tself as part of the Church; it made no effort to communicate with outside churches; itfollowed its own path, or (as former members generally believe), Kip McKean's path.Once shed of the limitations posed by the need to conform to the practices andexpectations of the mainline Churches of Christ and, even more, by those of theindependent discipling movement churches, the ICC moved forward fast. It begandeveloping the complex hierarchy that is now one of its characteristics. Leaders in variousparts of the world were put in charge of proselytizing areas covering several countries --these areas are now called the World Sectors. The unofficial lines of authority betweencertain large, old churches and the churches that had been "planted" by mission teams fromthe large churches were formalized. Formal requirements and mechanisms were put inplace for all churches to support the leadership in Boston. (This structure is described ingreater detail later.)In 1990, Kip McKean moved from Boston to Los Angeles, and the central church of theMovement became the Los Angeles Church of Christ. This finalized the break with the"Boston years", although the Boston Church of Christ itself is still in existence.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ICC saw an explosion of new church plantings, andin in the size of many existing churches. The demographics of the ICC also changed --while previously, many of those in the movement had come from within the mainlineChurches of Christ, this was no longer true of new members. They came from all religiousbackgrounds, or none. Most didn't know much, if anything, about the mainline Churchesof Christ -- their entire understanding of the ICC was formed by the ICC itself.It also led to an increasing number of people leaving the ICC, burned out by the highpressure lifestyle and unreasonable demands of the group. The complaints grew.Previously, most complaints about the ICC had been heard primarily from people inside ofthe ma...
