On 17 March 1994, members from Los
Angeles and Chicago (and
perhaps elsewhere), and many people from the movement's former Indianapolis
congregation, assembled in Indianapolis. They gathered to hear Kip McKean,
the leader of the International Churches of Christ (a.k.a. ICC, ICOC, Boston
Movement etc.) discuss the recent developments concerning the Indianapolis
congregation. In his address, McKean charged the
Indianapolis congregation's
lead evangelist, Ed Powers, with deceiving the congregation regarding their
church's growth:
"It was stated to you that the Indianapolis church
was the
fastest growing
church in the Midwest. I read to you the stats that
Ed Powers
himself had turned in. Essentially, they started with 950
in attendance
of January of 1993, never went over 1000 average
all of 1993,
and ended at 950 attendance in 1993 in December.
"That's the fastest growing church? I think not.
. . . You not
only didn't
have a nongrowing church, you had a church that
was going negative in growth . . . Was the
Indianapolis church the
fastest growing
church in the Midwest? No, you were
deceived.
"The idea you were flattered: saying we're growing,
we're
awesome,
we're so liberal here -- cotton pickin' -- we're not
bogged down
with this legalism, and all this stuff they're telling us
to do. Smooooth
talk and flattery. Not only were you not the
fastest growing,
you weren't even growing period."
At another time in his speech, Kip
says this about the Chicago church:
"I appreciate
so much the men that serve as elders and the awesome
wives of
the elders that we have. Certainly, the Brumley's have done
an outstanding
job in Chicago . . . And then of course the tremendous
lead evangelist
and his wife, that you have there, the Drabot's. They're
doing an
awesome job. Amen. . . . I appreciate the great Chicago
church. Amen."
However, the ICC's own statistics,
as shown in the 1993 Growth Analysis
of the West US/Canada/Scandanavia/C.I.S for the International Church
of Christ,contradict Kip McKean's charges. (This analysis was published
by the
LA Church.) According to the 1993 statistics for the Midwest
Family:
1. Champaign
gained 42 members (236 to 278)
2.
Chicago lost 27 members (2152
to 2125)
(Also, their attendance went from 3,391 to 3,286 --
a loss of 105) *without factoring out the approximately
100 members sent to Chicago from
Milwaukee
3. Cincinnati
increased by 4 (377 to 381)
4. Cleveland
began with 0 and ended with 29
5. Detroit
picked up 7 (258 to 265)
6.
Indianapolis grew by 62 (672 to
734)
(Jan. 1994 average attendance was 1053)
7. Louisville
declined by 3 (187 to 184)
8. Milwaukee
lost 157 (322 to 165) *approximately
100 of the 157 lost were sent to Chicago.
9. Minneapolis
grew by 9 (321 to 330)
10. Syracuse (in the
Midwest at that time) began with 0,
and ended with 51
The "Midwest Family's" 1993 growth
percentage was ".4%."
Kip said Indianapolis had a church that was negative
in growth.
Did it really?
Indianapolis members were told they were
deceived about their
church's growth
performance.
Who was deceiving whom?
Kip praised the job done in the Chicago congregation. Since in the
ICC, numerical growth
is an indicator of spirituality, how was the
Chicago church really
doing in comparison to Indianapolis?
For more information on the difference
between what Kip McKean said in
Indianapolis and the facts, see
The truth about what happened
in Indianapolis,
and the transcripts of various leaders' sermons
at Indy
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