Blog Statement

It is time to expose the corruption of Kip McKean’s “International Christian Church” (ICC); “Have nothing to do with the worthless deeds of evil and darkness but instead expose them.” –Ephesians 5:11

This organization is guilty of abusive policies, exploiting members, coercion, and even extortion.

All this in the name of “putting the Kingdom first”? They have forgotten what the Kingdom of God really is.

This is abuse against the people of God.

This can no longer be called a church; it is now a corrupt organization pretending to be a church. For those in the lower levels of leadership who are offended by my words, it is time for you to step back and take a good look at what this organization has become.

Their actions against those who attempt to speak up against this abuse border on psychological terrorism. It is time for the ICC to give an account for what it has done.

Kip McKean baselessly character assassinates anyone who criticizes him as being “bitter” and it is time to put an end to that. This is indignation; an anger aroused against abuse and corruption.

These are articles of indignation against the abuse of God’s people.

Friday, January 8, 2016

The New gods of Kip McKean's "International Christian Church"

So I have seen some of the ICC’s recent sermons and then was going through some friends posts on social media and I came upon a conversation between one of my friends and an ICC leader. They were arguing about how to approach a leadership that is in sin (in the ICC’s case, severely corrupt, as my friend argued) and the ICC leader had this to say:

“As a disciple remember that we must be very careful how we speak about any authority in this world whether corrupt or benign. God takes this very seriously. David himself showed a respect toward Saul, even though Saul was corrupt. This was because David understood the sovereignty of God. When we talk bad about God's leaders whether factually accurate or not, we are calling God's judgment and decisions into question. We see examples of the outcome of this in the Scriptures.”

This was in the context of talking about people who criticize the ICC leadership. This kind of thinking is in complete ignorance of other scriptures about issues of corruption as my friend Josh soon pointed out to him; “You used David and Saul as an example but how about more clear examples that line up with prophets addressing church leaders in the old testament. Consider Jeremiah at the city gates or Jesus in the temple. God is absolutely Sovereign and all believers are ambassadors of the truth. Remember Jesus flipped tables and made a whip. Jeremiah preached at the city gates and phineas picked up a spear.”

Not to mention that Revelations 2:2 calls us to test for “false teachers”; "I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and you have found them false."


This leader did not say anything else after that, but it is clear what kind of manipulative rhetoric these ICC leaders are feeding their members; “To criticize us is to criticize God”. Even as they are coercing money from the members and refusing to repent of such abusive behavior; their arrogance is astounding.

First of all they claim that the people in their leadership are “God’s leaders”. Maybe they need a history lesson on just how Kip McKean’s “New Movement” got started in the first place:

Let’s start with the note that Kip himself was mostly to blame for the fall of the “old movement” (I thoroughly prove and give evidence for this in Article 10 of this blog along with all the excuses that Kip tried to make for his actions, also see the “Back to the Matrix” article linked below). Kip also tries to blame the damage on Henry Kriete. After actually reading the HK letter as well as Kriete’s letter to Steve Johnson, it is apparent that Henry Kriete did not cause the damage, the damage was already there. All Henry did was help to remove the blindfolds that the leadership kept trying to put on the congregation and brought the real alarming issues of the church into the light.

 After Kip was forced to step down as the ICOC's worldwide evangelist he was still allowed to lead a church in Portland, but he had become bitter and started to point fingers at the other leaders and blaming them for the damage that he himself had caused. He began to rant about the ICOC’s autonomy and preached a doctrine of “one-man central leadership” even though the leaders had tried to sit down with him and show that this doctrine of his was arrogant and full of holes scripturally and in total ignorance of the actual leadership structure of the first century church (which I prove in Article 5). In 2006, after much divisive propaganda and attempts to undermine ICOC churches, Kip then announces that he is separating from the ICOC while still spewing the same rubbish about the ICOC’s “autonomy”. He also had the audacity to criticize the ICOC’s lack of growth and use this opening to claim that the ICOC “was no longer evangelistic”, despite the fact that the ICOC churches were still trying to heal from the damage caused by Kip’s regime; once again blaming others for the problems that he had caused. In 2007 Kip used the resources of his Portland church as a “springboard” to launch his flagship church in L.A. He took from the Portland church: A Missions contribution of over $120,000, 10 of the 12 full & part time ministry staff, 42 Leaders and members of the Portland church and then 40 more Portland members were pressured to move to L.A. as well. This weakened the Portland church, and when their recruitment stats dropped the members of the Portland church began to receive accusations that they were “lukewarm” and the Portland members were harassed with messages and calls telling them to move to L.A. For the members of the Portland church to sacrifice so much manpower and money, only to be slandered when their performance in evangelistic recruitment began to falter; this was damaging to the Portland church and they began to see how abusive Kip’s system of leadership was. In 2008 The Portland church was unable to take anymore abuse and finally they decided that although they should be open and considerate of input and opinions other churches; the ultimate decision-making rested in the hands of the local leadership of the church, not some “supreme dictator” who had obviously not repented of his abusive behavior. This was a shot across the bow of the “one-man central leadership” doctrine that Kip was peddling. Kip responded by slandering the Portland church; telling the members of that congregation to leave and join his church. If that wasn’t arrogant enough, he even sent one of his leaders over to Portland while announcing that this so-called “new leader” was now going to be leading the “New Movement Church” there in Portland as he continued to use thuggish tactics in an attempt to try to undermine the local Portland leadership. After Kip’s disgusting display of treachery the Portland church had had enough of Kip and decided to break ties with the ICC and joined in fellowship with the ICOC churches. I remember sitting there in 2008 as Kip announced “sadly the Portland church has decided that they no longer want to be a part of a movement of ‘sold out’ disciples”, they have left ‘God’s movement’”. The irony is that during this same sermon Kip had preached about how he used to be “harsh on people” during his leadership in the ICOC, but claimed that he had repented of such behavior (today most ICC leaders try to avoid talking about Kip’s abusive ICOC days altogether or try to change the story and shift the blame elsewhere; they obviously cannot hope that people will buy the story that he has “repented” anymore). Kip has proven himself to be a bold-faced liar.

Kip was able to grow his new church very quickly by preying on struggling “remnant” ICOC churches.

