Exponential

While much of the world lapsed into a pandemic panic the past two years, Christ for All Nations (CfaN) kept moving toward its overarching goal: doubling the 75 million conversions recorded its first 40 years under evangelist Reinhard Bonnke and his successor, Daniel Kolenda.

As 2022 unfolded, Kolenda was planning trips to Nigeria, Rwanda and Ghana, plus a pair of simultaneous, two-week-long soul-winning crusades in Zambia and Ethiopia. This follows a record number of events in 2021, a baker’s dozen that most recently included an African Gospel Crusade in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Dec. 9-19.

CfaN Vice President Peter Vandenberg compares the ministry’s ability to adjust to sudden changes—like the crusade that shifted to Tanzania after Kenya locked down its borders—to a Canadian lumberjack who stays erect by constantly moving his feet despite a log spinning madly beneath them.

“After my many years in ministry, I can say that is unusual,” says the 74-year-old Dutch native. “Large organizations tend to lean back on their systems and don’t want to change, or are unable.

“We don’t have that problem. The last two years have proven that. In the second year of COVID, we did more crusades than ever. If you had told me that before 2021, I would have said, ‘Get a life. Be realistic.’ But we just kept shifting our feet.”

Kolenda’s globe-trotting is only part of the equation of fulfilling the “Decade of Double Harvest.” The evangelist announced this initiative after sensing God saying the coming decade would bring twice as many salvations as in the past.

Having accompanied Bonnke on his travels long enough to personally witness 50 million conversions, Kolenda thought that impossible. There weren’t enough hours in a day or days in the week.

“You’re not going to do it through addition,” the Lord replied. “You’re going to do it through multiplication.”

“When He said that, my eyes opened, and I realized it’s something that’s got to be given away,” says Kolenda, a fifth-generation preacher raised in the Assemblies of God. “When Jesus fed the multitudes, He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to give away. As they gave away what was in their hands, it multiplied. I felt that’s exactly what God was saying He would do with me.”

TRAINING FOR RESULTS

It took a while to organize Double Harvest, says Vandenberg, who joined CfaN in 1981. The infrastructure includes evangelism bootcamps, which are intensive three-month sessions training students in mass crusade evangelism.

Kolenda has a vision of thousands of graduates evangelizing the world a decade from now. While they may be leading much smaller events than past huge stadium crusades (the single largest audience was 1.6 million in Lagos, Nigeria), their collective impact will still be massive.

“We have many problems, but they’re problems of growth, which is wonderful,” Vandenberg says. “It’s almost running away from us. It’s amazing, actually. Daniel first talked about it in 2017, but was reluctant to do what many people do: open their mouth and talk about a great campaign with no idea of how it’s going to be achieved. When things were in place, we went public [in 2018].”

One key to moving forward has been educational training. To date, boot camp enrollment has been capped at 100. That is partially because of space limitations, but also to allow more one-on-one time with students.

The sessions include studies in theology, practical ministry and organizing events.

Bootcamps conclude with a three-week initiation trip, where pupils put lessons into practice. One class led more than 800 souls to Christ on the streets of Orlando. When close to 100 trainees went to Tanzania last spring, they led 1,200-plus campaigns and recorded more than 316,000 decisions to follow Christ.

Student enrollment will expand this August with the launch of CfaN’s School of Ministry, an accredited course that will be open to larger numbers and offer an associate of arts degree in practical ministry.

Whichever path students choose, graduates can become part of the CfaN Evangelism Alliance, which has ordained several dozen evangelists thus far. It offers evangelists an opportunity to preach in association with CfaN or run their own meetings with input from the ministry.

It’s common for a dozen or more outreaches, crusades and other events led by associates to take place simultaneously in such locales as Tanzania, Sudan, Norway and South America.

In addition to this training, last summer CfaN established Nations Church (see “Hometown Advantage”), a multiracial, multicultural congregation whose make-up reflects Kolenda’s dream of raising up a multitude of successors. For example, he hopes to pass the African torch for evangelism to Africans and South American evangelism to natives of those continents.

