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

The performes of Christ A Comparative Essay over the past ten years there has been much controversy in the Christian andsecular media about the International Churches of Christ (ICC), and the get together(or mainline) Church of Christ (CoC). This controversy has stemmed from theICCs misuse of funds, doctrinal problems, member abuse, and mind-control. Thedifferences in the midst of the CoC and the ICC are principal(prenominal) for Christians know andnetherstand.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 performes 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 encounter in Cleveland, Ohio, to commit more fully to unity, liberty,freedom in Christ, and the evangelism of the world. These grou ps, under thehead of the Uniting General Synod, became the United Churches of Christ. Todaythe CoC has over 2 thousand registered churches in the world.By 1979, the roots of the CoC were firmly in place. It was so that ChuckLucas, a pastor at the Gainesville Church of Christ (mainline), met a youngcollege student, Kip McKean, and began discipling him. Kip was a bright studentand showed dandy 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 departure from the CoC doctrine,manipulative attitude, unclear motivation, and tyrannical of others lives.Kip and his wife Elena moved to Boston and started a small church that grewrapidly from thirty to over three hundred disciples in both months. Kip (who, bythis time, proclaimed himself as "Gods man for Gods mission") and so declared inhis Evangelism Proclamation speech in 1981 that disciples of h is Boston churchwould be sent out to start sister churches in London, Chicago, forward-looking 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 urban center in the world with a population of over 75,000 will amaze 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 current "fall-away (members who leave the church) rate" is