• Narrative Control: Wellspring continues to manage its image by removing critical online reviews, extending its long-standing pattern of information control.

• Rebrand Without Reform: Wellspring Church (formerly Lakeview Christian Life Church) has rebranded itself to improve public perception, but we believe its beliefs and practices remain unchanged.

• Lack of Accountability: This church has not publicly acknowledged or repented for past abuses or the harm caused to former members and families.

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Narrative Control

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Although the current leadership of Wellspring Church may seek to control its narrative, the voices and painful experiences of those affected by this church must not be lost to time or quiet revision. They are voices worth hearing - a warning cry to others and a reminder of what can happen when control is mistaken for faithfulness.

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The founder of this church is gone, however the system he created remains. The current leadership emerged from within his leadership circle, having been closely involved with his decisions and culture over a period of decades. It is the opinion of WellspringQ that the current leadership is carrying forward the core doctrines and corresponding patterns of control established by the founder. In our limited view and experience, the underlying spirit of this system remains fundamentally unmoved. 

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If anything, that spirit seems even more deeply entrenched, tightening as the group grows smaller rather than being tempered by reflection.​​ Perhaps there will be adjustments to the doctrine that appear conciliatory, yet still preserve the church's distinct identity and maintain control. The practice of shunning may grow more selective and subdued, quieter than before yet still effective for its intended purpose. ​

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This narrative control is evidenced by Wellspring Church actively removing critical reviews from their Google business profile. This practice removes valuable information from real people who have experienced their church and artificially inflates their user rating. Similar to their controlling practice of shunning, Wellspring Church now works to erase the digital fingerprint of dissident thought. The existing rating with gleaming reviews is not fully organic or truthful, but rather a controlled and one-sided marketing campaign. 

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Rebrand without Reform

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Rather than reforming the structure or addressing its underlying issues, this church leadership seems intent on refining and managing it more effectively - like skilled executives optimizing a legacy organization. The methods of control have evolved: quieter, more calculated, less overtly forceful, yet ultimately just as powerful in producing the same outcomes. In some ways, this quieter precision may make the system even more effective than before.​

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This same instinct for control now reaches outward. Having refined its internal systems, this church has turned its attention to managing how it is seen from the outside. In recent years, effort has been focused on image management - reshaping public perception while maintaining the same core doctrines and behaviors. In the business world, this is called a rebrand and a public relations campaign.

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In business terms, the negative reputation, public criticism, and loss of trust have been transferred to a former business entity, with responsibility placed on others in the former leadership team. The old entity is then closed, its “bad debt” written off, while a new one is launched with a public relations campaign designed to attract fresh followers.​

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This rebrand  has not addressed a core issue: the sustained contradiction between claim and practice. For decades, Wellspring has identified itself as Trinitarian while teaching a functional theology dependent on Oneness assumptions. It has denied practicing shunning while structuring belief and community life in ways that reliably produced it. Over time, these contradictions were not corrected but preserved, and the cost of naming them fell disproportionately on those with the least power.

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It appears that Wellspring Church has not responded to criticism with repentance or reform, but instead has continued to suppress dissent and protect its control over the narrative. Where public claims and lived practices remain in conflict, those inside and outside the community are left without clear or honest information. Without genuine contrition and meaningful change, we believe Wellspring Church will continue to function in the same way and produce the same harmful outcomes for people in the future.

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For this reason, a public record is necessary - not to attack, but to bring into the light what has long been obscured, and to protect those who might otherwise enter the community unaware of the theological contradictions and relational consequences that await them.

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Lack of Accountability

 

In the limited view of WellspringQ, we have not seen the leadership or the congregants take personal responsibility for their role, choices, actions and inactions which resulted in severe damage to many people and many broken families. They have yet to acknowledge the full weight and gravity of their actions. We have not seen any formal public repentance or admission of wrongdoing from Wellspring Church for the abuses and great wrongs committed in the name of God.​​

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In one of His last recorded promises, Jesus said, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). Few words in Scripture carry such beauty and audacity - the assurance that time, decay, and even evil itself are not the final word. That is why it feels so hollow when we encounter shallow imitations of renewal, such as cosmetic rebrandings. Readers can readily see that when an “SHCC” becomes an “LCLC,” or an “LCLC” becomes “Wellspring,” these changes bear no resemblance to the transformative promise Jesus offered.

 

“New” means different. It means that what was damaged becomes restored, what was corrupted becomes whole again. Yet Wellspring continues to practice shunning, and many wrongs committed by the Jameses have not been named, addressed, or undone. By any honest measure, the most basic threshold of true newness has not been crossed.​​

 

This lack of accountability is also reflected in how Wellspring Church presents itself publicly. Member biographies and positive reviews often employ ambiguous language - such as attending for “many years” or “a long time” - that can suggest external evaluation or prior experience elsewhere. In reality, many of these individuals were born and raised within Wellspring and have spent their entire lives within the same belief system. Any external church experience referenced was typically within a former sister church sharing the same doctrines and practices established by founder and self-proclaimed “apostle” Norman H. James.

 

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