CfaN’s leader sees an end coming to the era of Westerners traveling to other countries as missionaries and evangelists. In their place, Kolenda says God will raise up mighty men and women within each people group, language, and nationality.

“My goal is to work myself out of a job; I don’t know what it will look like when it comes time for me to have a successor,” says Kolenda, who turned 40 last June. “Through the bootcamps and guys I’ve mentored personally who are out there doing the work, I feel like I’ve already got 100 successors. I know that sounds funny to say, but it really is the truth.”

MAKING THE TRANSITION

This activity has swelled the capacity of CfaN’s two-story office building just east of I-4 to the breaking point. In addition to its growing operations, one corner hosts the Orlando office of international Christian satellite channel, GodTV. Quips Vandenberg: “We’re so overloaded we need a space twice the size.”

Yet, amid the excitement of surpassing 81 million conversions in October lies a compelling story that is often overlooked. Namely, the successful, long-term transition from a seasoned evangelist to a young church planter who is now leading the ministry to greater heights.

It’s both notable and unusual, says CfaN’s vice president. While ministries should plan for transition, Vandenberg says the few that do usually get it wrong. Most leaders want to hand it off to a son, grandson or other extended family member, a plan that often fizzles.

Before the ministry examined the idea of succession, leaders from a large church in Africa approached Bonnke (a household name on that continent) to ask what he thought about the founding pastor’s son taking over for his ailing father.

“His son could preach, but in everything else he was mediocre,” Vandenberg recalls. “Reinhard said something that became fundamental to us as well—very diplomatically but very straight: ‘The anointed must be appointed or you will be disappointed.’

“That’s exactly what happened. That young man was appointed, and he failed. Finally, somebody else took it over.”

Eventually, during dinner or crusade breaks, Bonnke and Vandenberg explored the idea of a successor for CfaN. Vandenberg says kudos go to the founder for seeing the desirability of such a plan.

Early in their conversations, Bonnke wondered aloud why everything should decline to nothingness once he was gone. Why couldn’t it just continue?

Replied Vandenberg: “It just doesn’t work that way. Somebody’s got to do the work and build it up.”

Initially, it looked like the vice president was right. Soon after that conversation, Bonnke started grooming a successor. After preaching four nights in a huge crusade, his would-be replacement did the fifth.

Despite delivering great sermons, the young preacher struggled with administrative and other details. As Vandenberg notes, ministry is not just preaching; while the most important quality, it doesn’t carry the day in a multi-faceted organization.

“We gave him a good shot for a couple years, and this young man came to us and said, ‘This is killing me,’” Vandenberg recalls. “It was just beyond his capabilities. We tried it again with another young man, but it was quickly obvious that wasn’t going to work either.”

Enter Daniel Kolenda, a young church planter struggling to feed his wife, Rebekah, and their first-born (they now have five children ranging from age three to 17) while leading small churches.

Initially, Kolenda resisted a suggestion to become bivocational, explaining that many employers wouldn’t look kindly on the demands of his church position. That’s when someone suggested he contact Christ for All Nations, since ministry personnel would understand his calling.

In 2004, Kolenda joined the fulfillment department, packing DVDs, books and other materials. A year later, Bonnke’s personal assistant got sick. Vandenberg asked various department heads who could fill in, which is how Kolenda made his first trip to the mission field.

THE ANOINTING

Wanting to encourage young evangelists, prior to his sermon Bonnke would often give those visiting a crusade 10 minutes to speak, a major break with crowds of 200,000 or more. One night in Lagos in 2006, he asked Vandenberg if they should give Kolenda that opportunity.

“He got up and did a 10-minute gospel shot, and I tell you, Reinhard and I looked at each other wide-eyed; it was excellent,” Vandenberg says. “When Daniel spoke again the next night, we thought, ‘This guy has got it.’”

Thus began a five-year-long process of Kolenda ascending to CfaN’s presidency. It started with Bonnke allowing Kolenda to preach one of the five nights of a major crusade, then gradually increasing Kolenda’s appearances.

