I am opening this next section of my Remnant Rats series on Catastrophic Christianity with a much more positive tone owing to having had a rendezvous with a prominent member of the former ICOC in the UK and having heard from him that in the last few years he has led a smaller church in the UK that doubled in number from both baptisms and restorations as well as more than one leadership couple moving in to support the growth. Many of these converts were campus students and only a nominal percentage were children of members. For all intents and purposes, it would appear that during that recent 3 year period his growth rate was slightly above that of the International Christian Church! Where the ICC worldwide growth rate was approximately 25% to 30% during that same time his growth rate at his local level averaged about 33%. These figures are only rough and are based on the statistics that we talked about casually over a coffee. Nonetheless, they show that a man of faith in at least one former ICOC congregation, who has stepped up (with little or no ministry experience before 2003) is simply having amazing faith and amazing blessing in terms of the growth of the church that he leads.
Those readers who understand and even have their own convictions on personal fruitfulness will also see the deeper meaning in this meeting taking place, in that, not only was this man the same person who brought to church the woman, who brought to church the woman, who brought the man who brought me to church in 1990, but I also randomly bumped into this man on a London tube about 18 months ago when he had just gotten into his ministry in this small congregation. It could not be more obvious that God wants me to see how He is working in this man’s life.
My conversation with him was very much reminiscent for me of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. I do believe that both of “our hearts were burning” in our chests as we talked about his ministry (Luke 24:32). Not only has he been able to lead his ministry to rapid growth but he has also discipled his ministry with very hard-line decisions during this time. Given his success in the ministry he has now been asked to lead a church which is bigger than the congregation that he was leading over the last few years. He is in a discipling relationship with one of the main leaders in the former London ICOC churches.
In my previous Remnant Rats articles I’ve tried to address in layman’s terms the ongoing differences between the former ICOC churches and the International Christian church. I have done this to address claims, concerns and queries brought to me by various parties especially those who are my friends in former ICOC congregations as well as ex-members of both the former ICOC churches and the International Christian Church. I never lose contact with anyone who is willing to keep open channels of communication. There are actually only a few people who have totally cut me off (even in places where I have been officially disfellowshipped).
In my first article, I broke down the five core convictions of the International Christian Church and its relevance to the audience that I described above. I also dealt with statistics published by Gordon Ferguson about the former ICOC churches and their growth rate. I did this because I have regularly had reports from my friends that former ICOC churches are doing well. Although this is true in a few isolated cases, this is clearly not the case overall. I have found most of my ICOC friends to be ill-informed (or even misinformed) regarding how the churches are really doing. In fact, my friend who I met recently was almost entirely unaware of the state of the former ICOC churches on a global level. A lot of my friends in former ICOC congregations use rhetoric about ‘learning from the past’ but have not learned key lessons from employing the strategies that they have used in their leadership model over the last 15 years. They’re still doing very badly. They claim that we all need to learn the lessons from the 1990s in the ICOC but I generally find that they themselves have not learned the lessons since 2003.
My second Remnant Rats article dealt with the statistics released by the former ICOC churches about what they believed on issues pertaining to central doctrines now held by the international Christian church. They asked about special missions contribution and church government issues. Based on both Gordon Ferguson’s reports and the results of the 2017 survey it seems clear that the former ICOC churches are drifting in the direction of the mainline churches in terms of life and doctrine and the inevitable decline that comes from that drifting.
In my third article, Remnant Rant 3.0 I hope I made it clear where my heart is at, regarding the former ICOC churches?! I hope it is also clear that their hope in their children to save them from lukewarmness is a false hope. I showed clearly that it is their own children that are warning them. But for the Kingdom Kids to fix their churches they would have to take a lot of their parents off the membership.. and they would have to have the permission of the board to be so radical. Therefore, in their own words, they are unable to ‘carry the torch that has been handed to them’. They are ‘too comfortable to change the world’.
In spite of the obvious facts that are laid bare by the statistics published by both the ICC and the former ICOC regarding their growth rate it is also a fact, that it is clear from published documents and preaching in sermons that leaders of the ICC have been very clear that they believe fully, that there are true disciples in both the former ICOC churches and the mainline Church of Christ. They categorically do not have a ‘we are the only church that has disciples’ mindset. International Christian church leadership is just as clear that we are the only church that has a membership where we have been very careful not to allow lukewarm members to continue to think that they are actually saved disciples. ICC is also set apart in that it has a conviction to evangelise the world in our generation.
Perhaps one striking reminder of these beliefs is the recent appearance of Kip McKean at the memorial service of Bob Gempel in Philadelphia. Both Kip and Doug Arthur spoke about Bob’s faithful life and the great work that he had done as an Elder in the ICOC and a leader within the Hope Worldwide charity. Kip himself was very moved during his short talk. I was deeply moved also, even though I never met Bob in person because I have seen him in pictures and read about his life and seen him in some short videos showing the work that he did with Hope Worldwide. To me it seemed a joyful occasion and a great joy to witness in many ways, to see disciples give a fond farewell to a true and faithful servant of God. Kip mentioned that both he and Elena had had dinner with Bob in March 2019. I’m so encouraged that members of the former ICOC still have dinner with even our top leaders in spite of the differences.
