Wayman Mitchell - Previous Affiliation With Foursquare

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.