International Churches of Christ

International Churches of Christ
An International Church of Christ worship service
Classification	Christian, Restoration Movement, Christian fundamentalism
Orientation	New Testament, Evangelicalism
Polity	Congregationalism
Associations	HOPE Worldwide, IPI Books
Region	Global (155 nations)
Founder	Thomas McKean
Branched from	Churches of Christ
Separations	International Christian Churches
Congregations	657
Members	2008: 88,000, 2014: 105,000
Official website	International Churches of Christ

The International Churches of Christ, is a body of co-operating religiously conservative, and racially integrated Christian congregations. Beginning with 30 members in 1979 they grew to 19,172 members within the first 10 years. Currently they are numbered at more than 105,000. A formal break was made from the mainline Churches of Christ in 1993 with the organization of the International Churches of Christ. The ICOC believes that the whole Bible is the inspired Word of God and that each person is saved by the grace of God, if and when they place their faith in and become a disciple of Jesus Christ, repent and are baptized.

It is a family of over 650 churches spread across some 155 nations, they consider themselves non-denominational. The structure is intended to avoid two extremes: "overly centralized authority" on the one side and "disconnected autonomy" on the other side. The organization of the ICOC has been described as based on cooperation between congregations. The largest congregation, the Los Angeles Church of Christ, has over 6000 members. The largest church service was held in 2012 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, during a World Discipleship Summit, with 17,800 in attendance.

In 2000, it was described as "[a] fast-growing Christian organization known for aggressive proselytizing to [US] college students" and as "one of the most controversial religious groups on campus".

The ICoC has its roots in a movement that reaches back to the period of the Second Great Awakening (1790–1870) of early nineteenth-century America. Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell are credited with what is today known as the Stone-Campbell or Restoration Movement. There are a number of branches of the Restoration movement and the ICoC was formed from within the Churches of Christ. Specifically, it was born from a "discipling" movement that arose among the mainline Churches of Christ during the 1970s. This discipling movement developed in the campus ministry of Chuck Lucas.

In 1967, Chuck Lucas was minister of the 14th Street Church of Christ in Gainesville, Florida (later renamed the Crossroads Church of Christ). That year he started a new project known as Campus Advance (based on principles borrowed from the Campus Crusade and the Shepherding Movement). Centered on the University of Florida, the program called for a strong evangelical outreach and an intimate religious atmosphere in the form of soul talks and prayer partners. Soul talks were held in student residences and involved prayer and sharing overseen by a leader who delegated authority over group members. Prayer partners referred to the practice of pairing a new Christian with an older guide for personal assistance and direction. Both procedures led to "in-depth involvement of each member in one another's lives".