To get an idea why so many ICOC churches began “struggling” let’s rewind back to Kip’s ICOC days; I show in Article 10 that Kip’s system during the time that he was leading the ICOC had allowed corrupt people to rise into the leadership because Kip wanted to appoint leaders who would enforce his policies (in other words, this opened the doors for blind or selfish leaders with shallow or no biblical convictions to be elevated into leadership). The consequences of this lasted for some time even after Kip was taken out of power. After Kip’s one-man supreme leadership was dismantled these leaders went rogue (for example, the ICOC church near my city began to compel their members to give a “special missions contribution” even though they were not sending out any mission teams, and then they pocketed the money for themselves and bought nice houses). A letter from one ICOC church even showed that they had to purge the majority of their leadership and have a temporary “emergency transition team” take over until they could sort the serious issues about the integrity of their staff. If the damage caused by Kip McKean’s abusive leadership could be likened to the damage caused by an earthquake, then the damage caused by these rouge leaders could be seen as “aftershocks” of Kip’s corrupt leadership. Henry Kriete makes mention of these “rogue leaders” in his letter to Steve Johnson when he says that the ICOC still has “unrepentant/unreformed cult leaders kicking around”. Incidentally many leaders that were fired by the ICOC were later hired by Kip into his new organization.

Now fast-forward back to where we were before during the launch of Kip’s “new movement”. Kip saw an opportunity to take advantage of this “aftershock damage” and began to call out to the members of different ICOC congregations who were having problems with their leadership and telling them to abandon their churches and join his new organization. Now why would these people join with Kip who was actually responsible for much of the damage in the first place? I cannot answer for their reasoning; the only thing that I can say that in all the years that I was in the ICC, not a single ex-ICOC person could give me a clear answer on why Kip McKean’s “old movement fell”. They would just say that “everyone was just bitter” and refer to the events leading up to Kip’s resignation as “the great confusion”. It is the nature of weak-minded people to gobble up such deceptively over-simplified explanations when the truth is inconveniently more complex. The only conclusion that I can come up with is that during the leadership’s attempt to point blame elsewhere, at Henry Kriete, at the supposed “bitterness” of the members and the swirling propaganda coming from Kip and other leaders; a lot of people were kept in the dark or were willing to live in ignorance in order to avoid conflict. Either way, years later the damage caused by rogue leaders meant that certain ICOC congregations were ripe for exploitation by Kip.

The rest is history; the increasing corruption of the ICC leadership from 2008 to 2015 is laid out by my articles.

Kip’s new organization was started because he wanted to be the king of his own kingdom; a kingdom that was built on slander and hypocritical divisiveness. It is Kip’s kingdom with leaders who are under his payroll and under his control. These are not “God’s leaders”, you cannot call this “God’s kingdom”. There was nothing “Godly” about the way that Kip’s organization started.

If you take a look at the roots of the ICC’s creation; it is a product of Kip McKean’s bitterness, arrogance and a desire for power driven by an over-inflated ego.

Now people who have been a part of the ICC for years are leaving. The ICC has even began marking people simply for telling the leaders that they are leaving the organization. The ICC drags out abuse over an extended period of time, and therefore they are afraid of people who have been part of their organization and then suddenly say that they are leaving. They are afraid of how much these people know and fear that these people will expose them.

Last month, a shepherding couple, Russ and Lana Preston were marked and disfellowshipped after Russ confronted Tim Kernan about issues in the ICC leadership. Russ had become concerned with the ICC calling the members to unquestioning obedience to their leadership. Tim Kernan has been given leadership of the CAICC (Kip's "flagship" church), but Kip McKean still ultimately controls the ICC as the "lead evangelist". When Russ asked Tim Kernan the question if this absolute obedience included the situation where the leader in question was calling members to do something that was wrong, sinful or unbiblical Tim then unashamedly said that such things did not matter; that their leadership must be obeyed regardless. This alarmed Russ and he tried to plead with Kip but was not only ignored but also quickly marked and disfellowshipped by the ICC leadership. Russ and Lana were long-term members who had led the Chemical Recovery ministry for years.  

As more of the ICC’s corruption is exposed Kip is now attempting the same thing as he tried to do before; calling people to blind obedience in his leadership and claiming that anyone who speaks against him is speaking against God. These are the same ridiculous kind of fear tactics that he implemented when he was part of the ICOC and look at the damage that caused.

Even as they blatantly enforce policies that contradict the Bible they still preach to their members that they need to submit to their leaders (and also these unbiblical policies) and though one would submit to God. They have essentially taken down those of God’s teachings that are inconvenient to them and put Kip’s teachings in the place of God’s teachings. The ICC has a new god now; his name is Kip McKean.

And let’s take a look at what Kip McKean’s god is:

The ICC:
●Twists and perverts scriptures for the sake of money.
●Abuses discipling relationships and uses them to manipulate people for the sake of money.
●Deceiving the congregation and enforcing a policy for raising contribution
●Lies and deceit to raise the special contributions.
●Manipulatively tells their members that after each contribution raise they cannot lower it on account of it being an “oath to God”.
●Members who do not comply with these money-making policies are often subjected to slander and other abusive measures.

It is all too clear what the real god of the ICC leadership is.

Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.  –Philippians 3:19


Relevant Information Sources

Here is the link to an article written by one of the ICOC churches which details the destruction that Kip’s leadership caused and admits how degraded their system was in allowing corrupt leaders to rise into the leadership under Kip’s guidance:
("Back to the Matrix" article)

That article also describes his attempt at continuing his sociopathic behavior even after he was forced to resign

Here are links to articles written by the ICOC news network which describe the damage that Kip caused to Portland and their confrontations with Kip concerning his propaganda and slander:

(Article on Portland)

(Hotnews responds to ICC)

And of course the other articles that I have written and already proved certain statements I make within this article.


Authors Note:

As we start off this new year, and as the depravity of the ICC becomes more apparent to its own members, it seems that Kip McKean is doing the same thing he did in the past which is to shift blame and excommunicate people who point out their hypocrisy and twisted policies. These people have shown that they have no intention to repent and the only way they will stop is when God himself drags them down kicking and screaming.

