Christendom mourns Reinhard Bonnke
The Christian community has lost one of its faithful servants, international evangelist Reinhard Willi Gotfried Bonnke.
Evangelist Bonnke, a man reputed to have preached the gospel of Christ to more people than anyone in history, died at the weekend at age 79.
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According to the website of Christ for All Nations (CfAN) Ministry, the evangelistic movement he founded in 1974 and led for 45 years, the German born preacher passed away peacefully on December 7, surrounded by his family.
Born on April 19, 1940, Evangelist Bonnke is survived by his wife, Anni, and three adult children.
Preaching around world
Bonnke spent six decades preaching around the world, but Africa was a particular focus of his ministry beginning in Lesotho in 1967. Between then and 2017, when he stepped back from full-time ministry, he successfully led CfAN to mount record-setting crusades at which he personally preached to over 120 million people, leading to the conversion of some 79 million people.
Historians have said that no Western evangelist spent as much time in sub-Saharan Africa as Bonnke. In October 2017, he held a farewell crusade in Nigeria attended by 1.6 million people.
Tributes
Following his death, a number of high profile African politicians and Christians from many denominations worldwide have paid tribute to him.
They include President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Ifeanyi Okowa, the Governor of Nigeria's Delta state, where Bonnke held many crusades, and Kipchumba Murkomen, the Majority Leader of the Kenyan Senate, as well as Paula White, one of President Donald Trump's spiritual advisors.
In Ghana, where Bonnke first preached in 1984 and continued intermittently for decades, the Christian community has eulogised the person, work and ministry of Bonnke.
On behalf of the Assemblies of God, Ghana, of which he is the General Superintendent, and the Ghana Pentecostal Council which he heads, Most Rev. Professor Paul Frimpong Manso described Bonnke as “a man who distinguished himself in his calling as an international evangelist par excellence in all transitions of his ministry. The impact he made on the lives of the millions he came into contact with, and ministered to, will continue to be felt over a very long time.”
Most Reverend Titus Awotwi-Pratt, the immediate past Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church who played a key role in the last CfAN crusade in Ghana, said: “Bonnke moved masses to Christ.” Personally, he added, “his ministry created great love of God’s work within me.”
His commitment to evangelism, his passion for souls, his selfless desire to reach the whole world, at whatever cost, with the gospel of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit will continue to be a lasting legacy for the Church, he added.”
Bishop Dag Heward Mills of the Lighthouse Church, asked himself in a tweet: “What could be said of my ministry if I had not loved and followed Reinhard Bonnke? His example served as a living school, training me for ministry. His life taught me great lessons. God has used and continues to use him to disciple me. Thank you for never changing your message”.
In a state of “bitter-sweet emotion for this African in German skin”, Bishop Charles Agyin Asare, the General Overseer of Perez Chapel International, who said he met Bonnke in 1984, told newsmen, “Today, we celebrate the life of the man on fire”.
Reverend John Kwesi Darku, Ghanaian Executive Director of CfAN in charge of Africa, a man who was probably closer to Bonnke than any other in Africa, eulogised the late evangelist as “a man who possessed a single-minded mission. If it was God, Bonnke would obey. In this obedience, he led millions to the Lord in open crusades. In private meetings he prayed for Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers of State and business executives, leading them to Christ in private meetings.”
As the Ghanaian who organised every CfAN crusade in Africa and was everywhere in Africa with the evangelist, Rev. Darku said Christians in Nigeria, Cameroun, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and many others in Africa were planning memorial events in his honour.
“Africa is mourning Bonnke,” he said.
Bonnke’s crusades
As a rule, after Bonnke’s crusades, crime drops considerably, stolen goods are returned, debts and taxes are paid, etc. Many criminals vow to let peace through their encounter with God.
In one of Bonnke’s crusades in Burkina Faso, workers who had stolen from one of the local hospitals returned the stolen items which were handed over to the hospital.
Miracles were common at Bonnke crusades and other meetings.
The mentally ill have regained their sanity. A jujuman who attended a Bonnke crusade with the intention of casting a spell on the evangelist, got saved that night. Today he is a pastor and has adopted the name Bonnke.
In Nigeria, three female siblings who were blind for many years, received their sight at a Bonnke crusade.