Saturday, September 26, 2009

1. Introduction to the Scandal

Many of you have probably read about the recent scandal levied against the Senior Pastor of the Embassy of God Church, Sunday Adelaja. Many internet articles have been published with sensational headings to attract people to their sites. Headings such as "Nigerian Evangelical Pastor, Sunday Adelaja, Charged with Fraud in Ukraine!", "Nigerian Pastor defraud members of over $100 million in Ukraine". I am appalled how people could publish articles with such headings without an iota of investigation on their part. This is what I call lazy journalism - You pick up such a sensitive story and rush to publish it on your site without any investigation. The most surprising is Charisma's article posted on December 19, 2008, which many websites copied. Charisma House published Pastor Adelaja's ChurchShift book and was about to release a new Adelaja book, Money Won't Make You Rich, before posting the said article. Why did Charisma rush to post such an article without investigating the allegations?

It is so amazing how the Lord works. Before the scandal broke out, the Lord led me to the Embassy of God Church in Ukraine in August 2008. Pastor Sunday was very open with me, and he did not hide anything from me. I had access to any information I wanted to review. He is not one of those pastors that are very difficult to reach, and he is approachable. Initially, I planned not to write anything on the scandal and false accusations against Pastor Sunday, since my new books coming out would speak for themselves on the wonderful work God is doing at the Embassy of God Church; however, I felt obligated to speak out about the nonfactual articles and about the hypocritical attitude of some of our so-called Church leaders which kept bothering me. I am not here to defend Sunday Adelaja, but to express my feelings on certain players in the entire issue. I was with Pastor Sunday in Nigeria in November 2008 during the launching of the Microfinance Bank. I was in Ukraine again in 2009 during the Church's 15th anniversary. Pastor Sunday allowed me to carry out my own independent investigation; it was necessary because of the important book project the Lord has placed in my hands. I believe that if Pastor Sunday was guilty of such a magnitude of fraud, he could not escape being found guilty by the Ukrainian law. All his computers and laptops (both at home and in the office) have been seized since December 2008 by the Ukrainian Police who are yet to find something in those business machines that will incriminate Sunday Adelaja. I also believe that the Lord will always uphold the Truth in His Church. He does not need some Shenanigan Bishops to defend Him or sit on His throne of judgement.


So, what's new since the scandal broke out in December 2008?


  1. The Ukrainian Interior Minister, who initially accused Sunday Adelaja, resigned from office.
  2. Sunday Adelaja and the Embassy of God Church have sued the government for defamation of character.

So, you see how the tide changes direction. Keep watching for more comments from me. I will comment on Charisma, one Rick Renner, and the Ukrainian Bishops.


Abi Olowe, Ph.D.

2. Charisma and the Scandal

Charisma, a Strang's publishing company, is a well respected Christian book and magazine publisher. I admire what the company has done over the years. This is the more reason why it beats my imagination the way it handled the scandal that was launched against Pastor Sunday Adelaja. Charisma House published ChurchShift written by Sunday Adelaja in January 2008, and was about to release a second book Money Won't Make You Rich when the scandal broke out in December 2008. Charisma did not waste time to publish its first article on the scandal on Friday, 19 December 2008. The article was titled "Sunday Adelaja Accused of Supporting Investment Scheme". The article has a negative undertone and focused more on the accusation. In spite of the several private exchanges between Pastor Sunday and Charisma (I read them all), Charisma still went ahead to publish another negative article about Pastor Sunday on Monday, 20 April 2009, after the Embassy of God Church's 15th anniversary. The article titled "Sunday Adelaja Marks 15 Years in Ministry Despite Controversy", still has a negative undertone. It seems that many people did not expect the anniversary to take place because of the scandal.

I will give reasons why Charisma should have done its research before rushing to publish its articles.

1. Charisma had the manuscripts of Money Won't Make You Rich before the scandal. I also read the manuscripts in August 2008 before it was sent to Charisma for publishing. The principles expressed in that book are totally opposite to what Pastor Sunday Adelaja was accused of. From what I know of Pastor Sunday, he does not preach what he cannot do. Some people say he is flamboyant, but he is really passionate about the Kingdom of God. The fact that the content of the book contradicts the allegations should have been a cogent reason for Charisma to carry out its investigations. I spoke with one of Charisma's staff members at a conference in Denver, Colorado, in July 2009, expressing my disdain about the Charisma articles and the absence of investigation on the part of Charisma; he also expressed the same feelings.

2. The bulk of the first article published by Charisma was on what one Rick Renner in Moscow, Russia (hundreds of miles away from Kiev, Ukraine) said. Here is an excerpt:

"Pastors and Christian leaders are now trying to maneuver through new restrictive laws that have been passed because of Sunday's claim that he and his church organized the Orange Revolution," Renner said.
Unless I am missing something or Pastor Sunday said it somewhere else; in the ChurchShift book which Charisma published, Pastor Sunday did not claim he "organized" the Orange Revolution. He wrote that his church "participated" and provided support (feeding and shelter) to the participants.

There are other quotations, especially in the second article, which I will defer for now while waiting for the outcome of the law suit. The case of Ivanna Schwartz mentioned in the article is also mentioned in the new book coming out in October: "Missional Reformation".

