Crossroads Church of Christ disassociates from Boston Church of
Christ movement
CAN News, 1989
by Carol Giambalvo
At a congregational meeting on June 26, 1988, the Crossroads Church of Christ of
Gainesville, Florida, officially disassociated from the Boston Church of Christ Movement,
a/k/a Discipling Ministries. The elders cited concerns involving the Boston movement in
the areas of usurping congregational autonomy, reconstructing churches, control of
congregations by the Boston Church, the authority of leaders and the need to obey
one’s discipler in all matters (even in areas of opinion) as well as the recent
changes in the structure of the movement that has resulted in a stronger pyramidal
structure with Boston as the mother church. Kip McKean, of the Boston Church of Christ, in
his new role of head of world missions, appears to experts outside the movement to be
assuming the role of the Apostle Paul. Also of concern to the Crossroads elders was the
issue of the rebaptism of all the elders (excepting one) in those congregations in the
movement having elders.
Prior to this, the movement has been labelled the "Crossroads
Movement" because it originated in the Crossroads Church of Christ by Chuck Lucas,
who was a campus minister at the University of Florida.
Following the termination of Chuck Lucas by the Crossroads Church in August, 1985
for "recurring sins in his life," the leadership of the movement was taken over
by Kip McKean. McKean had been trained in the discipling methodology by Lucas while a
student at the University of Florida. McKean and Roger Lamb had both been fired from their
jobs as campus ministers in Charleston, Ill., by their sponsoring church, the Memorial
Church of Christ in Houston, Texas in April 1977. This happened at a time when the media
began reporting mounting evidence of cultic practices and emotional manipulation by the
movement. From Charleston, McKean moved to the Lexington Church of Christ in Lexington,
Mass., and, using the discipling methods, the church expanded rapidly. As the church
growth mounted, they soon out-grew the church facility and renamed themselves the Boston
Church of Christ and are currently meeting in the Boston Gardens.
Kip McKean improved on and embellished the practices of the movement with
resulting changes in practices, jargon, doctrine
and strategies: prayer partners became
discipling partners, Soul Talks became Bible Talks, the control tightened and the
hierarchical structure became more evident. McKean established House Churches, Zones,
Pillar Churches, Capitol City Churches, Small City Churches, Countryside Churches; he
reconstructed churches falling behind in baptisms and recalled their leaders to Boston for
"further training." Many congregations were split by reconstruction, as members
and evangelists had little choice on whether to become affiliated with the Boston movement
as soon as they got a foot in the door. With each church in the movement, the emphasis is
on total obedience (to leaders and to Boston), recruitment and baptism -- and college
campuses prove to be fertile grounds.
The Boston Church of Christ movement is not to be confused with the United
Church of Christ or the mainline Churches of Christ, out of which this movement sprang.
The cultic movement can be distinguished from the mailine churches by its discipling
techniques. In many cities where the Boston movement has affiliated congregations, there
are also legitimate mainline Churches of Christ. Besides the discipling method, clues to
look for in the congregations are: age of congregation (the Boston movement churches tend
to be young congregations); leadership in churches (most mainline
churches have at least
two elders, while the Boston movement only has elders at this time in the San Diego Church
of Christ and the Boston Church of Christ).
As new leaders are trained in the Boston method, teams are sent off to other
cities to establish a "church planting." Boston planted, among others, the
Chicago Church of Christ, Central London Church of Christ, New York (all the following
cities are followed by "Church of Christ"), Providence (R.I.), Central Toronto,
Johannesburg (S. Africa), Central Paris, Stockholm, Bombay, Kingston (Jamaica). Information
on other churches "replanted" or "reconstructed" (a term used for
taking over the control of an existing church by Boston) is available from CAN.
For a history of the International Churches of Christ and a critique of same, I
recommend the book,
The Boston
Movement: Critical Perspectives on The International Churches of Christ,
edited by Carol Giambalvo and Herbert Rosedale (AFF, 1996, revised 1997) |