(Affiliated with the
International Churches of Christ,
a.k.a. The Boston Movement)
25th June, 1997
Written by Joseph Owade
On Sunday, the 8th of June 1997 at 2.45 p.m., I received a
delegation in my house sent by you to inform me that my wife
and I are no longer welcome to the Nairobi Christian Church.
We were further informed that our names had been removed from
the membership list. The delegation, which comprised of an
Evangelist Richard Ahenda, and an intern Evangelist, Steve
Mukenya, in the company of their wives, failed to give
satisfactory Biblical reasons for such a serious move with far
reaching spiritual, psychological and financial implications
for me and my family. Even after I managed to detain them in
my house for about 2 hours, it was obvious they were involved
in something for which they were neither well informed nor
prepared. After praying with and for them I discharged them,
but I felt I needed to pursue the issue further. On Tuesday
the 10th June 1997, at 3.00 p.m. you and I held a discussion
(which I recorded), in which a number of issues came to
light:
- It was clear that you could not
quite put a finger on what charges warranted my expulsion and
that of my wife from church, so you decided to call it a
"leave from God".
- It also became clear that you
had suppressed ill suspicions toward me for a long time and
having failed to find me guilty of anything you decided that I
have to go because you considered me a liability anyway.
- You gave me a number of
scriptures to go and study out. My study of these scriptures
and many other related ones are the main concerns of this
letter.
I want you to know that I have decided to compile this
study and make it available to everyone in the spirit of love
and openness. I do this because at the moment I have already
suffered rejection and even assault at your orders and so I
feel it is important that the whole truth be known. On
Thursday the 12th June 1997, when my wife and I presented
ourselves for the house church, we were violently thrown out
by 5 leaders who said they were acting on your orders.
In Proverbs 6:6-16 we read that among the things that God
hates are haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed
innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that
are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out
lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
Honestly, I fail to see how any of these applied to me, though
you explained that it was concerned with my being quiet over
the issue of the 31 brothers and sisters who petitioned for a
special general meeting. How that makes me guilty is still
unclear to me.
I now hear that you have said that I was behind it all.
Richard, you say whatever you wish in order to alienate me
from my friends and to justify your unjust treatment of me and
my family, but God alone knows who is the liar and the wicked
schemer between you and me. It is my sincere opinion that
you, more than anyone else are the cause of much of the
dissension in the church. I say this to your shame because
you have turned all my friends in the church against me using
lies and slanderous accusations. But that we will sort out in
a better way at a better and fairer playground. I have
received first hand information of how you have gone around to
some of my friends in the church using deception and
intimidation to try to get them to sign charges against me. I
forgive you and your hypocritical lot for that is how your
fathers, the Pharisees and Sadducces treated Jesus and the
disciples in the 1st century. May God not hold this sin
against you.
I will not try to pretend that I am a polished theologian,
but will just pen my sincere convictions about these rather
fragile issues of unity and dissension. I do hope, however,
that you and all who read this letter will overlook my
emotions and instead take the matters that really matter to
heart and let the scriptures speak for themselves!
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In our attempts to be unified, we can have one of 2
approaches:
- Unity of the spirit, or
- Unity by conformity
I want to consider each of those separately so we can
easily distinguish the two.
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In this chapter the Apostle Paul wanted to describe what it
means to have a unity of the spirit.
- Attitudes that foster unity of
the spirit (versus 1-2)
- Complete humility and gentleness
- Patience
- Forbearance
- All these are done in LOVE
These attitudes are more accommodating and give room for
expressing and accepting our individuality and short comings
freely without fear. No one tries to fit everyone else into a
limiting box or a strait jacket of personal scruples.
- Every effort must be made to
keep this unity through the bond of peace. (verse 3)
In Ephesians 2:14-18 we are told that the bond of peace is
Christ crucified. The cross brings peace with God and
therefore peace among men. The cross demonstrates to us all
the attitudes in verse 1-2 and teaches us how to practice
them!.
