'ChurchShift' Breaks Top 10 Bestsellers List

By Jennifer Riley, Christian Post Reporter Sunday, February 17, 2008

A week after its release, the book entitled ChurchShift by the founding pastor of one of Europe's largest churches broke Amazon.com's top 10 Bestsellers list.

The new book by Sunday Adelaja, founding pastor of Ukraine's 30,000-member God's Embassy Church, hit No. 6 this week at its best on Amazon.com's Bestsellers list after debuting on Feb. 8. ChurchShift was also ranked No. 1 on Amazon's Christianity Bestsellers list before falling to No. 4 on Saturday.

Marketing of the book has been unique in that it ties its mission to change U.S. churches with performing well on Amazon.com's Bestsellers list. The ChurchShift Web site urges Christian leaders to buy the book on Feb. 8-23 through Amazon.com so that Adelaja could receive the "press coverage he needs as a catalyst to accomplish the ChurchShift mission in the United States."

The book's mission is to spark a revolution in American culture – which Adelaja believes is in decay – by reforming 10,000 U.S. churches so that they will in turn reform American society. The ChurchShift author is seeking to prepare churches for what he believes will be a massive "shift" in focus and practice.

"As goes the Church, so goes America, and as goes America, so goes the world," Adelaja stated. "We want 10,000 churches in the U.S. and 100,000 churches worldwide to SHIFT! This will be revolutionary!"

Some of the features in the book include how to: avoid church splits and division; change every Christian's view of "My Ministry;" inspire Christians to believe in supernatural outcomes; equip church members to impact the seven spheres of society; teach kingdom values for societal transformation; activate the potential of the local church; change a nation by emerging from four walls of a church building; and provide the keys to achieve national transformation.

Dr. James O. Davis, president of ChurchShift, believes the message from Ukraine will be welcomed in the United States.

"Most Christian leaders know that the greatest church growth in the world is taking place outside the US. Most recognize we need to recover our own culture, but do not know how," Davis said. "ChurchShift provides a path of success for our times."

The vision preached by Adelaja and practiced in his home church of Embassy of God is for every Christian believer to become a minister of the Gospel wherever they go. The vision is for church members to accept responsibility to bring the lifestyle of the Kingdom of God and its principles onto the earth in their daily lives.

"I believe in releasing people to bring the Kingdom of God into society," Adelaja states. "This is my conclusion after many years of pastoring, two million conversions to Christianity, 600 church plants and more than 30,000 members in our home church."

Davis noted that Embassy of God members bring their understanding of God's Kingdom in social areas of influence. At least 600 congregants ran for public office in the last elections and one member is now the mayor of Kiev, a city of 4 million. Another member is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ukraine and one young lady is representing God in entertainment as the reigning Miss Ukraine.

"If American Christians can get involved in their communities like Adelaja's church members did in Ukraine, I believe we can see a major cultural revolution in our generation," Davis said.

To introduce Adelaja's new way to do church in America, "ChurchShift Breakfast" meetings for pastors and leaders will be held to study and discuss the Kingdom principles taught in the book. They have developed a strategy to organize 1,000 breakfasts and Adelaja is urging churches to arrange their own breakfasts and represent the Ukraine pastor and the ministry.

Adelaja grew up a poor orphan in Nigeria and was raised in a Christian home by his grandmother. He did not own a pair of shoes until he was 12 years old and had to earn a living from the age of six. Through the prayers of his Christian grandmother, Adelaja gave his life to Christ at 19 years old. He traveled to the Soviet Union to study journalism on a scholarship and later founded Embassy of God Church after the Soviet Union was dismantled.

The Embassy of God Church is the largest church in all of Europe with some 100,000 total members, including those from all its satellite locations. Although African, Pastor Adelaja's church is 99 percent white Europeans. The church has planted more than 600 churches in more than 45 countries, including 20 churches in the United States.