Note: This node is part of a set that I'll be doing. Sorry it's incomplete as of yet, but I'll be trying to get it finished fairly soon.

History of the International Church of Christ - The Crossroads Movement


The International Church of Christ (hereafter referred to as the ICC, and also known as the Crossroads Movement and/or Boston Movement) grew out of the mainstream Protestant denomination of The Church of Christ. The ICC was also influenced by the Discipling movement from the Assembly of God in the 1950s, and by the Jesus People revival of the 1960s and 1970s.

Things began in 1967, with the Crossroads Movement. The Crossroads Church of Christ, in Gainesville, Florida, hired Chuck Lucas as a campus minister who began an outreach on the University of Florida campus. This outreach was called Campus Advance. One of the things Lucas implemented was a system of Discipling. Its key beliefs were that making disciples was the primary goal of a Christian's life; a Christian must go out to the world, convert nonbelievers, and then teach them everything they knew; all new Christians needed a more mature Christian as a mentor, who would teach the younger partner, who would strive to emulate their mentor; and discipling required a total commitment to this process, the Church, and God. This discipling habit is still present, in very close to this original form, in the ICC today. For twelve years, before the Boston Church of Christ was "planted", this group was one of the fastest growing churches in the world.

The rapid growth was accompanied by some problems. Many of the members, who were very comitted to this program throughout their entire life, tended to look down on Christians who were not as devoted as them. This pride and arrogance, often directed toward older members of their churches, caused quite a few problems in the Church of Christ.

In 1977, Roger Lamb and Kip McKean were fired by the Memorial Drive Church of Christ in Houston, Texas. The church had been supporting them at a small church in Illinois, and charged that the two had promoted controlling members, and were teaching false and deceitful doctrine. This event was publicized widely, and is symbolic of the uneasiness in the Church of Christ about the Crossroads movement. Two years later, many churches had split with Crossroads based campus ministries or undergone difficulties because of them.

At this time, Kip McKean went to a small, dying Church of Christ near Boston, which allowed him to use the Crossroads method to renew the church. The Boston Church of Christ was born.

International Church of Christ --- History of the International Church of Christ - The Boston Movement