Last Friday (LA time) marked the official restoration of Kip McKean’s walk with Jesus and, as expected, his membership in the Restored Churches Worldwide (RCW). Along with his wife Elena, they were welcomed with much fanfare at the RCW Worldwide Missions Gathering held at Anaheim, California.

As can be seen in the picture above, the McKeans fitted right in as if they’ve never left. There’s also much elation on social media by RCW leaders and members that their “father in the faith” has repented.

However, the irony is not lost that the prodigal son who needed repentance was the father of the ICOC and ICC movements. In fact, RCW’s Mike Patterson once even called him “the closest person that I’ve ever met to Jesus Christ”.

But I wonder how much detail Kip actually confessed before the large RCW congregation about his sins that needed repenting. Did they hear about Kip’s over-a-decade-long consumption and generation of pornography, as revealed by former ICC evangelist Ron Harding? Did they hear about the sexual abuse and cover-up allegations that took place under his watch across both church movements? And did they hear about the financial misuse of ICC funds that directly benefitted the McKeans?

More details are now coming to light about the large sums of money that Kip and Elena received while leading the ICC. An anonymous person posted the following on the ex-ICOC/ICC members Facebook group:

If what this whistleblower’s saying is true, the McKeans were making upwards of USD$266k/year (not including the $500k slush fund made up by special missions), all the while ordinary church members have skipped meals trying to make up for regular contributions.

(NB: Interestingly, Jason and Sarah Dimitry who now lead the RCW had also pocketed handsomely from the ICC).

So what would true repentance look like for Kip McKean?

If it’s true that Kip McKean has genuinely repented and recommitted to Christ, we should rightly join in the jubilation! However, there’s good reason to be sceptical. Have we seen the fruits of his repentance?

The story of Zacchaeus in Luke’s Gospel is a good example of what true repentance looks like:

19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Luke 19:1-10 (NIV)

Zacchaeus demonstrated that his faith in Jesus was real through his willingness to let go of the money that was gained through unrighteous means.

So if Kip is truly repentant and “sold out” for Christ, wouldn’t it be nice to see some fruits of this? Why not willingly give back to those he has cheated? And why not make a public apology to the whole church about his role in creating a hard drive full of pornography of the women who were under his spiritual authority?