Why is Portland’s ‘Generation Why’ unique?

Forward
When I first started to write about the ICOC, in my hand I held a butcher’s knife.
Now, I thank God it is a pen!

Greetings to all current and former ICOC students.
Peace be with you!

Introduction
DJ Comisford is a very young Campus Minister of the Portland International Church of Christ. He was baptised “in January, 2002 of [his] sophomore year of college, after studying the Bible for three months!” He married “on December 17th 2005”. Comisford recently announced a brand new web portal meant for students affiliated worldwide with the International Churches of Christ (ICOC). Comisford’s article, “Adullam Underground (Adullam ‘U’)” on Portlands website speaks directly in the context of his own generation known as ‘Generation Y’ a.k.a. ‘Generation Why’. He writes, “My generation is unique.”

Why is Generation Y unique?
Admittedly, I had to do some research of my own in order to get a better understanding what “define and characterize generations.” Wikipedia, states, “Generations are shaped by their childhood experiences, and then defined by their early-adulthood actions, when each generation can consciously adopt or reject the attitudes or actions of prior generations.” Demographers relies on various methods for example “the experience of formative national events as one tool to demarcate generations.”

Why is Generation Y unique? It becomes clear when we consider the following. Comisford received his “high school diploma” in June 2000. He was part of the “first class of students to graduate in the 21st century.” Furthermore, Comisford is part of “the first generation to fully appreciate the effects of the ‘Digital Revolution’.

The New Testament warns Titus and Timothy about “endless genealogies” that “promotes controversies rather than God’s work” (1 Timothy 1:4) or to “avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments” (Titus 1:14). This is true today even amongst demographers having a hard time nailing “the exact year ranges of the generations.”

It is not my intension with this article to argue around genealogies, but rather, to look into how Generation X relate to Generation Y in the context of the ICOC fellowship. The ICOC is a very young fellowship, merely spanning 27 years from its ‘official’ 1979-year to 2006.
How do former or current members of the ICOC correlate with Comisford’s generation?

Personally, I do not relate to “Y” from a genealogy point of view. Born in 1970. Growing up in the 1980’s and becoming a young adult in the 1990’s places me with Generation X (1965-1981). Kip McKean’s children like Comisford are stock of Generation Y (1981[2]-2000[03]). In my time, from birth to early-adulthood, a computer was a novelty not a machine to be found in every household. Therefore, there was no Internet what so ever. No cell phones what so ever. No digital cameras, except digital wristwatches! No DVD’s but video machines and later CD-players were the modern appliances of my time, which was my generation.

Base on these facts; let us consider that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8 NIV) We can argue that generation to generation respective ‘conversion stories’ or baptisms within the ICOC remains the same. You were once a visitor. You studied the Bible. You were baptised as a disciple. However, our conversion stories differ considerably from our parent church, the ‘mainline’ Church of Christ because they never described their baptism as a type of ‘disciple baptism’. Meaning you have to become ‘first a disciple’ in the context before a Christian before getting baptised; Kip McKean formulated this technique in 1981; It was taken up in Douglas Jacoby’s multi-author publication, “Disciple = Christian = Saved” [(Jacoby, ‘Shining Like Stars, ii edition, 1990, page 142]; seven years later, this issue was one of the prime reasons Boston caused a church split!

My conversion experience certainly draws a parallel with Comisford’s Bible studies and subsequent baptism but my time factor was much shorter! As a young adult, twenty years of age I have completed the following ICOC Bible studies known as ‘First Principles’ within three days studying night and day! ‘The Word’; ‘Discipleship’; ‘KOG’; ‘The Cross’; ‘Davis’ Medical Account of the Crucifixion’; ‘Sin & Repentance’; ‘Light & Darkness’; ‘Denominations/Church’; ‘False Doctrines’; ‘The Holy Spirit’; ‘Jesus is Lord’! This was possible because I was a university student with plenty time on hand during my summer holiday break! I was baptised in the early morning hours in the sea of Camps Bay at Cape Town to become the 70th member/disciple of the Cape Town Church of Christ in its start-up year of 1990 of which Dave Peden, the tall American evangelist presides in the month of November. Not many in the ICOC can relate their baptisms to this ‘chariot-ride’ but we all can relate to the same standard of Bible studies used. In 1992 the entire Cape Town Church of Christ underwent a ‘reconstruction’, meaning to see if one is still acting like a disciple. It was at this time when our ‘campus minister’ told me he couldn’t find the evidence of the Holy Spirit in my live! [No people personally baptised= no fruit] I was subsequently re-baptised. Many started to leave the church over the years, even my ‘campus minister’ but I stayed faithful to the ICOC until 2000.

