Christian commune or ‘full-fledged cult’? What you don’t know about this Cincinnati church
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This story has been updated. An ex-member requested her name be redacted from this story for fear of retaliation from the church. The Enquirer has removed her name.
Samantha Hall felt her mental health hit an all-time low in 2017. She was 20, dealing with the pressures of student life at the University of Cincinnati, depressed and had recently been hospitalized after trying to take her own life.
That’s why when a friend suggested attending a new church, she was open to it.
Like dozens of others, Hall felt immediately embraced when she walked through the doors at Madison Place Community Church in Cincinnati’s Madisonville neighborhood. Members sang and prayed together at the Thursday night service, the only service open to newcomers, and welcomed her like a family member.
“Everybody was smiling – it was the best energy I’d ever felt in a church,” she told The Enquirer.
For the next three years, Hall became immersed in the small but growing community, which is different from other churches in Cincinnati. Its roughly 100 members own houses and businesses together. They share finances and live by strict rules, which can mean handing over their salaries, car keys and cellphones.
For some, the church provides housing, community and stability during the hardest times in their lives. Others, like Hall, said the church became a manipulative, all-consuming force that left them emotionally traumatized and financially ruined.
Hall, who left Madison Place in 2020, said the church took over every aspect of her life and cut her off from family and friends.
“Eventually I got so indoctrinated that I didn’t care,” she said.
For some, the church provides housing, community and stability during the hardest times in their lives. Others, like Hall, said the church became a manipulative, all-consuming force that left them emotionally traumatized and financially ruined.
Hall, who left Madison Place in 2020, said the church took over every aspect of her life and cut her off from family and friends.
“Eventually I got so indoctrinated that I didn’t care,” she said
“I’ve seen them being very friendly, helping neighbors, and that’s the kind of community you want to live in,” said Chris Bonfeld, who has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years. “But you hear things, and that’s the concerning part.”
Lead pastor Zak Kijinski founded Madison Place in 2007, though it was called Gladstone Community Church until 2016. Members met inside Mariemont Community Church before the church got its own building on Plainville Road in 2017.
In the blocks surrounding the church, members own more than 30 homes, according to property records and Enquirer research. Most members live in these homes, which are divided by gender and house eight to 10 people.
Content retrieved from: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2025/01/26/madison-place-church-controversy-cincinnati/69854401007/.
