On Monday 29th April 2024, a letter was sent out by World Sector leader Raul Moreno to “All International Christian Churches” (ICC) that the movement’s founder, Kip McKean, has now stepped down as the central leader (aka World Missions Evangelist) of the church due to an undisclosed spiritual failure.

A copy of the letter can be found here –

The text of the letter includes the following:

It is with great heaviness of heart that I write this letter to notify all churches that Dr. Kip McKean will be stepping down and retiring as the World Missions Evangelist for the International Christian Churches (ICC). As of today, he will no longer be leading our family of churches. Since 2007, our dear brother Kip has devoted himself to building the family of ICC from one church in Portland, Oregon to now 160 congregations worldwide with over 12,000 disciples. Unfortunately, he has faltered spiritually and will devote time to personal and family needs.

With the full support of the World Sector Leaders and following the agreed upon succession plan, myself and Lynda humbly accept the role as the new World Missions Evangelist and Women’s Ministry Leader, respectively.

Let us continue to show Kip and Elena great respect and wholehearted love for all their work. Please keep them in your prayers and respect their privacy during this healing process. We are family to the end.

All my love and admiration,

Dr. Raul Moreno
World Missions Evangelist

No doubt, this would be a shock to many of the faithful within the worldwide ICC who sees Kip McKean as their spiritual father and a pope-like figure of the movement.

However, for those familiar with the history of Kip McKean’s ministry, this stepping down due to “spiritual faltering” looks eerily similar to the time when McKean was forced to resign from his previous church movement, the International Churches of Christ (ICOC), back in November 2002.

Kip McKean’s 2002 resignation letter, written by himself, is as follows:

So what’s going to happen next for Kip McKean? Will he come out of retirement at a later time? Will he be restored to the ICC central leadership? Or will he start yet another movement? Right now it’s anyone’s guess.

Interestingly, there’s already a lot of discussion on the Reddit forums about McKean’s retirement.

But knowing that McKean has a track record of enjoying the limelight and the adulation of his followers (as well as deflecting away charges of spiritual failure), my opinion is that he won’t simply fade into the background without a fight.