Understanding the International Church of Christ

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After understanding the belief system of the International Church of Christ, it may be easier to understand their religious practices that include the following: prayer buddies, discipleships, the One Year Challenge, and the ICOC Ministry Training Academy. Each has a pivotal role within the International Church of Christ and therefore will be discussed further in the following paragraphs. Once a week Bible studies are held within a group of members of the church. People are typically paired up with someone of the same sex, though opposite sex partners are not uncommon. From there, excerpts from different passages are discussed and studied in much depth. Also during this bible study, the buddies tend to confess their sins with each other in order to provide a means for further discussion on how to better oneself. The sins that are confessed are also kept on a list that is circulated throughout the church for future sermons and to allow others from different International Church of Christ churches to pray for those people and their sins (Longhenry). Similarly to prayer buddies, discipleships are pretty much what the International Church of Christ is known for; without having a discipleship, one is not a true Christian (CARM). In this process of discipleship, an older member of the church is paired up with a newer member in order to oversee their lives and help mentor them onto the right path for salvation (Who Are We?). The discipler (older member who is the mentor), makes all these decisions for the disciple which can range from confessing their sins to them all the way to where they should live and who they should associate themselves with. Life decisions are dictated by the discipler, and the disciple is expected to submit to t... ... middle of paper ... ...ious group and that it seems to be they are very dishonest with their intense recruiting by telling potential members one thing and doing the exact opposite, such as saying they will not try to change your view on God and then next thing you know, pressure you with Scriptures and attempting to convince you of something completely different (Ashkar). Smaller controversies surrounding the church include the idea that it is exclusivistic; it does not accept everyone as well as there being financial improprieties where the church is siphoning large sums of money from lower ranked members in order allow the elite evangelists to live a very overgenerous lifestyle (Ruhland). All the controversies mentioned above are just examples of what make this a very flawed religious group that the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) highly recommend staying away from.

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