Washington, DC International Christian Church

“The Word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet… over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.’ The Word of the Lord came to me: ‘What do you see, Jeremiah?’ ‘I see the branch of an almond tree,’ I replied. The Lord said to me, ‘You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my Word is fulfilled.’” Jeremiah 1:4-5, 9-12

What a weekend! From Friday to Sunday, March 14 -16, the 21 disciples of the “DC Mission Team” met at the Days Inn on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest DC. This gathering of disciples from Syracuse, New York; Corvallis, Oregon; and Chicago, Illinois experienced an incredible time of inspiration and fellowship as the team was also joined by Kip & Elena McKean of the City of Angels International Christian Church (Los Angeles) and Chris & Theresa Broom of the Chicago International Christian Church!

The Lord brought us together to “explore the land” (Numbers 13:2) and to restore the vision of building a metropolitan church of sold-out disciples in DC who would be “perfectly united in mind and thought” with God’s new movement of discipling churches around the world! Some have asked the question, “Why plant a new church?” In order to appreciate the necessity of this undertaking, it is imperative to understand the history of the former Washington, DC International Church of Christ. In June of 1989, the Boston Church of Christ led by the McKeans, sent out Russ & Gail Ewell accompanied by a mission team of 14 disciples to plant the Washington, DC Church of Christ. The church grew quickly. By March of 2000 this dynamic congregation had reached an attendance nearing 3,000, with disciples meeting in four regional groups: Baltimore, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County – Maryland and the District of Columbia (DC). Sadly, corresponding with the Absalomic rise in influence of some prominent Evangelists and most Kingdom Teachers and Kingdom Elders, the worldwide continuity of our beloved fellowship began to dissolve in late 2002 from the decisions reached at the Long Beach Unity Meeting in Los Angeles. A “leader of the movement” and central leadership were declared “unbiblical” and replaced with a church government of autonomy as most ICOC leaders agreed to return to a more mainline theology. From these changes, rebellion was sparked with the Kriete letter of early 2003. By the summer of 2003, the Baltimore Region of the former DC Church split off and became an autonomous congregation, and by the fall of 2003, the other three regions in Montgomery County, Northern Virginia, and the District of Columbia did the same. Later, the Northern Virginia group again divided into two more autonomous churches.
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