For the past eleven years, I have been involved with a vibrant, growing, controversial church. Some would say that I belong to the "church of Christ" denomination, but the nature of my membership is more fundamental than that. Jesus Christ came to establish his church, and the apostles worked and taught so that there was but one church with many congregations in various cities. It is to this original church of Christ that I pledge eternal allegiance.

The behavior of various leaders and congregations that I have been associated with has been criticized by many people. Increasingly, they are being accused in the press and elsewhere of being "cultic", "authoritarian", and "divisive" while using methods of "brain-washing" and "mind-control". My goal in this letter is to give my perspective, critique, defense, and commendation of congregations of which I have been a part. My goal is not to persuade the reader, but to explain my point of view so that the reader may better understand me.

I was raised in the Methodist church by parents who lived uprightly, who went to church every Sunday, and who prayed with me before bedtime and before every meal. I was baptized and confirmed in the Methodist tradition in 7th grade. I had very little idea that God was supposed to affect my life or thoughts in any way. Though I had adopted many of the good morals of my parents, I considered morality to be the result of social and cultural norms rather than of universal truth. Although I had tried to read some of the Bible at some points in my life, it never meant much to me beyond the bedtime-story level.

While I was in high school, my brother Bill had become more serious about his faith in God. He told me that the Bible was the word of God, that Jesus was coming back for judgement, and that sin was a problem we needed to deal with. By the time I went to college, I was curious about what could be known about God's opinion (not society's opinion) on real life issues. At M.I.T., I did not actively seek out any churches or groups, but I prayed about it occasionally and read the Bible regularly. I went to church only when invited by somebody. In 1981, I was invited to come visit the Lexington church of Christ.

I was not overly impressed one way or another by the church the first time I went, but I saw that the people believed in the Bible and I started going regularly. I also attended a Bible study group on campus at M.I.T. which was run by members of the church. I also started studying the Bible together with one of the people in the study group, Jeff Zimmer. He had a series of basic lessons which he improvised on to help me get started in putting the Bible into practice in my life.

The first studies with Jeff were eneventful. They either agreed with what I already believed or were plausible and uncontroversial. So they had very little impact. When we studied the topic of "Sin" together, I really woke up for the first time to the fact that God EXPECT some response from my life. We did a full morality inventory, comparing my life with the teachings in the Bible, and I realized I had alot of changes to make.

evolution - I wanted to tell everyone, nobady wanted to hear anything, I shut down, people started hearing things, I started struggling, I started sharing

me and the church - tired of "your church believes" - my faith, my stands

common church stands, the natural consequences, baptism, church vs. family

movement toward organizational unity

Authority movement, realization of discipleship, the value of authority

recycled accusations, Crossroads to Boston, origins in campus ministry, divisions

one best way mentality

role of evangelism

organizational struture (focus, every member), DP, PP, DG, BT, BTL, ABTL, ZL, HCL

my journey: leader, struggler, persevering by faith (honesty abt feelings, ideas)

models of spiritual change: do it and you'll feel it, do it when you feel it (the get fired up" mentality)

the sin-faith cycle

the young leader phenomenon, challenges in a growing church

why do people fall away?

Biblical commands vs. Biblical examples

evolution of the church in the absence of written creeds

giving and taking advice, privacy and confidence

my 5 goals (faith in God, evangelistic boldness, doctrinal rigor, bottom-up organization, diversity/tolerance

UNITY

AUTHORITY

THE SIN-FAITH CYCLE