What has dawned on me in a very profound sense during watching Bob’s service online is the fact that the Church that God sees when he looks down on the Earth is a broken family. His children are in a few different places and under different human leadership which is not united. This is very similar to the family that I grew up in. This is where most of my pain comes from.
I went through the breakup of my parent’s marriage when I was 10 years old. I found it quite dramatic and the freedom that I gained as a result of moving to a town where I had no father to keep me in line, led to a great deal of addiction and promiscuity. It was during this time that I ended up being sexually abused as well.
My natural inclination when faced with this kind of uncertainty and upheaval is seen clearly in the way I lived my life during my teenage years. I was quite unproductive, spite filled and cared only about myself.
God only knows where my life would have ended up if I had not been converted at the age of 21 in London. In the years between 1990 and 2003 I went on a number of missionary trips and travelled to different cities supporting the evangelistic work of the church and gained many skills for life. During that time I was fathered and mothered by many in the churches. The catastrophic meltdown of 2003 did not affect me in the same way as my parent’s, separation and subsequent divorce. God was able to deal with my character during that time between 1990 and 2003 so I became resolved to be part of the Gathering rather than the Scattering. When I joined the ICC in 2005 I was taking part in the reunification of a broken family. That period of uncertainty during 2003 saw me return to addiction in the form of pornography and I was spiralling downwards, whilst at the same time desperately seeking a way out of my situation. My wife nearly left me during that time. Though I had grown spiritually in the first 13 years of my Christian life, when faced with no fathers and mothers around me, I quickly returned to my carnal self, except at this stage I had the knowledge of the truth and I desperately awaited the rebuilding of God’s Kingdom which had been my refuge. Many had fallen away from God. I was waiting for the restoration.
In my article ‘Catastrophic-Christianity’ (RR 4) I was largely focussed on a paper released by Andy Fleming about how many people had left the ICOC in the 1980s and 90s. Since I wrote RR4 one of the former kingdom teachers of the ICOC has released a short video regarding the exact doctrine that I’m dealing with. It is flawed in its approach to the subject. When I come to this other man who was a great teacher who I respected greatly in the former fellowship, I do so with a certain amount of fear but knowing that, as he has fallen away himself and come to this place of teaching falsely (even on the subject of falling away) I cannot hold back from being forthright.
One of the most striking points Douglas Jacoby makes in his video on the falling away teaching in the book of Hebrews is that ‘most readers of Hebrews don’t know what it’s about’ (1.00). Hebrews does not just have one passage about ‘falling away’. Douglas chastise members of former ICOC churches for referring to people who leave the church as ‘falling away’ saying it is unbiblical language. Yet Hebrews describes in its entirety and in technicolor the whole process of falling away.
The Hebrew writer is most concerned about this subject, showing how religiosity is deadness and chapters 7 to 10 show particularly how it was completely useless to think that returning to the religion of Judaism after having become Christians would in any way benefit disciples who were considering falling away from the truth. The Hebrew writer explicitly uses the example of the Hebrews in the desert in their rebellion against God’s central leadership on more than one occasion in his writing. (Heb 4:1-3 etc) I have already detailed how the former ICOC churches have completely changed their leadership structure to its current very ineffective model. It doesn’t take a genius to join the dots and see all the parallels in the Book of Hebrews to the backsliding that has been rampant in the former ICOC churches. When the Hebrew writer quotes “They shall never enter my rest”, Douglas seems to have missed this. Those who will never enter his rest have fallen away! And this was as a result of trying to change the leadership that God had given them. That was a salvation issue in the time of Moses and it was a salvation issue too in the 1st century in the time of the Hebrew writer. It is an issue today also.
The writer is concerned with the attitude to leadership through to the end of his letter where he charges them to “Remember your leaders,… and imitate their faith”. (Heb 13:7) and ‘Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority’ (Heb 13:17). Were issues around leadership the only matters linked to salvation in Hebrews?
What about the failure to ‘make disciples’ consistently highlighted in Hebrews 5:11-14 where they ‘no longer tried to understand’ and ‘ought to have been teachers’. With the former ICOC having an overall growth rate of 2.4% it is clear that most of their members are not even attempting to teach the scriptures to people who are are not Christians. This is exactly what the Hebrew writer is talking about in Chapter 5. Most of the people I know who say they are ‘not interested in politics’ are actually not interested in becoming more effective in the mission because that is the political difference between the ICC and former ICOC churches. They have shrunk back from being involved in teaching and in making disciples (Heb 10:39). That is simply a fact borne out by the evidence and the Hebrew writer points out that God has sworn that those who disobey will be destroyed (Heb 10:39) and never enter His rest (Heb 3:18). They have fallen away. As one of my oldest friends who is still with the Irish church recently put it ‘I understand many many people fell away in 2003.’ Clearly, this is an opinion that Douglas Jacoby still finds hard to accept 16 years on.
