Oakland Church — Attraction in Oakland Charter Township

After two years attending Oakland Christian Church, I have seen the unconditional love of Christ Jesus slowly disappear from the fellowship and congregation as the majority of them are replaced with a pharisee-like, gatekeeping of prayer, worship, and comfort.

Pastor Dominic and Pastor Amira are wonderful, spirit-led pastors with huge hearts, but their congregation is largely made up of Christians who are not baptized with the Holy Spirit in their hearts. They are greatly like the Pharisee in Jesus's parable about the Pharisee and the Publican, creating an undercover atmosphere where new member's spirits are crushed and they are prevented from worshiping Christ Jesus in the way scripture teaches through Christ Jesus's word. Christ is slowly being squeezed out of the fellowship.

I am American Indian, and the discipleship program I was placed in was seeking to eliminate my Holy Spirit-led worship. They regularly said culturally inappropriate remarks and I found myself having to defend myself from their remarks and comments. During service, a man physically tried to stop me from comforting a woman who was crying, and told me aggressively to remove my hand from the shoulder of another woman I was comforting. The church was not like this when I first came to attend two years ago. I don't know what changes have been made to the fellowship, but it is completely opposite of what is being taught in the School of Ministry and what is being preached every Sunday.

The prayer team does not allow you to pray for one another, comfort one another, or freely praise or worship Christ Jesus. I have heard many stories of people who were squeezed out of the church for worshiping freely and demonstrating the unconditional love of Christ Jesus by being taken aside and having private conversations with them that made them feel guilty, ashamed, or out of place for the way they worship so that they wouldn't "be a distraction to new members." They are catering to wealthy financial sponsors and their attention on money has eliminated the unconditional love of Christ.

I officially withdrew from their School of Ministry today and from attending the church as my church home. It wasn't like that when I first started attending in 2022. People used to give one another hugs and hold hands and pray for one another, and I have slowly watched people detach themselves from the Unconditional Love of Christ there. It is really shocking and sad.

Sometimes a church has really great pastors and the congregation is really difficult and doesn't have the love in their hearts that the pastors have. Oakland has become like that over time and it is really hard to watch. They don't allow you to fellowship with people who are more like you, they gatekeep their community programs and prevent more spirit-led leaders from getting community group members by refusing communication.

Christ Jesus, I pray in your Holy Name, that you watch over Pastor Dominic and Pastor Amira as they seek to continue to grow Oakland Church as a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-denominational church that is open to all people. They are accepting of people from all walks of life with the unconditional love of Christ Jesus, they are spirit-led, and they are doing your work King Jesus, but their congregation is wayward and doesn't practice what their pastors preach. They have their own agenda and are infiltrating Oakland with a way of being that is not in alignment with the way Pastor Dominic and Pastor Amira are preaching and teaching. The School of Ministry is a beautiful program with an amazing message that the congregation does not practice behind the scenes. I bind the devil that is attempting to attack Oakland Church and I rebuke satan and his minions! I believe Pastor Amira and Pastor Dominic's Holy Spirit-led message of love from Christ Jesus is genuine and true and that they have the best intentions for Oakland Church. I ask that you heal Oakland Church in the Mighty Name of...

Not for my family. It was disappointing to see the pastors wife applying her makeup, not lipgloss, but actual makeup during the sermon. Did not feel, experience or see a sense of community, or fellowship. Also a young man gave his life to Jesus in front of the stage, but after the service was done, we seen the young man walking out at the same we were and that was heartbreaking. Someone (a man/men) who work or volunteer at the church or even the pastor himself should have not let that young man go but made sure he was followed up with immediately after the service, but instead he walked out alone to his car and left, truly heartbreaking. The service was like listening to a car salesman trying to sell you the Gospel. This church is a business and you can see it clearly. Church’s today are not aligning themselves with Jesus, who had no home, he was a servant who came to serve. This life isn’t about us, it’s about others, it’s about JESUS and I did not feel that with this church, especially with the discernment the Lord showed me, with the wife putting on her makeup during the service and the young man being saved, yet walked out alone at the same time we did and the sales pitch of the gospel. If I could give advice to the pastor and his church congregation it would be to use Francis Chan as an example on what it looks like to be a disciple and what the body of Christ looks like. We are merely vessels and here to give God all the glory and this church missed that mark. It was more glorifying themselves. It was very much shiny white smiles, shiny jewelry, & shiny clothes. Let us all be reminded that our Lord & Savior, King of Kings had no home and rode on a...

Visiting from out of town and wanted to attend Easter Sunday service, this place was terribly disappointing. Greeters seemed phony, worship music went on far too long, an hour and 15 minutes. Once the sermon started it was disjointed, made no sense and was all over the map. The pastor seemed terribly disingenuous. The building itself was stark and didn’t convey a sense of warmth. Half an hour into the sermon folks started leaving, I don’t blame them! 2 1/2 hours later I was hoping to be filled with the joy and hope of our resurrected Savior, instead I felt empty like I had just sat through a weird sales pitch by a smarmy salesman. I’ve been a Christian far too long to not see through a church like this. For those seeking a genuine connection with Christ please know there are better churches out there! First and last...