Build Me an Army
The Evangelist Who Made Multiplication His Mission
Full Name: Morris Cerullo
Born: October 2, 1931
Died: July 11, 2020
Nationality: American
Spouse: Theresa Cerullo
Known For: International evangelism, Schools of Ministry, healing ministry, Christian broadcasting and leadership training
Major Ministry: Morris Cerullo World Evangelism
Signature Mandate: “Son, build Me an army.”
Morris Cerullo was one of the most internationally active Pentecostal and charismatic evangelists of the second half of the twentieth century.
Born into a Jewish family in New Jersey and raised for part of his childhood in an Orthodox Jewish orphanage, Cerullo testified that he accepted Jesus Christ as Messiah while still a teenager.
From those difficult beginnings emerged a ministry that would eventually take him across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Cerullo preached before large crowds.
He prayed for the sick.
He embraced television.
He published teaching materials.
But one aspect of his ministry ultimately became more important than simply gathering people around himself.
HE WANTED TO TRAIN OTHERS.
Cerullo repeatedly testified that during prayer in 1962 he received a divine mandate:
“SON, BUILD ME AN ARMY.”
Those words became the organizing principle of his ministry.
Instead of limiting his vision to large crusades led by a visiting American evangelist, Cerullo increasingly concentrated on training pastors, evangelists and national Christian workers who could continue ministering after he had left.
That philosophy became especially influential throughout the Global South.
His legacy remains significant and controversial.
Supporters remember a powerful evangelist who believed the Gospel should be demonstrated through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Critics challenged aspects of his healing claims, prosperity teaching, fundraising and ministry finances.
Yet through decades of international evangelism and leadership training, Morris Cerullo became an important figure in the globalization of modern charismatic Christianity.
EARLY LIFE
Morris Cerullo was born on October 2, 1931, in Passaic, New Jersey.
His childhood was marked by instability and loss.
His mother died while he was still young, and following additional family difficulties Cerullo eventually entered institutional care.
Part of his childhood was spent at the Daughters of Miriam, an Orthodox Jewish orphanage in New Jersey.
His environment was structured around Jewish religious identity, discipline and tradition.
For the young Cerullo, Christianity belonged to another religious world.
Then, during his teenage years, that began to change.
ACCEPTING JESUS AS MESSIAH
According to Cerullo's testimony, a Christian nurse named Ethel Kerr began speaking with him about Jesus Christ and gave him access to the Bible.
For a Jewish teenager living within an Orthodox environment, investigating Christianity carried major personal implications.
At approximately fourteen years old, Cerullo said he became convinced that Jesus was the Messiah and accepted Him as his personal Saviour.
The decision changed his life.
His Christian faith reportedly brought him into conflict with the religious environment in which he was living.
Cerullo ultimately chose to leave rather than renounce what he had come to believe.
He had already experienced the loss of family stability.
Now his new faith placed him into another period of uncertainty.
Yet he would later interpret those difficult years as preparation for a calling larger than anything he could then imagine.
THE CALL TO THE NATIONS
Around the age of fifteen, Cerullo testified that he experienced an intense spiritual encounter.
He described receiving a vision concerning lost humanity and eternity.
The experience left him with what he understood to be an overwhelming burden to preach the Gospel.
The boy searching for belonging now believed God was calling him to reach nations.
At that point, there was no international ministry.
No television platform.
No global School of Ministry.
No stadium campaigns.
Only a teenage Christian convert with a powerful conviction.
As he matured, Cerullo entered Christian ministry and later married Theresa, who became his lifelong partner through decades of international travel and ministry.
Their early years came long before the scale for which the Cerullo ministry would eventually become known.
THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL BREAKTHROUGH
A major turning point came in 1955, when Cerullo received an opportunity to minister in Greece.
According to his ministry accounts, finances were limited.
Resources that could have gone toward establishing the young family's future instead became connected with the opportunity to take the Gospel overseas.
Cerullo went.
The campaign became an important milestone.
He encountered government and religious obstacles concerning public evangelistic activity and later described spending prolonged periods in prayer while seeking a breakthrough.
The meetings eventually proceeded.
