Who is Kip McKean, founder of the International Churches of Christ?

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 31, 1954, McKean was mentored by the late Charles ‘Chuck’ Lucas, who started the Campus Advance program that called for strong evangelical outreach and an intimate religious atmosphere in the form of soul talks and fellowships. of prayer.

Soul talks, which included prayer and sharing and were facilitated by a leader who delegated authority over group members, were held in student homes. The term “prayer partners” refers to the custom of pairing a new Christian with an experienced mentor for support and guidance. Each participant became deeply involved in the lives of the others as a result of both processes.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: A lawsuit filed in California accuses a non-denominational Christian group of covering up cases of child sexual abuse and being complicit in the suicide of some members. The International Churches of Christ (ICOC) and affiliated groups are accused by five women of indoctrinating, isolating and sexually exploiting them through a rigid belief system, Fox News reports. Groups include Hope Worldwide, Mercy Worldwide, International Christian Church, and City of Angels International Christian Church.

Sisters Darleen Diaz, 33, and Bernice Perez, 31, are among the five plaintiffs in the case filed late last month. Also named are Elena Peltola, 23, Ashley Ruiz, 31, Salud Gonzelez, 30, and others.

The filed lawsuit accused the ICOC and its affiliated organizations of pressuring church members to fund special mission trips twice a year and tithe 10% of their income to the church. This, according to the allegations, pushed some members into severe depression and suicide.

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ICOC Founder Thomas Kip McKean

According to the Fox News report, the Diaz and Perez sisters said they were abused by David Saracino, a convicted pedophile, and that the church did not do enough to protect them from him. He is accused of telling the girls “that they needed to bathe”, which the girls claim he did to “strongly caress their naked bodies while bathing”. Ruiz has also alleged that Saracino engaged in sexual acts with her. As controversy over the allegation rages, here’s everything you need to know about Thomas ‘Kip’ McKean, the founder of the church, who is also named in the lawsuit.

Kip McKean was one of the first converts in Gainesville. He earned a degree while being trained by him at Crossroads and, after graduation, worked as a campus minister for many Churches of Christ. By 1979, his ministry had expanded from a small group of people to over 300, making it the Church of Christ campus ministry in America with the highest rate of expansion.

McKean later moved to Massachusetts and became the pastor of the Lexington Church of Christ (now the Boston Church of Christ). Based on Lucas’s initial plans, McKean only agreed to oversee the church in Lexington if each member committed to being “fully dedicated.” In what became known as the Boston Movement, the church grew from 30 members to 3,000 in just over 10 years. In 1993, McKean formed the International Churches of Christ as a movement, formally separating from the mainline Churches of Christ. Currently, the ICOC and its affiliates operate in various parts of the world, including Africa, North America, Central America, Cambodia, Bolivia and Singapore, and have more than 120,000 members.

The churches under McKean’s leadership have presumably been referred to as the Christian Church International since 2006. Currently the minister of the City of Angels Christian Church International and Christian Churches International World Missions Evangelist, McKean has had a fair share of controversies as a founding member. member of the controversial ICOC, including being fired from Houston’s Memorial Drive Church of Christ for “teaching false doctrine” along with fellow minister Roger Lamb in 1977.Read More…..