From: kcstarr@echo.sound.net (Starr) Newsgroups: alt.religion.christian.boston-church Subject: A History Lesson (this is LONG) (sorry) Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 03:38:29 GMT Organization: Sound Advice Limited's over worked and underpaid news service. Lines: 78 Message-ID: <5518mo$1do@guitar.sound.net>
The Churches of Christ was recognized as a sect in 1906 when the U.S. Census recognized the already existing division between the acappella CofC and the instrumental Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. The Restoration Movement began shortly before 1800 with the work of James O'Kelly, et. alia. The typical formal starting point for the whole Disciples/Churches of Christ/Christian Churches is usually cited as 1832, the date of the merger between the Thomas & Alexander Campbell-led churches and the Barton W. Stone-led churches. The beginning of the Restoration Movement was more of a process than an event and although some would argue it's still alive today, it is believed to have ended in 1866 when Alexander Campbell died.
The "Holy Spirit Movement" or "Underground Church of Christ" or "Campus Evangelism Movement" began outside of the Churches of Christ in the 1950s. By mid-1966, it had reached the Churches of Christ and had obtianed a basic foothold. This can be established through "Brotherhood" magazines of the time, such as "Restoration Review".
Chuck Lucas was influenced by the Campus Evangelism (and was a leader in it) and many of the beliefs and practices of the "Crossroads Movement" came from the Shepherding movement among the Assemblies of God, Robert Coleman's "Master Plan of Evangelism"; Jay Adams' "Competent to Counsel"; Richard Shelley Taylor's "The Disciplined Life"; and Juan Carlos Ortiz's "Discipleship". Coleman's work in particular is believed to have a strong influence on Lucas; the basic pyramidal structure and use of the Jesus/disciples relationship as a paradigm for discipling in the churches. Similar ideas had been espoused elsewhere but Coleman's work was definitely very influential.
The CE movement at large was rejected and came to be associated with one congregation in particular-the 14th Street Church of Christ in Gainesville, Florida. After 1972, the congregation's name was changed to the Crossroads Church of christ, and the "Crossroads philosophy" or the "Crossroads methodology" was a frequently used term. Then the term "Crossroads Movement" came into use.
Kip McKean was a student at the University and was met and converted by Chuck Lucas, then Campus Evangelist for Crossroads. Kip McKean assumed control as lead evangelist of the Lexington Church of Christ (Mass.) in 1979 with the (non-financial) support of most people at Crossroads. During the early 80s, the Lexington congregation was growing faster than the Crossroads congregation and they moved to Boston and the Boston Gardens. Thus, "Crossroads/Boston Movement" came into use. By the mid-late 80s, some people were batting around the term "Multiplying Ministries" to describe the movement. In late 1987-early 88, Crossroads decided that it did not wish to be under the leadership of Boston and pulled out. The term "Boston Movement' was properly applied from this point on although for a while some people were using the term "Movement of God".
In 1986-7 the Bostom movement leaders began to publicly assert that the mainstream CofC was no longer the Church of God or the true Restoration Movement; and that most of those in the mainstream were not really true Christians. They proclaimed their movement was God's "remnant". They began making distinctions between themselves and the "mainstream CofC". They described themselves as "discipling" or "restoring" churches. They did not acknowledge any relationship with "mainstream" churches, did not attend events at other churches, and did not invite "mainstream" speakers to speak at their events and they counseled their members not to attend "mainstream" churches. Even mainstream churches that once had a favorable relationship with them, and even discipling churches that rejected reconstruction by the Boston pillar churches. In the 90s the separation with the mainstream became official (by way of a name change). Instead of a "movement", the International Churches of Christ are now recognized as a separate sect.
Most of this information came from the "Stone-Campbell" discussion group at Abilene Christian University; members of this group are senior theology/religion professors at various Universities and Colleges such as ACU, Pepperdine, SMU, DU, Harding, USC, and anyone else who happens to jump in. If there is misinformation here, I probably misquoted!
Hope this helps any who have questions on where the ICC came from and I apologize for the length of this post!
Kim
©1996 by Kim Pevchek <kcstarr@echo.sound.net>. All rights reserved.