Dag Heward-Mills is a Ghanaian Minister based in Accra, Ghana. He is the founder and Presiding Bishop of the Lighthouse Chapel International. He is also a prolific author, conference speaker, evangelist, apostle and theologian.
Heward-Mills was ordained into the ministry in 1990 at the Victory Church, London, and consecrated as a Bishop in 1996, by the International Ministerial Council of Great Britain.
He has trained more than 1,980 pastors and 470 lay ministers worldwide. Radically involved in mission efforts, he has sent 485 missionaries and built over 400 church buildings worldwide.
He also serves on the board of Directors of Church Growth International and the Pentecostal World Fellowship. He is founder of theNational Association of Charismatic and Christian Churches and served as its chairman until August 2003, when Steve Mensah of Christian Evangelistic Ministry (CEM) was elected Chairman for a two-year term as his successor.
Bishop Dag Heward-Mills has been involved in building multiple establishments over the years. One of the most notable features of Lighthouse Chapel International is the rapid production of building projects in several countries . The church currently has multiple church building projects, embracing the vision of 25,000 churches in 150 countries to invite more souls to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. There are currently over 400 physical church buildings, including the Qodesh headquarters in Ghana (this multi-structured building is one of the largest church complexes in Africa); a hospital, an orphanage and numerous schools.
Dag Heward-Mills Personal life
Dag Heward-Mills was born on the 14 May 1963 to a Swiss mother and Ghanaian father (Nathaniel and Elizabeth Heward-Mills) in London, United Kingdom.
He had his secondary education at Achimota School before proceeding to the University of Ghana Medical School, where he was trained as a medical doctor.
He met his wife Adelaide who was at the time a law student, attending the University of Ghana. After a few years of courtship, they married in 1990 and have been married for more than 20 years with four children. Lady Reverend Adelaide Heward–Mills supports Bishop Dag in his vision to win souls, plant churches and raise leaders. She speaks in women’s and young peoples’ conferences all over the world.
Adelaide Heward-Mills has been involved in Christian ministry all of her adult life and has served alongside her husband, Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, throughout their entire marriage. As an insightful speaker, she draws heavily from her education and background in law.
In addition to raising two sons and two daughters, she serves as Executive Director of the Daughter You Can Make it Ministry. She also speaks across the country on women’s roles in supporting their husbands, and she is in demand by women’s organizations throughout the nation as a celebrated speaker on issues concerning marriage and family. With echoes of her husband’s preaching style, Mrs. Heward-Mills boldly challenges women to serve as blessings to their husbands and families.
Dag Heward-Mills Lighthouse Chapel International
Heward-Mills founded the Lighthouse Chapel International church in 1987. He often states that God placed upon him the anointing to teach, and that led him to begin holding meetings in a classroom on his university campus that accommodated just a handful of people. As attendance steadily increased, larger and larger halls had to be used. In 1994, the church constructed a 3000-seater cathedral in Accra. However the congregation grew until finally, in 2006, he commissioned the construction of the one of the largest church complexes in Africa. Currently, attendance at his meetings have exceeded the capacity of this huge structure. Over the years Dag Heward-Mills’ also indoctrinated and inspired many of his members to become missionaries, pastors and workers to help build the denomination into an internationally reputable ministry.
From the humble beginnings of meetings in a small classroom, there has certainly been astounding growth that continues to spread. Dag Heward-Mills has since planted over 2000 churches in 68 different countries worldwide. The Lighthouse Chapel International denomination has both acquired and built multiple buildings, including the Qodesh – its international headquarters. The Qodesh is one of the largest, ultramodern complexes in Africa.
Mission work
The Bishop’s vision to encourage as many of his members as possible to work for his church is reflected today in the many camps he holds across the world. These camps have seen the birth of many “missionaries”, who made several sacrifices including giving up their jobs and livelihood and relocating themselves to different countries to start branches of LCI. Heward-Mills records the messages preached at these “camps” and offers them for sale in a compilation he calls “the Machaneh”— a compilation of all the camp messages.
Dag Heward-Mills and the Lighthouse Church are heavily involved in the raising, training, sending and supporting of missionaries to all corners of the globe. Dag Heward-Mills is marked by his strong emphasis on church planting and the spread of the Christian gospel through the sacrifice of Christians and obedience to God by ordinary men.
Conference speaker Dag Heward-Mills
Dag Heward-Mills is acknowledged in the Christian World as an evangelist, teacher and a highly respected minister of the Gospel. He has invitations to preach in several churches, ministries and organisations (both religious and secular), nationally and internationally.
