Re: History of ICC reform efforts (compare/contrast) -- RSQUBF discussion forum

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Date Posted: 17:50:14 10/12/04 Tue
Author: Joe
Subject: Re: History of ICC reform efforts (compare/contrast)
In reply to: John 's message, "History of ICC reform efforts" on 12:32:17 10/12/04 Tue

>Reform in the ICC has been underway for quite some
>time, however, all such efforts have been called
>'divisive' and 'slanderous'. Very few of these efforts
>have been publicly acknowledged - and even those few
>have been acknowledged only after public pressure.

This was the case for the minor UBF reform efforts of 1976 and 1989-1990. I grew up through it all, never far from Sam Lee whom my father stuck to like glue, but I didn't become aware of the 1976 and 1989 events until the 2000-2001 reform blow-up.

>In short, both efforts (the enlisting of Jerry Jones
>and the objective study by Flavil R. Yeakley)
>backfired. Both men pointed out flaws in the structure
>of the church and the nature of so-called discipling.
>Because Dr. Jones publicly taught against the Boston
>churches, he was marked as divisive and characterized
>as a greedy person making money from confusing
>disciples. Dr. Yeakley's study has never been publicly
>mentioned. To this day, any outside perspective or
>criticism is typically shunned and/or minimized.

The only analogue to Jerry Jones and Flavil Yeakley might be Jun Ki Chung, the UBF "historian" and Trinity Seminary graduate (?) who wrote a book praising UBF and completely glossing over its "weaknesses." Mr. Chung claims not to be a UBF member.

Some members of the 1976 "rebellion," who left UBF after being "marked" in UBF's own way, did come to some prominence in the Korean evangelical and academic communities. But there is no record of their "continuing the fight" against Sam Lee after they left UBF.

It looks like there was more value placed on scholarship (and attempts to exploit it to their advantage) in the ICC than in UBF. It looks like people Kriete, Jones and Yeakley have a respectable amount of scholarly (theological) output such as books. This is almost completely the opposite of UBF. The 2000-2001 reform push in UBF seemed to include the proposal to "raise up" scholars. Since UBF rejected this proposal and other productive proposals, I would guess that the CMI is going in a different direction than UBF, at least in terms of scholarship. UBF is determined to remain in their caves, mumbling "laymen, remnant, manger, laymen, remnant, manger..."

>In 1991, Rick Bauer, an editor for the official ICC
>magazine "Upside Down" tried to set up a meeting with
>leaders in Boston and with Kip in LA to discuss
>doctrinal issues as well as the pyramid structure and
>unhealthy discipling practices. Rick was pursuing a
>theology degree in Denver (a Crossroads church, not a
>Boston church) when he went to Boston to be "trained".
>Boston sent a minister to Denver to reconstruct the
>church there while Rick was being trained. This
>meeting never took place, Rick only published accounts
>of what transpired after he was marked by the Boston
>church. Since then, like Dr. Jones, he has been
>minimized and ridculed as trying to make money from
>speaking against the ICC.
>
>Also in 1991, Ayman Akshar, a former administrator for
>the London Church of Christ exposes the financial
>problems of the church in London. After a government
>investigation, the church is fined and ordered to pay
>back taxes to the government. Administrative policy
>changes for overseas churches and offcially changed
>everywhere in 1994 when new policy is published.

I guess you could say that Rick Bauer and Ayman Akshar raised similar issues that James Kim and Peter Chang did in 1989-1990. Except that Kim tried what Kriete did. He sent letters. Bad things happened to him and his family afterwards.

>In 1994, a "Kingdom Teachers Conference" was called by
>Douglas Jacoby and others. The purpose of the original
>meeting was to coordinate the ongoing training in
>churches around the world. Some in that meeting were
>looking to go deeper than the First Principles' study
>series and the result of these efforts produced "Deep
>Convictions" a 30 day study of various topics such as
>Discipleship and Evangelism, but also included a seven
>day study of Grace. The offical results of the first
>teachers' meeting in 94 were broadcast to churches
>wouldwide under the heading of "Wine, Women, and Song".
>
>It is not a sin to drink alcohol, but it was a sin to
>be drunk.
>Music in worship service is not a sin.
>It is okay for women to baptize women and for women to
>disciple women.
>
>As these annual meetings continued, however, various
>teachers began discussing the effects of ICC doctrine
>and practice. Concerns were raised about the unique
>interpretation of Mat 28:18 - 20 that only 'baptized
>disciples' were saved as well as the
>evangelist-centered leadership style mandated by
>Administrative policy. The first teacher's conference
>was the only one that provided public statements.
>Based on comments made at the 2003 Teacher's Seminar
>(the first conference open to any attendees), changes
>were discussed as early as 1996 that needed to be
>implemented in all ICC congregations. For whatever
>reasons, it was decided that these changes should be
>introduced gradually and with minimal confrontation.

