Why are you suggesting to me to review sites that are completely and totally biased against the ICOC? You don’t have to convince me that there are people that do not like the ICOC movement. But, I will disagree against these sites and their calls for Cult naming.
The fact is, there are dozens of books and Internet sites that explain that modern day mainline, denominational and non denominational churches are losing souls. Today’s “Church” tastes great but is less filling. People are leaving because they are unsatisfied with hypocrisy and feel good Christianity. Men are leaving because they are uninspired and women are leaving because no one will lead them. Churches today will accept divorce quicker than they will same sex marriages or unwed couples living together. Churches accept and tolerate sin and refuse to call it out. There are exceptions, yet these churches are struggling to grow.
It has been my experience that people have left our church because they might have been challenged on unrepentant sin or they just simply did not want to live the life of a disciple. That’s right...it is OK to call out sin in the church. We are called to be higher and nobler. We are called to repent. We are called to be righteous. We are called to make disciples of all nations.
At least, that is what I’m taught when I go to church. Visit my church on a Sunday and you will hear the Word of God being preached from the Bible. You will hear A Capella and musical instrument assisted songs. You will see people that range from youth ministry to eldest. You will see a mix of White, Black, Asian and Latino. That’s my church, and it’s not a cult.
You have a couple of biased websites. I have a different experience.
If the tide has changed and some of the ICOC congregations have truly gone more main stream like you are implying then that's great. I'm glad to hear it. Getting new members and keeping them should be easier without all that extra stuff that earned the ‘cult’ rating in the past.
If you can bring a non-believer into the church and get them to welcome Jesus into their hearts, I'm all for it. My experience with ICOC was not what you just said. So yeah, I admit I'm biased.