For Cerullo, Greece demonstrated that his ministry did not have to remain confined to the United States.
THE NATIONS COULD BE REACHED.
International evangelism increasingly became the direction of his life.
But as his opportunities multiplied, Cerullo confronted an unavoidable problem:
One evangelist could only preach in one location at a time.
That problem would ultimately reshape his entire ministry.
“SON, BUILD ME AN ARMY”
In 1962, while involved in demanding international ministry associated with his work in Brazil, Cerullo described reaching a point of physical and spiritual exhaustion.
He was preaching.
Praying for the sick.
Travelling.
Carrying the demands of mass evangelism.
According to Cerullo's testimony, he went before God asking how the work could be multiplied.
He did not want believers simply to observe what happened through his ministry.
He wanted them to become equipped to minister themselves.
During this season of prayer, Cerullo said God spoke the words that became synonymous with his calling:
“SON, BUILD ME AN ARMY.”
This became the blueprint for the next phase of Morris Cerullo World Evangelism.
The strategy would no longer simply be:
Bring Morris Cerullo into a nation.
Organize a crusade.
Preach.
Pray.
Then leave.
Instead, the ministry would increasingly focus on training national workers — pastors, evangelists and Christian leaders who already understood their languages, cultures and communities.
The visiting evangelist would leave.
THE NATIONAL WORKER WOULD REMAIN.
THE SCHOOL OF MINISTRY
From this multiplication philosophy emerged one of the defining features of Cerullo's ministry:
THE SCHOOL OF MINISTRY
Cerullo wanted Christians to understand and practise what he believed God had taught him about faith, evangelism, the Holy Spirit, healing and spiritual authority.
He frequently referred to equipped Christians as:
“PROOF PRODUCERS.”
By this, Cerullo meant believers who did more than talk about Christianity.
He wanted Christians whose lives demonstrated the reality of their faith through evangelism, transformation and supernatural ministry.
The School of Ministry model allowed Cerullo to move beyond personal evangelistic campaigns.
Instead of reaching only the people standing in front of him, he could train hundreds or thousands of ministers who would return to their own churches and communities.
One preacher could preach one sermon.
One trained pastor could preach for decades.
Thousands of trained leaders could multiply across nations.
That principle became central to Cerullo's global strategy.
AFRICA
Africa became one of the most important regions of Morris Cerullo's international ministry.
His ministry history places Nigeria among his important early areas of African engagement, while subsequent decades brought extensive work across the continent.
His campaigns, conferences and Schools of Ministry reached countries including:
Nigeria.
Ghana.
Kenya.
Zimbabwe.
South Africa.
And other African nations.
Cerullo entered the continent during a crucial period.
African Pentecostal Christianity was developing rapidly.
And increasingly, African leaders were rejecting the idea that Christianity on the continent had to remain permanently dependent upon missionaries from Europe or America.
African ministers were building churches.
Bible colleges.
Evangelistic organizations.
Media ministries.
And eventually global networks of their own.
Cerullo's emphasis on training national workers fitted naturally within that transformation.
MORRIS CERULLO AND BENSON IDAHOSA
One of the most important African leaders connected with Cerullo's wider ministry world was Nigerian Pentecostal pioneer Archbishop Benson Andrew Idahosa.
Idahosa became one of the towering personalities of twentieth-century African Pentecostal Christianity.
His vision was enormous.
He built churches.
Conducted evangelistic campaigns.
Established educational institutions.
Trained ministers.
And developed an international ministry.
Cerullo and Idahosa developed a significant relationship as their international evangelistic networks intersected.
They shared a powerful principle:
AFRICANS DID NOT EXIST MERELY TO RECEIVE MISSIONARIES. AFRICANS COULD BECOME MISSIONARIES TO THE WORLD.
Idahosa was demonstrating what indigenous African Christian leadership could accomplish.
Cerullo was developing systems designed to equip national Christian workers.
Their philosophies complemented one another.
Cerullo's Schools of Ministry and leadership training operated within the same growing environment in which Idahosa developed his All Nations for Christ vision.
The relationship symbolized a major change in missionary Christianity.
