Known mostly for his gospel trips across Africa, Reinhard Bonnke was a German-American Pentecostal evangelist who lived from 19 April 1940 until 7 December 2019. Bonnke had been serving in Africa since 1967 as a missionary and evangelist. 1.6 million people are thought to have attended a single service in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2000.

“Bonnke preached Christ to over 79 million non-believers,” according to the Christ For All Nations (CFAN) organization, which is well-known for its work throughout Africa.

Early Life

The fifth son of Hermann Bonnke, an army logistics officer in the Reichswehr who served on the Eastern Front, Reinhard Bonnke was born on April 19, 1940, in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany. His paternal grandfather, August Bonnke, owned a windmill in Trunz, East Prussia (now Milejewo, Poland), and was cured of an unidentified illness by the evangelist Luis Graf in 1922. However, he passed away during the East Prussian evacuation in 1945. Metaa Bonnke (née Scheffler) was his mother. Martin, Gerhard, Jurgen, Peter, Felicitas, his only younger sibling, and his only sister were among Bonnke’s six siblings.

Before relocating to Gluckstadt, West Germany, he spent a few years in a displaced persons center after being transported to Denmark with his mother and brothers following the evacuation of East Prussia. His father served in the military and then became a priest in Krempe hamlet. When he was nine years old, his mother talked to him about a transgression he had committed, and he became a born-again Christian. He claimed to have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and to have felt God calling him to work as a missionary in Africa since he was ten years old.

Bonnke was influenced by the director, Samuel Rees Howells, while he was a student at the Bible College of Wales in Swansea, Wales, UK. Following a meeting in which Howells discussed answered prayer, Bonnke prayed, “Lord, I also want to be a man of faith.” I’d like to observe how you meet needs. He met preacher George Jeffreys by chance while traveling through London. He saw a house with the nameplate “George Jeffreys” on the front while he was walking. He pondered whether the founding of the Elim Pentecostal churches in England and Ireland could have been done by the renowned George Jeffreys. He gave the young learner grace and prayed for him.

He spent seven years as a pastor in Germany after graduating, starting a congregation in Flensburg that gathered in a disused rum factory.

Ministry

In 1967, he started working in Africa. When he first arrived in South Africa, he was confronted with the apartheid regime, which he disliked. This led to conflict between him and the minister who was in charge of him there. After learning that unbiblical practices had developed in the congregations he was to lead, Bonnke took a job overseeing three churches in Lesotho, but he started over from the beginning.

Bonnke was dissatisfied with the speed of his ministry in the early years of his career and saw little fruit from his evangelistic endeavors. Then, in a recurrent dream, he saw a vision of an African map covered in blood and heard God’s voice yelling, “Africa Shall Be Saved.” In the end, this prompted him to switch from the conventional small-scale missionary approach to large-scale evangelism. In Gaborone, Botswana, he rented a stadium and preached there with little help from the local churches. About 100 people showed up for the first meetings, but this number quickly increased.

Bonnke established the missionary organization Christ for All Nations (CfaN) in 1974 with the goal of sharing the gospel with as many people as possible. With rapid growth, CfaN extended its activities throughout Africa and beyond. The organization’s outstanding performance was a result of Bonnke’s dynamic leadership and creative tactics.

Bonnke’s capacity to attract sizable crowds to his crusades was one of the most important features of his ministry. His stirring sermons and emphasis on healing and miracles enthralled audiences and resulted in innumerable conversions. It is estimated that 1.6 million people attended a single crusade in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2000.

Persecution

On his route to Kano, Nigeria, in 1991, Bonnke allegedly made comments denigrating Islam in the city of Kaduna, which sparked rioting in the city when Muslims objected. Bonnke was allegedly preparing to “lead an invasion” into Kano. When Muslim youngsters assembled at the Kofar Mata Eide-ground, a number of preachers spoke to them and accused Bonnke of defaming Islam. Approximately 8,000 young people assembled at the Emir’s palace, and during midday prayers, there were disturbances. Several churches were set on fire, and numerous Christians suffered severe injuries.

Official accounts claim that at least eight individuals were slain, while other studies and sources place the number as being as much as 500 as many of the Christians who were killed were thrown down wells and the attacks were spread amongst numerous locales.

In 2000, a new civilian government was elected in Nigeria, and Christian President Olusegun Obasanjo invited Reinhard Bonnke to return to the country. Bonnke returned to Nigeria and held a crusade in Benin City in the south, but he would deny reports that the Northern Region of Nigeria’s Council of Ulamas banned him from entering northern Nigeria. The state governor absolved Bonnke of any responsibility for the incident, but the Nigerian Embassy rejected his subsequent attempts to return to Nigeria.

Following 2000, Bonnke conducted numerous crusades in Nigeria, where conversion rates were much higher than in many other African countries—one campaign had an 83% conversion rate. His last worldwide campaign would take place in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2017.

Published Books

Some of his published books are:

• Evangelism By Fire – Reinhard Bonnke
• Faith (The Link With God’s Power) – Reinhard Bonnke
• Holy Spirit (Are We Flammable or Fireproof) – Reinhard Bonnke
• Living A Life of Fire – Reinhard Bonnke
• Now That You Are Saved – Reinhard Bonnke
• Taking Action – Reinhard Bonnke

Marital Status

Bonnke led a series of sessions in Rendsburg after returning to Germany and graduating from the Bible College of Wales. People from all around Germany and the rest of the world started inviting him to speak. At a gospel music festival, Bonnke met Anni Suelze, and he was impressed by the poise she displayed after losing a music competition due to an error. They eventually fell in love after he offered to preach at the church where she went regularly. After getting married in 1964, they had three kids: Gabrielle, Suzanne, and Kai-Uwe Friedrich, also known as “Freddy”.

Death

On December 7, 2019, Bonnke passed away. He had declared on his official Facebook page the previous month that he needed time to “learn how to walk again” following femur surgery. Bonnke’s many visits to Nigeria were commended by the Muslim president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, who also called his passing a “great loss to Nigeria.”

Daniel Kolenda, an evangelist, was chosen to succeed him.

His burial stone would be fashioned to represent Africa and he would be laid to rest in Woodlawn burial Park in Gotha, Florida.