As one reforms their life (repents), goes through the curriculum and as the leaders see the evidence of a changed life with a commitment to be a disciple, they are then ready for baptism where they can actually be saved.

"We are not going to baptize someone who's not going to have a quiet time. We ask, we look, is this person beginning to imitate mature Christians? If not they don't have a learner's heart . . . if they don't have a learner's heart . . . if someone wants to be in the kingdom, they're gonna start imitating the people that are in the kingdom and if they're not imitating, they're not a disciple yet, they don't have a learner's heart yet." (Randy Haragan, Go and Baptize Disciples Only, audio tape, 1991 SW Conf.) 

What they are requiring people to do is imitate Christians before they are Christians so that they can be baptized to be Christians. This makes no sense at all. If one can be a disciple and live as a Christian before hand then what is the difference of having the H.Spirit. They also become the dispensers of God's grace, making the decisions of when one is ready to be saved. Nowhere in the New Testament can we find this kind of qualification. The decision to become a Christian is made by the person alone when they see what Christ did for them.We don't see any evidence of discipleship in scripture being done in this manner. 

People need to be taught the Gospel alone saves. The two biggest groups that were saved in Acts 2 and 4 were not discipled. There are no rigorous courses to go through,they were saved immediately. We need the Holy Spirit first to help understand and live the life, not live the live to receive the Holy Spirit. This is the first steps of control seen by their leaders, dictating to disciples when they are ready to take the plunge to be saved.

Kip McKean said, "I taught what was clear in Acts 11:26, SAVED=CHRISTIAN=DISCIPLE, simply meaning that you cannot be saved and you cannot be a true Christian without being a disciple also . . . I taught that to be baptized, you must first make the decision to be a disciple, then be baptized. I saw that people in and outside of our fellowship had been baptized without this understanding and then, in time, developed a disciple's commitment to make Jesus Lord of their entire life. I taught that their baptism was invalid because of a retroactive understanding of repentance and baptism was not consistent with Scripture". (UpsideDown, issue 2, pg. 7 & 8)

("For by grace, God washes each believer in His son’s cleansing blood in baptism and simultaneously adds them to one body universal" (UpsideDown, issue 11, page 13.) Water /blood whoever read or heard of such a thing! Did not blood come out of Jesus body on the cross ? Can anyone find scriptures to support this so called clear teaching of theirs?

Kip McKean taught that for one to be baptized you must first make a decision to be a disciple. People's baptisms were invalid if they did not have a retroactive understanding of repentance and baptism which was not consistent with Scripture. He states only a true church will be composed of disciples.

(The Great Commission, audio tape, Weger/Rock/Hamann/Fulcher/Field)   (speaking of another disciple)    ". . . and when he was baptized, all of his sins and all of his past was washed away and he was made a new creation with a new purpose. And that purpose is to make other true disciples . . . you see, a disciple will always reproduce himself because that's what disciples do. And to baptize anyone who's not a disciple is absolutely ludicrous, because you've done nothing but get their hair wet."

Marty Fuqua, 1990, West Coast Conf., One Hundred Times As Much, audio tape, #1005, "That God is going to wash away your sins in the waters of baptism, and that you're  going to be raised out of the waters of baptism, a new person, a new child, a baby . . ."

Membership is measured by one's baptism. Baptism is conversion and regeneration. You will hear reports such as 67 baptized in this city, 80 in that city. In UpsideDown Magazine, vol. 1 issue 2, they featured many of their key church leaders and evangelists from around the world. It reads like this, so and so was converted and trained in London, so and so were baptized and trained in Boston, so and so from a mainline background were converted. Gordon and Teresa Ferguson were baptized in San Diego through the reconstruction. What you will not hear is about someone being "saved". This terminology is rarely used.

Inconsistencies are numerous. While they teach only adults can be baptized, McKean’s brother, Randy, baptized his seven year old in 1986. Since baptism saves someone, he is one of the few younger children privileged to enter the kingdom.

They explain away secondary baptisms as people re-examining their lives, coming to the conclusion they were not baptized as true disciples. "In the world's eyes they were re-baptized, in God's eyes they were baptized in Jesus Christ." (UpsideDown, issue 2, pg. 10) Members are told not to mention baptism since they know it is an area of contention. (They refer to needless arguments Titus 2:9) This subject is taught extensively in their First Principles and discipleship studies. If someone is unaware of their own teaching on baptism, which occasionally happens, it is because they were pushed through discipleship too quickly to have another member.

In 1990-1991 there were 39,986 baptisms in the movement, (not including those who were placed in the movement without baptism). They lost 23,636 former baptized members. This is a rate of 59% loss, so it took 39,986 baptisms to produce a growth rate of 16,350. This loss of membership was more than the total membership of 21,254 in 1989 (Boston Bulletin, 1991). Not all is well in Waterloo.