In 2003 the hardship that was put upon the churches from within was hard to endure (Heb 12:7). Perseverance was greatly lacking (Heb 12:1). Many grew weary and lost heart (Heb 12:3), threw away their confidence (Heb 10:35, 3:6) in spite of having previously been unscathed by persecution from without from families, the media and in some cases governments and terrorists (Heb 10:32, 6:11)! Some persevered (Heb 10:36). Most went back to a religiosity (Heb 7-10), believing that attending meetings of the body was unnecessary (Heb 10:25-27). Many (myself included) began to harden their hearts (Heb 3:8) and sin deliberately (Heb 10:26). All of this is falling away. It is a complex described so accurately by Jesus (Mt 26:31). Unrepentance is rampant in an ineffective church. We have recently been challenged in our churches to produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Mt 3:8, Heb 12:1, 3:11-15). A lazy church is unfruitful and shows minimal growth (Heb 6:12), bitterness and pride toward strong preaching (Heb 12:15, 25). Gosh… Hebrews is almost ALL about falling away!
In his own words, the one thing that Gordon Ferguson will never do is ‘go back to the way it was’. That’s a hard heart right there (Heb 3:15). But that is the answer prescribed by the Hebrew writer (Heb 3:14). Refusal to believe in the biblical models of central leadership and belief in the battle/mission. Trying to fight on their own terms. Not going back to the way it was. Swerving off in all manner of planning and strategising (Heb 10:22-23). That will lead to destruction.
One of my friends in the former ICOC recently told me that that it was very important to develop ‘Real Faith’ as a natural product of life rather than being part of a system that is trying to convert people. I’m paraphrasing there but this idea shows a clear lack of understanding of how maturing works and this is also a subject in Hebrews. This is an intrinsic matter when it comes to falling away. The passage from the end of Hebrews 5 through to the beginning of Hebrews 6 is abundantly clear that revival will only come through disciples teaching and converting others through repentance and baptism and not, as many believe, through natural life experience.
Hebrews 5:11-14
Warning Against Falling Away
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Hebrews 6:1-14
6 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.
We have a whole generation of fallen disciples in former ICOC churches claiming that they are moving on to a mature faith, whilst at the same time forgetting to live the life of teaching repentance and baptism to the lost world and all the while they are sounding as if they are so wise in doing so and believing so.
But this assumes moving on from constant use (Heb 5:14). Hebrews 5:12 shows the futility of trying to mature without first acquiring the basic skills of teaching salvation to the lost.
The former ICOC church members I have spoken to recently are claiming that the focus they have is moving on to maturity yet their effort in evangelism is reported at 2.4% per year worldwide. It is sad that I have to keep repeating these facts again and again to make my point but I’m doing so in the hope that the evidence itself will prove the point.
In spite of my writing these articles and my hope that those who read them will join us and again take on the mantle of the mission of a disciple, I am painfully aware that I cannot in writing these articles bring anyone back from a fallen state. That is something that is only in the power of those who have fallen (Heb 6:6). This is a clear teaching in Hebrews regarding falling away. It is only those individuals who have followed the path to a fallen state that is so clearly laid out in Hebrews, who can, like the infamous Prodigal (Luke 15:17) bring themselves to repentance and that is no easy task. It can often involve leaving a job, livelihood, a group of friends and moving country to get to the place that has been chosen by God (Nehemiah 1:9).
Compare for a moment the conviction of one Martin Scott who moved 860 km in a 12 hour convey of cars and removal van with wife and two boys to join the church in London and Douglas Jacoby who preaches in 2019 that if you leave the church of God you are not leaving God. Two men of very different conviction. One man who knew he had to move back to the church with great effort and who subsequently has the only completely baptised family in the European World Sector. One other man endeavors to embolden and justify those who want to leave the church and claim a right relationship with God. This man who also signed a public letter from the former ICOC rebuking and openly rebelling against Kip’s leadership. Two very, very different men.. very different faiths.
One incidental point made by Douglas Jacoby in his Hebrews podcast is that there are still members of the former ICOC churches who use the biblical term ‘fall away’ (Mt 11:6, Mt 26:31, 33, Mk 4:17, Heb 6:6), (I believe correctly) to denote someone who leaves the church. Leaving the church is at very least an outward sign of what has already taken place in the heart at some time previously. I for one am glad my brothers in the former ICOC churches still have the faith to use the term correctly. I hope DJ’s teaching is ignored with regard to disciples going to other ‘churches’ as well.
My next piece will be on why I think we REALLY hit the tipping point Andy Fleming has so studiously pin pointed.
Morganite's Blog 