The flow of ministry influence was no longer moving in only one direction.
Africa was beginning to speak to the world.
BUILDING AN AFRICAN ARMY
The School of Ministry became especially significant to Cerullo's African legacy.
Success was not measured only by the size of a crusade.
Cerullo increasingly asked:
WHO WILL CONTINUE WHEN I LEAVE?
Pastors and Christian leaders gathered for intensive periods of training, prayer and practical ministry preparation.
The objective was multiplication.
One minister could return to one congregation.
Another could plant churches.
Another could become an evangelist.
Another could train yet another generation.
Among African leaders associated with Cerullo's training influence was Ghanaian minister Charles Agyinasare, who later founded what became Perez Chapel International and developed a significant evangelistic ministry.
Examples such as these demonstrated the logic behind Cerullo's strategy.
The goal was not to produce permanent dependence upon Morris Cerullo.
It was to reproduce ministry.
Cerullo's organization eventually reported that its training initiatives had reached millions of participants internationally.
Those cumulative totals are ministry-reported figures rather than independently audited counts, but they illustrate the extraordinary scale of the training vision.
HEALING AND SUPERNATURAL MINISTRY
Morris Cerullo was first and foremost an evangelist rather than an academic theologian.
His meetings frequently emphasized:
Salvation.
Divine healing.
Deliverance.
Faith.
The Holy Spirit.
And supernatural intervention.
People came expecting God to act.
Healing testimonies became a prominent feature of crusades and broadcasts.
Supporters believed Jesus Christ was healing the sick through the power of the Holy Spirit.
For historical accuracy, however, individual claims should be evaluated according to the available evidence.
Many healing accounts connected with Cerullo's ministry survive as faith testimonies reported by participants or the ministry itself.
The degree of independent medical documentation differs from case to case.
That distinction is important.
But it does not change the central place healing occupied within Cerullo's own ministry identity.
He believed Christianity should be experienced.
Not merely discussed.
FROM CRUSADES TO TELEVISION
Cerullo recognized early that technology could multiply ministry.
As Christian television expanded, he embraced broadcasting.
Television programmes carried his preaching, campaign footage, healing testimonies and ministry teaching into homes far beyond the locations where physical meetings took place.
Books extended his teaching further.
Recorded sermons allowed messages to travel independently of his physical presence.
Teaching materials could be translated.
Later, digital platforms expanded the reach again.
The methods evolved.
But Cerullo's fundamental objective remained consistent:
TRAIN OTHERS.
Technology was valuable because it could multiply people and ideas.
SUCCESS AND CONTROVERSY
Morris Cerullo's international success was accompanied by significant controversy.
Critics questioned aspects of his theology concerning:
Supernatural healing.
Prosperity.
Financial giving.
And spiritual warfare.
His fundraising methods also received scrutiny.
Questions were raised concerning the finances of large televangelistic organizations, including matters involving property, taxation, ministry wealth and donor appeals.
Some critics argued that emotionally powerful fundraising methods could cross ethical lines.
Others questioned extraordinary healing claims.
Cerullo and his ministry rejected many accusations and maintained that financial partnership allowed them to conduct international evangelism and train Christian workers around the world.
These controversies placed Cerullo within broader debates surrounding American televangelism.
Supporters saw faith and global missionary ambition.
Critics saw potential excess.
A responsible biography has to acknowledge both.
THERESA CERULLO
Behind the public ministry was Theresa Cerullo.
She shared the early years before international recognition.
She lived through decades of relentless travel and expanding ministry responsibility.
She witnessed crusades, media growth, Schools of Ministry and the development of an international organization.
Marriage to an evangelist whose ministry operated across continents carried its own sacrifices.
Theresa's contribution was less visible than Morris' public preaching, but she formed an important part of the foundation of his life and ministry.
Following his death, Theresa, the Cerullo family and Morris Cerullo World Evangelism continued preserving and distributing his ministry legacy.
THE LEGACY INTERNATIONAL CENTER
Near the end of his life, Cerullo turned his attention toward an enormous project in San Diego, California:
THE LEGACY INTERNATIONAL CENTER
The multimillion-dollar development incorporated biblical attractions, conference spaces, hospitality facilities and areas designed to preserve and extend Cerullo's vision.
