Wayman Mitchell
Encyclopedia
Wayman Othell Mitchell is the founder of Christian Fellowship Ministries
or the Potters House. This organisation is a fellowship of 1,716 independent churches in 110 nations throughout the world. Individual churches of the Potters House also use other names, including: The Door, Victory Chapel, Christian Center, Crossroads Chapel, and La Puerta. Pastor Mitchell is the senior pastor of the Prescott congregation.
Wayman Mitchell has been a born again Christian since 1953, baptized in the Holy Ghost since 1954 and has been a Pentecostal pastor since 1960. Mitchell conducts "healing crusades," in the many countries where there are Potter's House Churches. Pastor Mitchell has been the pastor of many churches in the United States, and also in Perth, Western Australia
where he was senior pastor
for 3 years.
Pastor Mitchell was born in 1929 in Arizona. His father decided to move the family to Prescott, Arizona
in 1933, in search of work during the Great Depression
. There were five children, Wayman being the youngest. Arizona is where he and his wife Nelda currently reside. Mitchell was stationed on the Island of Guam
between 1948–1952 for the U.S. military during the Korean War
. While there he was head supervisor of the maintenance shop. During this time he was promoted to Staff Sergeant and offered a candidacy at an officer training school. After his military service he met Nelda Henderson at a dance in Phoenix in 1952. They were married on Feb 7th 1953. Ten months after the birth of their first daughter, she suddenly died of cot death. During this time Mitchell was unemployed. Jobs were scarce and unemployment was widespread. This was the turning point in his life. George Mitchell, Wayman's brother had been converted at a Foursquare church and invited the grieving couple to a church meeting. They both responded to an altar call
and became born again Christians in 1954.
, or the Pensacola Outpouring. Mitchell recalls when he was baptized with the Holy Spirit
:
while he attended L. I. F. E. Bible College in 1957–1960, where he completed his Pastorate. Mitchell felt that he was drained of spirituality during this time, and felt that the school focused on academics rather than zealous spirituality. He felt that this was a detour. This greatly affected the way Mitchell discipled ministers, and preferred on-the-job training rather than bible schools. In his own words
Pastor Mitchell recommends ministers acquire the book The Foundations of Pentecostal Theology because the majority of the doctrine taught in CFM is expounded on in it. The book was written by two foursquare ministers and published by L. I. F. E. Bible College in Los Angeles.
Wayman Mitchell read a book entitled, The Master Plan of Evangelism, by Robert E. Coleman. He decided that rather than encourage the converts in his church, who felt called to preach the gospel, to attend Foursquare's LIFE Bible school, that he would personally disciple them to become pastors. Although Foursquare allowed for female pastors, having been founded by a woman, Aimee Semple McPherson, he decided that he would exclusively train men to be pastors. Once Mitchell felt that a man was ready to go out and start a church, he would send that man out to a city to start a church. Wayman preferred that the men he would send out would be married men, although he experimented with sending a single man out on one occasion.
The Foursquare leadership agreed to allow Wayman Mitchell to plant Foursquare churches within Mitchell's Foursquare District, the Southwest District. The Southwest District, at the time, was under the leadership of Dr. John Holland. Mitchell and Holland had no real friction over Mitchell's sending out of men, whom Wayman had personally trained, to start churches.
Pastor Mitchell's plan of discipleship also included having the men who were sent out also disciple the male converts in their churches. Mitchell envisioned a geometric mulitiplication of churches that would "reach the world," and this was emphasized as being urgent as Jesus was coming back very, very soon.
Wayman Mitchell sent out a document to the churches that had left Foursquare to be a part of his fellowship of churches, and the document stated that all the churches would be autonomous, own their church property, and determine their own destiny. Mitchell was adamant about his fellowship not being a denomination. Pastors were told to independently incorporate their churches.
Wayman Mitchell renamed his church The Potter's House, and his organization is named Christian Fellowship Ministries. Mitchell had pastored the Foursquare church in Perth, West Australia, which he had sent a couple to pioneer in 1978, and the man who pioneered the church named it The Potters House. It was the first church in Wayman Mitchell's group to be called by that name. The first pastor was removed for moral failure, and a second couple was sent in to pastor the church. In 1981, Wayman Mitchell himself took over as pastor of the Perth church, and Greg Johnson was chosen by Wayman Mitchell, with Foursquare's consent, to take over as pastor of the Prescott Foursquare church. Due to increased tension between Foursquare leadership, and Wayman Mitchell, over Mitchell's church planting policy being independent of Foursquare leadership structure, Mitchell preached every night of the January, 1982 Prescott Bible conference. Mitchell denounced Foursquare as a religious institution that was "dead," and reasserted his control over the churches that had been planted through his discipleship program. As mentioned above, this quickly led to the break from Foursquare.
