Reinhard Bonnke
Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke is principally known for his Great Gospel Crusades throughout the Continent of Africa. The son of a pastor, Reinhard gave his life to the Lord at age nine, and heard the call to the African mission field before he was even a teenager. After attending Bible College in Wales, and his ordination in Germany he pastored a church and then went on to start missionary work in Africa. It was there, in the small mountain kingdom of Lesotho, that God placed upon his heart the vision of ‘the continent of Africa, being washed in the precious Blood of Jesus’– an entire continent, from Cape Town to Cairo and from Dakar to Djibouti that needed to be reached and to hear the proclamation of the signs-following Gospel.
He began holding meetings in a tent that accommodated just 800 people, but, as attendance steadily increased, larger and larger tents had to be purchased, until finally, in 1984, he commissioned the construction of the world’s largest mobile structure – a tent capable of seating 34,000 people! Soon, attendance at his meetings even exceeded the capacity of this huge structure, and he began open-air Gospel Campaigns with an initial gathering of over 150,000 people per service! Since then, he has conducted city-wide meetings across the continent with as many as 1,600,000 people attending a single meeting using towering sound systems that can be heard for miles.
It has now been some forty years since Reinhard Bonnke founded the international ministry of Christ for all Nations (CfaN), which today is based in Orlando, Florida, and nine international offices in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Brazil. Succeeding Reinhard Bonnke as President and CEO in 2010, Daniel Kolenda, now teams with Reinhard Bonnke around the world in campaigns and evangelistic outreaches. Evangelist Kolenda has authored three books including the new, bestselling book, Live Before You Die. He has also had the privilege of personally leading over 15 million souls in the prayer of Salvation, through CfaN’s massive open air meetings where hundreds of thousands attend regularly.
Since 1987, through a host of major events in Africa and other parts of the world, the ministry has recorded 75 million documented decisions for Jesus Christ.
As part of the discipleship-training program, 190 million copies of CfaN follow-up literature have been published in 148 languages and printed in 55 countries. Millions of books have been printed and freely ‘seeded’ in nations around the world. All this is in addition to the‘Reinhard Bonnke School of Fire,’ an online, self-study course, aimed at inspiring others to Holy Spirit Evangelism and leading to either a certificate or university credits. Reinhard Bonnke is also recognized for hosting ‘Fire Conferences’ in many different countries of the world, events that are aimed at equipping church leaders and workers for evangelism; for distributing over 95,500,000 copies of Minus to Plus, a profound salvation message, to homes around the world; and for seeking every opportunity to reach and to save the lost. He spent several years developing the ‘Full Flame Film Series,’ a series of eight inspirational films aimed at stirring and challenging the church to Holy Spirit evangelism.
In April 2013, Evangelist Bonnke announced he would, for the first time, launch a series of events in the United States meant to inspire Americans to draw nearer to a relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. God approached Bonnke with the city-to-city tour, telling him to start crusades in America because America’s time for salvation is now. He is known as one with a burning passion for the Gospel, a vision for Africa, and a message for the world. Evangelist Bonnke is married to Anni, father to Kai-Uwe, Gabrielle, and Susie, and grandfather to eight grandchildren.