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• Protect your marriage’s privacy and unity. Guard the trust between you and your spouse from outside influence.

• Recognize inappropriate interference. When a church or leader inserts themselves between spouses, it crosses a sacred boundary.

• Act before harm occurs. Address warning signs early to preserve your marriage, your family, and your faith.
   

Beneath its outward appearance of care and guidance, we believe that Wellspring Church is driven by a deeply rooted need to control its members. In the limited view of WellspringQ, we see the same behaviors demonstrated now as in the past, despite the ousting of the founding family. The founder’s spirit of control lives on, carried forward by those who succeeded him.

 

This controlling influence functions like a spiritual force that permeates this church’s theology, practices, and relationships. In some cases, the intensity of this control has led to the breakdown of marriages and deep personal loss. At WellspringQ, we believe that the fundamental lever of control within Wellspring Church is their influence over a member's family, and preeminently their control over the marital union.

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This church's control over members’ marriages functions as a mechanism of retention. When one partner begins to express doubt, leaders and members may seek to engage privately with the spouse who appears more loyal in order to reinforce commitment to this church. Although framed as pastoral care or spiritual guidance, this practice creates divided allegiances within the marital relationship. From an interpersonal standpoint, it parallels a situation in which one partner confides in an outside party whose priorities differ from the couple’s shared life, an arrangement that can erode the trust, autonomy, and integrity of the marital bond. ​

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The Bible consistently emphasizes the primacy and sacred exclusivity of the marital union, portraying marriage as a covenantal union designed by God, one that takes precedence over other relationships (except one’s relationship with God Himself). Genesis 2:24 is the foundational text for the biblical understanding of marriage: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” This verse, quoted repeatedly in both the Old and New Testaments, expresses that marriage forms a new primary human bond, distinct from parents, community, church or other affiliations.

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Jesus directly reaffirms this in Matthew 19:4–6 (and Mark 10:6–9): “Haven’t you read… that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Here, Christ explicitly elevates the marital bond above other human loyalties, prohibiting interference or division by third parties - “let no one separate.”

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The New Testament teaches mutuality, fidelity, and exclusive devotion between spouses: Ephesians 5:25–33 portrays marriage as mirroring Christ’s covenant with the Church; loving, sacrificial, and inseparable. 1 Corinthians 7:3–5 calls for mutual authority and consideration within marriage, not unilateral control by outsiders. Hebrews 13:4 declares: “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure.” These passages emphasize the inviolability and respect owed to the marital bond by the couple and by others.

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By biblical standards, third-party intervention that divides a couple’s loyalty or seeks to subordinate the marital covenant to institutional or group authority stands in tension with the principle of “one flesh.” The marital bond is designed to be mutually self-governing under God, not mediated or managed by external leaders. Any structure that inserts itself between husband and wife risks violating the relational order laid out in Scripture. 

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In the experience of WellspringQ, spouses often reach understanding at different times and in different ways. In those moments, give your husband or wife your full loyalty, confidentiality, and devotion. Your marriage is holy and sacrosanct before God. A husband's first responsibility is to his wife; a wife's first loyalty is to her husband.

 

When one spouse meets privately with church leadership or with members who represent them, without the other’s knowledge or presence, it signals a serious problem and a breach of healthy boundaries. This is not a small issue - it’s a critical turning point in the marriage, one that often precedes deeper division long before any legal separation.

 

As a married person, one would not share private or personal details with another man or woman over coffee, especially without one's spouse present. Doing so would rightly be seen as a breach of trust, even if no physical infidelity occurred. In the same way, when a church encourages private meetings with only one spouse, it crosses a serious boundary within the marital relationship. Spouses should address this issue directly and protect the unity of the marriage before it causes lasting harm.

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We say this not to create fear, but to help you recognize the real risks. Others have faced painful consequences - including loss of their marriages, relationships with their children, and financial security - because they trusted a system that did not honor marital boundaries. Awareness and open communication are essential to safeguarding both your family and your faith.​

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Scripture speaks with striking clarity about the danger of spiritual leaders inserting themselves into marriages and households. Paul warns Timothy about individuals who “creep into households” and gain influence over vulnerable persons (2 Timothy 3:6), and he cautions Titus about teachers whose influence can “upset whole families” (Titus 1:11). Jesus Himself declares that what God has joined together in marriage, “let no man separate” (Mark 10:9), establishing a clear boundary against any spiritual authority creating division or redirecting a spouse’s loyalty.

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Within this biblical framework, some former members of this church have expressed that this church became improperly involved in their marriages or family dynamics. Early historical concerns raised within the Bethesda Missionary Temple community reflected similar perceptions about the founder in the early years of this church’s development. While interpretations and experiences differ, these accounts highlight why Scripture so strongly guards the sanctity of the marital union and warns against undue spiritual influence within the home.

 

The New Testament consistently protects the integrity of the marital union, assigning spiritual responsibility within the home to the husband and wife - not to church leadership. Any structure or practice that encourages private pastoral meetings with one spouse, secrecy between spouses, or divided loyalties within a marriage stands in direct tension with the biblical pattern. Christian leaders are called to shepherd gently, “not domineering over those in your charge” (1 Peter 5:3), and Scripture places the safeguarding of marriage firmly under God’s authority, not man’s.

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Just as this church positions itself as a mediator between God and man, we believe it seeks to position itself between husband and wife - a role Scripture never grants to any human authority. In doing so, it assumes spiritual control over the most sacred of human relationships, one that God Himself ordained to be direct, intimate, and exclusive. This intrusion distorts the divine order of marriage, where two become one flesh under God alone, not under the oversight or permission of another individual or institution.

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The Bible is clear that there is only one Mediator between God and humanity - the person of Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). Any structure or leader that inserts itself between a believer and Christ, or between a husband and wife, is operating in a spirit of control rather than the Spirit of God. This same controlling spirit has marked religious movements throughout history that use authority and fear to maintain power. Wherever this dynamic appears, it carries the same signature - the substitution of human control for divine freedom.​​

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