Wayman Mitchell liked the name of the Perth church, and thus called his Prescott church The Potter's House after breaking off Foursquare. Many of the churches in Wayman's fellowship followed this, and changed the name of their church to The Potter's House, but some still retained the names The Door and Victory Chapel.
When Ron Jones, a leader of Mitchell's fellowship, broke off, at first Mike Nevelle kept up his affiliation with Mitchell. However, due to a dispute over how Ron Jones, and other pastors and leaders who left in 1990, were being treated, as rebels and "backsliders," Mike Nevelle ended his affiliation with Wayman Mitchell, circa 1991. Larry Nevelle returned to the States and took over a church in California that had broken off Mitchell's fellowship with Jack Harris, another of Wayman's appointed leaders.
Later in the same article Pastor Harold Warner is quoted as saying:
Pastor Mitchell's response:
Ron Simpkins wrote a book entitled, An Open Door, which went through the history of the fellowship, and the men who were sent out to pioneer churches.
Ian Wilson wrote several in house publications including In Pursuit of Destiny which is a biography of Wayman Mitchell published in 1996. Wilson being a member at the time, cited Wayman Mitchell as a unique man of God, praising him greatly.
Both of these authors are no longer members of the Potter's House.
Potter's House Christian Fellowship
The Potter's House Christian Fellowship is a Christian Pentecostal church organization founded by Pastor Wayman Mitchell in Prescott, Arizona in 1970. The official organization title is Christian Fellowship Ministries or CFM....
or the Potters House. This organisation is a fellowship of 1,716 independent churches in 110 nations throughout the world. Individual churches of the Potters House also use other names, including: The Door, Victory Chapel, Christian Center, Crossroads Chapel, and La Puerta. Pastor Mitchell is the senior pastor of the Prescott congregation.
Wayman Mitchell has been a born again Christian since 1953, baptized in the Holy Ghost since 1954 and has been a Pentecostal pastor since 1960. Mitchell conducts "healing crusades," in the many countries where there are Potter's House Churches. Pastor Mitchell has been the pastor of many churches in the United States, and also in Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
where he was senior pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
for 3 years.
Early life
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
in 1933, in search of work during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. There were five children, Wayman being the youngest. Arizona is where he and his wife Nelda currently reside. Mitchell was stationed on the Island of Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
between 1948–1952 for the U.S. military during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. While there he was head supervisor of the maintenance shop. During this time he was promoted to Staff Sergeant and offered a candidacy at an officer training school. After his military service he met Nelda Henderson at a dance in Phoenix in 1952. They were married on Feb 7th 1953. Ten months after the birth of their first daughter, she suddenly died of cot death. During this time Mitchell was unemployed. Jobs were scarce and unemployment was widespread. This was the turning point in his life. George Mitchell, Wayman's brother had been converted at a Foursquare church and invited the grieving couple to a church meeting. They both responded to an altar call
Altar call
An altar call is a practice in some evangelical churches in which those who wish to make a new spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ are invited to come forward publicly. It is so named because the supplicants gather at the altar located at the front of the church building. In the Old Testament, an...
and became born again Christians in 1954.
Baptism with the Holy Spirit
Pastor Mitchell is a Pentecostal who believes in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He holds strong stance against Charismatic emotionalism and extremes such as the Toronto BlessingToronto Blessing
The Toronto blessing, a term coined by British churches, describes the revival and resulting phenomena that began in January 1994 at the Toronto Airport Vineyard church, now the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship , a neocharismatic evangelical Christian church located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
, or the Pensacola Outpouring. Mitchell recalls when he was baptized with the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
:
In 1954 I was in a denominational church (Foursquare), I had been saved only for a few months. I went and bowed at an altar and as I did someone put their hand upon me and as they did I heard a rushing mighty wind, I had no idea what was going on, I was filled with the Holy Ghost, I wept, I cried, snot ran down my face, this was the accelerant that changed my life, and the fire has never gone out, hallelujah. (Prescott Conference 2004)
Bible school
The Mitchells lived in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
while he attended L. I. F. E. Bible College in 1957–1960, where he completed his Pastorate. Mitchell felt that he was drained of spirituality during this time, and felt that the school focused on academics rather than zealous spirituality. He felt that this was a detour. This greatly affected the way Mitchell discipled ministers, and preferred on-the-job training rather than bible schools. In his own words
Most of the students who go off to Bible SchoolSeminaryA seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
get their head full of homileticsHomileticsHomiletics , in theology the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific department of public preaching. The one who practices or studies homiletics is called a homilist....
and hermeneutics and are embalmed in denominational deadness. They leave school, not as powerful preacherPreacherPreacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...
s of the Word, but as ChristianChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
educators. They are filled with knowledge and deader than a hammer. Then they wonder why they can't experience revival.