However, ‘the ICOC organism’ has several generations of baptisms. Some have a pre-1979 baptismal experience. Special mentioning is Douglas Jacoby (23 October 1977) and men like Chuck Lucas and Sam Laing who have baptised Kip McKean, April 11, 1972. Church of Christ ‘leaders’ from “1983 on through the 80’s” according to Kip McKean’s ‘Revolution Through Restoration 1’ article, “had to unlearn their past traditions and misconceptions before they could really learn how to build churches. The training for someone baptized out of the world in Boston and for someone who moved to train in Boston was exactly the same.” Here, “Many of the men who were leaders in the different elements of the Churches of Christ, who came to train to build churches of disciples, discovered they had not been baptized as disciples themselves. In the world’s eyes they were rebaptized. In God’s eyes, they were baptized into Jesus Christ (Acts 19:1-5).” Let us note that the reference of this scripture indicates these leaders never heard before about the ‘disciples baptism’ as John’s disciples in a late stage of Christianity never heard before of the Holy Spirit! “Of special note are: …Dave Peden, Mike Taliaferro… Gordon Ferguson… Others were not rebaptized, as they felt they had made the decision to be disciples (usually not with that terminology) when they were baptized: …Sam Laing…Henry Kreite…Douglas Jacoby…”

Obviously, once a year each ‘disciple generation’ relate to different ‘Kingdom’ experiences. The generation of the “Thirty-Would-Be Disciples” of 1979 were different from those with Chuck Lucas 1967 generation. Lucas’ Soul-talks and prayer-buddies become McKean’s Bible-talks and disciple partners. The ‘disciple generation’ sprout from the early Boston movement era somewhat co-here with ‘mainline’ Church of Christ until 1988 divide. The rapid expansion across the world of the ICOC era also produced the philosophy “God’s man, message and movement” which is completely ‘uncool’ for the ‘disciple generation’ in the post-Henry Kriete Letter era of 2003. We can make many cross-reference associations, but one final and important one is the eras of persecution. The Boston movement later known as the ICOC was intensely persecuted by ‘mainline’ Church of Christ, former members and the media. It was so bad that new recruits were told its normal because we follow Jesus! “Jesus was persecuted – his worst enemies were his fellow Jews. First Century Christians were persecuted – not different now.” I come to know a Jesus who was “Lord in the Midst of Persecution” as stated in a South African Count the Cost study guide. ‘Equipping Syllabus’ stated, “Anything with commitment and religion is suspect these days – the issue is Jesus and what God commands. You will be persecuted – no one knows to what extent – must be willing to die for Jesus. If you are willing to die, a little newspaper article with misinformation or twisted information will not stop you!”

Let us note that in the actual era of Generation X outsiders opposed us! Disciples never ever dared to question the Church, the movement of God! In the year 2000, my wife and I, like so many before us, also bravely queried unbiblical ICOC practices like, 1) authoritarian leadership structures; 2) hierarchical discipleship practices; 3) First Principal Bible study series a different Gospel – Galatians 1; 4) In-out talks with Weak and Faithless Christians were unbiblical!

At last, Henry Kriete’s 2003 letter forced the Port Elizabeth Church of Christ to recognise their mistakes and they apologized to us, but in the end, what happened to me happened to John Engler!

Today’s Generation Y in the Portland International Church of Christ experience persecutions not from traditional enemies but from various ICOC churches!

This makes them truly unique!