Now some have told me to let things go and stop agonizing over the ICC, I thank you for your concern. Indeed I recognize that a kingdom that is not built on God will not last and this organization will ultimately fall apart or be forcibly destroyed by God to end this “spiritual rape” of God’s people, however, on some sleepless nights I still find myself recalling the hypocritical and disturbing things that happened while I was a part of the organization. Also while this organization is still active, they remain a threat to the many innocent campus students out there, who are the ICC's primary prey. I also have friends that have kept me up to date on things going on in the organization and new propaganda the ICC has put out in their recent sermons. The ICC is also an organization that tries to isolate their own members and attempts to limit information about their internal affairs that may leak to outsiders; in fact they lie through their teeth to those outside their organization while posting more propaganda on their websites. So I figure that someone has to keep people updated on what is really happening and keep people from falling for the schemes of these con-men. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” There are many others who are speaking out against this organization, but even if I were the only one; someone has to speak the truth. At least this will be one of a few sources of more up-to-date information out there to counter the ICC’s deceptive propaganda. I don’t intend to agonize over the ICC, however, so unless something significant happens then this is likely to be my only post of 2016. It is best not to dwell in the past and I may end up just posting one article a year only for the sake of keeping people updated.



Update 1/10/2016
Many may have noticed that the “history section” of the article seemed to gloss over a rather significant detail. After Kip was taken out of leadership, how did he manage to become the leader of the Portland Church? After all the abuse and damage that this corrupt man had caused, who in their right mind would hire him again?

To fill in these blanks, I would like to give major props to Chris Lee who provides on his website the documents that describe the events behind Kip McKean’s rise to leadership in the Portland church, and it is very disturbing to read.

Here is the link to the document:

To summarize; Kip McKean was able to attain leadership of the Portland church due thanks to the assistance of leaders in the ICOC San Francisco church who were just as corrupt-minded as himself and who wanted control of the money in the Portland church bank account. To do this they used abusive tactics, lies to the congregation, and methods to publicly humiliate members who opposed them; leading up to appointing Kip as Portland’s new leader in order to reassert control over the Portland Church’s assets.

Now why Kip? It not only had to do with recognizing that Kip’s interests coincided with their own, that is, being lovers of themselves and lovers of money. But also Russ Ewell owed Kip a favor for helping him to cover up certain events that would have landed him with statutory rape charges. When Ewell was leading the Boston Teen Ministry in the early to mid 80’s he had sex with numerous blonde teenagers. Kip helped cover it up so that he wouldn’t be charged as a sex offender. Ewell owed Kip a favor, which was a big reason behind his sudden decision to throw his support in letting him lead Portland.


The rest of the story has already been told; Kip then used the Portland church to start his own “movement”, and the disgusting abuse continues to this day in the form of a new organization. Kip has made himself into the “Kim Jong-un” of his own personal kingdom, and his authority comes first rather than God’s authority. The claim of the ICC upper leadership that their leaders have been “appointed by God” is a treacherous lie from the mouths of those whose hearts have become wicked with the desire for control.

45 comments:

  1. Dear Daniel-

    I implore you not to cease in your "agony" over those enslaved by Kip McKean's system of control and false teachings. Your articles, along with other websites that document Kip's pattern of abuse and corruption, have been a great resource for parents, families, community members and school administrators who are greatly concerned about the mental, emotional and spiritual upheaval sustained by those in the ICC (especially the group's main target-college students). It is important to note that this concern has become so grave that several ICC clubs have been kicked off university campuses and/or prevented to set up shop.

    Those that are encouraging you to "let things go" have given up. They have stopped fighting. This is exactly what the ICC leadership hopes will happen. And in doing so, they will claim the reason you stopped writing was because of their fervent prayers. Please do not lose heart nor allow the ICC to claim victory over you. Your writings are not in vain.

    Sincerely,
    A partner in the gospel

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    1. As a recent and current participant in the ICC that is looking for answers, I really appreciate people that are openly discussing their experiences. However, it also makes me sad because I can see that valid arguments can be dismissed as "persecution" without further evaluation. I am not saying that I support a "let things go" stance, but I also see that continuously talking about the ICC only adds fuel to the organization. It is heavily taught within the ICC that any voice against it is a form of persecution. It is also taught that one of the costs of Christ-likeness is facing persecution as even Jesus was persecuted for who/what he was/did. Therefore, it is heavily implied that a sign of becoming more Christ-like is facing persecution. If you are not being persecuted, you are doing something wrong. Whereas, if you are being persecuted, it means you must be doing things right; this is because you are going through one of the same things Jesus did, persecution, and he was perfect.

      I fear that continuously speaking out about the ICC will only strengthen this conviction and this flawed logic for the organization. However, I also fear what silence on the matter will do.

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    2. Well it depends on how you approach them. If you are immature and merely spout out insults and vague statements with nothing to back it up then of course it is easy for them to label it as “persecution”. But a person who is knowledgeable and clearly shows where the ICC teachings contradict then they are considered more “dangerous”, which is why the ICC marks them to try to prevent their members from hearing what they have to say. For example; in their first principles they teach the concept about “Bereanship” (Acts 17:10-12) in that they need to cross-check their information. They use this concept to get potential recruits to scrutinize what they have been taught in the past in their previous churches (and lucky for the ICC, a lot of other churches teach some unbiblical stuff as well, so getting these potential recruits to criticize their former churches is an easy task). If a current member starts to point out the ICC’s own unbiblical practices, however, this teaching of “Bereanship” suddenly goes out the window (members in the ICC are told to obey their leaders without question) and the member is reprimanded for being “divisive” and often marked by the leadership. For people who catch on to this hypocritical behavior of the ICC leadership and speak out about it; it is hard to simply dismiss this as “persecution” because the voice of logic and reason is on their side, so the ICC leadership marks these people as well and sends letters out to their congregation saying that they are not to communicate with them. It then becomes the job of these unrepentant ICC leaders to go around putting blindfolds on their members.

      In the past few years there have been more people who have spoken out about the truth of the ICC’s corruption, and as I mentioned in the comment below that this past year the ICC did not grow and 335 people left from their California churches (not to mention the total number that left around the world). Many people are starting to wake up and realize that this is not merely “persecution”.

