e to "evangelize the world in this generation".It was a message many people inside and, increasingly, outside the Churches of Christresponded to. Boston was "where it was happening", and many people transferred to newuniversities, quit jobs, sold houses, and moved, sometimes with with their families, toBoston to be part of it.Two prominent leaders in the mainline Churches of Christ who "went to Boston", or joinedthe Boston movement, during the mid-1980s were Jerry Jones and Gordon Ferguson. Jerryleft a little over a year later, and subsequently wrote three lengthy books which consistprimarily of compilations of statements by the Boston leadership. These statements arescary to read -- they show the growing adulation of Kip McKean, to the extent that someof the movement's leaders were comparing him to the Apostles.Gordon Ferguson joined the Boston Movement in 1986, shortly after Jerry Jones left. Heis still a member, and by most accounts is the architect of the ICC's "churchreconstruction" methods. These first appeared during the 1987 "Great Reconstruction"period (more about that later), but have come to be used much as corporate reorganizationshave been in the 1990s -- as a means of shaping up churches who were failing to meetconversion or giving goals.During the mid-1980s the Movement and mainline Churches of Christ grew further andfurther apart. At the same time, the churches in the Movement itself were increasinglyfound in two camps -- those who approved entirely of Kip McKean and Boston, and thosewho were becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Boston's authoritarian structure andsteady streams of burned out ex-members reporting horrific spiritual and mental abuse.A few months later, in early 1987, the Boston Church of Christ demanded that alldiscipling movement Churches of Christ which had not been planted by Boston originallyallow themselves to be "reconstructed". This means that their entire leadership was toresign, and make way ...
