TOP CHURCH FOUNDERS

EMMANUEL MAKANDIWA (United Family International Church Harare Zimbabwe)

Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa was born in December 1977 into a family of small farmers. His parents are elders in the Apostolic Faith Mission Church in Muzarabani district of Mashonaland Central Province. Prophet Makandiwa started his Church, called United Family Interdenominational Ministries in August 2008. By then it was just more of a lunch hour fellowship and members would meet at an Anglican Cathedral. From the first day, the hall was filled to capacity (approximately 600 people) and by the following day the fellowship encountered an overflow. This phenomenon has stuck as a benchmark to date as people flock The City Sports Centre (current venue) as early as 0600hrs for the service which begins at 1000hrs.

MOSA SONO (Grace Bible Church, Soweto South Africa)

Bishop Mosa Sono is Founder and Senior Pastor of Grace Bible Church which was established in September 1983. His calling and passion is to win people to Christ, bring believers into full maturity of their walk with God, train, raise and mentor leaders in the church, corporate sector and in the community at large.

Bishop Mosa Sono has a passion for the local church. He believes that “the church is the hope of the world” and that the church needs to align itself with Christ’s mission to preach the gospel to all and win people to Christ, to be the extension of God’s love in ministering to the pain and hurt of it communities and to build “prevailing” churches. Grace Bible Church hosts an annual Good Friday program at the stadium, targeting a mass harvest of people into God’s kingdom. The church also hosts other annual seminars on Leadership, Church Planting, Cell groups and Business Leadership. Another annual event that Grace Bible Church has is "Word Explosion" which is a 3 day celebration that usually starts on Friday and ends on Sunday every September.

BISHOP T.D. JAKES (The Potter’s House, Dallas, Texas)

Bishop T. D. Jakes is a charismatic leader, visionary, provocative thinker, and entrepreneur who serves as senior pastor of The Potter’s House, a global humanitarian organization and 30,000-member church located in Dallas.

Named “America’s Best Preacher” by Time Magazine, Jakes’ voice reverberates from the world’s most prominent stages. Through his nexus of charitable works, T.D. Jakes is known for extending a hand of help to the needy, heart of compassion to the hurting, and message of inspiration to the disenfranchised.

RICK WARREN (Saddleback Valley Community Church, Lake Forest, California)

Rick Warren was born in San Jose, California and earned a Bachelor of Arts from California Baptist University, a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary. He and his wife Kay founded Saddleback Church when he was just 25 years old and he continues to serve as the senior pastor. He is the author of the bestselling book The Purpose Driven Life. To many, he is Pastor Rick, but to his church, he is Papa Rick—a voice of wisdom, hope, encouragement, and vision.

Since founding Saddleback Church 33 years ago, Pastor Rick has become one of the nation’s leading pastors. He mentors young leaders, and many of today’s leading pastors credit him and his book The Purpose Driven Church for inspiring them to pursue their own callings to ministry. He has trained over 400,000 church leaders from 163 countries on the Purpose Driven principles of church health and balance. Pastor Rick also founded Pastors.com—an online interactive community that provides sermons, forums, and other practice resources for pastors.