Potter's House Christian Fellowship
The Potter's House Christian Fellowship is a Christian Pentecostal church which was founded by Pastor Wayman Mitchell in Prescott, Arizona in 1970. The name of the church is a reference to chapter 18 of the Book of Jeremiah, from the Bible, verses 1–3. However, the official name of the organization is Christian Fellowship Ministries or CFM.
It is a fellowship of over 2,600 churches in 125 nations throughout the world, with dozens of active evangelists.
History
In 1969, Wayman Mitchell asked for a ministerial position and was appointed to serve as the minister of the Foursquare church in Prescott, Arizona. Mitchell promoted personal witnessing which saw much church growth, primarily from the youth of the hippie movement and resulted in an overflowing church by the early seventies. Mitchell began to establish new churches which were originally called The Door, first within Arizona and interstate, then overseas. Mitchell discouraged his disciples from attending bible schools due to his own negative experiences in them so the men who he sent out did not receive full ordinations from Foursquare. According to Nathaniel Van Cleave, Mitchell only permitted his own style of primitive and militant evangelism, isolated his disciples from other Foursquare ministers and as a group, they walked out of conference meetings that they disagreed with. Although Mitchell was the state superintendent, he only focused on his own churches, excluding all other Foursquare churches that were under his care. Over time, this caused resentment among the excluded congregations and at least one church left the denomination as a result.At the 1983 Foursquare convention, a large number of pastors brought complaints against Mitchell to the executive council meeting. Mitchell made no attempt to respond to the complaints. Instead, he and his followers left the conference. A special meeting was later held with Mitchell in an attempt to establish understanding and continued fellowship but this attempt was unsuccessful. Within weeks, Mitchell and the churches which he had planted severed their ties with Foursquare and became an independent fellowship.
In 1990, approximately 100 churches split from the Potter's House, the split was partially due to restrictions which prevented them from maturing and enlarging their expressions of faith.
In 2001, a second split occurred with around 160 churches leaving the fellowship due to disagreements with the direction the fellowship was heading in.
Doctrine and practice
Potter's House Christian Fellowship is a Pentecostal church. Followers believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. There are specific standards of personal conduct for those who are serving in the ministry. The Potter's House has never released an official denomination-wide statement of doctrine, but the de facto doctrine largely adheres to the book titled The Foundations of Pentecostal Theology which was written by two Foursquare ministers, and published by L.I.F.E. Bible College.The church promotes belief in the historicity of the Gospel narratives, an orthodox Christian understanding of Jesus and The Trinity, Original sin, an anti-abortion stance, and an Evangelical belief in the Great Commission. The church advocates creationism, rejects evolution, and claims that speaking in tongues is evidence of Baptism in the Holy Spirit. The fellowship also advocates loyalty and obedience to positions of authority within the church, originating with Wayman Mitchell and the Board of Directors, and on an advisory level. The Prescott church council was also formed in order to ensure that similar practices and doctrines were advocated in all churches within the fellowship. However some fellowship churches state their belief in "The Sovereign Autonomous Government of The Local Church", which both fit together as part of the overall authority structure. The church also teaches that salvation can be lost because of sin. Also, Potter's House requires its members to pay tithes based on its strong belief that tithing proves the faith of the Christian, provides finances for the operation of the local church and enables the believer to receive God's blessing. One of the Potter's House's distinct practices is its discipleship program which is similar to the discipleship program that was originally developed by the Shepherding Movement: doctrinally evangelical, pretribulationist, and sola scriptura. Its followers also believe in premillennial eschatology. Drinking, tobacco, television and movies are prohibited amongst its ministers. The church also believes in divine healing, and some of its lead pastors have frequently held healing crusades, as well as praying for the sick during their services.
The church believes that participating in sin can result in physical problems. Homosexuality can cause deafness and idol worship can cause problems with eyesight. The church also holds a homophobic position in relation to the LGBTQI community, claiming they are miserable. Homophobic slurs are used, with founder Wayman Mitchell referring to homosexuals as "little faggots".
