Literature Review

The community I chose to research, Disciples on Campus, is a college ministry branching off of the International Churches of Christ (ICOC). In order to even begin understanding the relations between members of the Disciples on Campus community, one must first study their community on a broader scale and understand the church they come from.

The ICOC is a fairly modern church, founded primarily in 1979 by a man named Kip McKean. McKean had a vision for a Bible based church in which the members were deeply devoted, fully committed “disciples” of Christ (as the word “disciple” is described in the Bible). The first church led by McKean was a branch off of the longer established Church of Christ. Within the next few years, however, McKean split from the Church of Christ and officially founded the International Churches of Christ (ICOC). Since then, the ICOC has spread rapidly, setting up churches in cities all across the U.S. and around the globe. Their goal is to have a church set up in every world city with a population above 100,000. (I gathered this information from a number of articles, chiefly “International Churches of Christ Got Its Start in Massachusetts” by the Associated Press).

There is much controversy that has surrounded the ICOC over the years. While some have found it to be a welcoming environment and chosen to become members of the church, many others warn that it is actually a cult that uses mind-control methods to draw members in and ultimately take control of their lives. The article “Campus Crusaders; The Fast-Growing International Churches of Christ Welcomes Students with Open Arms. Does it Let Them Go?” was printed in the Washington Post. It was upon discovering this article that I first realized there was a whole different side to the ICOC. I then found countless online sources (such as cultsoncampus.com, apologeticsindex.org, cnview.com, cultwatch.com, carm.org, and more) that warn against cults and also give testimonials from ex-members who share about how the church guilted them into joining and were mentally and spiritually abusive. There are many websites that even provide support groups for those trying to leave the ICOC, such as www.reveal.org. This website gives a background of the church, the definition and warning signs of a cult, and ways to get out of this cult by using their tips and/or using their crisis hotline number.

After discovering the excessive amount of articles and websites about warning signs of cult like practices within the ICOC, I realized that many of the practices going on within the Bible study I was in with Disciples on Campus fit right in with these descriptions. While the community had seemed very welcoming and close-knit to me at first, the more I had become involved in it the more I was becoming less and less encouraged by the community and more and more feeling condemned because I was not readily willing to turn my life over to their church’s beliefs. The feelings of guilt and unease that I had been experiencing aligned right with what former members described feeling. I have since left the Bible study and separated myself from the community. However, I feel that there is still a significant amount of research that can be conducted on this community. In the book Awesome Families: The Promise of Healing Relationships in the International Churches of Christ the author Kathleen E. Jenkins shares her research on the ICOC. Her research mainly focused on how the church can build up or destroy families and relationships. Her book is the only book in the entire library database that even mentions the ICOC.

I would like to further the research on this community. Some people have had horrific experiences within the church, while others have had amazing experiences. I would like to take my own experiences and field work and find out more about the ICOC at Virginia Tech in particular.