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Church Check: Antioch Community Church in Salt Lake City

Updated: Sep 6, 2020



Basic Church Information

Church Name: Antioch SLC

Lead/Senior Pastor: Codi & Kate Wasion

Address: 669 S. WEST TEMPLE, SLC UTAH 84101

Email: Church Contact Page (https://www.antiochslc.com/contact)

Financially Transparent: No

Membership Requirements: Yes

Denomination: Charismatic-Baptist / Non-Denominational / Possible Lordship Salvation Teachings

Answered Questionnaire: No

Pressured Giving/Tithes: Yes

Preaching Style: Topical

Red Flags: This church has encouraged members to attend the controversial YWAM (Youth With a Mission) School, which has hundreds of reports of abuse to its name, both on social media and in the courtroom.


There are also multiple online resources detailing some troubling and abusive situations:


Questionnaire


Nothing new or special here. When we tried contacting Antioch SLC, we were completely stonewalled, as expected. We emailed them, contacted them through their website Contact page, and even tried PM-ing them on Facebook. Nothing but a big stone wall.


So let’s see what we can find out on our own.


1. What is your church's official position on tithing?


The answer to this is clear on their Give page. They believe giving to the church is a biblical command.


Also, they do have a membership agreement according to one of the staff at the Waco location, and the fact that every other membership agreement I’ve ever read for any other church has always included giving money to the church, I would be very surprised if it wasn’t included in Antioch’s membership agreement as well.


2. Does your church have a particular set of rules or requirements that members must follow or abide by in order to retain their membership status with the church?


The main Antioch location in Waco used to have a copy of their sin discipline policy on their website, but they appear to have taken it down now. Luckily, we were still able to snag a copy thanks to Michael Lake and his IT skills.


Here is a copy of the document if you're curious.


I also emailed someone at the Waco location and asked if every Antioch Community Church has the same membership agreement, and the staff member I spoke to confirmed that they do.



I’m working on trying to get a copy of the membership agreement to share with churchgoers, but in the meantime, the sin discipline policy alone is more than enough to show churchgoers that this church does in fact have some real requirements for its members. Also, the main Antioch location in Texas says this about membership:


"People typically think of the word member when considering joining a church. At Antioch, people who join the church are called Owners. Membership often implies becoming a part of an organization and receiving certain benefits while ownership implies taking responsibility for the organization.


"The Antioch Ownership Course explains the five keys to being an owner and how you can embrace these commitments.  If you would like to take the next step as an owner of the Antioch vision, we encourage you to join us for our Ownership Course."


3. Are you transparent with your church's financial information? How much does your church bring in through donations and tithing, and how is that money distributed?


This question might be answered at their This is Antioch class, but since our attempts to question them were completely stonewalled, we have to assume the answer to this is ‘no” for now.


4. Which denomination does your church align with the most, if any?


They appear to be non-denominational at first glance, and that's what we had them listed as for a while, since both their Google listing and Facebook Page don't list any kind of denomination. According to several reports I've read from former members, however, they are in fact rooted in the Baptist-Charismatic Movement, and I also see signs that they teach Lordship Salvation here.


Here are some sources claiming the church is Charismatic:


The evidence of the Lordship Salvation teachings can be found on their About page, regarding Baptism:


"We hold that the real evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is one’s response to the Word of God (John 16:13), a Christ-like life, showing forth Christ’s character, and experiencing and manifesting the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit (John 15:26; 16:14; Galatians 5:22-23; I Cor 12:4-11)."


5. Is your church's pastor available for other questions or comments regarding the church, its doctrines, etc.?


I haven’t been able to get anyone to answer me online, but perhaps it’s possible to get some answers from the pastor if I were to speak to him in person. This will be next on my To-Do list for Antioch. Until then, however, the answer appears to be ‘no.’


6. How is your church's doctrinal flexibility and tolerance? If a member has a disagreement with the pastor or leadership on a certain doctrine, how is it handled? Does the church change its position on doctrines fairly often, if at all?


Not sure of the answer to this either quite yet. Once a date is set for their This is Antioch class, I plan to attend. Hopefully, I can get answers to all of these questions in more detail, but I’m going to assume for the time being that since this church has a membership agreement, they probably also have doctrinal statements that members must agree to.


It’s possible that they show flexibility and give liberty in minor, non-salvation issues, but everything else we know about this church so far would suggest that they don’t budge in others. We’ll have to dig more and see what we can find out on this one.


7. Does your church require that its members be baptized? What is your church's official position on baptism?


Since this church does in fact believe baptism to be a command (See their Beliefs), it’s highly likely that they require it of their members. Whether they require it of all members or just the ones who haven’t been baptized as Christians yet is unknown, but until we know more, we can only assume that they expect it of their members.


8. Please describe what a typical service and/or meeting looks like in your church.


When you go to the website’s Sundays page, you read this description:


“Our heart here at Antioch is to create a safe place for any and everybody to come and explore what this journey looks like for them. When you come on a Sunday, you can expect to encounter Jesus through some incredible worship, teaching and prayer. And when we do all this together, we also encounter the love of Jesus through lots of love, laughter, and probably a few high-fives. When you walk in the doors at Antioch, we want you to always feel like you’re coming home to a family that loves you. You belong here.”


9. How many people do you have on staff at your church, both paid and volunteer?


While this church's Team page used to show a total of 15 people on staff, now it only shows "Lead Pastors" Codi and Kate Wasion.


10. What is the pastor's educational history?


Pastor Codi Wasion doesn’t have a Facebook page that we could find, but the short bio on the church’s website says:


“Before becoming Lead Pastor, Codi served as the Executive Pastor here at Antioch for 3 years. Kate has 8 years of experience as a Kids Pastor, three of which were here at Antioch SLC.”


So it doesn’t appear that pastor Codi has any educational history relevant to his position as pastor of a Christian church.


11. How does the church discipline its members with their sin?


Like this.


12. How is the pastor compensated (income, benefits, bonuses, etc.)?


Won’t know this until someone is willing to answer the question. Perhaps I can ask it when I go to their next Ownership Class.


13. What is the size of your church and any other space the church owns for meetings and church services?


Antioch SLC’s Facebook Page has over 1,600 likes and follows, which means their congregation is probably close to 400-500 actual members. It doesn’t look like they own any space or buildings because they meet on Sundays at 5:00 PM at the Falls Event Center in Trolley Square.


 

Do you have information on Antioch Church that would answer some of our questions here? A membership agreement, a screenshot of tithe-preaching? Please share it on our Support Us Page!


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