In their early days together, one thing that touched Kolenda was the ease with which Bonnke ministered. Having heard about the miracles and outpourings of the Holy Spirit that characterized CfaN’s crusades, Kolenda had formed an image of what that might look like. It was something similar to Aladdin conjuring up miracle clouds in a Disney cartoon.

Instead, the miracles, signs and wonders were part of the rhythm of daily life. Kolenda would be sharing a meal with Bonnke at a restaurant when someone came up to their table. Bonnke would pray for the person, and they would get healed before the pair of evangelists returned to eating.

Bonnke knew it wasn’t him, but the finished work of Christ on the cross that made the difference. Having been around ministry throughout his life, Kolenda found such transparency and humility awe-inspiring.

“A lot of ministry tends to be striving, a lot of pretense and trying to make appearances,” Kolenda says. “It was not like that with Reinhard. You saw what you got. He was genuine and ministered out of a deep place of authentic love for God and people. It was a freeing, comfortable environment to do ministry in. I wish we could see more of it in the church.”

Kolenda credits the opportunity to minister alongside Bonnke with preparing him to assume the reins. Bonnke didn’t even like the idea of mentoring, resisting the evangelists and pastors who wanted to come under his covering.

So, it wasn’t like the two sat down for special sessions. Instead, Bonnke told Kolenda, “Let’s go preach the gospel together.” For a decade, Kolenda was on the road more than he was home, learning by observing the evangelist in close quarters.

Not only was that powerful mentorship, but that’s also how Jesus taught the disciples, Kolenda says: He invited men to go with Him on the road and as He taught, healed and performed miracles, they watched and learned.

One of the most startling qualities Kolenda picked up on was what he called Bonnke’s “radical obedience.” In the past, CfaN had never owned a building, since Bonnke told his protégé they invested in souls rather than brick and mortar. That is, until early one Saturday, when Bonnke called Kolenda about meeting him for breakfast.

At the restaurant, Bonnke told of God speaking to him early that morning and saying, “I’m giving you a harvest home in Orlando.” When Kolenda asked what that meant, Bonnke said they were going to get property.

Kolenda was incredulous. Not only did they not have enough money to cover the expenses of their next crusade, what did Bonnke expect him to do when no real estate agencies or banks were open?

“I know you can’t do anything right now,” Bonnke replied. “I felt I needed to get in the car and drive here because I feel the eyes of heaven are upon me. I wanted God to see that when He speaks, I jump.”

GOD’S PROMISE

It’s been just over two years since Bonnke died and a decade since he stepped away from worldwide travels after a diagnosis of cancer (although he continued speaking closer to home). The fact CfaN continues on is a credit to its founder’s foresight and skill in building a strong organization, says its current leader.

Whether it’s those driving the trucks, setting up the platform or running the sound equipment, Kolenda says whenever he asks observers what impressed them the most about a crusade, eight of 10 times they’ll say, “The thing that blows me away is your team.”

“They’re unsung heroes,” Kolenda says. “Most people will never know their names. The team has been one of the great secrets of our success. The ministry as Reinhard built it is intact. There’s a lot of wisdom and experience I tap into on a daily basis.”

This is the legacy that Kolenda seeks to pass along to those going through CfaN’s training. Ninety percent of bootcamp applicants get rejected; those who are accepted must sign an affidavit affirming their willingness to die as martyrs.

Kolenda tells students his goal is to give away the inheritance he received from Reinhard. He and others with CfaN will teach them, empower them and release them, Kolenda promises.

The reason he is optimistic about reaching the Double Harvest goal is the millions more who have come to Christ after the first two bootcamps.

“It’s in the early days, so my confidence is in the promise of God and the multiplication that’s taking place,” the evangelist says. “I really believe it not only can happen, but will happen. My only concern is the 150 million number might be too small.”

This article was extracted from Issue 8 (Winter 2021) of the AVAIL Journal. Claim your free annual subscription here.