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    3. Thank you for your reply. There have just been so many (seemingly small) logical fallacies that have been nagging at me, and I feel like I have been trying to ignore them this whole time. I can be very analytical and know I can overthink things at times, and I just really like to evaluate and spend a lot of time thinking critically about everything that I observe. The more that I see as my involvement has continued, the harder it has become to suppress this. I have been feeling like perhaps this is a part of my "sinful nature" that I just need to "deny." To finally look at other people saying similar things rather than just being told and accepting things along the lines of "Satan wants to isolate you" and is getting a foothold, or that I am clearly not "unified" or am being "divisive" is very helpful.

      It still just makes me sad that they do not address real concerns. It feels like instead of listening and trying to understand other perspectives, there is a list of attacks that they already have prepared, so there is no reasoning or real discussion. I hope that I am able to approach them with an appropriate level of maturity that at least gets them to truly think critically about what I am saying/feeling, whether they like it or not. I do not feel like I am persecuting them and do not have any ill feelings towards them, I just want to understand everything that is being taught, and the only way that I know how to do that is to ask questions. But questions always feel wrong.

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    4. I see where you are coming from. In my experience in the past I had tried speaking with them about various issues, and like you I wanted to approach them with maturity and clearly show my concerns. This proved fruitless because their response was one of immaturity; to give the same excuses and using tactics of intimidation and mindless repetition. In some cases they pretended to listen to me; only to slander me behind my back later.

      Indeed they do have a list of attacks prepared; they are aware of the areas that are corrupt but have no intention to repent so they attack those who bring up the issues. As I have described in my articles the ICC has become a system designed to squeeze as much money from their members as possible, and the priority of the leadership is to defend this system of profit on which their jobs and incomes depend on. Others stay for ulterior motives; such as relationships, girlfriends, boyfriends, etc. The ICC dominates all aspects of their lives and they become unable to leave even when they notice how wrong it is.

      Here is what I see; for these leaders to abuse God’s people for money, something that we know that God absolutely hates (Matthew 21:12, John 2:13-17, Luke 19:45-46, Mark 11:15-17), not only do these people no longer care about God, but do they even still believe in God? Would you deliberately anger the God of the universe if you really believe he exists? It would be madness. Yet these people do it without batting an eye. They also deliberately slander and tell lies about their critics; something that any kid who has gone to Sunday school would know is wrong and definitely unbecoming of someone who claims to serve God. These ICC leaders have become little more than con-men who are just in it for money and do not care who gets hurt.

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    5. The ICC is also having another GLC coming up.

      The GLC fee is a ripoff to get additional profits, and here is how the ICC did it:

      In 2008 and 2009 they had these “jubilees”, every member giving $60 was enough to pay for the conference.

      Then in 2010 they had the first “GLC”. This first GLC was “invite only” and only the Bible talk leaders and other people in leadership positions were allowed to go. For them the GLC fee was $150 in order to “help pay for the travel expenses of the other leaders from out of the country”. Then in 2011 they opened the GLC for everyone, but then kept the $150 entrance fee. Now people are pressured to go even though the fee has been raised to $175.

      They still say that the fee is to “pay the travel expenses for the leaders out of the country”, but this doesn’t make sense. If everyone is now going rather than just those who are “invited”, then shouldn’t the fee have decreased rather than increased? It’s a ripoff in order to get money out of people. Many of these ICC leaders are flying first class; splurging the money of their members. I remember being in Tim Kernan’s living room and overhearing a phone conversation between him and Kip that they were making a “cozy profit” from that year’s GLC. Tim Kernan has been the main organizer for the GLC for the past few years; he’s one of Kip’s P&P men (profits and propaganda), so it is clear why he gave Tim control of the L.A. church.

      Now leading up to the GLC, months before the event they aggressively push their members to go, every Sunday they bring up people during service to try to influence their congregations and set “goals” to have everyone in their congregation go. This kind of pressure was not present back in 2008 and 2009 for their $60 jubilee. Now it’s all about getting that $175 GLC entry fee from as many members as they can, and I have seen them slander members who do not pay this fee to go to the GLC.

      This “church conference profit” scheme is of course not unique to the ICC alone; other churches in the religious world have used conferences to make some extra cash. It’s just that the ICC takes advantage of their significant control over their congregation to be excessively aggressive with getting their members to go in order to get more money and boost profits.

      Also, to add assertation to the ICC’s craze for profits, there have been a lot of reported deceitful actions behind getting this GLC money from their members. A few examples are when one of the church regions had a fundraiser selling fireworks and the leaders told the members to tell people that the money was going to “world missions” when the money was actually going toward their GLC fees; this is blatantly telling their members to lie. There was another incident where the members who were tagging were telling people that the money they were collecting was going to build a well or other water source in Africa, but then once the money was collected the members were told that only 10% of the money was going to the well in Africa while 90% was going to the overpriced GLC fees.

      The ICC constantly uses deceit and lies for the sake of money. The Bible calls money the root of all evil and Satan the father of lies.

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  2. Just tuned into the ICC's live stream of the 2016 Winter Workshop and Tim "Money Bags" Kernan is preaching about the ICC's favorite topic! You guessed it, CASH. He "commands" the members to raise their contribution stating that the bible gives him the authority to do so and specifically lays out the dollar amount he expects the teens, campus, singles and marrieds to raise their weekly tithe by. He says that each married couple must raise their weekly contribution by $20.00 and then says "this means a single mom needs to raise her's by $10.00 a week..."

    A married couple with a family who is barely making ends meet is manipulated into believing that if they truly want to obey the bible, they must increase their contribution by $80.00 a month; a single parent by $40.00. No one has to be told that this is ALOT OF MONEY for those who are perpetually struggling to get by. Not surprisingly, Tim's call for everyone to increase their weekly title comes on the heel's of the group's Special Mission Drive where members are required to give 25 times their tithe. It is important to that the ICC is primarily made up of the working poor-college students, financially strapped singles (this of course includes single moms) and poor families. This makes Tim's demands and twisting of the scriptures that more disturbing.

    Dan-this is why you, me and countless other cannot STOP speaking and writing about the abuse, coercion, manipulation and fear tactics the ICC uses to exploit and control their members.

