Wayman Mitchell

Infobox Person
name = Wayman Othell Mitchell


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birth_date = October 9, 1929
birth_place = Arkansas, U.S.
death_date =
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occupation = Preacher, Leader of Christian Fellowship Ministries
spouse = Nelda Mitchell

Wayman Othell Mitchell is the founder of Christian Fellowship Ministries also known as "The Door", and "Victory Chapel", and is the senior pastor of the Potters House Christian Fellowship which is claimed to comprise of over 1400 churches in over 100 countries. He 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", for which he has done in many countries where there are Potters House Churches. Mitchell has pastored in many churches in the United States and has also pastored in Perth, Western Australia where he was senior pastor for 3 years"An Open Door a story of the restoration of the local church" by Ron Simpkins ISBN 0-918389-01-1 ]

Early life

Mitchell was born in 1929 in Arkansas. 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. Many have concluded that Mitchell's style of Christian discipleship is strongly influenced by his military training. 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.

Baptism with the Holy Spirit

Mitchell is a Pentecostal who believes in all gifts of the Holy Spirit and has often been criticized for his strong stance against Charismatic emotionalism and extremes such as the Toronto Blessing, or the Pensacola Outpouring. Mitchell recalls when he was baptized with the Holy Spirit:

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 Angeles 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 they 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 School get their head full of homiletics and hermeneutics and are embalmed in denominational deadness. They leave school, not as powerful preachers of the Word, but as Christian educators. They are filled with knowledge and deader than a hammer. Then they wonder why they can't experience revival.

Mitchell recommends ministers to 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.

Previous affiliation with Foursquare

Mitchell originally began his ministry under the affiliation of the Church of the Foursquare Gospel and continued this affiliation for many years until a disagreement with this church's leaders concerning ordination requirements for new ministers. Wayman Mitchell believed that a new pastor should be trained through "discipleship" rather than any sort of higher education such as Bible college. Mitchell had sent some disciples to Bible College only to find that they came back robbed of spiritual life. By the mid-1980s Mitchell had a following of well over a hundred newly established churches, pastored by men who had been discipled under Wayman Mitchell

In 1985 Mitchell officially gave up his affiliation with the Church of the Foursquare Gospel and took up a practice under CFM, the church he had established in Prescott. When Mitchell left Foursquare most of his newer churches went with him and the name The Potter's House was adopted. Some foursquare churches in Australia also preferred to join with Mitchell.

Revival

In the Late 1960s a Christian revival swept through the US called the Jesus Movement. Many nominal churches rejected the hippies who were interested in Christianity but Mitchell accepted them into his church and saw dramatic church growth. Being inspired by Chuck Smith (also a former preacher in the Foursquare church) and other ministers, Mitchell overlooked what the people looked like and smelt like, and saw the potential in each person to be strong Christians. In 1974 he founded the first international Potter's House church in Nogales, Mexico which has grown to have over 100 nations with a representive Potter's House.

Personality

Mitchell preaches a style that is considered by his followers as "old school" by "Old School" it is meant in the grand tradition of the great revivalist preachers of church history E.g. Finney, Wesley, Spurgeon, Moody among others, and often cuts across modern cultural trends to present biblical standards and doctrines.Fact|date=December 2007

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.

[cite web|url=http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=1559|title=Potter's House Group Loses Churches Amid More Charges of Rigid Control|work=Charisma Magazine|month=January | year=2002|author=Jeremy Reynalds|accessdate=2007-12-16]

In his official biography Mitchell wrote:

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. [In Pursuit of Destiny Biography of Wayman Mitchell by Ian Wilson 1996 ISBN 0-9699777-1-9 Page 53]

References

External links

* [http://www.worldcfm.com/ Christian Fellowship Ministries world website]
* [http://www.pottershouse.com The Potter's House Perth] A church where Mitchell was senior pastor for 3 years.
* [http://www.waymanmitchell.com/ Wayman Mitchell website] Created and maintained by a member of the Potter's House Church.