Wayman Mitchell

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Wayman Othell Mitchell
Pastor Wayman Mitchell
Born October, 9, 1929
Arkansas, USA
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 1400 churches in 95 countries [1] He has been a born again Christian since 1953, baptized in the Holy Ghost since 1954 and has been a Pentecostal pastor since 1960. Pr Mitchell conducts "healing crusades", for which he has been likened to a modern day Smith Wigglesworth[2]. 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 [3]

Contents

[edit] Before becoming a born again Christian

A young Mitchell during the Great Depression
A young Mitchell during the Great Depression

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. Pastor 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 Pastor Mitchell's style of Christian discipleship is strongly influenced by his former military training. After his military service he met Nelda Henderson at a dance in Phoenix in 1952. They got 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.

[edit] Baptism with the Holy Spirit

Pastor Mitchell is a Pentecostal who believes in all gifts of the Holy Spirit but 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)

[edit] Bible School

Wayman and Nelda 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 [3]. 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 recomends ministers to aquire the book The Foundations of Pentecostal Theologybecause 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.

[edit] Previous Affiliation with Foursquare

Wayman Mitchell originally began his ministry under the affiliation of the Church of the Foursquare Gospel and continued this affiliation for many years until having 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 [3]. By the mid-1980s Wayman Mitchell had a following of well over a hundred newly established churches, pastored by men who had been discipled under Wayman Mitchell [3]

Reluctantly in 1985 Wayman 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 Wayman Mitchell left the Church of the Foursquare Gospel most of his newer churches went with him and name The Potter's House was adopted.

[edit] 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 Pastor Mitchell accepted them into his church and saw dramatic church growth. Being inspired by Chuck Smith (also a fomer preacher in the Foursquare church) and other ministers, Pastor Mitchell overlooked what the people looked like and smelt like, and saw the potential in each person to be strong Christians. Much of the leadership in the Potter's House church today is made up of people who became saved in this movement.

[edit] Mitchell's Personality

Mitchell is often invited to be a speaker at numerous international bible conferences held by CFM Churches across the globe. Pastor Mitchell preaches a style that is considered by critics as "old school" and often cuts across modern cultural trends to present biblical standards and doctrines. Mitchell's success in the past 35 years has been attributed to his focus upon three points: evangelism, discipleship, and church planting, aspects Mitchell feels are often neglected in modern churches. Mitchell believes that every believer has a personal responsibility to win souls into God's Kingdom. Mitchell also believes that a real "Christian" will be a disciple, i.e. a learner, as Christian appears three times in the scriptures while "disciple" appears multiple times. Mitchell believes that the New Testament pattern for effective evangelism is to send out workers into cities and regions to start churches, while mass evangelism can be of some benefit, Mitchell concludes that at the end of the revival, crusade, etc. one must have a local church where they can grow and learn. Although many consider Mitchell and the Potter's House Fellowship as radical, they insist that they are following in the footsteps of other church movements such as the early Salvation Army, early Methodist movement, early AoG, early Elim etc. Mitchell is considered amongst CFM circles as an "apostle of the faith" and is revered as a great leader, much like William Booth of the Salvation Army, or John Wesley of the Methodists. The term "apostle" is not to be confused with the "12 Apostles" of Jesus Christ. It is not believed that he is the equivalent of the Apostles Paul, Peter, or John, or holds the same office, rather, he is regarded as a great leader of the churches under his authority who visits those churches to offer encouragement, instruction, and sometimes admonition and discipline when necessary.

In January 2002, a Charisma News article[4] made these claims about Mitchell's personality:

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.

In his official biography Mitchell claims:

"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." [5]

Although Mitchell has often been accused of misconduct, it has been claimed that he is being slandered without solid factual arguments backing them up, and that most of the criticism comes from disgruntled ex members with a beef with Mitchell or from people who don't share his Christian beliefs[6] [7]

Mitchell has authored a book on healing which can be read online here.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Potter's House Church Directory.
  2. ^ Pastor Wayman Mitchell Biography Site
  3. ^ a b c d An Open Door a story of the restoration of the local church by Ron Simpkins ISBN 0-918389-01-1 An Open Door Online
  4. ^ Charisma Magazine, January 2002
  5. ^ In Pursuit of Destiny Biography of Wayman Mitchell by Ian Wilson 1996 ISBN 0-9699777-1-9 Page 53
  6. ^ A site with copious amounts of material in support of Mitchell
  7. ^ A critical view of Rick Ross

[edit] External links

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