of a Split of a Split…
For those wondering at home, the splits that I am aware of at the moment are:
Chicago International Church of Christ - Jay and Denise Chiappetta
Madison Group (name not known) - Jay Shelbrack
Toronto International Church of Christ - Tim and Lianne Kernan
International Christian Church of Northern Ireland - James
This, of course, is in addition to the other splits
Phoenix International Church of Christ - Chris and Sonja Chloupek
Stockholm International Church of Christ - Anu and Argo Lips
Combine that with:
Savannah Church of Christ - Now Buzz Banadyga (used to be Steve and Lisa Johnson)
Salt Lake Christian Church - Jay and Angie Hernandez
Eugene Church of Christ - Jeremy & Amy Ciaramella
Central New York Church of Christ - Chris and Theresa Broom
La Ceiba Church of Christ - Nelson Bernardez
San Pedro Sula Church of Christ - the Escobedos
Tegucigalpa Church of Christ - Daniel and Janeth Aquino
Église du Christ de Montréal - Daniel and Gillianne Brisebois
Quebec City Church of Christ (planted by Montreal recently)
Santo Domingo Church of Christ - Angel and Luz Martinez
What do you have? Considering that all of the above churches have claimed ‘discipling’ from Kip, I’d say you have a cohesive group of folks with a common doctrine, purpose, and polity. In other words, a church. (More specifically, a denomination.)
And add in sympathizers in Novosibirsk, Wichita(KS), Seattle, Boston, and Los Angeles..
Note that just because there are sympathizers in a city, it doesn’t mean the church claims discipling from Kip. The listed churches above claim or have recieved discipling from Kip - after the two letters. The only possible exception is Santo Domingo, they have only received money.
This, of course, is completely different from the largely unaffiliated Atlanta Christian Church led by Steve Sapp and Kindred Howard. They also helped fund the Martinez’ in Santo Domingo, but I’m sure that Steve Sapp has no inclination to be discipled by Kip. He did not want to be discipled by the Elders in Atlanta.
Comments
2 Responses to “The Split of a Split…”
I’m somewhat ticked off that they’re using our church name for theirs. I guess it was his too, and he had it first and probably thought of it, but still … Now I’ll be constantly explaining, no we’re not affiliated with that ICOC. I guess the COC folks had to do that wiht us for a couple of decades, eh?
Now that I think about it, I bet he comes up with his own new name pretty soon so he won’t have to be associated with us!
BTW - Where do you get your info? You always seem to know stuff and I don’t know how.
As far as the name, I believe Kip owns the name. Some time ago, we thought about changing our name to avoid this mess. The rationale is pretty good, but I said that we should change our theology first, then our name.
I get my information largely from church websites. The other place I get my information is from usd21.org. All I have done in this case is distill information from all the listed church websites.
For example, Savannah mentions Steve going to Portland. Savannah also mentions their support of Santo Domingo. Portland mentions the other sites and so on. Everyone seems to drop names, so I google search their names and cross-reference.
Another example is that Portland mentions letters from people supporting them and lists their city. Thus, I can say that Portland has sympathizers in X,Y,Z city. They may only be two people, and in retrospect, I should mention that fact.
I do read Delphi, but I research information from there before I consider it credible. Delphi provided the link for Phoenix, but some of the other info I cannot corroborate. Besides, these days Delphi doesn’t really add anything to my spirituality or understanding of what’s going on.
Hope that explains it. Again, most of it is from Portland’s site. The rest is just googling people involved.