Pastor Mitchell recommends ministers acquire the book The Foundations of Pentecostal Theology because the majority of the doctrine taught in CFM is expounded on in it. The book was written by two foursquare ministers and published by L. I. F. E. Bible College in Los Angeles.
Discipleship Program
After pastoring several churches in Foursquare, Wayman Mitchell was given the pastorate of the Prescott, Arizona Foursquare church in December of 1970. The church had approximately 35 people attending. Mitchell picked up some ideas from other church groups on how to evangalize young people, including the "hippie" generation. One of these ideas included "Music Scenes," or "Coffee Houses." As Mitchell began to see a lot of young people coming into his church, he started up these music services on Friday and Saturday nights. Some of those who joined his church were talented musicians who even had professional experience related to playing in rock bands. This enabled Mitchell to see even more young people come into his church as "new converts."Wayman Mitchell read a book entitled, The Master Plan of Evangelism, by Robert E. Coleman. He decided that rather than encourage the converts in his church, who felt called to preach the gospel, to attend Foursquare's LIFE Bible school, that he would personally disciple them to become pastors. Although Foursquare allowed for female pastors, having been founded by a woman, Aimee Semple McPherson, he decided that he would exclusively train men to be pastors. Once Mitchell felt that a man was ready to go out and start a church, he would send that man out to a city to start a church. Wayman preferred that the men he would send out would be married men, although he experimented with sending a single man out on one occasion.
The Foursquare leadership agreed to allow Wayman Mitchell to plant Foursquare churches within Mitchell's Foursquare District, the Southwest District. The Southwest District, at the time, was under the leadership of Dr. John Holland. Mitchell and Holland had no real friction over Mitchell's sending out of men, whom Wayman had personally trained, to start churches.
Pastor Mitchell's plan of discipleship also included having the men who were sent out also disciple the male converts in their churches. Mitchell envisioned a geometric mulitiplication of churches that would "reach the world," and this was emphasized as being urgent as Jesus was coming back very, very soon.
Previous affiliation with Foursquare
Mitchell originally began his ministry under the affiliation of the Church of the Foursquare Gospel and continued this affiliation until 1983. A growing dispute over Pastor Mitchell's fellowship, which he had built within the Foursquare, came to a head over Mitchell planting independent churches outside of the Southwest District, which Mitchell was under, and having those churches answer to his leadership structure, rather than honoring Foursquare's district leadership. Mitchell was given an ultimatum to honor Foursquare's structure, or leave the denomination. Mitchell chose to break off, and Foursquare required that Mitchell, and any of the other pastors breaking off with him, whose churches owned buildings and other church property, surrender the property to Foursquare. The set up of The Foursquare Gospel Churches is such that the international board owns all of the church properties. Mitchell was very bitter about this, but an offering was taken at a Prescott conference to buy his church building from Foursquare. Some of the other churches in Mitchell's fellowship, which owned buildings, were also able to buy them from Foursquare, and others had to vacate their buildings.Wayman Mitchell sent out a document to the churches that had left Foursquare to be a part of his fellowship of churches, and the document stated that all the churches would be autonomous, own their church property, and determine their own destiny. Mitchell was adamant about his fellowship not being a denomination. Pastors were told to independently incorporate their churches.
Wayman Mitchell renamed his church The Potter's House, and his organization is named Christian Fellowship Ministries. Mitchell had pastored the Foursquare church in Perth, West Australia, which he had sent a couple to pioneer in 1978, and the man who pioneered the church named it The Potters House. It was the first church in Wayman Mitchell's group to be called by that name. The first pastor was removed for moral failure, and a second couple was sent in to pastor the church. In 1981, Wayman Mitchell himself took over as pastor of the Perth church, and Greg Johnson was chosen by Wayman Mitchell, with Foursquare's consent, to take over as pastor of the Prescott Foursquare church. Due to increased tension between Foursquare leadership, and Wayman Mitchell, over Mitchell's church planting policy being independent of Foursquare leadership structure, Mitchell preached every night of the January, 1982 Prescott Bible conference. Mitchell denounced Foursquare as a religious institution that was "dead," and reasserted his control over the churches that had been planted through his discipleship program. As mentioned above, this quickly led to the break from Foursquare.