The church is classified as Pentecostal; however, it does not participate in what it calls "counterfeit themes", such as the Toronto Blessing or the Pensacola Outpouring. It also doesn't participate in "interdenominational services", though individual members are theoretically free to do so. The fellowship also is opposed to certain aspects of the Ecumenical Movement, such as the attempts to reconcile Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, because it believes that the teachings of the latter are contrary to the teachings of the Bible.
Bible schools
The Potters House Fellowship rejects some Bible schools and theological universities and colleges, as a vehicle for church planting, and it gives several reasons for this in its publication, We Can Take the Land . Its reasons for this include its belief that not all Christian theological teachings are accurate, a belief that Bible schools might hinder global evangelism, that some Bible schools isolate students from practical experience, that the requirements of attendance at Bible schools are too strict, and that Bible schools violate the indigenous principle.Origins of the church name
Because of its biblical origin, the name "The Potter's House" is often used by other independent church groups besides those which are affiliated with Christian Fellowship Ministries. Particularly well known is The Potter's House, Dallas, Texas, a largely African-American megachurch founded and led by T. D. Jakes.Criticism and controversy
There are ongoing criticisms of the Potter's House. Concerns have been raised by some media, a few Christian commentators and authors who have focused on church practices which have cultic characteristics, and ex-members.Christian commentators
's 1992 book Churches That Abuse, contains an account of alleged abuse within a Potter's House church. His follow-up book in 1994, Recovering From Churches That Abuse, also contained an alleged account of abuse.Media
In 1989, a father who accused the group of being a "mind-controlling cult" convinced social workers to prevent his 16-year-old daughter from attending a Potter's House church. After several months, however, a Juvenile Court commissioner ruled that she was free to attend the church unless her father or the county could show she was being harmed by the church. The girl's mother disagreed with the father, saying she had no objection to her daughter going to the church.In January 2002, Charisma News, a Christian news magazine dealing mainly with Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity, reported a major exodus of some 160 churches from the Potter's House Movement in the United States. The reason for the split, according to Charisma News, was "because of unhealthy control, and after leave they are afraid to talk about their experiences." A former pastor interviewed in the Charisma News article when asked about allegations of abuse said, "There are families who have not spoken for years, brothers who are pastors all the way to the Philippines who were separated by this group and had years of not even speaking, churches that have been deliberately split, children who don't talk to their parents."
In November 2010, Australia's Nine Network reported that the Potter's House in Tasmania was performing a theater stage-show involving "scenes of suicide and drug use, and ended with a pastor telling the audience that 'the devil's children' needed to give their lives to God to be saved from Hell." Ads for the show stated that the performance was MA-rated; however, it was not said that it was run by Potter's House or had religious content. A pastor of the Potter's House, according to the report, stated that a press release warned audiences of "violence, mayhem, suicide, the occult and, of course, death."
Response to criticism
In his biography, founder Wayman Mitchell responded to criticism of the group by the journalists, and by researcher Ronald Enroth:They are not interested in giving honest accounts. By and large they are pea-brained, illiterate and lazy. They come with pre-conceived ideas and a pre-arranged agenda and look only for a sound bite that will help nail down what they want to say. This is not honest, investigative journalism; it is interpretive reporting, where they interpret everything you say to support their own wicked bias. I have no time for them. They are deceptive as well. They do not identify themselves when they arrive. They come into the Church, as one lady did from the Boston TV station, with hidden cameras and microphones. They hope to pick up one sentence or phrase, and use it entirely out of context to cast you in the worst possible light. If we know who they are, we stop them at the doors.... It's the same with the book writers. William Enroth, who featured me in 'Churches That Abuse', never even spoke to me. He interviewed somebody out in the Mid-west and put an uncorroborated testimony in his book.
Mitchell also responded to the criticism Potter's House received from Charisma News and the Christian Research Institute:
Even the Christian press is riddled with bias. We've had people contact us from Charisma Magazine and Christian Research Institute, but neither outfit would come and sit in our services and talk with our people. We invited them to. I gave Lee Grady from the Charisma Magazine the names and numbers of five of our leaders and said if you don't believe me, talk with any of them..... but he didn't. He phoned Pastor Warner, but was only interested in a sound bite. That's the sort of dishonesty we have lived with for years.