Passlocker 3 0 – securely store your login credentials. Your LGBTQ Life. On Saturday, April 11, 1953, nearly 70 gay men packed into a small four-room house at 2117 South 19th Street in Waco, Texas, about 10 blocks from Baylor University. Watermark Fort Worth was planted in March 2013 as a satellite campus of Watermark Community Church in Dallas. The idea for this plant started in 2012 when a group of Fort Worth families and single adults began praying about being the church on the west side of Fort Worth.
Watermark Community Church | |
---|---|
Location | Dallas, Texas Fort Worth, Texas Frisco, Texas Plano, Texas |
Country | United States |
Denomination | Nondenominational |
Weekly attendance | 11,000 |
Website | www.watermark.org |
History | |
Founded | November 7, 1999 |
Clergy | |
Senior pastor(s) | Todd Wagner (currently on leave of absence) |
Watermark Community Church is a nondenominational evangelical church based in Dallas, Texas.
Watermark was founded in November 7, 1999 with an outward-focused ministry that sought to minister to 'the unchurched, dechurched, dead-churched and unmoved.'[1]
Watermark averages about 11,000 weekly attendants at four campuses (Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, and Frisco). The Porch is a weekly young adult service that attracts between 3,000 and 4,000 attendants each Tuesday night.
Watermark Church Dallas
Watermark's Senior Pastor was Todd Wagner, who is also the founder of the church.[2] On Sunday, September 6, 2020, Wagner announced that he was 'temporarily stepping down' from the pulpit due to the 'sin of pride'.[3]
Church properties[edit]
Watermark Community Church maintains three separate campuses across the Dallas Metroplex (Dallas and Plano, at locations where it controls the property, and in Frisco meeting at Frisco High School). Services are normally broadcast to the satellite campuses from the main campus, where they are shown on large screens to congregants. A former campus in Fort Worth became an independent congregation on July 1, 2020.[4]
In 2014 Todd Wagner made a public announcement that the church was looking to expand to Plano.[5] He further stated that the property they wished to purchase would cost $9.5 million.[5]
In 2015 it was announced that Watermark had the opportunity to purchase the second of two tower blocks adjacent to the main campus.[6] The purchase was to be for $19 million, with $15 million needed as of October 10, 2015.[6] Folx mac os catalina. As of 2016, Watermark has purchased an 8 year lease with plans to purchase the tower after the lease expires.
As of 2015 the Dallas Campus property was valued at $69.8 million.[7][8] As of 2019 the Plano Campus property was valued at $7.5 million.[9]
Www.watermarkcommunities.com
In 2020 Watermark purchased the former Pearl C. Anderson Middle School property in South Dallas from the Dallas Independent School District for $211,000 in a public sale, an action which has upset church leaders in the community. Watermark claims it intends to provide community services in the area, such as health care, job placement, and personal recovery.[10]
Criticism[edit]
Membership[edit]
Under Watermark's governing documents, the church leadership may exercise 'church discipline' up to and including terminating membership.[11] Watermark's exercise of this clause has been criticized on at least two reported occasions:
- In 2016, Watermark terminated the membership of a man involved in a same-sex relationship.[12]
- Another story from 2016 (reprinted in another blog in 2019) tells of a couple where the husband carried on an affair, the wife asked for help, but the husband refused to stop the affair. Not only did Watermark seek to discipline the husband, it contacted organizations with whom the woman (with whom the husband was having the affair) was involved, encouraging them to intervene, even though she was never a Watermark member.[13]
Pursuing Authenticity[edit]
The online blog No Eden Elsewhere reported that at least two former members notified the blog of their experiences. Going by the pseudonyms 'Susan'[14] and 'Michael'[15], the members told that they were encouraged into revealing their financial and personal history to the 'community group' of which they were members, and were admonished when neither shared anything that could be used to 'control' them. Both members compared Watermark's actions to the Scientology cult, due to the need to know personal details of members.
In a third post from this site, two parents relayed experiences whereby, after their adult children joined Watermark and went through its Re:Generation ministry [16], those children then claimed to have been 'abused' by the parents and now no longer want a relationship with them. One parent even agreed to a 'reconciliation' process approved by her child's community group, which failed.[17] The post mentions a third instance, one of the comments on the video was from a mother attempting reconciliation with her son (a Watermark member), and was told that Watermark will not work with her directly, but required her to engage a 'spiritual authority' from her congregation to discuss the matter with a 'spiritual authority' from Watermark (even though the woman was not told what actions she had done to cause the rift in the first place).[18] Priime styles 1 2.
References[edit]
- ^'Name & History - Watermark Community Church'. Watermark.
- ^'Todd Wagner | Watermark Community Church'. www.watermark.org.
- ^https://www.christianpost.com/news/dallas-megachurch-pastor-steps-away-from-pulpit-due-to-sin-of-pride.html?fbclid=IwAR1DbTiIJkxuY84XuJjwr_1QGORZeQE-cMoQlaPhO9JCiJdGH6w9zdgnBmE
- ^https://www.watermark.org/blog/fortworthupdate?q=Fort+Worth+Update
- ^ ab'Some Next Steps For Watermark Church And How You Can Get Involved'. Watermark.
- ^ ab'We're Making Room for Making Disciples FAQ - Watermark Community Church'. Watermark.
- ^'Commercial Account Details'. www.dallascad.org.
- ^Because the property is now tax-exempt, the Dallas Central Appraisal District has no current information on its market value.
- ^'Collin CAD - Property Search'. www.collincad.org.
- ^https://www.christianpost.com/news/watermark-megachurch-buys-middle-school-building-in-south-dallas.html
- ^'Governance:', ARticle II, SEction 4, 'Care and Correction of Participatory Members', https://www.watermark.org/about/beliefs/governance
- ^Zylstra, Sarah Eekhoff. 'When Church Discipline Goes Really Public'.
- ^'When is a Church Member 'Fair Game''. September 18, 2019.
- ^'The Aftermath: Stories from Former Watermark Church Members'. September 30, 2019.
- ^'The Aftermath: Stories From Former Watermark Members - Part II'. November 19, 2019.
- ^https://www.watermark.org/ministries/regeneration-recovery
- ^http://noedenelsewhere.com/family-ties/
- ^https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grCL8oHcXm0&feature=youtu.be
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