A Warning

This will specifically address students at Pitt, but can also apply to other campuses if this group is on campus or nearby.

I recently learned that the International Church of Christ has established a presence at Pitt. The student group is "Pittsburgh Christian Campus Ministry (PCCM)", and the main church is called the Greater Pittsburgh Church of Christ. This church is a cult and I want to make sure you guys know about it and don't inadvertently get involved, and can talk to anyone you know who might be in contact with the group.

The ICC is a spinoff of the mainline Church of Christ denomination and has some radical and unbiblical teaching, and is known for brainwashing those who get involved. On the surface it appears to be very much like any typical Christian group and it can be easy to be deceived.

Some of the marks of this cult are an overemphasis on baptism, exclusive adherence to their fellowship and church body, and some extreme confession practices that are often used against the members.

The ICC teaches that baptism, and specifically baptism into their church, is a requirement for salvation. They consider themselves Christ's true church, a "remnant" He's raising up, and that all other churches are not a part of Christ's church. So Christians who get involved are led to question their salvation because it's not been as part of the "true church".

They also tend to cut members off from family, other Christian friends, and other churches. This could be subtle and slow, but they tend to pressure people (often using guilt) to not associate with other churches and those not a part of the ICC. This is related to their thought that they're the true church.

They also have a pyramid-scheme type of structure, based on intense one-on-one discipleship. New members are forced into these discipleship relationships, and taught that not obeying their discipler is like not obeying God. Dangerous stuff. Each discipler is in turn discipled by a "more mature" believer, and so on and so forth, on up the chain to the top. 

A radical confession of sin is a huge hallmark of the ICC. New members are often coerced into confession of all of their sins, in great detail. Often this information is used against them, sometimes very maliciously, especially if the new member threatens to leave the church or has shown signs of drifting apart from the ICC.

I don't bring this up to scare anyone, just to inform. The ICC and its members are very deceptive and can look like a normal church, and their talk about radical obedience to Christ and radical confession of sin and dying to yourself can sound very biblical. But their practices and their theology are definitely unbiblical. Please take caution if you come in contact with anyone from this group, and warn your friends too. We don't want anyone to be deceived into believing unbiblical things, we want to help people truly follow Jesus - the true Jesus.

The website www.reveal.org gives more information about the ICC - check it out if you feel the need to.

Praying for you to continue following the authentic Jesus...

--Jason