From Lisa Demer in Anchorage reporting on Governor Sean Parnell’s various views including – On religion

“Parnell, who attends the Anchorage Christian mega-church ChangePoint, said his faith informs his approach to government. He talked in particular about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

I learned a lot about this church back in April when I was researching Wayne Anthony Ross’ connections to dominionism.  Lo and behold ChangePoint Church came into view.  Also, about that same time, a longtime friend of mine who lives in Anchorage called me and said, “What do you know about this ‘ChangePoint’ church?  They are building a huge building off Minnesota and Raspberry!”

Yep…they sure did!  And it looks so church-like – NOT.  Even made a new street and named it “ChangePoint Drive”.  One estimate puts the congregation size at a minimum of 6,000 people every Sunday in Anchorage.

Here are a few of their proclamations from their website:

The Bible

The Bible is inspired by God, error-free in the original manuscripts, and the supreme authority in life.

Ministry Belongs to the People

At ChangePoint every member is a minister. The staff exists only to equip and empower lay-people as they enjoy God by doing his work in our community. Staff pastors recruit, train, mobilize, and support volunteers who are the heart of our ministry.

Women Leaders

At ChangePoint men and women alike can serve in any ministry as leaders, teachers, administrators, supervisors, coaches, lead coaches, and staff pastors. We do not believe any gift, skill, or function is confined to a particular gender.

Men Leaders

The office of an elder is assigned exclusively to men (1 Timothy 2:11-3:7). God holds men responsible as servant leaders in their homes and in the church (Ephesians 5:23-30; 1 Timothy 2:11). When men embrace that biblical responsibility, everyone prospers.

The Church

All regenerated [born-again] people belong to one invisible church: the body of Christ. Followers of Jesus associate themselves in visible, local churches to minister Christ’s grace to the world.

The Future

The next great historical event will be the personal return of Jesus Christ. Though the time of Christ’s return is a mystery known only to the Father, it is certain.

There are a lot of indications that strongly point to the church being dominionist.  I am posting the string of information from my co-collaborator (“dogemporer”) on my upcoming book, “God’s Own Party? – Keep Your Bible OFF My Ballot!” This will give you an idea of how thorough her responses are to a question as simple as, “What do you know about ChangePoint Church in Anchorage?”

The following is the response from “dogemporer”…

The first hint tends to be with the “Life Change” page which

even at its start hint at the extensive use of cells and

“Disciplining and Shepherding” (which I’ll touch on later); there are also

indications that a Russian international adoption front is being

operated, and there are some other indications we’re dealing with a

dominionist if not outright neopente-dominionist group (such as claims

of conversions at the age of 7, a staple of neopente-dominionist groups

and yes, they do encourage kids to come up to the “altar calls” even

earlier than this).

(–of particular note, Alaska USA Federal Credit Union may

be involved in this; Lorran Skinner, a board member for Grace Alaska

Inc., is apparently chief lending officer for the credit union.)  More

info from a board meeting in question is at this site.

Rick Steele is also listed on the books for both RightWay and Grace

Alaska; again, we have someone not listed as an elder.

Another person listed as a major party at Grace Community Church–a Paul

Biederman–is also not listed as an elder.  Another party that shows up with

Grace Alaska that is *not* listed as an ”elder” is a Chris Keffalos.

This would appear to have been registered as a 501(c)3 org.  The

Foundation Center *does* have 501(c)3 docs for Grace Alaska dating

up to their 2005 form indicating the name change may have occurred after

that date or Grace Alaska may have lost their tax-exempt.  It appears

Grace Alaska had quite a number of groups under its umbrella as fronts, including a

technology consultation firm and real-estate firm.

One particularly interesting bit in the 501(c)3 listing for RightWay

Automotive is the detail that ChangePoint formerly had a d/b/a name of

Grace Community Church–again, this is a strong indication we’re dealing

with neopente dominionists, due to changes of name of this sort of a

regular basis.   Searches on Grace Community Church *did* end up turning

up some major paydirt–it appears that, ultimately, ChangePoint is a

breakaway from the Grace Brethren Churches), may have some linkages

with the SBC, and Clauson in fact *was* the pastor.

> After leaving Alaska 14 years earlier, he’d attended Multnomah Bible

> College in Portland, Ore., where he graduated in 1988 with a degree in

> biblical studies. He married and had a family: wife, Junanne; son,

> Kaben; and daughter, Muriel. They lived a year in South Africa outside

> Durbin, where Clauson helped establish an evangelical church.

> Returning to the states, he studied theology at the Denver Seminary

> School while serving as an associate pastor at a local church — then

> moved to Little Rock, Ark., where he spent five years as the

> single-adult pastor at the gigantic Fellowship Bible Church, with an

> average Sunday attendance of more than 5,000 people.

Of note, Multnomah is apparently a “nondenominational” bible-college

with some rather strong Joel’s Army roots  and note the promotion of

“International Renewal Ministries”, which we’ll get into in a sec.

The doctrinal statement would appear to be remarkably similar to that

of the Fourteen Fundamental Truths of the Assemblies with the exception

of including sections on speaking in tongues; amazingly, the college has

somehow managed to finagle accreditation outside the dominionist

“accreditation mill” setup (though this would appear to be provisional).

There are connections with Assemblies-linked Joel’s Army groups.

A second dominionist connection with Clauson comes with Fellowship Bible

Church of Little Rock, AR ), which is apparently where a lot of the internal

structure was directly cribbed from.  FBC actually refuses to put its full

statement of faith on its website, requiring a call to have the full doctrinal

statements mailed to you.  There is also a very heavy emphasis on both

cell-churches as well as satellite campuses (almost a very defining indication

of a Joel’s Army group making heavy use of “disciplining and shepherding”–this is

something Paul Yonggi Cho largely originated).

Rather disturbingly, the cell-churches include a number that explicitly

target youth. The Sunday-school class also points rather strongly to

“Jesus Camping” of youth, including apparently the use of “energetic worship”

from first grade on–often a code-phrase for “neopentecostal dominionism” for

churches trying very hard to stealth.

There is apparently a Boy Scout troop that the group runs. This is

actually remarkably unusual with Joel’s Army-linked groups, as

they tend to promote their own “parallel economy” alternatives.

ANOTHER danger sign to me is that a *lot* of the church info would

appear to be behind a firewall (for a lot of the info, an account must

be created on their website).

So yes…at *best* the church appears to be dominionist (and almost

*certainly* engaging in some highly coercive tactics), and there are

indications of linkages to Joel’s Army groups as well.

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