    As a frightening side note, immediately after Tim's sermon, 3 time married Corey Blackwell proclaims to the audience, "YOU HAVE JUST HEARD A PROPHET OF GOD SPEAK!"

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    1. Profit off God more like !

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    2. In addition to the group's mandatory Thanksgiving contribution that requires members to give up to 15-20% of their weekly tithe and again another imposed collection of 25-30% in April for "Special Missions", the ICC has now mandated a third so called mission's contribution in February requiring members to give 3% of their weekly tithe.

      It now makes sense why back in January, at the group's Winter Workshop, Tim Kernan commands members(claiming the bible gives him this authority) to raise their contribution, ASAP, by a specific dollar amount-$40 a week per married couple, $10.00 per week as a single, $5.00 a week per campus student) knowing full well that the ICC's "corporate board" was going to hit members with this February multiple collection CONVENIENTLY after the congregation turned in their new weekly pledge card.

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    3. To Anonymous February 21

      This comes as no surprise. They have done this before. To pressure their members to raise their weekly contributions shortly before a special contribution in order increase profits.

      I am kind of confused by your math though. The ICC’s special contributions go by multiples, not percentages. Like the 5x in Thanksgiving and the 25x in June. If you were to put these in percentages, and then consider that many are coerced into giving 30% or more of their paycheck weekly, for many of the members the Thanksgiving contribution would be 150% of their total weekly earnings and the 25x contribution in June would be 750% of their total weekly earnings.

      You can see the profit train here. During the June special contribution the ICC rakes in what amounts to 75x a normal weekly tithe (considering that the definition of a tithe is 10%) in one week from some of the members. For this special contribution alone it amounts to over a year’s worth of normal tithes at once (since a year is 52 weeks) for the older members who have been harassed into giving more. In fact if you add up both special contributions then the total amount collected from these members during the special contributions amounts to 1.7 years worth of tithes (assuming a 30% weekly contribution and considering the definition of a normal tithe amount to be 10%). And of course since they are still continually giving 30% of their paychecks throughout the year this adds up to about 4.7 years worth of normal tithes in one year.

      Many of the members leave before their contributions are coerced into the 30% mark though, but it goes to show that the ICC cares more about money than people.

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  3. I, too, was listening to some of the ICC's Winter Workshop sermons and all I could think about over the din of the cheers, "amens", and thunderous applause whenever a leader took a breath was the below quote from Warren and David Wiersbe:

    "When ministry becomes performance, then the sanctuary becomes a theater, the congregation becomes an audience, worship becomes entertainment, and man's applause and approval become the measure of success. But when ministry is for the glory of God, his presence moves into the sanctuary. Even the unsaved visitor will fall down on his face, worship God, and confess that God is among us."

    There is no room for God in a 'church' such as the ICC. It is made up of men and women who desire to please and obey their earthly leaders over their heavenly Father; a group concerned with towing the party line rather than standing up for justice and righteousness; followers who claim to know the truth yet remain intoxicated and enslaved by false teachers. At best, the ICC is a perpetual pep rally. At worst a gateway to damnation.

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    1. Since we're on the topic of the winter workshop. Elena McKean and her "spiritual granddaughter" Rebecca Rico did a sermonette together. Elena shared how she wanted to reach out to Rebecca's physical mom and tried to set up a lunch date with her. Apparently, Rebecca's mom didn't get back to Elena immediately. And Elena chalked this up to "people are intimidated by me and Kip." I laughed out loud at this and thought "My God, Elena is just as egotistical as her husband!"

      I wonder if it ever occurs to Kip and Elena that people outside of the ICC could care less about who they are and when they call, people are like "meh...it's just that crazy woman trying to get me to join her church, again". Or, perhaps people know enough about the McKeans and their deceptive practices that they want nothing do with them including having lunch.

      C'mon...would you want to have lunch with a smarmy used car sales man/woman who reeks of old eau de toilette spray? This is essentially what Kip and Elena are. They peddle the gospel for profit.

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  4. It is alarming and sad that this movement continues to hurt many. If one is able to escape, where will we go after knowing the truth?

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    1. There is a new movement that is forming in Boston made up of former ICOC and ICC Christians. It is based on a Pre-Nicene interpretation of Scripture such as that of David Bercot. One of the leaders is Chuck Pike who was formerly part of the Boston ICOC.

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    2. There is a new movement that is forming in Boston made up of former ICOC and ICC Christians. It is based on a Pre-Nicene interpretation of Scripture such as that of David Bercot. One of the leaders is Chuck Pike who was formerly part of the Boston ICOC.

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    3. To the God of grace to heal. Not the God of condemnation, who the ICC worships. But the God of grace and freedom, that's first.
      Second, to therapy. Preferable a Christian therapist.
      Third, to meet your many fellow brothers and sisters in many churches who are genuinely pleasing God with their lives and loving Him, without having to abuse or control other people. It's a glorious feeling. The family of God's kingdom on Earth is much larger than what the ICC claims it to be. God bless:)

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  5. Daniel-You write, "When Russ asked Tim Kernan the question if this absolute obedience included the situation where the leader in question was calling members to do something that was wrong, sinful or unbiblical Tim then unashamedly said that such things did not matter; THAT THEIR LEADERSHIP MUST BE OBEYED REGARDLESS." [Bolded for emphasis].

    It's interesting that Tim, now under Kip's discipling, is calling members to do something that Kip not only admitted was unbiblical but later apologized for teaching. In the second issue of the Upside Down Magazine (April 1992) Kip writes, “I was wrong in some of my initial thoughts about biblical authority. I had felt that church leaders could call people to obey and follow in ALL AREAS of opinion. This was incorrect.”

    Again, we see that Kip has returned to his "vomit" and has led current ICC leaders, like Tim Kernan, to feast along with him.