Heward-Mills has said that he views conferences and conventions as part of the work the Lord has called him to do; freely sharing in a down to earth manner, the messages the Lord has laid on his heart. Many pastors, ministers of the Gospel, leaders, church workers and diverse congregations are thus encouraged and strengthened to continue in what he refers to as “the work of the ministry”.
He holds annual international conferences dubbed “Give Thyself Wholly – Work of the Ministry” conferences, in the United Kingdom, France, South Africa and Ghana. These were formerly known as the “Iron Sharpneth Iron Conferences”. These conferences bring together thousands of pastors, ministers, church leaders and workers from various denominations, all around the globe, whose participation often births fresh hope, new visions, revivals and higher levels of ministry. Dag Heward-Mills has also spoken at conferences including the Church Growth International and the Pentecostal World Fellowship conferences. He was this year re-elected to the 7-member executive board and advisory committee of the Pentecostal World Fellowship.
Author
As well as being the head of a large denomination, Heward-Mills is also one of the best-selling authors in the Christian world today.
He has written more than 40 books on several topics that are relevant especially for personal growth and success in the ministry.
His style of writing is notably simple and understandable, with a wealth of scriptures. The books include titles such as The Art of Leadership, The art of hearing, the renownedLoyalty and Disloyalty series of seven titles, the best-selling marriage counselling book Model Marriage and The Megachurch. His writings are now available in 27 languages including French, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish, and have been made accessible to millions of people worldwide. His works have been patronised by several church leaders of other denominations who claim to have tangibly benefited from key biblical insights in the books. The most popular of the books so far has been Loyalty and Disloyalty, which was accredited the Grand Award from the Ghana Christian Book Awards body in 2007. It is now one in the Loyalty series of seven books.
Anagkazo Bible School
Additionally he founded a bible school — The Anagkazo Bible Seminary, to train men and women in the practical work of the ministry. The Anagkazo Bible School is a full-time Bible Seminary with several thousand students worldwide, aimed at raising other ministers in the doctrines and practices of Bishop Dag and LCI.
Healing Jesus Crusades
Dag Heward-Mills operates as an “evangelist” since the commencement of the Healing Jesus Campaign in 2004, Dag Heward-Mills has travelled throughout Africa; crossing various borders with the sole purpose of spreading Christianity to other nations and cultures.
The crusades notably target the farthest and unreached parts of the world, usually poverty stricken and untouched by the Christian Gospel. The speeches by Heward-Mills at these campaigns is supposedly accompanied by the healing of various diseases and health challenges through the prayers of Bishop Dag.
Many claim to have witnessed the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the dumb speaking and the disabled walking. Heward-Mills also holds conferences for pastors at these crusades.
Leadership International With Dag Heward-Mills
Other projects that he has founded includes the Leadership International (an outreach into second-cycle institutions), that is aimed at inspiring students to join his movement and church.
Television and radio
His programs are seen and heard domestically and internationally on the radio and television in several countries. The ministry continues to produce CDs, DVDs, pamphlets, books and other Christian resource material. Although Heward-Mills is primarily known for his Healing Jesus Crusades in Africa and other third-world countries, the ministry is also active on the internet, videos, worldwide television and radio.
Humanitarian efforts
Dag Heward-Mills Ministries also caters to the poor, the sick, orphans, widows and prisoners.
Together with his team of professionally trained and qualified doctors, nurses and pharmacists, he diagnoses and treats patients free of charge.
His ministry has also established many schools in underprivileged communities and run a successful “Help the Helpless Charity” that reaches thousands of poor people in various complex situations. Rev. Mrs. Adelaide Heward-Mills, the Evangelist’s wife, runs and manages the ministry’s thriving orphanage built and structured in a way to replicate a home environment.
Experiences from working on the mission fields by way of the evangelistic crusades in deprived cities, towns and villages across Africa, have led Bishop Dag Heward-Mills to pick up his stethoscope again to provide medical care to the needy. He is often accompanied by professionally trained medical teams of doctors, nurses and pharmacists who hold medical clinics as part of the medical outreach to the remote and poor communities.
In 2008, the Lighthouse Medical Mission Hospital and Fertility Centre was founded. Several patients have been treated by Dr. Dag Heward Mills himself.
The First Love Church
In recent years, Dag Heward-Mills has began to pastor the First Love Church, the University wing of the Lighthouse Chapel International. He has handed over active preaching in his other churches (including the Qodesh)to his associate pastors and is the direct pastor of the church previously on the Campus of the University of Ghana but has moved into their own building at East Legon, Accra- Ghana.
Apart from his frequent travels to preach, Bishop Dag currently preaches to a growing congregation of over 1,000 young people at the First Love Church in Ghana.