German evangelist, Renhard Bonnke, who took Africa by storm and who was reputed to have converted 77 million people worldwide to Christianity, has passed on, his family announced today.
“Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it is with sorrow that the Bonnke Family would like to announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke,” his wife, Anni Bonnke said in a statement.
“He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family, on December 7, 2019. For the past 60 years he has preached the glorious Gospel of Jesus throughout the entire world.
“We want to thank you on behalf of him and our family, for your kind love and unwavering support, which enabled him to preach the matchless message of salvation to countless people;” the statement added.
He died at 79.
Bonnke founded the international ministry of Christ for all Nations (CfaN) over 45 years ago, and currently has offices in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong.
Since 1987, through a host of major events in Africa and other parts of the world, the ministry has recorded more than 77 million documented decisions for Jesus Christ.
He has held many crusades in Nigeria, drawing his largest audience in a single crusade in Lagos in the early 2000s.
According to Wikipedia, he was born on 19 April 1940 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany the son of an army logistics officer. With his mother and siblings, he was taken to Denmark during the evacuation of East Prussia, and spent some years in a displaced persons centre.
He was born again at the age of nine after his mother spoke with him about a sin that he had committed. He left for missionary work Africa at the age of 10 and said that he had the experience of Baptism in the Holy Spirit. After war service, his father had become a pastor.[
He studied at The Bible College of Wales in Swansea, where he was inspired by the director Samuel Rees Howells. In one meeting after Howells spoke of answered prayer, Bonnke prayed, “Lord, I also want to be a man of faith. I want to see your way of providing for needs.”
Passing through London, he had a chance meeting with the famous preacher George Jeffreys, who encouraged the young German student.
After graduation, he pastored in Germany for seven years. He began his ministry in Africa, with which he is principally identified, preaching in Lesotho in 1967. He has subsequently held evangelical meetings across the continent.[
Early on, Bonnke encountered poor results from his evangelistic efforts and felt frustrated at the pace of his ministry. He claimed to have had a recurring dream featuring a picture of the map of Africa being spread with red and heard a voice crying “Africa Shall Be Saved”.
This led him to adopt large-scale evangelism, rather than the traditional small scale missionary approach. He rented a stadium in Gaborone, and preached with little cooperation from local churches. Beginning with only 100 people, the stadium meetings grew.
In 1974, Bonnke founded the mission organisation ‘Christ For All Nations’ (abbreviated CfaN). Originally based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the headquarters were relocated to Frankfurt, Germany in 1986. This was done primarily to distance the organisation from South Africa’s apartheid policy at the time. Today CfaN has 9 offices across 5 continents.
He began his ministry holding tent meetings that accommodated large crowds. According to an account published by the Christian Broadcasting Network, in 1984 he commissioned the construction of what was claimed to be the world’s largest mobile structure – a tent capable of seating 34,000; this was destroyed in a wind storm just before a major meeting and therefore the team decided to hold the event in the open air instead.
According to this account, the event was subsequently attended by over 100,000 people which is far greater than the 34,000 seating capacity the tents could contain.[
Bonnke announced his ‘farewell gospel crusade’ to be held in Lagos, Nigeria in November 2017. Lagos is also the location of a gospel crusade held in 2000 which, according to CfaN, is the organisation’s largest to-date, drawing an attendance of 6 million people.
After graduating from the Bible College of Wales and returning to Germany, he led a series of meetings in Rendsburg.
He began receiving speaking invitations from all around Germany and the rest of the world.
He met Anni Suelze at a gospel music festival, and admired the grace with which she recovered from a wrongly pitched music performance at the expense of losing the competition. He offered to preach at the church she attended one Sunday and fell in love with her. They married in 1964 and have three children and eight grandchildren.
Bonnke’s Autobiography, Living a Life of Fire, is a collection of stories of his life including accounts of his childhood growing up during the Second World War and living in prison camps to his early years in ministry and how he believed God used him to bring the gospel of salvation to Africa.[
