A New Name on the Same Foundation

In October 2024, a group of leaders broke away from the International Christian Church (ICC) and formed the Restored Church Worldwide (RCW). If you were in either church at the time, you remember how it felt. Friendships ended. Families stopped speaking. Each side was told the other had left God's will.

Two years later, it's worth asking a quieter question. What actually changed?

This article looks at what the ICC and the RCW still share, using the RCW's own published words. It argues that the deepest problem in both churches was never one leader, although there were clear problems there too. It is a set of teachings both churches still hold.

Three churches, one movement

The ICC and the RCW are the second and third generations of the same movement.

• The ICOC. Kip McKean led the Boston Church of Christ, which grew into the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) in the 1980s and 1990s.
• The ICC. After McKean tried to divide the ICOC, he was disfellowshipped in 2006 and started the International Christian Church.
• The RCW. On October 18, 2024, a group of ICC leaders published "An Open Letter to the ICC Leadership" announcing their separation. Jason Dimitry, a longtime ICC leader, became the RCW's central leader.

The open letter raised serious concerns. It said the ICC had drifted in "life" (slower growth and less urgency), that membership numbers were overstated, that allegations against a senior leader were never properly investigated, and that central leadership had become the final authority instead of the Bible. It concluded, "we have reached a 'no remedy' situation, similar to what the Israelites faced before God sent them into exile," and it called the separation "godly division."

In November 2024 the ICC disfellowshipped the RCW's leaders. A week later it disfellowshipped its founder, Kip McKean, citing "unrepentant sins."

Some of the concerns in the open letter may well have been true. This article doesn't need to settle that. The question here is what the RCW took with it.

What the RCW kept

The open letter is clear that the RCW was leaving the ICC's leaders, not its teaching.

• On having one central leader over all the churches, the letter asks, "Do we still hold to this conviction?" and answers, "Absolutely." (For a deeper look at what the Word actually shows about this, read Does the Church Need a Central Leader?.)
• On the movement's identity: "We simply desire to hold on to the original convictions and culture upon which the ICC was founded."

The letter also listed what the ICC would have to change for the two groups to come back together: its leaders, its baptism practices, more openness about money and decisions, and a more "sold-out" membership. Not one of those changes touched the doctrine itself. Some who joined the RCW hoping for real change have since left, saying little had changed.

So the First Principles studies, the discipling structure, the central-leader model, and the expectations around attendance, giving and dating all came along unchanged.

The founder came too

There is one more thing the RCW kept: the founder himself. In January 2025, about two months after the ICC disfellowshipped him, the RCW announced Kip McKean's "restoration." He has since preached at RCW services.

This isn't about Kip McKean as a person. It's about what his presence tells you. The man who built the system, and whose teaching shaped both churches, is now teaching in the church that said it left in order to restore what had been lost. Whatever the RCW is restoring, it isn't a different foundation.

So what changed? Mainly who sits at the top.

That's why many former members describe the RCW as a rebrand. Not because the people in it are insincere. Most of them are sincere. But a new name on the same foundation is still the same building.

Unity or uniformity?

Unity is a central word in both churches, and one verse is quoted often: Paul's appeal that the Corinthians "be united in the same mind and the same judgment" (1 Corinthians 1:10, ESV).

Read the very next verses. Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for lining up behind leaders: "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow Cephas." His response is, "Is Christ divided?" (1 Corinthians 1:12-13).

The unity Paul asks for is unity in Christ and to Christ. It isn't agreement with one leader's strong opinions or way of doing church. When a verse written against dividing behind leaders becomes the proof text for agreeing with a leader on commitment, dating, giving, attendance or who gets to lead, the verse has been stretched to carry a system it was never written to carry. (Who gets to make rules where Scripture is silent is the subject of When the Bible Is Silent.) And in 2024, the same verse was quoted on both sides of a split that divided people behind two sets of leaders.

