From the Australian Prayer Network - www.ausprayernet.org.au
When Nigerian pastor Sunday Adelaja started a church in Kiev (Ukraine) in 1994 it quickly grew to an astounding 25,000 people. Today it’s the largest Christian congregation in Europe. Despite this success, the 38-year-old pastor’s vision is to work himself out of his job so he can plant more churches. “I have given all I have,” Adelaja said. “I have reproduced myself. I want the younger ones to go farther than I have.” He is now turning his church over to nationals, so he can spend more time training leaders and planting churches in Western Europe as well as in his native Nigeria.
Currently, 100 leaders trained by Adelaja serve as pastors of churches in Kiev. The movement spawned by the mother congregation now has 450 churches. But each church is autonomous, and congregations do not tithe to the headquarters. Adelaja is vehemently opposed to starting a denomination, and he doesn’t want his name on anyone’s marquee. Americans who visit Adelaja’s cavernous church in Kiev are sometimes surprised when they see the modest lifestyle of this modern apostle, who is known for his boisterous laughter and African passion.
When Adelaja hears about the glamorous lifestyles of some American ministers, he gets a puzzled look on his face. “Is this a virus?” he asks. Then he tells of one American minister who recently sent word that he must stay in the presidential suite in the most expensive hotel in Kiev when he visits. Adelaja frowns as he relates this story. He can’t understand why ministers of God need to be pampered like rock stars. “Everybody is busy building a big church. Let’s build the kingdom,” he says.
Adelaja lives with his wife and three children in a three-bedroom apartment. The Embassy of God building - a former Soviet-run sports arena - is rented, not owned. The owner of the building often turns off the church’s power, forcing Embassy staff to light the building with a generator. The secret of his spirituality is quite simple and profound. “I spend one week out of each month with the Lord. Fasting. I have to leave the family, the church and the pressures. That is what keeps me going,” Adelaja says.
Source: National Alliance of Christian Leaders