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Potter's House Christian Fellowship
Christian Fellowship Ministries
The Door, Victory Chapel
34°37′50.48″N 112°25′38.33″W / 34.6306889°N 112.4273139°W / 34.6306889; -112.4273139 (Potter's House)
Location	Prescott, Arizona
Country	United States
Denomination	Non-denominational, Pentecostal
Previous denomination	Foursquare Gospel Church
Website	The Potter's House
History
Founded	1970
Founder(s)	Wayman O. Mitchell

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 (and later, these churches were called the Potter's House), 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.

Mitchell passed away on September 21, 2020 in Prescott, Arizona.

Doctrine and practice

The Potter's House Christian Fellowship holds Pentecostal beliefs with a strong emphasis on evangelism, church planting, and discipleship. Doctrines include salvation by faith, the infallibility of the bible, faith healing, and the second coming of Jesus Christ.

An intense program of evangelism is promoted with regular outreach events scheduled including, but not limited to, street evangelism, music concerts, movie nights, and revival meetings, with the intention of converting people and increasing church membership.

A major goal of the church is the establishment of new churches, commonly referred to as church planting. This is achieved through the in-house training of pastors who are then sent to start a new church. Local congregations, both new and established, have no say over who leads the church. Pastors in the Potter's House do not receive any formal theological training as this is considered a waste of time and bible college is believed to cause those wanting to become pastors to lose their passion for the church. Instead, the church uses a process called discipleship, a type of on-the-job training where men wanting to become ministers are mentored by their pastor for three years before starting their own church. These new pastors then go on to repeat the process by training their own disciples to start new churches. Women in the church are not encouraged to pursue careers as the church believes their place is in the home supporting their husbands.

Faith healing is another belief held by the church, which holds faith healing meetings and invites the public to attend. According to Kenneth Whelan, people can be healed if they forgive all sins committed against them and become Christians. Meetings generally consist of singing, a request for donations, a sermon, and an altar call, which is a request for people to come to the front and repent. After this, people are called to the front to be prayed for healing.

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".

Financial support for the church comes from the collection of tithes from its members (donating 10% of a members gross income) and each church in turn also pays a tithe. Financial offerings over and above the tithe are also encouraged. According to an investigation by Chris Hayes, the church financial structure is set up in a pyramid structure, with each church sending 5% of its offering back to its Mother church and another 5% back to the head church in Prescott.

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

Ronald Enroth'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 (who was in the custody of the state) 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 (members) 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 (the media) 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.

References

1. "Jeremiah 18, The Holy Bible, New King James Version". Retrieved June 13, 2011.
2. "Christian Fellowship Ministries Map". Retrieved September 13, 2019.
3. ^ Van Cleave, Nathaniel (September 2, 2014). The Vine and the Branches: A History of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Foursquare Media. pp. 150–153. ISBN 978-1621366645. Archived from the original on March 31, 2020. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
4. ^ Reynalds, Jeremy. "Potter's House Group Loses Churches Amid More Charges of Rigid Control". www.charismamag.com. Charisma. Archived from the original on March 1, 2020. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
5. "Obituary: Wayman Othell Mitchell". dcourier.com. The Daily Courier. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
6. "Our Vision". The Potter's House Christian Fellowship Church. Prescott Potter's House. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
7. "Beliefs". The Potter's House Christian Fellowship Church. Prescott Potter's House. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
8. "Dead pastor's past haunts church". Waikato Times. January 31, 2009. Archived from the original on January 5, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
9. ^ Eberhard, Monika (April 17, 2004). "Houses of Worship". Austin American Statesman. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
10. "Pastor opens new church". The Times. September 18, 1983. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
11. ^ Gust, Dodie (January 4, 1986). "Church oriented to young people is booming". Arizona Daily Star. p. 5. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
12. ^ Kirby, Sharon (June 22, 1985). "Pastor hopes to spread the simple gospel". Tampa Bay Times. p. 9. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
13. ^ Enroth, Ronald M. (1993). Churches That Abuse. Zondervan. pp. 197–200. ISBN 9780310532927. Retrieved October 1, 2020.
14. ^ Ted Bartimus; Karen M. Bullock (October 2, 1988). "Potter's House: Pearly gates or prison walls?". Arizona Daily Sun. p. 1. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
15. ^ Poley, Sean. "Christian Fellowship founder answers to no one". Cape Cod Times, republished on the Cult Education Institute website. Archived from the original on April 23, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
16. Munroe, Ian. "The holy rollers". The Sunday Age. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
17. Bullock, Karen M. (October 2, 1988). "Current members believe God wants complete commitment". Arizona Daily Sun. p. 15. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
18. Masliah, Alberto (September 15, 2004). "Healing ceremony raises spirits and skepticism". Archived from the original on December 28, 2007. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
19. Berg, Jeff. "Amen-uh to All That". Archived from the original on December 27, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
20. "Religious leader: Guam's gay community "miserable"". Kuam News. February 2018. Archived from the original on February 15, 2018. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
21. Hayes, Chris. "The Door: A Church or a Cult?". KPHO TV, republished on the Cult Education Institute website. Archived from the original on April 15, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
22. "Christian Fellowship Ministries (CFM) (aka: Potter's House, The Door, Victory Chapel)". Retrieved April 25, 2007.
23. "Potter House (aka Victory Chapel, leader Paul Campo)". Archived from the original on September 20, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2007.
24. Ryan Crehan (December 8, 1998). "A CULT in PRESCOTT?". The Word.
25. "There is a genuine Christian life outside the Potter's House". Cult Education. Retrieved January 18, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
26. "The Potter's House". Christian Research Institute. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
27. Enroth, Ronald (1994). Recovering From Churches That Abuse. Zondervan Publishing House. ISBN 0-310-39870-3.
28. Carol Lachnit (December 18, 1989). "Religious belief, court divide father, daughter: Ruling allows teen-ager under county custody to go to Orange church". The Orange County Register.
29. ^ Nick Pearson; Shaun Davies (November 5, 2010). "Rape, abortion in church 'Haunted House'". Nine News / NineMSN. Archived from the original on November 8, 2010.
30. ^ Ian Wilson (1996). In Pursuit of Destiny - Biography of Wayman Mitchell. p. 53. ISBN 0-9699777-1-9.

• Pentecostal denominations
• Jesus movement
• Christian organizations established in 1970
• Pentecostal denominations established in the 20th century
• Christian denominations established in the 20th century
• Evangelical denominations in North America