- The basis of unity of the spirit
is the person of Christ (verse 4-6) Paul gives an example of 7
fundamental issues about Christ.
- One Body - the church which is the
universal body of saints as a witness to Christ here on
earth.
- One Spirit - the Holy Spirit who indwells
all Christians and testifies of Christ
- One Hope - eternal hope in Christ for all
believers
- One Lord - Jesus Christ who died and rose
again now crowned Lord of all
- One Faith - the object of whose is
Christ
- One Baptism - into Christ for the
forgiveness of sin
- One God - Christ in us, our Emmanuel!
Thus Christ is the firm foundation upon whom we must be
built and united (1 Cor. 3:11). Beyond this there is nothing
else that we should accept as a basis for unity. Why? Because
of 4 good reasons that Paul explains from verse 7 to 16.
- Because God recognises diversity in the body (see
verse 7) while he is the overall in charge, not man. In 1
Cor. 12: 12-13 Paul explains that though we are one body, each
of us is unique and has different functions. It is impossible
for all of us to be the same or to play the same role. Each
of us is required to play our different roles to the benefit
of the whole body.
- Because God himself appoints leaders and gives them
to serve his church in order to build it up to complete unity
in faith, knowledge of Jesus, maturity and fullness of Christ.
These leaders are Apostles, prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and
Teachers (verse 11-13). These are not titles, but offices of
service. They serve the church, not boss over the church
(Matt. 23:8). The leaders of the church of the first century
in imitation of the Lord lived and worked among their flock.
Some of today's leaders who earn fat salaries and live in
luxury are a great shame indeed. They need to either resign
or repent!.
- Because God wants there to be maturity and freedom
(verse 14-15) to speak the truth in love (including
disagreement and criticism).
- Because God wants each part of the body to reach
its full potential of service without hindrance (verse 16).
No part should be forced into any role that is not proper or
deprived of opportunity to play its given role. Many
individuals have suffered a great deal as a result of some
leaders forcing them into roles they were never meant for.
Even my wife has been a victim of such abuse in several
occasions. What God left out no man can force into another.
To try to do this is cruel and pharisaic (Matt.
23:4).
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This is an unbiblical type of unity. It is unity that is
designed by men in their own deceitful scheming (verse 14).
It is unity based on human principles and human effort and is
completely devoid of God's spirit.
- Men decide to set their own standards.
- Men demand conformity to these standards.
- Men use control and illegitimate authority to keep
everyone in line.
- Any deviation from group norm is harshly rebuked.
- Any disagreement and criticism is viewed as divisiveness
and often lead to expulsion.
Such is the unity that I see being fostered in the Nairobi
Christian Church today. Facts are facts and they speak for
themselves. The leaders have become so deluded and mad with
power that they are actually ordering people to violate their
own conscience by forbidding them to come to church meetings.
Now they have "authority" to come between God and those they
lead. They require that if you do not interpret Scriptures
according to their way then you are disfellowshipped.
Unity by conformity is not unity at all because true unity
must be based on free will and diversity. Unity by conformity
is fake because it is not possible among thinking
beings.
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In the Bible divisiveness is a situation caused by 3 main
factors:
- Creeds
- Personalities
- Legalism
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This simply means a "statement of beliefs", which may be
written or unwritten. In 2 Tim. 4:2-4 Paul warned that people
would depart from sound doctrine and follow after false
doctrines (versions of truth). When people, however well
intentioned, decide to come up with a set of beliefs and draw
lines of who is in and who is out based on these beliefs then
they cause divisions or become sectarian. This is termed as
"exclusivism", i.e. you go through the Bible, pick out the
scriptures you like, state that these are the only truth and
exclude everyone else as wrong. You have become divisive. It
is this kind of division which is addressed in Titus 1: 10-16
and Titus 3: 9-11. The Greek word used for divisive here is
"hairetikos", which means heretic. This refers to a person
who promotes divisions by holding to extreme views of
"legitimate Christian truth".