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  6. It was recently announced that former San Diego ICOC evangelist, Jermaine Peacock, and his wife, Stepanie, will now be leading the San Diego ICC. Jermaine decided to jump ship from the ICOC to the ICC after he was let go. It is important to note, like many former ICOC staff members who later join up with Kip (i.e. Cory Blackwell, Chris McGrath, Blaise Feumbia, etc.) Jermaine only decided to leave the ICOC when he was no longer an evangelist and collecting a paycheck. It also should be noted that Stephanie, his wife and women's ministry leader, was barely attending church services. When they jumped ship, instead of requiring Stephanie to be restored (which is what is expected of regular rank and file members who regularly miss church and do not pay their contribution) Luke and Brandyn Speckman along with Evan and Kelly Bartholomew (ICC Orange County Region Leaders) with Kip's approval allowed the Peacocks to place "membership" to make it an easier transition on Stephanie who was tanking it spiritually. This is the type of partiality that has been shown to almost ALL former ICOC staff members who take up with Kip. They are not held to the same standard as regular members.

    #callingICCleadersout;#ICCleaders_no_credibility

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    1. "...allowed the Peacocks to place "membership" to make it an easier transition on Stephanie who was tanking it spiritually."

      Another reason the ICC leadership did not require Stephanie to get restored is so that the Peacocks could save face especially since it was Kip's plan to have the Peacocks eventually lead the San Diego ICC when Stephanie was doing better spiritually. It's Kip's hope that the Peacocks will be effective in leading people out of their former San Diego fellowship. Kip is D.I.R.T.Y.

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    2. Whhhaaaat?!? The Peacocks were allowed to place membership instead of get restored? Yep, according to the ICC's Good News E-mail dated October 4th 2014, Luke Speckman writes: "We were especially encouraged by Jermaine, Stephanie and Sophia Peacock PLACING MEMBERSHIP from our former fellowship!"

      Both Jermaine and Stephanie have been very open about how Stephanie filed for divorce (apparently before Jermaine made the switch to the ICC). Now unless there was infidelity in the marriage, pursuing a divorce is certainly not the actions/behavior of someone who is supposedly a "faithful" disciple.

      Why the double standard, Luke Speckman?

      Hash-tag #callingICCleadersout couldn't be more appropriate!

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  7. Here is a PDF link to the ICC’s desfellowship letter of Russ and Lana Preston:
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2e5slY-B8ZiNHhEZnpyWjV4cms/view?usp=sharing

    After reading the disfellowship letter for Russ and Lana Preston I am once again reminded of the arrogance and deceitfulness of these ICC leaders. They call Russ and Lana “liars” without any reference to what they lied about, thus trying to blindly paint doubt on their integrity. The same thing was done to me and many others; the ICC blatantly tells lies about and slanders people who expose them. They also say that they are marked because they criticized the ICC’s views on “central leadership”, it has already been proven by many letters and articles that this viewpoint is flawed and unbiblical, and there is no way that these ICC leaders do not know this unless they have been living under a rock. Then they are even so arrogant as to say that the Prestons did not agree that the ICOC was “lukewarm”, which is even more amazingly arrogant since they accused the Prestons of “slander” and then marked them for not joining them in slandering the ICOC. This is without a doubt an ultimate example of the ICC’s hypocrisy. And then of course they claim that the Prestons were “bitter” about the “special missions offerings” and weekly “accountability”; as if we don’t know how abusive and manipulative their so-called version of “accountability” is as well as how they have used deceitful tactics to increase the special and weekly contributions on the members. This letter is sullied with deceitfulness and lowly character assassination.

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    1. Reading through the Preston letter, as well as several other similar disfellowship letters penned by ICC leaders against former members, it appears that the targets of these letters have strong grounds for a defamation law suit against the International Christian Church especially since this type of defamation is in the form of libel-written/published false statements that harms a person's reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a person. Libel is often easier to prove than slander since there is tangible proof of defamation via the written/published document (eg. letter against Russ and Lana).

      According to the Church Law and Tax website (churchlawandtax.com):

      "Ministers may be liable for defamation if they communicate false statements to other persons that injure the reputation of another. To illustrate, in one case a minister publicly stated that a member of his congregation had a 'vile spirit and utter disrespect for leadership,' and declared that another member had associated himself with a pastor who 'under the role of minister of Jesus, is one of Satan's choicest tools.' A court found such remarks to be defamatory."

      Hope this information helps and encourages those who have been
      targets of ICC defamation campaigns to seek appropriate legal advice/counsel against this group.

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  9. Last year the ICC membership did not grow in total number; in fact 335 members decided to leave from their “church” in California alone during 2015. For an organization that only numbers 5000 worldwide this is a significant number of people leaving and it does not include the members who also left in their other “churches” around the world.

    They are losing members just as fast as they can recruit more.

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    1. Good, it shows people are getting wise to cults, if the cult is smaller then it means less people being led astray.

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    2. To follow up with my comment about all the people leaving the ICC which resulted in the ICC not growing as an organization last year, recently I saw a post by a member of the ICC who often posts propaganda on various Facebook pages:

      “To you that you see in the evangelization only numbers and stats that terrify you, let me tell you that with your attitude you are denying Jesus Christ and hindering His return, therefore you are against Him.”

      First of all, the ICC needs to take a good long look at all the people leaving. I think that that is something that they should indeed be terrified about since their organization did not grow last year as a result. In the past the ICC had bragged about its growth and slandered other churches, but now they will be forced to eat their own words.

      This reference to stats is significant, however, because in the past Kip McKean abused stats in order to forcibly drive the churches to increase their recruitment back when he led the ICOC. Also it is not the stats themselves that had people alarmed, it is the way that they were used to browbeat the members; so the claim that these people are “terrified” of the numbers and stats is deceptively phrased here (as expected of ICC propaganda). This abuse of stats and compulsion damaged many lives during Kip McKean’s leadership of the ICOC and after Kip was ousted there were many articles written that exposed this abuse. The Henry Kriete letter especially was a revealing writing that exposed the abuse using stats and the ICOC apology letters admitted to this.

      Now that the ICC has recently stopped growing, in an act of desperation is Kip returning to his abuse of stats as well? This recent ICC post seems to hint that that may be the direction that they are heading, and it is apparent that some people have already spoke out about it hence why the author of this ICC post felt compelled to claim that these people are just “terrified” of numbers. It is obvious why these people would be concerned due to Kip’s abusive history.

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  10. This might be a weird question, but who is Kip's discipler? Who does he seek advice and spiritual guidance from?

