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'More needs to be done in US'
23/11/2007 08:36 - (SA)
New York - Nearly every week, new visitors arrive. They want to see the megachurch that was built in the unlikeliest of places by the unlikeliest of men.
A Nigerian immigrant, Sunday Adelaja, in Kiev, Ukraine, founded the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations 13 years ago. In a predominantly Orthodox Christian country, where racism was pervasive, Adelaja created a Pentecostal church with 30 000 members.
But the church aimed to be far more than a curiosity. Like the pastors who travelled to Kiev to see him, Adelaja believed God's Embassy could be a model worldwide.
The next stop in his bid for global reach was the United States.
"America is fast becoming a mission ground again," Adelaja said in a phone interview from Sacramento, California, during his latest trip through the country. "We are surprised that the Americans who preached to us, the passion they had is almost already gone."
'As America goes, so goes the world'
Adelaja was among a stream of pastors from Africa and other countries starting hundreds of churches in the US. Their congregations back home were bursting with worshippers as Christianity advances through the developing world.
The clergymen saw American churches as floundering - focused more on money than God and filled with stale preaching and sinfulness. They hope to save the country that brought them the faith.
Adelaja said: "When the values are crashing, you have the largest number of abortions, divorce and school shootings. These things are very sad. As America goes, so goes the world. We shouldn't allow the Christian influence to diminish in this country."
His goals might seem unrealistic, but researchers who studied global religion were already calling this the "African century" of Christianity. African churches - with their zeal and resourcefulness - were poised to become a force not just in America, but also around the world.
God's Embassy claims 20 churches in US
Adelaja trained mission workers in Ukraine and, through them, he said he had already started more than 600 churches in dozens of nations.
In the past few years, he had been travelling around the US, building ties with pastors, especially leaders from the Pentecostal and charismatic traditions, known for spirited worship and speaking in tongues.
Tony Carnes, who studied African churches in the New York area and beyond, said: "At present, he doesn't have great influence," in the US, but had a "network of fans. This current trip is a sustained effort to bring Adelaja to the greater church audience."
God's Embassy claimed 20 churches in America, built mainly through Ukrainian and Russian-speaking immigrants and their US-born children and friends. Last year, he started History Makers Bible School in New Jersey and said 200 or so pastors from around the country attend the weekend classes.
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