Thomas "Kip" McKean (born May 31, 1954) is a Christian preacher who has been described by his detractors as a cult leader. He is a former minister of the International Churches of Christ. He is currently the minister of the City of Angels International Christian Church and head of the International Christian Churches organization, also known as the "Portland/Sold-Out Discipling Movement".^[1]

The son of an admiral, McKean was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and purports to be named after his ancestor Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence, although he is actually unrelated to that McKean family.^[2] McKean married Havana-born Elena Garcia-Bengochea on December 11, 1976. She is presently the Women's’ Ministry Leader in the City of Angels International Christian Church. They have three children, Olivia, Sean and Eric. Olivia McKean left her father's church and lives in Europe.^[3][4]

McKean was baptized in 1972 while a freshman at the University of Florida in Gainesville. His mentor, Charles H. "Chuck" Lucas, was the evangelist of the 14th Street Church of Christ, part of the mainstream Churches of Christ, a 19th Century movement with aspirations toward a return to "First Century Christianity" as practiced in the New Testament. The church moved into a larger building with a new name, the Crossroads Church of Christ, and, through an aggressive student-based evangelism program Lucas had established, they made many new converts (along with a number of community and campus detractors) as its membership quickly grew.

Lucas' methodology for raising up leaders in the church involved a great deal of hard work in Bible scholarship and discipling promising Christians in the paths prescribed in Scripture.

In 1975, McKean left Gainesville to be the campus minister for Northeastern Christian College, located near Philadelphia as part of a campus ministry program called "Campus Advance". Then in 1975 McKean was hired as a campus minister by the Heritage Chapel Church of Christ in Charleston, Illinois where he grew a college ministry at Eastern Illinois University, funded by the Houston Memorial Church of Christ in Houston, Texas. In 1977, in the letter announcing their decision to withdraw financial support for KipMcKean, the elders stated McKean was teaching false and deceitful doctrine and promoting controlling practices. Then McKean formed a splinter group often called a cult by its critics. McKean became head of the Lexington (Massachusetts) Church of Christ in 1979 and carried on Lucas' brand of church ministry that focused on evangelism and campus ministry. The church grew rapidly and later changed its name to the Boston Church of Christ.

After separating from the Crossroads Church of Christ, the Boston church expanded its influence among other Churches of Christ, becoming known as "the Boston Movement" and, eventually, the International Churches of Christ, with McKean and his wife Elena considered the highest authority within the hierarchy of the movement.^{[citation needed]} Shortly thereafter, they separated from the mainline Churches of Christ.^{[citation needed]} In 1990, the McKeans moved to Los Angeles to lead the Los Angeles Church of Christ, where they presided over the rapid growth of the ICOC throughout the 1990s.^[5]

At the beginning of 2001 as a college student in Boston, the oldest of the McKeans’ children began to question her faith. Unjustly and heavily criticized – because of the high profile of her parents – and feeling unloved by many in the congregation, she stopped attending church. This single event caused uncertainty in McKeans’ leadership among many of the World Sector Leaders, as well as among the Kingdom Elders and Kingdom Teachers. In September of 2001, the World Sector Leaders pushed the McKeans into a sabbatical – though later, some deeply regretted this decision. The reasoning was that to “oversee” a church, one had to “manage his own family [well or] how can he take care of God’s church.” (1 Timothy 3:4-5) Also cited was Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and… he will not turn from it.” The McKenas, and those loyal to them, were hurt by what they felt was a lack of grace and appreciation by almost all of the World Sector Leaders, Kingdom Elders and Kingdom Teachers. To legitimize themselves, they cited places in the Scriptures where some of God’s and Israel’s greatest leaders had unfaithful children – Aaron, Samuel, and even the Old Testament’s Messiah, David – yet they continued to victoriously lead “all Israel.” This use of the old testament as a standard contradicts McKean's claim that the old covenant holds no sway in modern times. ^[6]

Since 2005, the congregations under Kip McKean's leadership have sometimes called themselves the "International Christian Church".^[7] This group under Kip McKean's influence has also been called the "Portland/Sold-Out Discipling Movement".^{[citation needed]} In 2007, McKean moved to Los Angeles to lead a congregation of his new movement known as the City of Angels International Christian Church.^[8] Although the International Churches of Christ and the International Christian Church share almost identical doctrines, the divisive issues are zealousness (neither side thinks that the others are truly living out the scriptures) and the treatment of the McKeans in the early 2000s. Both churches continue to operate, worship, and evangelize in an incredibly similar way, but their differences continue ot separate them.

Controversy surrounding McKean started in 1977, when he was fired by the Houston Memorial Church of Christ. Many college and university campuses banned McKean's group throughout the 1980s and 1990s. History seemed to repeat itself in 2003, when a letter written by a former minister of the ICOC caused followers to once again question McKean's methods.

In August 2008, the Portland church broke away from McKean's "New Movement" and "extended the hand of fellowship" to the ICOC.^[9] Kip McKean's doctrine and practice continue to be the subject of controversy including accusations that he was and is a cult leader.^[10]

"It seems McKean's kids weren't always so happy in the ICC. In 1998, McKean's daughter had publicly mentioned earlier desires of leaving the ICC, saying, "I thought that the only place I could find true freedom would be outside the church, and that's the only place that I could be happy." Later, when rumors spread of her actual departure from the ICC, the ICC may have had a consistency issue on its hands: other ICC leaders had been forced to step down after similar occurrences, but what of McKean?" ^[11]

• Churches of Christ
• International Churches of Christ
• Restoration Movement

• KipMcKean.org, Official Website of Kip McKean

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