Jack Voelkel
Suday Adelaja, pt. 2
Nigerian Missionary to the Ukraine – and the World!
"I must give [Jesus] my best every day and every minute."
by Jack Voelkel
Part 2 of 2
Sunday takes a Wife
After eight years of ministry he felt it was time to be married and asked the Lord for a wife. On a visit to Moscow he saw Bose (Abosede), a beautiful fellow Nigerian, and knew she was the one. “He prayed and received a sure word and revelation from the Lord that he was to marry Bose and then began pursuing her” (Ustanny). Today they have two girls and a boy. She travels with him when she can.
Sunday has named his church “The Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for all Nations.” He chose this name to emphasize that the Church is to represent God on earth, to be His “Embassy.” Therefore, Christians are to be citizens of God’s Divine Kingdom, and not citizens of this world. He proclaims, “Our King is Jesus Christ! He is the Lord of all the nations; He is the Savior for everyone, irrespective of age, color of skin, nationality, and social status” (Asamoah-Gyadu).
Now, 14 years later, the growth of his work is phenomenal, truly overwhelming. In Kiev, 26,000 crowd into his church on Sunday, the largest in Europe. 98% are white. 40 services are held weekly in the Kiev Church in various auditoriums. Thousands of other church members worship at 30 additional locations throughout Kiev. More than 50% of the members of the church are actively involved in volunteer ministries. He has 3,000 home-group leaders. 2,000 are fed in the church’s soup kitchen daily. His T.V. and radio programs reach approximately 8 million weekly! They calculate that over 100 million homes across Europe, Africa, and Russia receive his T.V. broadcasts (Emenike).
Reasons for Growth
How can one account for such incredible growth? Undoubtedly sociologists and psychologists would have their answers. As I have read the many reports I notice several significant factors.
First, prayer. He personally spends one week out of every four in isolation, fasting and praying, to intercede for the country, the church, and to get God’s direction and strategy. Each year the church sponsors a spring and fall festival. “These are ten to twelve-day stretches when up to 1,000 people (from his church and from all over Europe – countries from the former Soviet Union, Holland, Germany, etc.) will gather. There they will spend the entire time in fasting and prayer. They will pray up to ten hours at a stretch.”
The first time he visited Ukraine, he felt the spiritual oppression, and prayed, “Oh God, raise up men to pray this thing through.” So when the Lord sent him there, he knew the first thing he needed to do was to win the battle in prayer. He was convinced that “the fervent prayer of the righteous cannot but avail much. It must bring results” (Nesdoly). He has chosen to take responsibility for the spiritual condition of his society and his nation (Davis), and his people are changing the nations’ social and political landscape (Jewell).
Secondly, pastoral training: Sunday constantly multiplies himself. He has 700 Ukrainian pastors under him, with rehabilitation centers and orphanages across the country (BBC Profiles). He consistently takes his best leaders and releases them to help his young pastors in planting new churches. He wholeheartedly believes in those he has trained (Davis). These men have planted over 600 churches in over 35 countries (Kwon). Following the pattern he laid down, they often open drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers before planting a congregation (Jewell).
Thirdly, vision. Sunday is convinced that God’s power is available for all. He tells his people, “God saved you so that you can transform your world—you are a world-changer” (Jewell). This belief in personal potential has mobilized his congregation.
Persecution
He has suffered persecution from several sources. The government accused him of using drugs, black magic, and hypnotizing people. He has had to battle 22 lawsuits. To face these threats, he and his congregation went through 40 days of fasting and prayer. “God began to have mercy on us and send influential politicians to our church.” Fifty members of the legislature pledged their support in a letter to the president and the attorney general. All court cases were decided in his favor (Jewell).
The Orthodox Church accused him of creating a personality cult and using “conscience manipulation techniques” in his preaching (Blomfeld). One priest dismisses the “Embassy of God” as “nothing more than show business,” and scoffs at the church’s emphasis on tithing (BBC Profiles).
However, the huge attendance tells another story. One observer noted “students, housewives, former Mafia members, wealthy businessmen, and powerful politicians, including Leonid Chernovetsky, the mayor of Kiev, pack a sports stadium for Sunday worship…clapping, singing, and swaying men, women, and children focused on praising God” (Jewell). A taxi driver commented, “I don’t go to Church myself, but looking at the many Ukrainians in it, it certainly must be something good, that an African pastor has become more popular than the politicians.” A Ukrainian pastor agrees. “God created Africa to open our eyes to His salvation” (Asamoah-Gyadu). One U.S. church leader after visiting the congregation declared: “After 70 years of being told that God was dead, this church is celebrating a living Lord. This church is ‘the happiest in the world’” (Jewell).
Sunday has written some 60 books, translated into English, German, Chinese, Arabic, and Dutch (Kwon). Increasingly he is invited to share his vision in other countries. Speaking to 100 pastors in the U.S. in June of this year, he challenged them, “the church [in America] needs to shift its thinking and the way the churches operate in society…A shift from just being a place where believers come to worship in the week-end to [one] where believers are empowered in every sphere of society to be salt and light.” After recognizing the abundance of resources, opportunities, and large churches in the U.S., he asks, “But is the church truly making a difference in America? (Kwon).
A Challenge to us All
As he reviews the great resources of North America, he ponders the question: “If a young man from Africa could build the largest church in Europe without money, Bible school, or seminary training, imagine the potential of a North American.” Since Jesus died a radical death for him, Sunday has pledged his own life in return: ‘I must give Him my best every day and every minute” (Jewell).
Bibliography
Asamoah-Gyadu, J. Kwabena. “African Initiated Christianity in Eastern Europe: Church of the ‘Embassy of God’ in Ukraine.” In, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 30, No. 2, April 2006.
BBC Profiles Sunday Adelaja. http://blogs.salon.com/003494/2005/06/24.html (24 June 2005)
Blomfeld, Adrian. “Ukraine Attacks ‘charlatan’ and his booty-shaking babes.” [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml;jsessionid=3Q5QLVMS1H (2006).
Davis, Paul. Pastor Sunday Adelaja: Incredible, Humble, and Phenomenal. http://ezinearticlels.com/?Pastor-Sunday-Adelaja:-Incredible,-Humble-and-Phenomenal&id=272223.
Emenike , Victor & Judith http://www.it-is-easy.org/contact/friends/sunday.php (n.d).
Jewell, Dawn Herzog. “From Africa to Ukraine.” http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2005/006/4.42.html 7/7/2007.
Kwon, Lilian. Ukraine’s Influential Church Leader Shifting the Way Americans Think Church (http”//www.christianpost.com/pages/print/.htm?aid=28101. June 22, 2007
Nosdoly, Violet. http://vnesdoly.blogspot.com/2005/09/how -sunday-adelaja-learned-to-pray.html
Ustanny, Avia. Sunday Alelaja Taking the Word around the World. http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20051106/out/out1.html
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