Logos Foundation (Australia)
Logos Foundation was an influential Christian ministry that flourished in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s, under the leadership of Howard Carter, originally a Baptist pastor from Auckland, New Zealand. Logos Foundation was initially a trans-denominational Charismatic teaching ministry, and primarily Protestant and also had ties with Catholic lay groups and individuals.
Logos Foundation was Reconstructionist, Restorationist, and Dominionist in its theology and works.
Early history
It was established by Paul Collins c.1966 in New Zealand as a trans-denominational teaching ministry serving the Charismatic Renewal. Paul Collins moved it to Sydney, Australia, c.1969, for a short time before it was transferred to Howard Carter's leadership, relocating to Hazelbrook, lower Blue Mountains of New South Wales for a few years, and in the mid-1970s to Blackheath, upper Blue Mountains. During these years the teaching ministry attracted likeminded fellowships into loose association with it, and it was a publisher of Charismatic and Restoration teachings focused on Christian maturity and Christ's pre-eminence in short books & the monthly Logos/Restore Magazine (associated with New Wine Magazine, USA). It held annual weeklong conferences of over 1,000 registrants, featuring international Charismatic speakers, including Derek Prince, Ern Baxter, Don Basham, Charles Simpson, Bob Mumford, Kevin Conner (Australia), Peter Morrow (New Zealand) and others. A Bible College was also established nearby at Westwood Lodge, Mount Victoria. At the main site in Blackheath a Christian K-12 school, Mountains Christian Academy was established - most of the movement's churches had these as part of their ministry in educating their children. It carried over the Old Covenant practise of tithing (to the local church), and expected regular sacrificial giving beyond this. Theologically it taught orthodox Christian core beliefs - however in matters of opinion Logos teaching was presented as authoritative and alternative views were discouraged, and thinking Christians holding these tended to leave the movement eventually.
From the mid-1970s a hierarchical ecclesiology was adopted in the form of the Shepherding Movement's whole-of-life discipleship / shepherding of members by personal pastors (usually their "cell group" leader) who in turn were accountable also to their personal pastors, and so forth, through to Howard Carter who related to the apostolic group in Christian Growth Ministries of Bob Mumford, Charles Simpson, Ern Baxter, Derek Prince, and Don Basham, in Ft Lauderdale, USA (whose network was estimated to have approx. 150,000 people involved at its peak c.1985). Howard Carter's primary pastoral relationship was with Ern Baxter, a pioneer of the Healing Revival of the 1950s and the Charismatic Renewal of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Written covenants of submission to the individual church pastors were encouraged for the members of one representative church, Christian Faith Centre (Sydney), and were said to be common practice throughout the movement at the time.
The Logos movement churches were named the Australian Fellowship of Covenant Communities in 1980, and were led through an eschatological shift in the early 1980s from the Premillennialism of many Pentecostals, to the Postmillennialism of the Presbyterian Reconstructionist theonomists. A shift to an overt theological-political paradigm resulted in some senior leadership, including Pastor David Jackson of Christian Faith Centre Sydney, leaving the movement altogether. In the mid-1980s AFoCC re-branded as the Covenant Evangelical Church (not associated with the Evangelical Covenant Church in the USA). The Logos Foundation brand continued as the Educational and Political arm of the Covenant Evangelical Church.
It finally c.1986 moved to Toowoomba, Queensland where they had associated fellowships and a demographic environment more conducive to the growth of New Right religio-political movements.
The 1980s move to Queensland
The move to Toowoomba involved much preparation, including members selling homes and other assets in New South Wales and the Logos Foundation acquiring many homes, businesses and commercial properties in Toowoomba and the Darling Downs.
In the process of relocating the organisation and most of its members, it absorbed a number of other small Christian Churches in Toowoomba. Many of these were "House Churches" more or less affiliated with Carter's other organisations.
In 1989 Logos involved itself in the Queensland State election, running a campaign of surveys and advertisements pushing the line that candidates' adherence to Fundamentalist Christian principles were more important than their attitude to the corruption that had been exposed by the Fitzgerald Inquiry. This controversial action backfired, with many mainstream Churches and religious organisations distancing themselves from Logos Foundation.
Other connections
It had ties to a number of other groups including World MAP (Ralph Mahoney), California; Christian Growth Ministries, Fort Lauderdale; and Rousas Rushdoony, the father of Christian Reconstructionism in the United States. Activities included printing, publishing, conferencing, and ministry training.
Demise and dissolution
The Logos Foundation / Covenant Evangelical Church did not long survive the scandal of Howard Carter's standing down and public exposure of adultery in 1990.
Subsequently many members of Logos found their way to other Churches, or continued, re-branded, as Toowoomba City Church. Many former Logos members are involved in the Family First Party.