We Are Back​

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Hello! We are back! After a break to reorganize, we decided that the right thing to do is to leave this site up as a historical reference to the activities of the religious body currently known as “Wellspring.”

 

A quick note on us: we are basically just a bunch of people who attended this church or were brought up in it, etc. and experienced behavior not in keeping with what we should expect from either followers of Christ, or even good and decent people. The details of our individual experiences seem not as important as the fact that, for decades now, they are collectively very similar over and over.

 

So our goal here is to maintain this site as a beacon of truth, to the best of our very limited ability, time, and capacity going forward. There exists the possibility that people may want to join this church and are unaware of its roots. Additionally, we have concerns for those who have been brought up in this group and may be unaware of the totality of its history. To that end, we will keep the site up. We are still in the process of determining what sorts of updates may be required.

 

For the first time ever, there is now much more of a public view into their beliefs. The church has, of course, attempted to rebrand multiple times over the decades, for reasons best left to the reader's judgment. But this is the first actual rebrand with an eye to genuinely impacting the public view of this group. It has been necessary to heavily editorialize their behavior and beliefs over the years, as there was so much obfuscation due to their extreme isolation.

 

Now there are snippets of sermons on their social media. So for at least the short term, we believe that there is little need to comment over and above what they are now telling us themselves. We will merely comment that to all appearances, although the name and the speakers have changed, the beliefs themselves appear to remain intact. Our concerns with these views, therefore, require no update and remain as documented herein:

 

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1) This church shuns and restricts relationships.

 

This has always been a core issue, the practice that has flipped this from a “church with somewhat obscure beliefs and practices” to full-blown cult-like controlling group. To be fair, some of this shunning has “eased” over the past few years. We celebrate this unequivocally, as we do all manner of good and humane behavior. However, full scriptural repentance, and even simple human decency, requires further action. The specific appropriate actions are impossible to fully delineate, but would likely include

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• a full taking of responsibility for this behavior at a leadership level​​

• further steps of reconciliation on the part of all individuals who have/are engaged in shunning​

• a strong assurance to those currently attending, that leaving the church will not result in shunning
   

 

2) The theological and doctrinal foundation established by the founder.

 

Some high-control or theologically isolated groups have, in rare cases, undergone deep repentance and returned to the wider Christian church. But such transformation requires dismantling harmful structures, publicly acknowledging error, and embracing the scriptural and historic Christian faith. 

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For Wellspring Church to move toward genuine repentance, its understanding of sovereignty must return to God Himself in both belief and practice, instead of remaining rooted in human authority and the teachings and practices inherited from its founder.

 

Norman James's Oneness-derived formula for becoming born again, his teaching as the exclusive gateway to the kingdom of God, and the authoritarian patterns of control that he and his wife modeled - form the very foundation of the church’s identity. Because these roots shape both the leadership and the community to this day, meaningful institutional reform appears unlikely without a complete re-evaluation of that foundation. ​

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Our hope, first and foremost, is for the people - that they find freedom, healing, and the life-giving grace of God. ​​

 
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