In the year 1517, a preacher by the name of Johann Tetzel was given authority by the Catholic Church to take money from the German populace in exchange for plenary indulgences – essentially a ticket of salvation from the fires of purgatory. The Church needed money to rebuild St Peter’s Basilica and Tetzel was their man to acquire it via the selling of indulgences. The famous jingle, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul out of purgatory springs” has often, rightly or wrongly, been attributed to Tetzel.

This practice of “commercialising salvation” by the Catholic Church greatly angered the German priest Martin Luther, not only because it trivialised human sin, but it also had the disastrous potential to mislead people to trust in the saving power of indulgences (and also their money!) over God’s mercy. Luther’s disdain for the sale of indulgences was ultimately the spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation in the same year.

Fast forward to modern times, churches (especially cults) using salvation as the motivator for large financial drives is alive and well.

Sadly, the International Christian Church is a prime example of this.

It is well-documented in the stories of people who have left the ICC, including that of former evangelist Coltin Rohn and his wife Mandee, that the church lays a very heavy financial burden on its members. Not only are members expected to give regularly and beyond their means to support their own local ICC, the ICC’s central leadership also sets monetary targets under “special missions contributions” and demands that they be met.

Hence, it is not uncommon to hear that church members often have to save money by skipping meals or stay in overcrowded housing in order to meet these demands.

But according to Boston ICC’s evangelist Mike Patterson, it is right for church leaders to make such money demands because the salvation of people is at stake! He says in a Facebook post:

The Evangelist is directed to command the rich to give generously to lay up treasure in heaven. He is to be persuasive in doing this so that people can be saved. Christians are a product of someone else’s financial sacrifice to plant a church. (2 Corinthians 8, 1 Timothy 6:17-19)

So is Patterson right that “Christians are a product of someone else’s financial sacrifice to plant a church”?

If you read enough articles on this blog, you will quickly discover that a lot of the ICC’s beliefs and practices have a degree of biblical truth to it. But sadly, often it is the application of these truths that is problematic and abusive. In the ICC, the end often justifies the means.

For instance, the Bible does indeed praise Christians for their generosity as pointed out by Patterson in 2 Corinthians 8 as well as 1 Timothy 6:17-19. I would even argue that Jesus’ parable of the Shrewd Manager in Luke 16:1-14 is a clearer example where the correct use of money can lead to the eternal salvation of others. Jesus says, “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

Which means, if done properly, there is nothing wrong with appeals for money to further God’s mission.

However, it would be a serious misapplication of the above biblical principle if your “generosity” is only the result of incessant arm-twisting by church leaders who call into question your dedication to Jesus when you do not give enough.

As I had mentioned in my previous article responding to Mike Patterson, it is sadly ironic that the strong push to milk money from church members for the sake of winning souls has actually resulted in many leaving the ICC and even Christianity altogether.

So where does ICC money end up?

But what if the large pool of money collected by the ICC doesn’t actually go towards the winning of souls anyway? What if a large portion of it ends up in the hip pockets of the central leadership instead?

Obviously, this would be extremely wicked and stands against the very words of God.

Speaking of his own ministry, the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:17, “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.”

Through the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord God had a strong rebuke against the evil shepherds/leaders of Israel that exploited His sheep:

² “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? ³ You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. ⁴ You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. ⁵ So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. ⁶ My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

Ezekiel 34:2-6 (NIV)

So is there any evidence for the head shepherds of the ICC exploiting the flock to fund their lifestyles? Here are some that I could find:

• In ICC leader Kip McKean’s previous church movement, the International Churches of Christ, it has been noted even back in the year 2000 that the church’s top leadership do live quite comfortably through church money.
• Further, as evidenced here in public records, McKean (under his actual name Thomas Wayne McKean) still co-owns with his wife Elena at least one expensive condo in an affluent part of Los Angeles that was bought in 2010 for USD$650,000. The ownership of the property was changed to McKean Thomas W. and Elena G. McKean Family Trust (trustees) as recent as December 30, 2020.
• In 2014, a former ICC leader did some calculations and estimated that McKean’s annual salary would be around $200,000+ and growing.
• In Coltin Rohn’s latest video on YouTube, he mentions that he knows of at least one ICC evangelist who only flies first-class when travelling, supposedly because of “health problems”.

I’m sure that I could find more examples if I had more time. But even these are quite alarming as they are.

According to Paul (eg. 1 Timothy 3:3; Titus 1:7), a church leader must not be one who loves money or pursues dishonest gain. Those who do are disqualified. But by the examples listed above and by the way in which money is often communicated in the ICC by their leaders (I will write another article about this in the future), it should make you question whether they actually serve Jesus as their Lord, or money.

Why isn’t there more financial transparency in the ICC?

While I was researching for this article, a repeated question that I had in my head was – why isn’t there more financial transparency in the ICC?

The vast majority of Christian organisations that I know of, including my own church, is extremely open with its books.

But why doesn’t the ICC have the same thing so that members know exactly how much each leader gets paid rather than having to make educated guesses?

At my church, members meet together every quarter where the treasurer will explain how much money the church received over that period and where all the money went – including how much our pastors got paid.

The lack of transparency actually gives us good reason to believe that there’s something to hide.