The root problem is not the leader

The RCW's diagnosis of the ICC was a leadership diagnosis: put the right man at the top, one who lets the Bible have the final word, and the church will be healthy again. Many in the ICC, for their part, hope that removing Kip McKean marks a fresh start.

Both are making the same assumption. Change the man, and you change the church.

But look at the history. The ICOC in the 1990s, the ICC after 2006, and now both the ICC and the RCW have each had different people at the top. Yet former members of every one of them describe remarkably similar experiences: pressure, control, fear of asking questions, and relationships cut off when someone leaves.

When the same fruit keeps growing on different trees, look at the root. Jesus said, "every healthy tree bears good fruit" (Matthew 7:17). The common root here isn't a personality. It's a shared set of teachings that give leaders authority the Bible never gives them. We look at those teachings one at a time in other articles:

• Does the Church Need a Central Leader?
• When the Bible Is Silent
• Fruit Is Not a Number
• What If the Kingdom Is Not the Church?
• The Mission Is Urgent. The Deadline Is Man-Made.

Paul tells Timothy and Titus to hold to "sound doctrine" (1 Timothy 1:10; Titus 2:1). The word means healthy. Teaching shapes culture, and culture shapes behavior. Changing the leader while keeping the teaching is like changing drivers without fixing the brakes.

You may have heard RCW leaders say something similar. They have taught that sayings like "Don't touch the Lord's anointed" were misused in the ICC to protect leaders from correction. That's true, and it proves the point: teaching shaped the culture. But the fix for false teaching is to examine the teaching, all of it. Not just the parts that protected the other side.

A teaching that keeps dividing

The RCW explained its split with a teaching called "godly division." The ICC taught the same idea for years to explain its own break from the ICOC.

According to the RCW, the ICC has since removed godly division from its studies. The RCW kept it. In August 2025, the RCW's council wrote that if RCW leaders "shrink back" and refuse to repent, members are "biblically mandated to obey God rather than man and to practice 'godly division.'"

Think about what that means. A teaching that each generation uses to leave the one before it doesn't produce unity. It guarantees the next split. And every split costs real people their friendships and families.

We look at the passages behind godly division in detail in a companion article: Was the Split "Godly Division"?

Numbers are not proof

You may have heard that one side's growth shows God is with it. Be careful with that argument. After Israel split in 1 Kings 12, Jeroboam ruled ten tribes. Rehoboam was left with Judah and Benjamin. The bigger kingdom was the one that walked away from God's worship.

Jesus said the road to life is narrow and "those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:14). God told Samuel that man looks on the outward appearance, "but the LORD looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). Numbers can tell you a church is good at recruiting. They can't tell you God approves.

Is it wrong to leave a church?

No. People leave churches for good reasons, and leaving an unhealthy environment is often the right thing to do. Many of the people we hear from are glad they did.

But leaving a building isn't the same as leaving what it was built on. If you're in the ICC, the RCW, or somewhere in between, the most important question isn't which leader is right. It's whether what you were taught holds up when you read the Bible for yourself.

Common questions

What is the difference between the ICC and the RCW? Mainly who leads. The RCW broke away from the ICC in October 2024, but its open letter said it wanted "to hold on to the original convictions and culture upon which the ICC was founded," including the central-leader model.

Did the RCW change any ICC teachings? Not in substance. The changes its open letter asked of the ICC were about leaders, baptism practices, openness about money and decisions, and commitment, not doctrine. The First Principles studies, the discipling structure and the central-leader model came along unchanged.

Is Kip McKean part of the RCW? Yes. The RCW announced his "restoration" in January 2025, about two months after the ICC disfellowshipped him, and he has since preached at RCW services.

Does the RCW still teach "godly division"? Yes. According to the RCW, the ICC has removed godly division from its studies, but the RCW kept it. In August 2025 its council wrote that members are "biblically mandated" to practice godly division if RCW leaders refuse to repent.

Does a church's growth prove God is with it? No. When Israel split, the larger kingdom was the one that walked away from God's worship (1 Kings 12). Numbers can show a church is good at recruiting; they can't show God approves.