The big question is: why did Charisma rush to publish the scandal? Why did Charisma listen to Rick Renner in Moscow and ignored by not talking to Sunday Adelaja in Kiev? My opinion is that Charisma acted like Apostle Peter. Peter, not only denied Jesus Christ, he also tried to dissociate himself from the "uncircumsized", forgetting that Jesus ate with sinners. It is the hypocrisy of Peter that Paul exposed when he wrote:

Galatians 2: 11-12. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Charisma has been part of the new move of God in the 21st century by publishing ChurchShift. It needs to see the ongoing scandal as another persecution of Pastor Sunday and the church, and also an attempt by satan to divert attention from the move of God. Charisma needs to provide a clear explanation to Pastor Sunday for its actions and mend fences.

Abi Olowe, Ph.D.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

3. Rick Renner and the Scandal

According to his biography extracted from his website, Rick Renner and his family moved from USA to Latvia in former USSR in 1991. Rick has established the Good News Churches in Riga, Latvia (1993), Moscow, Russia (2000), and in Kiev, Ukraine (2007). Rick seems to be doing well with these churches, especially in Moscow; we should thank God for his life. However, Rick's comments on the King's Capital Scandal, published by Charisma, deviated from the central issue. He delved into other issues that he seemed to have been nursing before the scandal broke out. On several instances, he used the strong word "lying". Let us examine some extracts from the article.

1. Rick accused Sunday of "lying" on Orange Revolution.

"Pastors and Christian leaders are now trying to maneuver through new restrictive laws that have been passed because of Sunday's claim that he and his church organized the Orange Revolution," Renner said. "He owes the body of Christ an apology, first for lying about the fact that he organized it and carried it out, and second, for creating this very difficult environment for which others are now paying a very high price."

I have covered this in my article on Charisma. Again, I do not know where Sunday made such claim. I hope Rick will help out to clarify that. I believe the ChurchShift book should have clarified Sunday's position on the subject. In the Churchshift book, Sunday said the Embassy of God Church participated in the Revolution. Anyways, Rick seems to be looking for a comfort zone on the battle field. Rick should stand and not compromise on the truth for which the Lord has sent him to Moscow. Rick should study the church history and understand that right from the first century, the government always find an excuse to persecute the church where Christianity or a type of Christianity is not wanted. It is still happening in China, India, and other countries. Yes, Rick, we need to pay the high price. Many have been doing it for centuries. Jesus' blood is priceless and He paid the highest price.

2. Rick accused Sunday of "lying" on numbers.

Renner and other Pentecostal leaders say they have long been concerned about Adelaja's claims that God's Embassy has 100,000 members across Ukraine when they believe the church has closer to 10,000 members nationwide. But Renner said the King's Capital controversy provoked him to speak out.

This is really a no issue. By this, Rick has to accuse many Church leaders, including himself. Rick claims on his website that his first three-day crusade in Riga was attended by more than 32,000 people. How did he get the figure? Rick also claims that he broadcasts to 110 million people on TV. Really? Do all these people watch his programs? Many evangelists have always given numbers of attendance or repentance at crusades that look exaggerated. Yoido Full Gospel Central Church founded in 1958 by David Cho today, is the largest in the world. The church is quoted as having over 830,000 members total; but in a regular attendance at a worship service, the average is about 253,000. Churches built on cell groups, such as Yoido and the Embassy of God, always estimate their membership from the number of cell groups.

3. Rick said the Lord impressed him to speak out.

I have never wanted to call Sunday a liar, so most often I tried to ignore the subject of Sunday's falsehoods when I heard them. Now in light of the lies being told by Sunday, denying that he ever recommended that his people invest in this company, I was taken to a new place of prayer and concern. It was in the midst of this that the Lord impressed me to speak out."

What does Rick mean by "the Lord impressed me"? If Rick is saying that the Lord told him to chastise Sunday publicly, then I can confidently say that it is not true. And this is coming from Rick who has called Sunday a liar in almost every paragraph of the article. I received a lot of revelations on Pastor Sunday and the Embassy of God Church. The Lord knows how to deal with His erring servants and He knows that none of them, including Rick Renner, is perfect.

4. Rick advises the Embassy of God Church members to leave the church.

During a recent sermon, Renner told his congregation that the members of God's Embassy should leave the church if Adelaja doesn't repent... "They are not obligated by God to sit up under deception," Renner said.

This is the most disappointing statement. Rick is trying to put the church in disarray. Where is Rick recommending that the members go? To his "Good News Church"? Rick is being arrogant here and he seems to be dipping his hand in the cookie jar. For God's sake, Sunday has only been accused. Rick is American and he understands "innocent until proven guilty". What is the basis of his statement? Unless most of Christendom find Pastor Sunday's teachings as false, Rick's recommendation here is ridiculous. I do not know about Rick's ministry, but the fact is, many Christians all over the world are influenced by Pastor Sunday's teachings. I met them in Ukraine and many visit the Church every year. So, who is Rick putting himself on the judgement throne? Why does Rick think someone cannot find his own teachings as false? The best thing for a Church leader, in this kind of situation, is to stay humble and let God take control of His Church. Rick might consider visiting the Embassy of God Church as well and learn from each other. Satan is a liar.

Abi Olowe, Ph.D.