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The Potters House Christian Fellowship Church is not to be confused with T.D. Jakes “Potters House” Church which is completely different and is categorized as a Oneness Pentecostal cult which denies the Trinity of God and the person of Christ as God and Man.
The Potters House Christian Fellowship was founded by a Foursquare Church Pastor named Wayman Mitchell in Prescott, Arizona, in the early 1970s. He began his group after graduating from the Foursquare L.I.F.E. Bible College
Although the Potters House Christian Fellowship began as a member church of the Foursquare Pentecostal denomination until 1983, Mitchell had a falling out with the Foursquare Church concerning certain procedures in ordaining men into the ministry and He and his group left to form The Potter’s House Christian Fellowship Church.
Wayman Mitchell sought to establish a “New Testament” church where a greater emphasis was placed on personal and public evangelism, a value which the Foursquare Church had long ago abandoned in favor of pleasing unbelievers who visited their churches (the “Church Growth Movement” of Seeker Sensitive churches).
Many of those attending Potters House churches in the early days were most likely similar in belief to those who attended Calvary Chapel churches in the mid-late 1970s when both groups grew as a result of converts from the Jesus Movement
Currently, there are over 3400 Potters House Christian Fellowship churches around the world according to their official website. Another source states The Potter’s House is a Pentecostal bible-based fellowship of 1,744 churches.
The Potters House is a Pentecostal denomination which claims to hold to the same doctrinal distinctives as the Assemblies of God and the Foursquare Church in that they practice the Pentecostal “five-fold ministry” concept and emphasize the four-fold role of Jesus Christ first introduced by A.B. Simpson when he founded the Christian Missionary Alliance and then lifted wholesale by Aimee Semple Mcpherson when she founded the Foursquare Church: Jesus as Savior, Healer, Baptizer in the Holy Spirit and Soon Coming King
1. Jesus as Savior: Salvation by Faith
Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone
with an emphasis on the new birth experience (John 3:3) and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They Reject works-based salvation where one’s “good deeds” outweigh their “bad deeds” (e.g. Roman Catholic Church)
2. Jesus the Healer: Divine Healing for today
The Potters House Christian Fellowship, like both Assemblies of God and the Foursquare Church, believes in divine healing as provided in Christ’s atonement. That is to say they believe that healing is available to all believers through “prayer and faith”; often by way of laying on of hands and prayer for the sick.
Biblical Christianity would agree with the concept of bodily healing in Christ’s atonement but we stand on the scriptures which say that all healing comes in God’s timing not as a result of throwing out an acceptable amount of ‘prayer’ or having the requisite amount of ‘faith’ to expect (demand) it of God here and now as if He is our debtor somehow? Biblical Christianity believes that healing can come here and now whether miraculously or through modern medicine but often times our healing comes in the glorification phase of our salvation in Christ when our fallen/broken bodies are made whole by way of deliverance from the very presence of sin and evil.
3. Jesus the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit: Baptism in the Holy Spirit
The Potters House Christian Fellowship believes in the unbiblical doctrine of the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” which was invented in America at Oberlin College in 1831 by Asa Mahan and John Morgan who were both Holiness Professors at the Institution along with Charles Finney. This doctrine also appeared in England around the same time by a preacher named A.J. Scott who received much of his development by a Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a Transcendental Universalist (non-Christian).
They introduced a new idea that there is a separate baptism to that of the critical baptism into Christ at conversion and the important but not essential believer’s baptism with water. They called their new baptism the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” and taught that it is somehow a distinct experience separate from salvation itself.
This doctrine is not to be found in scripture nor is the bizarre Pentecostal belief that the initial evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. All 3 groups: Assemblies of God, Foursquare Church and Potter’s House Christian Fellowship believe that this imaginary doctrine somehow empowers believers for Christian service and witness.
I have been a part of Assemblies of God, Foursquare and Calvary Chapel denominations over the last 30 years and none of them featured speaking in tongues as part of their mainstream services. You typically had to go to a “special” service on a Sunday night or Wednesday evening to see the tongues start to manifest. From what I understand, this is not the case with Potter’s House Christian Fellowship in that speaking in tongues and gifts of healing are common place in their mainstream worship services.
4. Jesus the Soon Coming King: Second Coming of Christ
The Potters House Christian Fellowship also believes in the Biblical historical doctrines of an imminent, personal return of Jesus Christ, a pre-tribulation rapture whereby believers will be taken up before the seven-year tribulation (the horrific judgement of God on sinful mankind) and the premillennial reign of Christ where He will establish Himself on earth visibly as the King of Kings (which He is now in heaven) for a literal 1000-year kingdom on earth. During this reign, all unfulfilled prophecies about Israel will be fulfilled.
Thankfully, the Potters House Christian Fellowship rejects the unbiblical doctrine of amillennialism which claims that all prophecies of Revelation were fulfilled in 70 AD and that now Israel is somehow obliterated and the gentile Christian Church is now magically the “spiritual Israel”. Amillennialism was invented by Augustine in appx AD410 by way of Origen’s allegorical reinterpretation of literal scripture verses. Thereafter, it has been propogated through the centuries by the Roman Catholic Church and many of the old school Calvinist denominations.
One of my favorite distinctives of the Potters House Christian Fellowship is the profound value that they place on street evangelism, one of the primary reasons why Wayman Mitchell left the Foursquare Church to begin with. However, this group has been criticized by some discernment groups as being overly controlling of its members and lacking a healthy transparency in its governance. These same criticisms could be accurately levied against nearly all Pentecostal and Pastor-focused churches today as this form of governance is prevalent throughout all the modern church.
Currently, there are between 3400-4000 Potters House Christian Fellowship churches around the world according to their official website and other sources. This would equate to 500,000-1.2 million members. The Potters House Christian Fellowship does not believe in mega churches but rather in planting smaller stable churches. This group is not to be confused with T.D. Jakes “Potter’s House” Church which is a Oneness Pentecostal cult.
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