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charis

DAVIS: How I Investigated a Secretive Bible College

·July 25, 2024

When I started investigating the drama surrounding the Woodland Park school board in late spring of last year, the elephant in the small mountain town’s room was difficult to ignore: the Bible college and international ministry organization which had relocated its world headquarters to a massive compound just outside of the scenic hamlet’s downtown. The same Bible college and ministry whose leader, Andrew Wommack, told his followers in 2021 that they “ought to take over” the town – and which had then taken steps to do so. It did not take long for me to realize that Wommack’s organizations were heavily involved in the local feuding over school politics, or that their influence on the town stretched far beyond the classroom. 

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Fire on the Mountain: Inside a Secretive Colorado Bible College (Part II)

·July 17, 2024

John Leong had a decision to make. The finances were a mess: the ministry was underwater after its latest land acquisition, and no one else in leadership seemed to take that fact into account. In an organization seized by the need to expand at all costs, the $18 million debt on the balance sheet was treated as an abstract problem. As Chief Operating Officer for Andrew Wommack Ministries (AWMI), John saw it in more concrete terms. Instead of dialing back their projected spending or slowing Charis Bible College’s desired rate of expansion, though, a new board member had proposed a riskier idea: selling investment opportunities to Wommack’s loyal followers.

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DAVIS: Onward Christian Soldiers – A Woodland Park Investigation

·August 24, 2023

If a germ touches me, it dies,” the faith healer proclaimed at the height of the pandemic. Not everyone was so lucky: though he personally claimed to be protected by faith-based immunity, Andrew Wommack’s constant flouting of local health ordinances, his desire to pack the sanctuary at Charis Bible College with hundreds of people at a time, led to multiple fatal outbreaks of the virus in Teller County. Now, three years later, Wommack’s ministry empire has infected Woodland Park with a new strain of contagion, this time through the ballot box.

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