The context of this passage clearly identifies these
heretics as the circumcision group of Jews who went about
preaching that the Gentiles needed Christ plus circumcision in
order to be justified. If anyone preaches that you need
Christ plus some other set of requirements to be saved, he has
become divisive! It concerns me greatly that in ICC there is
an unwritten creed that is way beyond Scripture, that one must
follow in order to be accepted. For example, I regret deeply
the number of people whom I denied baptism simply because they
failed to agree with our teaching that, we are the only ones
who are saved and that everyone outside the ICC is lost. May
God have mercy on me and these poor souls.
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Majority of the people are simply personality followers.
They see truth only as presented to them by others. They do
not search or think through things themselves. 1 Cor. 1
illustrates this kind of divisions. These are not divisions
based on issues but on strong and influential
personalities. This remains a warning against
strong personalities who would use their positions of
influence to divide and rule!
You, Richard, have always made your numerous personal
disputes with others become congregational problems. Every
time someone differs with you on minor issues you have used
all your influence both public and private to alienate them.
Isn't it very obvious that you ostracised Lucas Mboya mainly
over your personal differences? Your reluctance to accept or
tolerate different opinions was the basic problem between you
and him. And finally when you couldn't take it anymore, you
threw him out along with his whole family. And what reason
did you give? Tithing! Quite ironical isn't it? Simply
because he did not agree with you forcing tithing on everyone,
you decided to throw out one of the most generous givers.
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Legalism is the term used to describe a situation where
people attempt to serve God through a set of laws rather than
by grace. Legalism erects huge spiritual barriers similar to
those of the first century between Jews and Gentiles because
the legalists become too self-righteous that they do not
accept their more liberal brothers.
When a man sets up his own rules and expects everyone to
follow them to the tee, he has become divisive. This is
because not everyone will see things his way and dissension is
therefore inevitable. For those who follow, legalism only
proves to be burden in the end. It interferes with the
ability to worship God freely and willingly out of love and
devotion. Such worship is all in vain (Matt. 15: 8-9). A
church that becomes legalistic has taken its first and most
lethal step towards apostasy (Gal. 1 :6-10).
I regret to admit that the NCC crossed this line long ago
and every attempt to try to remedy the situation has fallen on
ears made deaf by hardened hearts. The legalism practised in
the ICC would make the Pharisees seem weak in their faith!
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In Acts 15:36 Paul and Barnabas disagreed sharply over the
issue of John Mark. The Greek word for disagreement used here
is "stasis", meaning dissension or insurrection or controversy.
But this disagreement never led to division in the church.
Because 2 people do not agree on things having to do even with
the work of God it does not mean that there cannot be unity
among them. In fact a friendship that cannot accept honest
differences however sharp they may be is not worth the name at
all.
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In Acts 11:1-18 Peter came under heavy criticism for going
over to share his faith with gentiles and eating and
fellowshipping with them. The Greek word for criticism used
here is "diakrino" meaning to withdraw from, or
oppose or to discriminate, or contend or differ, or doubt,
judge, be partial or waver. But Peter took great pain and
patiently explained his actions from beginning to end. In the
end there were no further objections.
These Jews were critical of Peter going to the house of
gentiles and eating with them. They did not hesitate to be
critical. They did not hesitate to call his attention, and
yet again, criticism, in itself, was not divisive. It did not
lead to division.
I think that it is not criticism that leads to division but
our attitude towards it that does lead to divisions. Complete
humility and patience on the side of the leader under
criticism would enhance unity, rather than a harsh and
arrogant spirit which only promotes bad attitudes and
bitterness. It is an abuse of leadership to throw out your
critics and a foolish one indeed because a healthy leadership
is one that accepts constructive and honest criticism.
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In Galatians 2:11 Paul had some serious reservations about
the hypocritical conduct of Peter. He brought it up publicly.