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    1. Kip McKean claims that the church leaders who are under his employment give him “advice”, but in reality these men only tell Kip what he wants to hear because they are financially dependent on his organization. When Kip left the ICOC to start his new organization his closest friends tried to warn him about his sinful arrogance and hypocritical behavior as well as the numerous doctrinal errors that surrounded his plans for a “centrally controlled leadership”. Kip cut himself off from the people who knew him best because he wanted to be the one in charge of his own personal kingdom. No one actually disciples him and anyone who questions his policies is marked as “divisive” and are disfellowshipped.

      The “discipleship” system that Kip created was never meant to be applied to himself. The people who are put into positions of discipling other members are told to “disciple” them into raising their contributions twice a year which then also affects their special contributions (which have also been aggressively increased). The compulsion for this is so forceful that many members are pressured into increasing their contribution to the point that it becomes destructive to their academics, financial situations, and other areas of their lives. It’s a pyramid of control with Kip pulling the strings at the top.

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    2. OK. I was wondering whether or not the discipling system was applied the same to him. I have been assuming that he did not have a discipler because of the way the system is set up, but I know asking is much better than assuming.

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  11. Kips ICC sounds like a MLM (Multi Level Marketing) Christianity, how horribly disgusting.

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  12. i am a former member who left around 2003. i was recruited at age 16. i lived with world sector leaders as a nanny (i didn't want to be one but it was like u should, why wouldn't u, you'll be more spiritual if u did kind of brainwashing), well the reason i wanted to reach out is because I've been trying to get my story out. something happened to me in 1999 while in SF that took so many years to understand fully. since i was so naive when i entered the church, i didn't understand. but basically i wanted to let u know that Kip was planning to have a "super church" way back in 1999 and Portland was planned from back then. He wanted to know better techniques his world sector leaders came up with to create his "super church". One of his "winners" was Russ Ewell from the SF ICOC, now known as BACC. Portland was led by Ewell. So an agreement and deal was made to take over Portland and "trained leaders" were to join Kip from Russ Ewell. (but of coarse this was under the table). The reason i know this is because i worked for the church office in SF. and one day i needed a laptop but the IT gave me Russ' old laptop and forgot to delete the files. i thought the folder was all sermons but one was a letter to kip. and when Russ found out i had the laptop, quickly he checked and saw i had read it and then a few weeks later i was accused of pornography, (which came out of the blue..i didn't look at any pornography...but once i clicked on swing dance music from the 50s on my personal computer and IT said it was a sex site) so immediately i was fired and kicked out of his home. but later i realized its because that letter had plans for the "super" church and also info about how the world sector leaders were to submit ideas and techniques on better "leader making ways" etc etc. which included "selecting prideful people" and then "humbling them to be maluable like clay for the potter" so that they can be "obedient". So basically I was character assassinated. and even when i left SF, they called the church in the area i was at and told them i was an impure addict to porn etc etc. in the meanwhile i was a virgin who never did any sexual activity nor even looked at porn, young and naive. but in case i were to ever tell any stories about what i knew, i had to be discredited. my youth was taken away by this church and my mind controlled and my career disrupted and my self worth broken. its a horrible deceitful system of religion led by criminals and hypocrites. Russ was a rapist of teens and kip with homosexual tendencies. the sin study is based on Alcoholics Annonymous tactics by confessing every detail of sin to not do it again etc etc. Plus the mainland church of christ began by Alexander Campbell has always had branches of cults from cults to more cults since the 1820s. The reason it'll always keep going is because the set of scriptures that are used in their studies are selected from a "political manipulation techniques" since the Bible itself has gone through so many translations/countries/political systems, etc. that it can be used easily for manipulation tactics. (Even Hitler used the Bible to manipulate his masses). The Bible is only one tiny piece of a puzzle of who Jesus really was, even theres a scripture that says the amount of Books about Jesus are too many to count. (paraphrasing). Anyway it took me ten years to understand what i went through in my youth in this church and ten more years to understand what spirituality is. We are eternal beings and this life here on earth is only a tiny spec. Eternity is a loooonnnnggg time. Knowing the creator of this universe will be in all eternity so whether or not we learn it in this lifetime doesn't mean its the end of learning.

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    1. Hi JG. I don't know if you are going to read this, but I so understand you. They have destroyed so many lives. Fortunately, God is a great redeemer. Healing takes time, but God is faithful. Love

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  13. I am a former member and was converted at 18 yo in the icoc, then joined the icc. Was restored. Am now in my 40s. I have seen the lack of fear of God in London's leader Michael Williamson. h
    I have also seen the lack of fear of God and lack of hate of serious sins like lying in Kip and went through a serious life crisis consequently as I had invested so many years of my life and believed in the sincerity of heart of Kip. I am grateful God is in control and powerful to expose and correct this sorts of sinful careless and Godless mindsets. It has been a real chock to me to have a leader lying to the whole church and making up invented stories to them but I am still waiting for the kingdom in my area and praying to find a church with leaders and members who truly watch their lives and their doctrines.

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  14. Daniel, just curious: What are your thoughts about the ICOC? I have met a couple of them, however am disturbed at their claim for baptism as a requirement for salvation.

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  15. As a former member of the ICOC and someone who was involved in a church planting and different forms of leadership, I have experienced and come to my own resolutions and convictions regarding the ICOC and its former leader, Kip Mckean. It is truly a tragedy and evil the practices that he along with the leadership (World Sector leaders, Elders, Evangelists etc.) participated in, condoned and promoted. I see why Jesus was so indignant towards the Pharisees and Saducees of His time. They were no different than the leaders of today with regard to the ICOC. James 3:1 will hopefully encourage those who have been harmed and wronged by these teachings and men. God will deal with them....and He will deal with them justly. I am of the opinion and have the conviction that many of these men are nothing more than "Lions in Sheep clothing". Their guilt and their sin is clear. They may think that they will avoid the consequences, but faithfully I KNOW they will not. Frankly, I wouldn't want to be Kip Mckeen. Nor would I want to be ANY of those men who called themselves or continue to call themselves World Sector Leaders, Elders, Evangelists, etc. in the ICOC. Their SIN has caused many to "fall away" and turn from the truth. For that, God will not tolerate. I pray for those who like myself and my family have been unjustly harmed by these men. I pray that they will find the peace, love and kindness of our Lord and heavenly Father. We MUST forgive these men, YES!! God expects it. We can, however, also trust that God will act swiftly and justly.

