In Search of a City

Thomas A. Jones, In Search of a City: An Autobiographical Perspective on a Remarkable but Controversial Movement. Spring Hill, Tenn.: Discipleship Publications International, 2007, 240 pp., USD19.

The “Remarkable but Controversial Movement” is the International Church of Christ, previously known as the Crossroads Movement, Boston Movement, Total Commitment Movement, Discipling Movement and others. It is a movement born within the Churches of Christ, but separated from them in the 1980s. For those who are in Hong Kong, they are known as the “Hong Kong Church of Christ”.

Thomas Jones is a lifelong member of the Churches of Christ. As he got involved in the campus ministry, he came into contact with Chuck Lucas and those who were trained by him in the Crossroads Church of Christ in Gainesville, Florida. He was suspicious of Lucas’ way of doing things at first, but later he was convinced that it was a much needed effort among the Churches of Christ in evangelism and discipleship. He told the story of this movement and his involvement in it from the late 1960s.

In the early days, Chuck Lucas was the leader and everyone went to the Crossroads Church of Christ. For some unknown (but unofficially known) reasons, Chuck Lucas was fired. And the centre of the movement was shifted to Boston under Kip McKean. Though having grown from thirty members to hundreds of thousands of members, the movement suffered greatly with the resignation of Kip McKean in 2001. In 2003, Henry Kriete of London issued an open letter concerning the teachings and practices of the International Church of Christ and eventually the ICOC was fractured into several parts. Kip McKean has his new “International Christian Church”; some ICOC are loosely connected; some simply go on their own way.

I have been watching the growth of this movement, as an outsider, since early 1980s. For one reason, Hong Kong was targeted by the Boston Church of Christ as a new mission point back then. From the experience of other cities, the Churches of Christ there would be torn apart once when the Boston people came. So some of us were quite concerned of what would happen. They joined a local Church of Christ at first and worked quite harmoniously with them. Eventually they formed their only group and began their own worship service. A split did not occur. I guess less than five members of the local Churches of Christ changed boat to the Boston group. We have not been in fellowship since then.

In 1997 a local evangelical wrote a book on the Hong Kong Church of Christ. But he did not do his homework. He did not know that the International Churches of Christ and the Churches of Christ were different groups. I wrote him a review of his work and put it on the Internet. (http://www.laosaohk.com/coc/ ) Note: It has not been updated for more than ten years. There must have been many changes since then.) I got emails form members of the HKCOC since then. Some invited me to their service. Some disagreed with what I wrote. Since the Henry Kriete letter in 2003, perhaps because of what I wrote, I had met some members who were not satisfied with the current situation and wanted to have a look at the Churches of Christ here in Hong Kong. I have to say that they are the most zealous Christians I have ever met. Most of them went somewhere else. Some however stay with us since then.

Thomas Jones is quite optimistic that ICOC and COC can come closer in the future. I personally am not that optimistic. I guess after forty years, different culture has been developed. ICOC are younger and more energetic. They are creative and never lose the vision and mission to evangelize and to make disciples. They are serious in discipleship and relationships. But they are a bit too pragmatic in doing things. For a current assessment of the ICOC, one should refer to Leaven 18:2, a publication associated with the Pepperdine University (See the editorial here click ). John Wilson, the guest editor of that issue, knows everything from the beginning of the Crossroads days. Contributors are all from ICOC.

Just a personal note: Steve Chin, the lead evangelist of the Hong Kong Church of Christ now, if I remember correctly, visited Hong Kong in the mid 1980s. I took him to the campus of HKU and CUHK. I believe he was from Tampa, Florida. Jeff Wong and John Smith are the only ones in their leadership whom I know. Jeff was still a medical student in HKU back then. John was working for the government at that time and had worshipped with us for some time.

For those who want to read an in-depth review of Jones’ book, they should read Tom Olbricht’s review in the Christian Chronicle. Dr. Olbricht is a distinguished professor emeritus of religion with Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He too knows the movement from the very beginning. He pointed out that Jones’ book should go into details of the various critical points in the history of ICOC.

http://www.christianchronicle.org/article837~Author_explores_past_experiences_with_Boston_movement