I used to attend the Potters House, a Wayman Mitchell fellowship church for almost 5 years here in the Sydney area Australia. There is so much information already available over the net which I've found to be accurate in my experience. Such things as the headship system of accountability and control over the church, the manipulation of the pastor and/or members, the various doubtful doctrines the church teaches (eg. going to hell for every act of disobedience to God or the pastor or the twisted rebellion doctrines <that is rebellion against the fellowship>, or they cannot leave the fellowship church except when told to by the pastor. All those things and more I can confirm are true in the potters house I was involved in, in campbelltown Sydney.

There hasn't been a whole lot said about the australian fellowship so I thought I might make myself available if there if anyone which have any questions regarding the Potters House Australia and maybe those questions have not been asked yet I'll certainly try my best to answer them in all love and honesty. There is such fear put upon the people in CFM that somehow God will seek to do them harm if they question or rebel against what they are led to believe as being a full-gospel bible believing church led by God.

I have been out of the Potters House for just over a year now and have posted on the various yahoo groups that are available. I also had some indepth discussions about the potters house doctrines and behavior with current members over the net and privately and although they defend what I say as being slander (as to what happened and why I took my family out of the church) they certain don't deny the doctrines as they are very public by now and they cannot deny what is being preached in the sermons.

All the best.

Christ1_in_me2

Is there widespread dissatisfaction or just the odd person leaving?

No I don't think there is any noticable widespread exodus in the sydney churches. There has always been a steady flow of leavers and the churches remain the same size for a long time; generally those that don't get too involved might stay for a while and not come back. The longer people stay within the fellowship and the more friends they make and the more involved they get (eg. become a disciple and begin to attend all the services bible studies and start tithing etc) the whole process of leaving becomes much more difficult. So even if there was alot a people disatisfied they generally as more time goes by will begin to fear what will happen if they do try to leave (eg. how will this affect my family, what will my church friends say, what will the pastor preach about me). I have seen some horrible things done and said about ex-members of the church many from my own. So the fear of leaving may outweigh the need to be satified.

Interestingly enough I have a friend who wanted to leave about 3 years ago (she only told me recently and she never told anyone else) and she said she felt there were problems in the fellowship BUT her pastor preached a sermon and she concluded that the problem really was in her own heart/mind and attitude and NOT the fellowship, and it was her own fault (eg. lukewarm christian, lack of love for God) NOT the church.

Hope that answers your question.

Christ1_in_me2

Some things really woke me up after being so serious in the potters house for years. It took me about the last 4 months from sept-dec 2005 as things were building up to finally say enough was enough.

Things to note when I was in the potters house:
*The pastor preached sermons against me with the intent to turn the people in the church against me
*The pastor believed I must submit to his authority even if he were wrong or I thought he was wrong
*The pastor taught and claimed I was unloving, full of pride and unteachable
*The pastor endorses Wayman Mitchell and other potters house pators, and preaches and teaches from their sermons and doctrines
*The pastor called our 15 year old neice up to give her a "word" from God and told her she must get saved immediately because she might die soon or have a terrible accident so he forced upon her the "sinners prayer" and she refused 3 times until she gave in and prayed with him. She was deeply hurt by that inncident
*The pastor continued to talk to the members of the church privately about me behind my back.
*The pastor told me there was a curse on me for questioning Wayman Mitchell's teachings and attitude from his sermons.
*The many couples and families I was friends with that left the church, the pastor lied to me about the reasons why they left (as they all left because of him). I found this out by going to these ex-members (there were 4 families) before I left and they as I spoke to each of them, told me they had problems with the pastor (the same type of problems I was having at the time)
*The pastor over several years preached sermons against some of the men that had left the church also he preached those sermons in other churches he was invited to preach in
*My wife and I had almost no support within the church for any help when we felt the pastor had overstepped his position
*My wife and I had no avenue of intervention to protect us from the pastor from within the church
*My wife's old pastor from the nearby potters house insisted that if I left she must stay in the church and not follow me to another church
*My wife's old pastor also insisted I have a meeting with the area pastor and my pastor to resolve the issue when I refused, as I saw that would be a waste of time, he said I had betrayed him and hundreds of people and he was personnally offended as he claimed I had rejected Matt 18 which says if a brother offend take it to the church (which I said this scripture did not apply to this situation as I had no intentions of staying in the church or the fellowship)
*My wife was being pressured by members within the church not to leave dispite the fact that I made it known that we were leaving
*The pastor never told anyone within the fellowship we had left or why we left, neither did he accept any responsibility for us or any other family that had left
*For months after we left we continued to defend ourselves against false accusations from current members in our church and they continued to defend the pastor whom they were arguing for

It would take alot of time to go into detail to give a detailed testimony so I tried to be brief. Today just over a year later we have recovered for the most part. We are happily attending a baptist church and have a wonderful experience now with a new church family and friends.

If you've had any contact with the potters house fellowship church or perhaps someone you know is attending be warned this group can be very dangerous. I would advise anyone to have nothing to do with this church or group.

Christ1_in_me2

You are not alone. Visit www.exposethefellowship.com for more info on this "church".