Again, this never lead to a split between Peter and Paul,
because reservations in and of themselves do not cause
divisions.
Yes, I admit that I have some serious reservations about
the leadership of this church. When I first joined the church
in early 1990, I was led to believe that the Bible is the only
standard we must follow. But now, I have sufficient reason to
believe that there are double standards on the part of the
leadership. I realise that such an assertion must be proven
by facts and so I will illustrate:
- It is a matter of record that I
was terminated from the staff of the church as a matter of
man's policy not scripture. The reason for my termination had
to do with my wife not being in the full time ministry. This
is obviously unbiblical because even the apostles wives did
not have to be "Aposteless", provided they were believers
(1Cor.9:5) it was enough. Her not being in paid ministry is
irrelevant because you cannot name even a single apostle's
wife!
- It is a matter of record that
recently several disciples including my wife and I have been
thrown out of the church in a manner not only unconstitutional
but also unscriptural and even violent.
- It is a matter of record that
the leadership has taken upon itself the role of a match-maker
in marriages. A good number of relationships have been
frustrated and some people even fired from staff because the
leadership was against their relationships. The reason cited
for such conduct is that the other spouse is no 'ministry
material'. Sadly though, no one is told of such conditions
before they join. Some have 'fallen away' for this reason
alone. The least this can pass for is meddling! (1Pet. 4:14-
17)
- In matters of deep concern, the
apostles did not act alone. The divine will gave guidance,
and the apostles interpreted and exhorted, but the consent of
the whole church was sought (Acts 6:5, 11:1, 11:22, 15:4,
15:22). I am yet to see this kind of practice in the Nairobi
Christian Church. Our leaders in every crisis have always
reacted with intimidation and tyranny to the point that
members are no longer free to express any discontentment or
matter of concern.
Recently, when a few brothers and sisters tried to exercise
what seemed to them as a basic constitutional approach to
solving some problems in the church, by calling for a special
general meeting, the leaders responded with public lies,
outright deception, misinformation and intimidation. Within
48 hours of a promised resolution, most of the brothers and
sisters were victimised and secretly thrown out of the church
with all sorts of false accusations.
Some of these leaders are now spreading false rumours that
I was behind it all in order to discredit the lead evangelist.
Not surprising, though, because many of the issues raised by
the said petition had to do with the leaders tyranny and
authoritarian style of leadership, which points towards a very
insecure leadership indeed. (Believe it or not, the
evangelist John Kilaha lied to the church and the Holy Spirit
when he publicly denied that he knew beforehand about this
petition) for he was well informed about it from the very
beginning by Joe Mwangi, who was leading the petitioners.
- You have heard it said that the
Kingdom of God is not a democracy but I tell you the truth it
is not a dictatorship either. Whenever there is a crisis in a
dictatorial system, those in power usually react by
eliminating the 'troublemakers' . But as for the Kingdom of
God, being made up of puny humans, must accommodate and put up
with all types of human personalities, weak, and strong, Jew
and Gentile alike. It must have its own fringes. A movement
that has no tolerance for the fringes is not likely to be
practising true Christianity but something more cultic at
least.
Such is the situation in the ICC. Recently they have 'pruned'
a good number of people whom they consider weak, unfaithful or
disloyal to the leadership. Some have been thrown out simply
because they have read articles (mainly from the internet) that
the leadership is afraid of because the contents expose their dark
side. This is a very serious contradiction of scriptures and the
teachings of the Lord in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-34 (The parable
of the weeds).
Jesus here specifically addresses the issue of 'weeding
people out' of his Kingdom and expressly forbids his disciples
from pulling them up. The obvious danger is that they may
uproot the wheat with them (i.e. genuine disciples). Again,
there are a number of clear contradictions here with the
practice of 'pruning' within the ICC as recently done by
Richard Alawaye and the leaders of the NCC!
