Watermark Community Church — Attraction in Dallas

First time back in a church after 4 years, thought I'd give it another chance. First look at the church and I thought it was beautiful, the wooden porch jetting out of the marble building, and the clean crisp foliage surrounding the church. The worship was euphoric and enjoyable, I missed that part of church. Then, the sermon began, was never a huge fan of sermons so I thought I'd give it another shot the next time I was back here (little did i know what would happen next...). I left the service room and decided to explore this magnificent piece of architecture. My eye caught a massive wooden jungle gym inside the building and was reminisced by my childhood. I climbed up the fine wood and arrived at the children's service. Coming from a Christian upbringing I was curious as to how the layout of the building was made, so I explored the nooks and crannies and found a well designed arrangement for play and concessions.

A police officer, police officer A, kindly told me about the building and the area that I was in, and warmly suggested that I move on to another side of the building, because these Christian conservatives were uncomfortable with having a young Asian male teacher admiring the architecture of their beautiful building. THIS, I understood, and kindly obliged and left to explore the outer rims of the building, away from the children's area.

THEN, as I was walking near the ENTRANCE of the building where the gorgeous fountain was, above the fine wood patio jetting from the 2nd floor, where normal people were walking in and out, I was stopped YET AGAIN. THIS TIME, I saw NO POSSIBLE CAUSE for stopping me. Police officer B authoritatively walked over and ORDERED me to come with him and asked for my identification. This was absolutely absurd. Never in my life have I ever been stopped on the streets or in a church, or in any place of FAITH, FORGIVENESS, TRUST, AND OF GOD. I then had 3 officers around me and was led to a police vehicle. The sheer judgment of these officers was truly awe inspiring. Police officers are becoming better trained every day on the art of power display and girth of their authority.

Either this is the conservative epicenter of the world, or the meaning of Christianity is completely lost. To any of the kind faculty that warmly welcomed me, I am deeply sorry, but this experience back into the Christian culture was a nice warm ball of spit in my face as a human being.

If you attend this church and are reading this, please speak with your congregation as well as the faculty on this matter. I would recommend training in kindness and judgment of others, and establishing protocols for welcoming strangers. The word racial profiling should be another phrase you should teach your children as well as adults. I believe these steps will help you all grow to become normal loving people, open to the world around them.

Sincerely, A very unwelcomed guest.

I suggest this verse from Matthew 25: 40-45

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did...

Been a member just about 2 years now. I've slowly sat back and watched. I loved the church at first but as time progressed kept seeing several problems unfold. Both my fiancé and I were weekly attenders, served for the church as well as was in a community group. All which are factored to be a member.

I've watched numerous occasions of Todd bashing other religions as well as the non believer. Which is judgment and condemning them for their belief which I think is simply wrong.

My fiancé was baptized by JP as well as myself in the pond. So 1 year from our wedding date I ask JP he tells me to message merge, which we had already completed. So I did told them the story and how I wanted JP to marry us in a year. The response was "JP is no longer able to accept weddings unless you have a personal relationship with him". I'm sorry but being s member of the church that's your response something is wrong here.

Lastly we are obviously engaged and preparing for the wedding. In the midst of all this we found a house for sale that we couldn't pass up. So we bought the house prior to our wedding.

Proceeding buying the house we informed our community groups of the such and they had no worries. As soon as the church leaders caught wind of this is when the personal attacks started coming. It has been almost everyday these past 2 months someone is reaching out trying to get us to move out to the wedding cuz we are wrong for what we are doing. Then they took it another step and revoked my fiancé membership from the church due to this. This isn't the end, they are still persistent on getting her to move and explaining we are wrong for what we are doing.

This left my fiancé in tears many nights, feeling lonely and depressed. Someone who was so loyal to the church and thought K1 race for 2 years and they just made her feel like trash and that to me is not okay.

This church is far to radical, judgmental, condemning. Todd will try to preach by fear to make you feel bad and want to do better.

All in all, I loved the church at the beginning but watching it over the years has swayed me vastly to disagree and remove myself...

Usually church members WANT to get to know people coming in, ask about them, help them connect with others, etc, not here. You're thrown into this massive auditorium, watch the service and leave without 0 human connection and feel completely unwanted. Don't go if you expect to meet anyone. You have to persistently try to get into a group because of how clicky it is.

DO Go if you want to be judge by members for your testimony on. They literally deem if you are good enough to be a member on it. Keep in mind you can not serve or be in a bible group if you are not a member. They literally kept me from bible study and told me my testimony and what I struggle with was not good enough. Same thing/person for my Baptism. I had to change my testimony 3 time before it was good enough to be shared and be baptized. I just wanted to feel God's love and be around his people but left feeling more judged, and not good enough.

They will also expect you to confide in one person if you are in a group and if you don't that person will show up at your JOB! call over 10 times in a 8 hour period while you are at work and literally shame and scold you for not confiding in them and confiding in someone else. This was my a ReGEN subgroup leader for women who have survived assault. They preach going to people you trust and putting up proper boundaries then the cross them and victim blame you and shame you because in their mind they are better. I come from a background of church hurt and was assaulted at a church then stalked by one of their own here at watermark and they refused to assist. Then they say I'm probably to nice to him.

Furthermore, they will just blame and blame and blame and frankly the sermons are on base level and don't lack the depth. The theme is repetitive (PORCH) and the dating series where the preacher literally said "women should always say yes to a date" was the basis for this member to stalk me because I said no to a date coming out of a 3 year abusive relationship!

This church is a massive click, judgmental, and completely fake in terms of welcoming people...