The Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM) ministries is a Pentecostal organisation founded in Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria in 1989, now with churches in several English-speaking and non-English speaking countries.
Contents |
The mission of MFM is to propagate the message of the Christian Scriptures around the world and to proclaim the salvation found in Christ. As a church, it seeks to convert lost souls and reconcile them with their Creator by instilling in them a sense of prophecy. By reminding mankind of their obligation to honor the Word and Power of God, MFM wishes to guide people with the aid of the Holy Spirit.
Soon after completing his Ph.D. in the United Kingdom, and while working at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Dr. Daniel Kolawole Olukoya (DKO) summoned a prayer meeting. This was on a Wednesday in 1989. Twenty-three brethren showed up at the meeting. The venue of that meeting was in the living room of Daniel Olukoya.
After that meeting, the voice of providence kept calling for subsequent meetings. At these meetings, the power of God came down and verifiable miracles began to happen in the lives of the attending brethren. The power of God began to evangelise the prayer meetings and a spiritual explosion began with people coming from far and wide to seek the face of God.
With more and more people attending the prayer meetings, a larger location was required. The prayer meetings moved to #60, Old Yaba Road, Yaba, Lagos. Here, the teeming crowd of believers grew in even more amazing proportion necessitating yet another relocation.
The prayer group was offered and purchased an abandoned slum located at 13 Olasimbo Street, Onike, Yaba. It was a fairly large piece of land near the second gate of the University of Lagos. That slum has now been transformed into the International Headquarters of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries of which Dr. Olukoya is the General Overseer. The name “Mountain of Fire & Miracles Ministries” was revealed to Daniel Olukoya during normal prayer and the church had its first service on April 24, 1994.
Even at the new location, believers and those seeking help kept coming leading to a very large congregation. This situation posed a challenge of crowd, growth and expansion management to the leadership of the church. Thus, under the direction of the Lord, MFM evolved a strategy of a network of branches in every state capital, local government headquarters, senatorial district and locality. Till this day and across the world, MFM branches spring up as one of the fastest growing churches of this generation. International church branches first started in London before spreading to the United States, Canada, the rest of Europe, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. On every continent, MFM is profoundly visible and greatly impactful.
MFM is a Christian church. According to the group's literature, it is committed to "the Revival of Apostolic Signs, Holy Ghost fireworks and the unlimited demonstration of the power of God to deliver to the uttermost".[1] As the name would imply, the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries places a great emphasis on wonders, miracles and other Apostolic acts.
The General overseer, Daniel Olukoya describes MFM as "a do-it-yourself Gospel ministry where your hands are trained to wage war and your fingers to do battle, in prayers and supplication". This militant tone is reflected throughout the teachings of MFM, where it calls upon members to become "aggressive Christians,"and some of the groups founded by MFM such as the Prayer Warriors, Territorial Intercessors and God's Violent Army.[2]
MFM Headquarters in Lagos claims to be the largest church in Africa, with "attendance of over 200,000 in single meetings."
Even in its US branches the group uses a worship style typical of a Nigerian church. Most women wear long skirts and everyone wears a hat or other head covers. The congregation often prays aloud together, all standing and using a voice louder than what most North American Christians are used to. Prayers tend to be repetitions of faith based claims, spiritual decrees, and commanding prayers often directly from scripture and with an emphasis on safety found in Jesus. The practices are based on the same Biblical ideals advocated by traditional American Churches.
Despite the widely acclaimed membership and growth of the ministry it does have its shortcomings and misgivings. One of these includes the none forgiving nature of its members and leaders based on the teachings that enemies should be destroyed through prayers rather than prayed for and forgiven.It is also noted that the leadership does not take lightly to pastors who leave the ministry, seeing many claim that it operates a cult like sturcture. It is an irony that though Dr D.K Olukoya left CAC, a church where his father Pastored with out much trouble to found MFM, he does not encourage young pastors to follow his footsteps and obey the call of God. Another critism has to do with Pastoral renumeration. Though the ministry focuses on money collection Pastors are frequently used and dumped."Your renumeration as a pastor is based on your ability to generate money from members of your branch despite your overall role in the ministry. This has made most Pastors more money focused and greedy, a trait seen in the leadership," one source offered. Yet another aspect of criticism of the ministry has to do with the communication style employed by its leader Dr Olukoya as revealed in the quote below:"Dr. D. K Olukoya in most of the messages he preached demonstrates a kind of “kids delivery” with the use of the Body parts, I was listening to a good message by Him today titled “Dancers at the Gate of Hell” but I was disappointed by his mentions of evoking, vivid, and annoying imagery of human parts, It is indeed not a bad message, but the vulgarity and explicit painting of intimate organs is so disturbing, especially knowing that the message was preached to several teen in His Church I know him for so many unverifiable stories, that is his strategy You may want to get the message, Trust me, it is instructive to a sincere God seeker who would stay away from moral vice but he so much use fowl languages and made a lot of self adulation like I became born again since 1974, I pastor “my” first church in 1981 They brought Him to “me” I saw his Pe…………, Hole where sp…………, come out Vi………, and all kinds