Reinhard Bonnke (born April 19, 1940) is a German Pentecostal Evangelist, principally known for his gospel missions throughout Africa. Bonnke has been an evangelist and missionary in Africa since 1967. Bonnke has overseen 75 million recorded conversions to Christ.
Reinhard Bonnke was born on 19 April 1940 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany. He was born again at the age of nine after his mother spoke with him about a sin that he had committed.[3] He left for missionary work Africa at the age of 10 and says that he had the experience of Baptism in the Holy Spirit. He is the son of a pastor and ex-serviceman in the German Army.
Bonnke 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.” 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. Bonnke claims to have had a reoccurring dream featuring a picture of the map of Africa being spread with red and heard the voice of God 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.
Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, Founder of Christ for all Nations (CfaN) will return to Nigeria for his final African Gospel – Crusade in November, 2017. While certainly not CfaN’s final African crusade, Evangelist Bonnke’s return could inspire another historic global attendance as that of the Lagos, Nigeria Millennium Crusade in 2000, CfaN’s largest crusade to-date.
During the Lagos Millennium Crusade in 2000, over the course of 5 nights, 6 million attended and 3.4 million decisions for Christ were made. In November 2017, CfaN anticipates many decisions for Christ in response to Reinhard Bonnke’s farewell message. One of the highlights of this amazing crusade will be during the day sessions, to have a PASSING THE BURNING TORCH Conference for leaders and all kind of church-workers. Evangelist Bonnke is believing for many thousands of pastors and evangelists from around the globe to be inspired to evangelism.
Ever since God gave Evangelist Bonnke a vision for a blood-washed Africa—a continent washed in the blood of Jesus Christ—over 40 years ago, he has been filled with a burning commitment to win the continent for Jesus. Evangelist Bonnke has said, “Whether I am eating or drinking, awake or asleep, the vision is ever-present. It never leaves me.”