2025 Open Letter

Dear Friends and Family, 

It is clear that there is growing dissatisfaction with the unkept promises of the newly rebranded Wellspring church. While there was, for a short period of time, a hope of new ways and fresh revival, recent sermons have doubled down on obedience and fealty to the church, the leadership, and the community. Although a Washington location promised fresh growth and outreach, the only influx to the church has been through marriages of the church singles.

Many are waiting, still hoping that something different will happen, but the old fear is setting in again. “If I leave, will anyone talk to me? Will my children know God? Will my spouse agree to leave at the same time?” “Where will my kids go to school?”

Here are some thoughts from those who have been praying for you fervently, and who have found freedom in Christ beyond the walls of SHCC/Lakeview/Wellspring:

1. No one has ever regretted leaving. They only ever regret not leaving sooner. Parents fear the idea that their children might not enter into the Kingdom of God, but staying in any church organization is not a guarantee of relationship with Christ. Consider when they are grown and they ask about the abusive church in which they lost their youth. There will be tough questions to answer as they think for themselves about the version of Christ they were shown. 

2. You’ll help show others the way out, by being an example of faith. Fealty to the leadership is not faith. Faith is the assurance that what Jesus said is true, and He died for your sins, and if you walk in relationship with Him, your path will be made straight. If you are worried about the welfare of the people you leave behind, consider this- when you leave, you become a dissonant chord in the tale that people are constantly trying to tell themselves.

You can probably look back to people you know who left with good motives, for good reason, or under extreme duress. It hasn’t ever sat well that they have been painted as sinners and liars.  You’ve told yourself that “it’s not my business to know the whole story,” but of course that is a line you have been fed to keep you in ignorance. Actually, it is the business of the body to know why people are ousted.

The Biblical example is for matters to be handled with the assembly. First privately, of course, but then with participation of the saints. These principles have not ever been followed at Wellspring. Maybe you are afraid of letting other people down, but think about the path you can blaze by stepping out and having the courage to walk away, even though it is the hardest thing you’ve ever done.

Someday those people you love will call you up and make amends because they, too, realize that the Gospel sets people free, rather than binds them to an Old Testament refrain of law and a Pharisaic holiness of works. 

3. There seems to be a rhetoric going around that “you can enact more change from the inside,” and “you wouldn’t want to miss the change.” Well, it has been two years since the founding family was kicked out and nothing has actually changed. Change requires repentance. If things were changing, those of us who left would have received calls of apology. The “all are welcome” invitation to the Washington BBQ would truly mean all, but we know it doesn’t.

Family members inside the church are still being encouraged to keep distant from their mothers and brothers and sisters and cousins who left the church five, ten, and fifteen years ago. The same intolerance of differing opinions and lack of forgiveness that was practiced for the last 40 years is still the hallmark of the church.

Family members are disinvited to weddings and holidays just as they always were. Two years is enough time to see that change isn’t welcome. Unrepentant leadership has a tight grip still, and your best option for protest is to vote with the removal of your time and money and devotion. 

4. You have been told that the unique form of worship and salvation at Wellspring is the ONLY true way.

The algorithm of worship in up beat “soulish” choruses, then hymns, then slow worship songs, followed by a clashing of cymbals and unanimous singing in tongues has been equated to the tabernacle / temple structure, leading worshippers into the Holy of Holies.

However, the key metaphor that is missing from all of the Old Testament symbolism is that every piece of the temple was designed to point to Jesus. Jesus is the Way. The power of baptism is not in the words spoken over the believer. The power is in the belief and obedience in the believers’ hearts. The power of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling is not in the speaking of the gift of tongues, but in the presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer.

The religion that has been cultivated at Wellspring is in fact just that, religion that separates instead of relationship that unites. The elitism cultivated there has no place in the Body of Christ, but you, believer, do belong in the body of Christ. Please, rejoin the Body of believers who name Jesus as the Way and Truth and Life, who commune with the Father through the work of His Son and the Holy Spirit.              
 
Your old friends and family await your participation in and relationship with the Body of Christ, from whom you have been separated. We will rejoice with you, and offer help in your transition to a life of freedom in Christ. 

“Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all!”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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