There's a similarity here, and that's the abundance of meetings such as leadership conferences. The difference may be that the ICC made known what was discussed and concluded at their meetings, but no one but the meeting attendees at UBF meetings seems to know what went on in the UBF meetings. The form of the meetings and conferences may also be different. I'm guessing here, but the ICC meetings and conferences probably didn't consist of listening to endless droning messages and "testimonies," so the ICC conferences are probably more enjoyable (?) and productive, at least in terms of something coming out of the conferences that can be shared with the community at large.

>Although it is not confirmed, it appears that Sam
>Laing was given a license to try out some of these new
>reforms about this time. In his congregation, for
>example, KNN was rarely shown and talk of the LA
>church was minimal. One over another discipling was
>discouraged, but one-WITH-another was encouraged.
>Messages from the pulpit began to address other areas
>of the Bible outside of evangelism. These ideas also
>spread to Atlanta spearheaded by Steve Sapp,
>evnagelist and Geographical Sector Leader
>(techincally, Sam's boss). More research should go
>into the Souteastern Churches early reforms in the
>90s, this I know only from personal experience.

Very doubtful that anything close to this is happening in a major UBF chapter. UBF chose to split up rather than do something like this.

There have been rare whispers, mostly on this discussion board by anonymous UBF members who sounded to me like adolescents, that members, especially "Americans" (non-Koreans) are "eager" for change or reform. That's about it.

>Also in 1994, Ed Powers, and evangelist in the
>Indianapolis Church of Christ found that he had issues
>with the discipleship structure and leadership from
>LA. He also had concerns in regards to contribution
>money and the elitism of the ICC as the only ones
>saved. What happened next is not entirely certain.
>What is known is that several folks from LA came to
>Indianapolis, including Kip McKean. The result of this
>was the creation of the Circle City Church of Christ
>(led by Ed Powers) and the 're-planting' of the
>Indianapolis Church of Christ. When Kip wrote later
>about the events in Indy, he said:
>
>"A very sad chapter in our history was written in
>March of this year. Ed Powers, the lead evangelist of
>the Indianapolis Church of Christ, like Korah, being
>filled with bitterness and selfish ambition, deceived
>the entire congregation and caused many to lose their
>faith and turn away from God. Several World Sector
>Leaders, namely Doug Arthur, Al Baird, Marty Fuqua,
>Bob Gempel and I flew to Indianapolis to confront this
>division in the body of Christ. The victory is that
>220 of 700 remained faithful to God, his church and
>his movement. As for those who continue to oppose us,
>they are lost-- not because their baptism became
>invalid, but the Scriptures are clear that those who
>oppose and grumble against God's leaders and divide
>God's church are, in fact, opposing God (Exodus 16:8;
>Numbers 16). Thus, the rebellious become lost because
>they do not have a true faith."

The comparison to Korah was also used in UBF to "mark" reform-minded people and chapters in 2000-2001.

>In 1995, Al Baird spoke publicly about the 'discipling
>crisis' during a conference in Africa. He estimated
>that former members outnumbered current members 2 to
>1. Unfortunately, he goess on to say that people that
>leave are worse off than those staying. In light of
>recent events, it is difficult for me to determine if
>he meant difficult because of the abuse of the system
>or difficult because they were now going to Hell. The
>quote follows:
>
>Ive got two points this morning. The first point is:
>the kingdom has a shepherding crisis. I picked those
>words very carefully. I thought about saying, the
>kingdom has a shepherding problem. Brothers and
>sisters, we are far beyond the problem stage, we are
>in the crisis stage. How many of you look at the
>kingdom stats every month? Some of you are liars. We
>cant wait to see where we stack up on the kingdom
>stats. You look at 1994: there were 30,000 baptisms in
>the kingdom of God I praise God for 30,000 baptisms,
>its the most in modern-day times in the kingdom of
>God. But also look below that: in addition to 30,000
>baptisms there were almost 20,000 fallaways. You heard
>it right: 30,000 baptisms, 20,000 fallaways. How
>would you like to stand up before your church on
>Sunday morning, and say, brothers and sisters, I want
>you to look to your left and to your right, because on
>the day of judgement, youre not going to make it. Two
>out of three of you are not going to make it. We've
>got a shepherding crisis, are you with me church?

Here's a recognition that seemed to be missing from all three periods of UBF attempted reform: that many, many people have left UBF. In UBF parlance, they "ran away." No one, UBF or CMI, seems to have seen this as a problem, though statistics and numbers seem important to both.

