Why they want students to know NAD-thing?

Certain leaders within the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) hold to strong opinions regarding campus ministries to keep students uninformed about “ICOC church politics and current events.” This principle is termed “NAD: Non Adult Drama”.

Apparently, some ICOC leadership reasons college students don’t really care what happens in the ICOC at large. If this would be their attitude then what if students want to know about their church history or doctrine? Or worse what if they are confronted by it? Perhaps some ICOC churches since 2003 have formulated an “accepted doctrine of the group” which “is always more important than individual beliefs and personalities”. By questioning leadership is a certain sign of rebellion. For example, any facts that threaten the group’s integrity may be called, “lies of the devil.” Henry Kriete outright confronted the ICOC since 2003 by calling his past experiences with the ICOC as “cultic”. Not many ICOC leaders agree with him but many former members will.

What should be done? Should the shepherd’s gather their lambs into the pen and shut the noise out by disallowing them freedom of movement? But is this not what “cults” do? The cult builds a wall around the person as shelter from the outside world. The purpose of that wall is to control the amount of information that one receives from the outside. Cults control information through (1) their teachings on doctrinal as well as non-doctrinal matters, (2) their activities, and (3) physically isolating the members from worldly and unspiritual non-members.

But is a college student not a “learner,” an “apprentice” or “disciple”? If there is one thing I can take away from my student days at the University of Cape Town then it was advice given to my class: “READ your degree!” So I say to those students on campuses who fellowship with the ICOC: “READ your church!”

So what if Henry Kriete said your church is a cult! So what if it! Ask questions! Truth is truth. It is not fragile; it can stand examination, verification, even vilification. Truth stands tall and proud in the free marketplace of ideas. But don’t tell me you are not interested in “Non Adult Drama”! Did the ICOC not tell you that your baptism or any baptism according to Restoration teaching is base on an adult decision?

From a church administrative point of view students within the ICOC will always make up the numbers and be the most resourceful for building and expanding the movement. They become tomorrow’s leaders. But if our students refuse to READ about ICOC church politics and current events then to whom do they listen? This is precisely why some ICOC leaders want students to know nothing! Did Hitler not say: “Give the German soldier proper leadership and I can do anything with him.” Is this not the risk we run with our campus college ministries who prefer not to know NAD-thing?

The drama will not stop in this movement until adult leadership will take responsibility in realizing Kriete’s recommendations. The plea from Kriete can never be ignored: “Movement wide, we have no choice but to admit and apologize, expose and expunge, denounce and dismantle.”

Admit:
to confess or acknowledge; to concede; to allow to enter;
to allow participation; to allow

Apologize:
to express or make an apology; acknowledge faults; to defend formally

Expose:
the act or an instance of bringing a scandal, crime, etc., to public notice

Expunge:
to delete or erase; blot out; obliterate

Denounce:
to condemn openly or vehemently; to give information against; accuse; to announce formally the termination of

Dismantle:
to take apart; to demolish or raze; to strip of covering

What is your leadership opinion or instruction on disciple relationships / dating & marriage / the Kingdom / who is saved – who is lost? Does “Your Truth” stands tall and proud in the free marketplace of ideas? Have you considered the internet?

The time for debate is not restrained by some human timetable – 1st February 2006. Students, let me apply practically how I go about READING MY (former) CHURCH.

I am uncomfortable when leaders like Mike Taliaferro (who has appointed me personally to stand in as Sector Leader - South Johannesburg) behave like Hitler.

Taliaferro, a former Geographic Sector leader in Africa and lead evangelist of the Johannesburg Church of Christ now back in the United States state the following during the September 2005 Seattle Conference in a remarkable class titled “Pulling Your Church Together.” He said: “…we began to call people back to decisions, and we did it one by one. We called the church back to discipling relationships. We called the church back to sacrificial giving… We made that decision. We resurrected church discipline… We confronted people that were divisive; some of them left the church. We resurrected confession of sin in the church… We reminded people of their commitment to all the services… Who’s lost, who’s saved – we had a talk about it.”

Mike Taliaferro’s leadership effectively has taken “back” San Antonio Church of Christ to former ICOC ways. Kriete’s recommendations were ignored. He follows the path of the Portland Movement. Standard teachings base upon “resurrected doctrine” by Kip McKean’s Portland International Church of Christ since June 2003 is prevalent in San Antonio.
Nevertheless, did Mike not state optimism during the April 1st 2004 Faithful Conversations? Why are we detecting an undertone of dictatorship in evaluating Taliaferro’s “Pulling Together” speech? “…we began to call people back to decisions, and we did it one by one. … We made that decision. We resurrected church discipline… We confronted people that were divisive; some of them left the church.” What has happened? Gestapo tactics – one by one? What divisiveness did leadership confront in the San Antonio Church? Why did some leave? Perhaps some one can comment.

Let us revisit some of those questions asked by the Church of Christ panel.

Talk about the changes you see going on in the ICOC.

Mike Taliaferro:
“We have done away with top-down hierarchy that we had in the past, and we recognize the mature independence of every congregation in our fellowship of churches … We have ended the practice of over/under discipling. We don’t believe one Christian should be giving orders to another. We are definitely stressing topics like grace, the cross, God’s love. We are moving away from performance orientation and getting back to basic Bible, as we should.”