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  16. As a former member of the ICOC and someone who was involved in a church planting and different forms of leadership, I have experienced and come to my own resolutions and convictions regarding the ICOC and its former leader, Kip Mckean. It is truly a tragedy and evil the practices that he along with the leadership (World Sector leaders, Elders, Evangelists etc.) participated in, condoned and promoted. I see why Jesus was so indignant towards the Pharisees and Saducees of His time. They were no different than the leaders of today with regard to the ICOC. James 3:1 will hopefully encourage those who have been harmed and wronged by these teachings and men. God will deal with them....and He will deal with them justly. I am of the opinion and have the conviction that many of these men are nothing more than "Lions in Sheep clothing". Their guilt and their sin is clear. They may think that they will avoid the consequences, but faithfully I KNOW they will not. Frankly, I wouldn't want to be Kip Mckeen. Nor would I want to be ANY of those men who called themselves or continue to call themselves World Sector Leaders, Elders, Evangelists, etc. in the ICOC. Their SIN has caused many to "fall away" and turn from the truth. For that, God will not tolerate. I pray for those who like myself and my family have been unjustly harmed by these men. I pray that they will find the peace, love and kindness of our Lord and heavenly Father. We MUST forgive these men, YES!! God expects it. We can, however, also trust that God will act swiftly and justly.

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  17. This organisations leaders are still at logger heads with each other even 21 years after I left this organisation. This seriously shows a bad example to those that are interested in joining your church. Even when I was with this organisation in May 1992 until February 1993 the leaders where arguing amongst themselves then and even pushed everyone out of the church and told them that if they believe in God they must do everything necessary to prove there faith to be able to be accepted back into the church and many just left through frustration. I was deprogrammed when I left this church/organisation because of your hardcore believes and brainwashing. My dad saved me from this church in Manchester when I left the Manchester Church or Christ after being transferred from the London Church of Christ so I could be in my home city. This church/organisation is driven by greed, when I was in the London Church of Christ in 1992 it was apparent that money was driving the church as they wanted donations and then wanted you to also pay by direct debit each month as well and then they wanted you to increase your donation amounts. Look what there glorious leader Kip McKean done he purchased a condo with the churches money when he fell away. It was all over the internet.

    I believe in God, not Kip Mckean and not any church, the reason why I don't believe in churches is because the majority of churches nowadays are corrupt. God's word is enough for me to believe in him through the teachings of his son Jesus Christ.

    The behaviour in your church resembles the behaviour of politians and ways of the world and not the behaviour of people that believe in God. It is clear from Matthew 24 that the world is in the time of child bearing and the signs are all around us. Earthquakes, famines, wars and rumours of wars and it also mentions about false prophets and messiahs but these things are meant to happen and you should not be alarmed. Your church seems very alarmed about Kip Mckean? Why? The scriptures mention this is meant to happen and not to be alarmed about it. Yet you finger point and name call. Forgive Kip Mckean in your prayers. Lay the issue to rest and move on. Bear good fruit and prepare the way for the second coming of Christ and make straight paths for him. Cast aside those who don't want to listen and carry on offering Gods word to those that want to listen to the teachings of those that have gone before us in God's name.

    What is happening amongst the leaders of your church is toxic to everyone who is following your example as church leaders.

    Pray that Kip McKean may ask for forgiveness to God, pray that Kip McKean may turn back to God through his son Jesus Christ and move on. Pray to God for forgiveness as well for your wrong doings so you maybe forgiven.

    Bear good fruits and bring those that believe in God to God through his son Jesus Christ so that on judgement day we may reside with God, Jesus his only Son and the angels in heaven.

    Remain faithful to Gods word
    Pray for forgiveness
    Pray for others who sin against us

    I am sorry for the rebuke.

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  18. Bible also says gossiping is a sin, not stopping half of you though.

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    1. You are a hypocrite and please crawl back into the cesspool you emerged from to make that comment. The Icc is finished...

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  19. I am a former member from before Kips fall in power. I remember going to the Boston seminars. The church ruined my life. At that time they did not allow friendships outside the church and they kept you from your own family. They made you dependent on them. This dependency made you afraid to leave. They manipulated and controlled every aspect of my life including where I could and could not live. I no longer had a life or a will of my own. There was no love. It was all about power and control. I have not been able to step foot in a church since I left in 1991 for I lost faith in all organized religion

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    1. I too am a former member. I attended the church in NYC in the early 90s. At the time of my involvement I felt pressured but happy. I had doubts and questions but never considered that those doubts would get me kicked out of the church. We had a "heart to heart" and was told not to return until I got myself together (my paraphrase). I was also lead to believe throughout my time there that if I was not a part of "this church" I was not saved. Of course I could write a book on all of the things that were wrong, that I did not see until I was out, but it would serve no purpose. Instead I want to focus on the wonderful lessons I learned. I learned to lean on God and not man and that my relationship with Him was not over because I no longer attended their church. I learned the importance of reading the bible for myself and not letting anyone intrepret what it means for me and my life. I learned what a healthy church and leadership looks like because I experienced that not so healthy atmosphere. I learned the importance of sharing my testimony with others to help them in their time of need the way God has helped me. I also learned how to be tolerant and less judgemental with others because it was there that I truly learned we are all sinners, in the need of God's grace. It took me many years to comes to grips with that situation but I look at it as a learning experience; it helped to shape me into the person I am today. I pray that you will find peace in and healing from your experiences one day soon.

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    2. Hi there,

      I am truly sorry to hear about that. Please remember that it was people who hurt you. God is probably weeping over what has been done to you.

      Please know that God will always go after the Sheep that has been lost and hurt in the wilderness.

      God does not want Cookie Cutter Christians but people who study for themselves whether what people tell them is true or not.

      Even if you only take Baby steps in the direction of seeking him with all your heart, reading the Gospels he will come running towards you.

      Do not let people ruin that for you.

      Love


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  20. Now Russ Ewell tied knot again Kip McKean again because of the business reason and to get the bigger paycheck from Kip McKean

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  21. church is too lucrative for him to quit...

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