Shunning
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Family Separation: Wellspring Church enforces shunning - cutting off contact between parents, children, and relatives - as punishment for leaving and disagreeing with church doctrine, including submission to their leadership.
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Misuse of Scripture: Leaders justify shunning with out-of-context Bible verses, twisting them into commands to reject loved ones rather than extend grace and reconciliation.
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Control Through Fear: The practice mirrors cult behavior, using fear of lost relationships to maintain loyalty and suppress dissent among members.
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Picture a mom and dad forbidden to attend a son or daughter’s wedding. Children forbidden to attend a parent’s funeral. A son told to not talk to his mother. A daughter told to not to talk her father. A birth of a grandchild, a school play, a child's sporting event, a musical concert, a high school graduation, all lost due to the act of shunning. These are real life examples from the history of Wellspring Church.
If Wellspring Church was only about novel doctrine, that would be cause for concern from a theological perspective, but most former members wouldn’t think another thing of it after leaving. But the control that the current members are under reaches out and pulls the heart out of former members in an ongoing manner through the painful act of shunning.
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Shunning is found in Amish communities, Jehovah’s Witnesses, some United Pentecostal Churches and increasingly in some pockets of independent Christian churches, where a controlling, charismatic leader is at the helm.
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The Amish community refers to this practice as 'shunning'. In the Jehovah's Witness cult, this punishment is known as being 'disfellowshipped'. Scientology calls it 'disconnection'. Wellspring Church avoids the term 'shunning' because it associates them with cult groups. They use the terms "disfellowshipping" or "cutting someone off". The behavior is identical and it is shunning, nonetheless.
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Shunning severity has varied at Wellspring in the past based on the the influence of the former member and how large a role that former member played in the life of the church. Shunning has waxed and waned in enforcement over the years and has ranged from limiting contact to family to just on major holidays, all the way to complete disconnection from the family with a refusal to even acknowledge their existence in public spaces. There were times where limited, light conversation was tolerated, as long as church topics were taken off the table. But as the church grew more isolated and struggled to maintain control the practice intensified. ​​
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Why is shunning such a crucial practice at Wellspring Church? Mainly, it is used as a means of control; to keep current members locked in because they are afraid to leave and lose relationships with all their friends and family. Members equate leaving the church to leaving God's kingdom. They see breaking a church membership commitment as being on par with breaking a marriage covenant. They believe that removing yourself from the leadership’s covering exposes you to a “spirit of deception” and so for current members to avoid being tainted by that spirit, former members are to be avoided.
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As with most askew doctrines, shunning is justified by looking at verses out of context and without the balance of other scriptures. Sometimes scriptures can be misapplied when their original intent is missed, when application is meant to be figurative and not literal, when the particular audience to whom a passage is written is not understood, when their context is lost. Basic rules of bible interpretation are often ignored in this church and it leads to practices that push the member far away from principles of grace, mercy, long suffering and reconciliation.
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Deuteronomy 13 is often pulled out (one of their publications had an entire issue devoted to the subject) as a justification to shun. The passage talks about apostates who encourage the faithful to follow after “other gods”. The passage encourages the apostate’s family members to be the first to stone the heretic and the family is even commanded not to pity him. This powerful passage allows current members to feel like they are doing God’s will in shunning family, even with an act of force or killing of a family relationship. The painful sacrifice they make in cutting off a family member is viewed as an offering to God, something that they will be rewarded for in eternity.
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This church categorizes people with different views on any point of doctrine or practice, who leave the church because of these differences, as someone who is going after “other gods”. To put it bluntly, that's a real stretch. Former members are indeed varied in their faith but many are a part of Christian churches, worshiping Jehovah. They are not following after other gods. Since they are not following after other gods, even following this Old Testament passage literally, former church members who are still believers in Jehovah have no reason to be shunned.
Making “other gods” metaphorical for different doctrinal positions or different church practices or different leadership goes way beyond what the scripture teaches. That's why deep in their hearts, those who are shunning former members have that gnawing empty feeling in their gut that they are doing something wrong.
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Church leaders in the past have told members that just as Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son on the alter, so they must be willing to cut of their own children in order to obey God. There are Old Testament passages that command a parent to kill a child for disobedience. Why not shun a disobedient child? When individual bible verses are applied selectively to enforce a policy without the full teaching of scripture, people get hurt.
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It should be noted that there are churches that practice church disfellowshipping and excommunication. These restrictions in contact are frequently limited in scope, however, to church related activities. The act of shunning by contrast is treating the individual as if they are dead, as if they don't exist. Further, excommunication of a specific individual in most Christian churches is very rare. It is not a blanket policy against anyone who rejects the entirety of a church's doctrine or withdraws their church membership.
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Wellspring Church has enforced shunning of members who simply stop attending the church after it is clear they do not plan to return. These are people who have not sinned, but instead 'broke a church commitment' and 'removed themselves from the body'. They may disagree with a point of doctrine or practice in their conscience. They may miss other shunned family. They may just be tired of trying to live up to all of the additional 'laws' that this church has added to a walk with Christ. None of these reasons are valid to leadership.
And so these bible believing, born again Christians are being shunned by their family because the leadership of Wellspring Church is afraid that ongoing relationships with family will possibly pull other members out.
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Think about those in the bible who "deserved" shunning: Judas in his betrayal of Christ; Peter in his denial of Christ; the woman caught in adultery. Now think about Jesus' response: He called Judas friend; He cooked Peter breakfast; He told the woman, "where are your accusers?".
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If you are one who is currently shunning family who loves you and would gladly receive you back with tears and open arms, then please reach out to them, restore your relationship with them while there is still time in this life. Do it in good faith. You will find that is what Jesus would do. After all, didn't He come to His enemies and pursue a relationship with them?
Romans 5:8-10 "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us...10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life."
The way that Wellspring Church has practiced shunning is not in the spirit of Christ. It is the behavior and spirit of the cults for the purposes of power and control.​​
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To see the similarities in this church's abusive practice of shunning and that of other organizations, please explore the following links below:
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