Shepherding/Discipleship Movement Survivor's Blog

The present-day impact of the Shepherding/Discipleship movement from the perspective of a former member of Morning Star International (now Every Nation Churches and Ministries).

Monday, March 27, 2006

Wiki Tug 'o War

Well, since I brought up Wikipedia some time back, there have been some significant changes made to Every Nation's Wiki entry. For starters, it now warrants its own entry rather than just being redirected from Maranatha's entry. Also, over the last several days it seems that the pro- and con- Every Nation camps have been having at it. The History section has been back and forth between the official and non-official versions of EN's history. Several days ago, someone added a section on Links to Maranatha, discussing corporate and leadership continuity between what was Maranatha Campus Ministries and what is today Every Nation, and included the Boston Every Nation church (now called Beacon City Church) as one example.

Some time ago I had discovered that this church, which was characterized as a "church plant" to its membership, was actually a former Maranatha church operating under its old corporate charter. As of today, EN's Wiki entry explains:

In 2001, KPIC [Kings Park International Church] sent a church planting team to Boston. This team joined with a few leaders remaining from the Tree of Life City Church, a church already a part of Morning Star, to form Morning Star International Church of Boston, which has since changed its name to Beacon City Church. Tree of Life was a former Maranatha church with roots in Maranatha's outreaches in Boston. Beacon City Church operates under Tree of Life's corporate charter, which was adopted while it was part of Maranatha. Its original associate pastor, Brian Diver, had been pastor of Tree of Life from at least the waning days of Maranatha.

Ok, I can appreciate this additional information, which does help to flesh out the corporate history - it can get a bit dry at times. Tree of Life had been listed in MSI's directory for approximately a year prior to the church planting team going to help out what looked to be a struggling church (aside from the fact that the rest of the MSI/EN world, including KPIC, was told it was a church plant). What is really interesting though is what happened when someone discovered that the VCM chapter at MIT claimed that it was the former Maranatha ministry on its website and then posted about it on his blog. This is what the MIT VCM website stated about its history before November 20, 2004:

History: Victory Campus Ministries was founded at MIT in 1983. Originally called "Maranatha Campus Fellowship", the name changed in 1996 to "Impact Campus Fellowship" and once more in 2002 to "Victory Campus Ministry". Although our numbers have varied over the years, the vision has stayed the same since our inception: to love God and one another, and share the good news with others!

Two days later this was gone from their website. I know because that's when I made sure to save a Google cache of the old site before it too disappeared.

And the Wiki explanation continues:

However, the new church has a far different vision, and there is almost no membership overlap.

[Hmm, what happened to "the vision has stayed the same since our inception?"]

Arguments can be made either way whether this is a new church plant or simply a revival of a dormant Maranatha church. Instances like this illustrate the difficulty of using corporate records to identify spiritual continuity.

Point taken. Keeping a record of what is said before it is cleaned up also helps a great deal.

P.S. - To date, the only things I've contributed to the Wiki entry is a link to the timeline as well as links to Christian Reconstructionism and the Latter Rain movement. (I couldn't help it. I have documented evidence showing those are two major streams contributing to what I call Every Nation's "working theology.") Otherwise, I plan on remaining a spectator.

3/29/2006 update: The relevant section of EN's Wiki entry now reads:

In 2001, KPIC sent a church planting team to Boston. This team joined with a few leaders remaining from the Tree of Life City Church, a church already a part of Morning Star, to form Morning Star International Church of Boston, which has since changed its name to Beacon City Church. Tree of Life was a former Maranatha church with roots in Maranatha's outreaches in Boston. Beacon City Church operates under Tree of Life's corporate charter, which was adopted in 1986 while it was part of Maranatha. Its original associate pastor, Brian Diver, had been pastor of Tree of Life from at least the waning days of Maranatha. While Beacon City is indisputably the legal successor to Maranatha Christian Church of Boston, proving spiritual continuity is somewhat murkier. None of the current ministry team members date directly back to Maranatha, and the vision is different in some ways on paper. However, the church planting team came from a former Maranatha church whose founding pastor was part of Maranatha. Also, Every Nation Campus Ministries' chapter at MIT has been in continuous existence since 1983, when it was a Maranatha chapter. [7] Nonetheless, this illustrates the difficulty of using corporate records to prove spiritual continuity.

BTW, there are more than five Every Nation churches currently operating under their old Maranatha corporate charters. Here's another.

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