'Come and Receive Your Miracle'
German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke's evangelistic crusades are setting attendance records, but career missionaries worry about discipleship.
Corrie Cutrer | posted 2/05/2001 12:00AM
On a sweltering afternoon in the Nigerian city of Lagos last November, amid heavy traffic and polluted air, a large banner hung from an overpass for all to see. It pictured the gleaming face of a white European man. With one hand, he pointed a Bible toward the sky. With the other, he held a microphone to his mouth. come and receive your miracle, the banner proclaimed. The publicity committee had gone to great lengths to make the man's presence known in Lagos—Nigeria's commercial capital and one of Africa's largest cities. Fliers were plastered everywhere—on streets lined with shacks, near humble fruit stands, and on roadsides where open sewers are the norm. Seven degrees above the equator, where children in the brutal African sun forage in fields of rotting garbage, great expectations were building: Reinhard Bonnke, the larger-than-life evangelist from Germany, had come to town again.
That evening, 550,000 people gathered on 80 acres of bare ground to listen to Bonnke, a pastor's son with an unquenchable thirst for Africa's lost souls. Spiritually hungry Nigerians—whose lives are bounded by poverty, violence, and an unforgiving climate—could hardly wait to feast on the good news the preacher promised to bring. Many Nigerians walked hours, traveling through the giant, slum-like city to arrive at the spare crusade site. Neither chairs nor portable toilets were on hand. Some people relieved themselves on the field itself.
As the pulsating drums and opening music subsided, Bonnke looked out into a sea of humanity and began his message, using simple words in a vibrant, heavily accented English: "Jesus is the Savior of Nigeria!" he shouted. "All of Nigeria is going to heaven!"
Bonnke completed his "hot gospel message" (as he calls it) and then prayed for the sick who had come seeking a miracle. In a country where basic healthcare is available only to the very few who can afford it, medical needs are an unending concern. "Paralyzed people are going to walk," he told them. "The blind will see!" Hundreds surged to the central platform, hoping to proclaim publicly that they had been healed.
"Come back tomorrow night," Bonnke told them afterward. "Don't miss your miracle!" The crusade crowd grew larger each subsequent evening. Bonnke, embracing his role as preacher, prophet, and storyteller, held an audience averaging 1 million with his arresting gaze and boundless energy. They listened to him in eager anticipation of a divine deliverance from their poverty-stricken, disease-infested world. This was Bonnke's Great Millennial Crusade.
Desperately seeking healing
In city after city, country after country, the picture is the same. Pentecostal evangelist Bonnke, a figure largely unknown in the West, is sweeping across Africa to become one of the continent's most recognizable religious figures. Often referred to as the Billy Graham of Africa, Bonnke has held crusades in 46 of the continent's 53 countries.
The 60-year-old evangelist receives both criticism and praise for his gospel meetings that attract millions. While some hail him as a spiritual giant, others scoff when he promises miracles and anointing. Critics say the last thing African Christianity needs is more preachers who focus on spiritually shallow events. They say the quality of disciples, not the quantity of the crowd, is the key to reaching Africans. Still, ordinary Africans adore him.
Bonnke himself is as complex as he is controversial. While his crusades are often high in hype and hoopla, the evangelist is a caring pastor, single-minded in purpose and genuine in nature. Both on and off the stage, his goal is simple: to win the heart of Africa for Christ.
February 5 2001, Vol. 45, No. 2
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