousy over our growth, which exposed their lack of growth, was a major motivation of this separation(John 3:20, 12:42,43). The charges against us were filled with emotionally laden words such as "love bombing," "brainwashing," and "cult."

The Bible teaches that Christians should not be surprised by persecution (1 Peter 4:12). Jesus also was falsely accused with the emotionally laden words, "demon-possessed" (John 10:20), "blasphemer" (John 10:33) and even his own family said he was "out of his mind" (Mark 3:21). To Pilate he was accused of subversion, opposing taxes and claiming to be king, these last charges being two lies and a half-truth (Luke 23:2). Even the early church was accused, "we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect" [cult] (Acts 28:22).

My challenge to all of the critics in the Churches of Christ has been: Where are the souls you are saving and where are the churches you have built? We do believe "by their fruit [or lack of fruit] you will recognize them." (Matthew 7:20) Some of our churches then decided to change their names from Church of Christ to other godly names (like Christian Church or Church of God) to avoid unnecessary criticism. Historically, theologians are marking this hour. For the first time, Dr. John Vaughan in his publication, Church Growth Today, will separately list the Boston family of churches from all the other Churches of Christ. He calls us the "International Churches of Christ (Boston Movement)."

In 1987 I was very honored to be asked by my good friend Marty Wooten (we had met at Harding Graduate School) to be a member of the editorial board of a new magazine. It would have a scholarly orientation yet would be useful for even the newest Christian. He named it Biblical Discipleship Quarterly (later called Discipleship Magazine) and it would include challenging articles, news reports and interviews. After I reconstructed the Denver church in 1988, I asked Marty to move to Boston to train. Together we shared a new purpose and vision that Discipleship Magazine would be based in Boston and become the official documentation and information for the Boston movement. (Up to this time, the. Boston Bulletin had served this purpose.) Later I asked Roger Lamb to become the editor, as Marty felt that the Lord had called him to lead the evangelization of Germany and Eastern Europe. (Marty and Cathy Wooten are doing a superior job in their God given field as the Lord has already raised up two churches, Berlin and Munich, both of which are rapidly increasing in disciples.)

As of this year (1992) we changed the name of the magazine to UpsideDown from the title of the musical based on the book of Acts written by Steve Johnson and Sherwin Mackintosh. This has indeed become the anthem of our movement, as well as our goal: to turn the world upside down with the gospel (Acts 17:6 RSV). Plans are under discussion and prayer to begin a Spanish version of UpsideDown in 1993 edited by Jess Asper, who coordinates the Spanish-speaking ministries in the United States. Phil Lamb would be responsible for distribution throughout Central and South America.

In 1987 and 1988, the following key foreign mission teams were sent out from Boston: Mexico City with Phil and Donna Lamb (chronicled in Andrew Giambarba's book, Bent on Conquest), Hong Kong with Scott and Lynne Green, Bombay with Jim and Donna Blough, and Cairo led with undaunted courage by Bob and Laurie Tranchell into the heart of the Muslim world. Also the Kims joined Dr. George and Irene Gurganus in Tokyo.

The Gurganuses had started a mainline Church of Christ in Tokyo immediately following World War II. They returned to the United States 10 years later. Upon completion of his doctorate in cross cultural communication, George started the missions program at Harding University and later directed the missions program at Abilene Christian University. After he had been retired for two years, I asked George and Irene to move to Boston for I was convinced God still wanted to use them. There they became like spiritual grandparents to Elena and me. Following their training in Boston, they inspired the whole brotherhood by returning to the Japanese mission field at 70 years of age!

When the Kims arrived, George assisted Frank in reconstructing the small congregation in Tokyo which we then called the Tokyo Church of Christ. Immediately following the reconstruction, the Wall Street Journal called Japan, "the Mount Everest of mission work" because it is over 90% atheistic. Through the Holy Spirit, the preaching of God's grace, and the cross of Christ, each of these key church plantings experienced unprecedented growth in their region of the world.

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