>In 1997, Joseph Owade and Lucas Mboya wage a very
>public war against the Nariobi Christian Church. They
>specifically protest against tithing, bashing other
>churches, and the elitism of the ICC. Their protests
>are never mentioned publicly.

There seems to be something in common here. The last reform effort
in UBF seemed to have global support, whereas, 1976 was confined to
Korea and 1989 was confined to the US midwest.

>In 1999, John Engler in Denver begins a "Barnabas
>Ministry" as an apologetic to the ICC while
>acknowledging its errors. Surviving criticism, he
>wrote about many of the problems within the ICC and
>proposed solutions. On his website, there are many
>thoughtful articles about the study series (First
>Prinicples), the pyramid structure, Matthew 28:18-20
>(baptized disciples are the only ones saved) and Matt
>6:33 (Seek first the church's needs). In 2001, he
>published a book called "The Grass Isn't Always
>Greener" that talks about the suffering of leaving the
>ICC. Since then, John himself has left the ICC and
>continues to help those inside and outside the ICC.

There is no danger of a John Engler in the current climate of UBF. Leaders with a slightly different idea from the norm will probably continue to be silenced or pushed out along with the half of UBF that had a slightly different idea in 2000-2001.

>In 2001, Kip McKean goes on a 'sabbatical'. Althought
>it is never publicly stated, his oldest daughter left
>the ICC while attending her freshman year of college.
>He had dismissed the World Sector leaders over Central
>America a couple years earlier when one of their
>children left the ICC.
>
>In January 2002, Gordon Ferguson and Wyndham Shaw
>publish a book entitled "The Golden Rule of
>Leadership". This book directly confronts the pyramid
>structure and calls for group leadership. Reaction to
>the book is swift. Some ignore it as a solution to a
>problem that doesn't exist. Others embrace it as a new
>and potentially better way to lead. In San Francisco,
>the book is banned until the Net World Sector
>conference is held later that year.
>
>In November 2002, a Unity Meeting was held to discuss
>the future of the ICC. By Administrative Policy, a
>successor to Kip had to be named, or the World Sector
>Leaders could run the ICC as a group. Instead, the men
>openly discuss the problems within the ICC, including
>the pyramid structure. Some of the evangelists at that
>meeting return to their congregations and make serious
>attempts at reform. Some churches hold open meetings
>to discuss the problems, issues, and hurts of members.
>Some churches do nothing at all. The official report
>of this meeting says only that the men attending
>pledged to remain unified in brotherhood.

If Sam Lee had died prior to the 2000-2001 reform push, things might have gone differently. Though, if he had died sooner, the whole thing might have fizzled since he was largely the reform issue.

Was Kip McKean the issue in the ICC? Doesn't seem like it. There seems to have been a greater recognition of systemic problems in the ICC that went way beyond McKean, though he may have largely brought about those systemic problems.

>It is against this backdrop that the Henry Kreite
>letter appears in Feb 2003. Intended as a letter to
>the leadership worldwide and in LA, it is posted on
>the internet and spreads overnight all over the world.
>Reaction to the letter was swift and dramatic:
>
>Most of the World Sector leaders resign as well as
>many of the Geographic Sector leaders. Most of the
>World Sector corporations dissolve. (Exceptions
>include the Net World Sector Corporation centered in
>San Francisco, the ICOC parent corporation in LA, and
>the ICC Missions Corporation, also in LA). Evangelists
>resign in droves and regular members leave en masse
>from larger churches. Many members strike back through
>contribution - those staff members that didn't resign
>are fired for lack of money to pay for them. Some
>churches struggle to pay generous severances to former
>staff. Smaller churches struggle to stay afloat or
>fold. Most dramatic is that many members and leaders
>now discover that they have to fend for themselves and
>are ill-equipped to handle the legal, financial, and
>ethical aspects of church polity.
>
>Many apologies ensue as well as letters of response.
>Some are sincere, some are posturing. Letters of
>response range from criticism of Henry Kreite's
>character, to mild praise, to tremendous praise.

So there was something brewing all along under the surface of the ICC's seemingly solid and unified front, and it erupted with the Kriete letter.

I guess you could say that the 2000-2001 events in UBF were a similar eruption. For most of us, that reform push came out of nowhere, so it had to have been brewing under the surface for a long time. I personally believe there is a lot of personal discouragement and unspoken dissatisfaction still in UBF. And that dissatisfaction is over the current leadership's commitment to not change after the death of Sam Lee. But is there a Kriete in UBF, someone whom everyone knows and respects, whose honest examination of UBF would not result in the usual muzzling and expulsion?

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Replies:

Re: membership numbers -- Chirs, 01:59:27 10/13/04 Wed
- ICC membership numbers -- John, 09:19:34 10/13/04 Wed
  - UBF and "moveaways" -- Chris, 14:31:08 10/13/04 Wed