- There will be a harvest, but it is at the end of the age
(verse 39-40)
- The harvesters are angels, not humans (verse 39)
- Not even angles have the authority to decide who will be
weeded out, but only Christ (verse 41).
When my wife and I pointed out such contradictions of
Scriptures, the leaders absolutely refused to open the Bible
and said that the leadership had decided and that was that. A
common response from the pulpit has always been "if you don't
like what we do in this church, you can go start your own".
How absurd for a movement that claims to have a "monopoly of
God!"
- In April 1996 my wife was
invited to the U.S.A. to attend her brother's wedding. This
became an issue of great controversy between myself and
Richard, and his wife, Sarah. They were against this trip for
reasons I still don't understand. In October 1996, after she
had returned from the U.S.A. they ordered that she be re-
baptised. After prayerfully looking at the Scriptures, my
wife and I came to the decision that she did not need a re-
baptism, for we could not find Scriptural reason for it.
Despite great intimidation from Richard and Sarah we stood our
ground on this issue. But this was the last straw as we were
never forgiven for this "defiance". This demonstrates just
how the leadership has no respect for authority of Scriptures
and freedom of conscience. My wife and I have been victimised
since that time because they had wanted only to use her re-
baptism to break her will and not to win her heart. I have
never seen anything as cruel as this ever since I became a
Christian.
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Finally, I believe Richard and the leaders are victimising
me because they cannot stand hearing honest Truth. They
preach and tell us that as Christians we should be open and
not be concerned about how we look. They promise to love you
regardless of what ugly feelings or thoughts you express. But
the truth is, instead of accepting and expressing these
thoughts they train you to deny or distort them. You only
gain favour if you express those aspects that are likely to
win their approval and support. But honest and naked truth
draws disapproval and eventually rejection in the harshest
form.
A tremendous amount of psychological abuse is taking place
as a result of people being led into what the late
psychologist Carl Rogers calls "the basic estrangement of man.
He has not been true to himself . . . for the sake of
preserving the positive regard of others." I am being
persecuted for refusing to compromise my personal integrity
and trade my honesty for man's approval. You can call me less
of a disciple for this and even go ahead and throw me out, but
Truth remains Truth and continues to haunt those who fight it
till Truth prevails. You may twist facts to distort what is
Truth but it will come back and haunt you because God does not
associate with what is untrue. Truth is eventually vindicated
because God is Truth!
I cannot with a clear conscience continue to hold to the
belief that the ICC is a movement led by God because, quite
honestly, I fail to see God in all these experiences. What I
see is the greed for power and control and abuse of authority
by men. I see a system where God's authority has been replaced
by that of depraved and deluded men who think they can play
God in the lives of fellow men and get away with it.
Yours in Christ,
Signed
Joseph
Owade
NB: Since writing this letter 2 very significant things
have happened:
- The leaders of the ICC have
withdrawn all their financial obligations toward me and my
family. They have defaulted on an agreed upon compensatory
contract to pay part of my college fees (I am pursuing a
Masters degree in Psychology). They've also frozen all
financial support which we had an agreement they would give
(as severance benefits) until I am able to support my family.
For more than 3 months I have had to exhaust my little savings
and now depend on offers from friends to feed my family while
looking for a job, which is not easy to find in
Kenya.
- An annual general meeting was
held on 26th June 1997, in which Richard stage-managed a pre-
programmed agenda to manipulate unsuspecting congregation into
giving him and the leaders almost absolute powers in running
the church affairs. They amended the constitution so that
accountability from the leaders to the congregation is almost
impossible now. Richard used the Police force to bar a number
of members deemed as "troublemakers" from attending this AGM.
Because of these 2 events, me and several other ex-members
have decide to take legal action against the leaders so that
we can defend our rights and for me to obtain my financial
benefits.
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©1997 by Joseph Owade. All rights reserved. Republished with
permission. This article was first published on
REVEAL's website.
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