Wayman Mitchell liked the name of the Perth church, and thus called his Prescott church The Potter's House after breaking off Foursquare. Many of the churches in Wayman's fellowship followed this, and changed the name of their church to The Potter's House, but some still retained the names The Door and Victory Chapel.
Affiliation with Praise Chapel
In the late 70s, while still a part of Foursquare, two brothers, Mike and Larry Nevelle, came into contact with Wayman Mitchell's fellowship. They were impressed with Mitchell's discipleship approach to training and sending out men to pioneer churches. These men left the Assemblies of God, and Mike Nevelle formed his own organization, Praise Chapel, which he modeled after Wayman Mitchell's fellowship. The two fellowships interacted, almost as one, and the pastors and guest speakers preached meetings and services in each other's churches. Larry Nevelle became a pastor in Mitchell's fellowship, pastoring a church in Phoenix, and then took charge of Mitchell's fellowship's churches in the Philippines.When Ron Jones, a leader of Mitchell's fellowship, broke off, at first Mike Nevelle kept up his affiliation with Mitchell. However, due to a dispute over how Ron Jones, and other pastors and leaders who left in 1990, were being treated, as rebels and "backsliders," Mike Nevelle ended his affiliation with Wayman Mitchell, circa 1991. Larry Nevelle returned to the States and took over a church in California that had broken off Mitchell's fellowship with Jack Harris, another of Wayman's appointed leaders.
Independent Organisation
Wayman Mitchell had appointed his own group of leaders while he was still in Foursquare, and continued to have leadership meetings twice a year with these appointed leaders. The leaders generally were those who were pastoring churches that were having 300+ in attendance, and Mitchell appointed many of these men to run Bible conferences, like the one held twice a year at Mitchell's church in Prescott. These conferences were held for 5 days, starting on a Monday night, and had three morning seminars for the remaining 4 days, Tuesday through Friday, along with the evening service. Mostly the leaders spoke at these meetings, but sometimes a guest speaker, from outside Mitchell's fellowship was invited. Many times these guest speakers were pastors in other groups that Mitchell hoped would join up with Mitchell's fellowship.Relationship to Charisma
In January 2002, "Charisma (magazine)" had a story written regarding the breakaway of some 100 - 160 churches affiliated with Mitchell's Christian Fellowship Ministries over issues to do with Mitchell's leadership and behavior:There are claims that Mitchell--whose movement has long been dogged by criticism that it is controlling, intimidating and manipulative--routinely uses foul language and derogatory remarks in the pulpit. Mitchell refused to comment, but short excerpts of his preaching obtained by Charisma appeared to support these concerns.
Later in the same article Pastor Harold Warner is quoted as saying:
However, CFM pastor Harold Warner, 51, a veteran Mitchell loyalist who pastors a church in Tucson, Ariz., told Charisma that Mitchell is not the sort of man many of his enemies have portrayed him to be.
"He is a good, strong leader," Warner said. "We are given great freedom to pursue our ministry, and it isn't this horribly oppressive atmosphere."
Warner said those pastors who pulled their churches out of CFM are "people who have gone in a different direction."
"All the men who have left are the products of [Mitchell's] ministry, not a bunch of clones," he said.
Pastor Mitchell's response:
The exodus becomes more of an issue of loyalty to their founding pastor than one of disagreement with Mitchell. It's all about "a personal relationship with someone they love," he said.
Mitchell agreed with Neville's assessment, pointing out that about 100 of the approximately 160 churches reported to have left CFM recently did so because of their loyalty to one pastor.
In House Publications
There are a few books and booklets which have been published by the Potter's House and outline Wayman Mitchell's history, his teachings and sermons and various other aspects of his life and profession as the Senior Pastor of the Potter's House. The two main authors are Ron Simpkins and Ian Wilson both being pastors and at the time members of the Potter's House as they authored these books. These books ran out of their in house publications and cannot be obtained except via second hand copies held by members or former members of the church.Ron Simpkins wrote a book entitled, An Open Door, which went through the history of the fellowship, and the men who were sent out to pioneer churches.
Ian Wilson wrote several in house publications including In Pursuit of Destiny which is a biography of Wayman Mitchell published in 1996. Wilson being a member at the time, cited Wayman Mitchell as a unique man of God, praising him greatly.
Both of these authors are no longer members of the Potter's House.
External links
- Christian Fellowship Ministries world website
- The Potter's House Perth A church where Mitchell was senior pastor for 3 years.
- Wayman Mitchell website