What is the relationship of Kip McKean to ICOC today?

Mike Taliaferro:
We are a fellowship right now of independent, Bible-believing churches. Yes, we are going to have a man lead the movement, and that is going to be Jesus Christ.

Lastly, Chris Ogbonnaya who is very closely associated with Mike Taliaferro due to former “top-down hierarchy” paired up with Mike and added a few pointers in the same speech on “Pulling Your Church Together”. In my opinion Chris is trained to follow Taliaferro. And this is how any college student will proof there worth whom leadership can do anything with him.

This time we can assert what Mike meant by “Who’s lost, who’s saved – we had a talk about it.” Chris states : “We cannot marry a non-Christian. We’re not going to have marriages between us and a Catholic. You want to do that, hey, you’re welcome as a visitor. We had to do it… Is this authority? I say, ‘Yes’. It’s authority, and it’s authority that we have from God as leaders, to pull ourselves together, so that the church can march forward.”

Us and Catholics. Catholics are perceived as non-Christians!? Does God approve??? Who are these leaders talking with such “authority”? In my mind, they don’t fellowship with Jesus.

Does this not remind me of a similar article presented by Kip McKean recently? Some consideration was allowed in some ICOC congregations to marry non-ICOC members in the post HKL era. Whereupon, Kip McKean strongly retaliate by asking ICOC churches to marry only ICOC church members. Will other ICOC congregations fall in line with Portland teaching which “resurrected” former ICOC doctrine?

“What shall we do in our worldwide fellowship of churches? … Of consideration even the Catholics teach you should marry Catholics, the Mormons believe in only marrying Mormons and the Muslims have been known to kill a Muslim that does not marry a Muslim. Though these groups do not follow the Scriptures’ teaching on salvation, they understand the concept of marriage in relation to “their view” of “God’s people”. Are Jesus’ true disciples to be less convicted?”
– Kip McKean, “For The Honor of God” May 2005, www.portlandchurch.org

Internationally, this teaching concur in Douglas Jacoby’s book, ‘Shining Like Stars,’ ii edition, 1990 and was never revoked until the aftermath of HKL in 2003.

“Marry a Christian! (2 Cor 6:14ff, 1 Cor 7:39)” – Shining Like Stars, ii Edition, 1990, Study 12: Christian Marriage: Cord of Three Strands, p.258/316.

“Dating and marriage
a) Since we can marry only disciples (2 Cor 6:14, 1 Cor 7:39), it stands to reason that we should date only disciples.
b) Dating non-Christians messes motives up our motives and theirs, and is extremely unwise.” – Shining Like Stars, ii Edition, 1990, Lesson 9: Counting the Cost, p234/316.

The RSA ICOC congregations followed the practice. ‘Equipping Syllabus’ teaches ‘Jesus is Lord of our Dating Life or Marriage’ according to implication five:

e. Implication 5: Lord of our Dating Life or Marriage
“Marry only a Christian – obviously will marry someone you date, therefore best to date only disciples. (Exception: an existing dating relationship. Handle with care and wisdom, Not a must to break up – a must to stop sin, if any, and a must to discipline it and a must to make a decision that if a person is not really interested in becoming a Christian or is pulling person down spiritually, will break it off immediately. 1 Corinthians 7:39 – must marry in the Lord – no double standards between first and second marriage.”

Kip McKean rightly points to other religious groups (notice the strong presence of established cults) forbidding marrying outside their particular denomination. However, this inclusive viewpoint leads only to the belief in being the “one true church” and being the “only saved”.

If weddings or dating relationships in some ICOC congregations becomes regulated, then we need to know how they view other Christian denominations outside their particular denomination. Is non-ICOC members perceived as non-Christians? This is exactly what Mike and his gang underline.

Ideally and truly, the Scripture (1 Corinthians 7:39) wants Christians to marry only Christians, because marriages will suffer like some examples as indicated in the Old Testament, which are “written down as warnings for us, of whom the fulfilment of the ages has come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11 NIV) Therefore it is wise in this regard not to test the Lord.

Let us note, that there is a difference in marrying non-Christians according to the New Testament as to favouring one denomination over another. Who is the non-ICOC Christian – Catholics, Muslim’s, Hindu’s and every one out there? I think Kip McKean and his followers supporting inclusive marriages by marrying only ICOC disciples is inviting disaster upon themselves. Why imitating others miserable “man-made truths”? McKean’s policy is not honouring God. It will cause once more unnecessarily trauma in the lives of many who carelessly imitate this folly. To answer Kip’s nonsense: “Are Jesus’ true disciples to be less convicted?” Does God disapprove interdenominational Christian marriages? Did he disapprove Grecian and Hebraic Christian Jewish marriage in the first century?

In conclusion, there is plenty “Adult Drama” in the modern fellowship of the International Churches of Christ. I appeal to students to combat Mike Taliaferro, Chris Ogbonnaya and Kip McKean’s fragile man-made truths and consider it as “NONsense!