It was an ambitious undertaking for a man approaching ninety years old.
But the name revealed what had increasingly become central to his thinking:
LEGACY.
Cerullo knew that his personal preaching ministry could not continue indefinitely.
The man who had spent decades challenging others to reproduce themselves now faced the same question:
What will remain when I am gone?
The Legacy International Center became one attempt to answer that question institutionally.
DEATH
On July 11, 2020, Morris Cerullo died.
He was 88 years old.
A ministry spanning generations had reached its conclusion.
The Jewish orphan from New Jersey had become an international Christian evangelist.
He had preached across continents.
He had stood before enormous crowds.
He had prayed for the sick.
He had become one of the recognizable figures of international charismatic ministry.
He had faced admiration.
Criticism.
Controversy.
And extraordinary growth.
But one concept remained at the centre of how Cerullo understood his assignment:
MULTIPLICATION.
Do not simply gather followers.
Train workers.
FROM FOREIGN EVANGELISM TO NATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Cerullo lived long enough to witness an extraordinary transformation in global Christianity.
When his international ministry began, foreign evangelists from Europe and North America still occupied a highly visible place in missionary Christianity.
By the later decades of his life, the landscape had changed.
African churches had become major international movements.
African evangelists were travelling across continents.
Asian churches were sending missionaries.
Latin American Pentecostal movements were growing internationally.
The nations that had once been described primarily as mission fields increasingly became missionary-sending centres themselves.
Cerullo's strategy of developing national workers fitted directly within this change.
His aim was not simply to establish foreign-controlled churches throughout the world.
He wanted people inside nations to take responsibility for their own evangelism.
This does not mean Morris Cerullo created indigenous Christianity.
He did not.
African, Asian and Latin American Christians built their movements through their own leadership, cultural contexts and spiritual histories.
But Cerullo's emphasis on equipping national ministers became one significant stream within that broader transformation.
LEGACY
How should Morris Cerullo be remembered?
He was a preacher.
An evangelist.
A healing minister.
A broadcaster.
A trainer.
An institution builder.
And a controversial figure within modern charismatic Christianity.
His ministry generated extraordinary testimony.
It also generated serious criticism.
His healing claims inspired faith and attracted scepticism.
His fundraising financed international ministry while also provoking ethical questions.
His prosperity teaching encouraged expectations of divine provision while becoming part of wider debates about money within charismatic Christianity.
But one aspect of his ministry stands out.
HE TRIED TO MULTIPLY HIMSELF.
Cerullo understood that stadiums eventually empty.
Campaigns end.
Broadcasts stop.
Famous preachers grow old.
If a ministry is going to survive, it must become larger than the personality at its centre.
This is why the words Cerullo associated with his 1962 spiritual experience became so important:
“SON, BUILD ME AN ARMY.”
BUILD ME AN ARMY
Consider the journey.
A Jewish child who lost his parents.
An orphan growing up within an Orthodox Jewish institution.
A teenager who accepted Jesus Christ as Messiah.
A young convert convinced that God was calling him to nations.
An evangelist entering Greece.
A preacher travelling through Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
A healing evangelist.
A television preacher.
A trainer of ministers.
A man who looked at the limitations of one person's ministry and decided multiplication mattered more.
The orphan became an evangelist.
The evangelist became a trainer.
The trainer spent decades attempting to equip men and women who could continue the work after he was gone.
That may ultimately be the key to understanding Morris Cerullo.
His deepest strategy was not:
Come and watch me.
It was:
YOU CAN BE EQUIPPED TOO.
Train the pastor.
Train the evangelist.
Train the missionary.
Train the national worker.
Send them back to their communities.
And allow the Gospel to multiply through them.
Morris Cerullo.
The Jewish orphan.
The Christian convert.
The international evangelist.
The healing preacher.
The broadcaster.
The trainer of national workers.
The controversial ministry pioneer.
A man who believed God had given him one unforgettable mandate:
“SON, BUILD ME AN ARMY.”
A GENERAL OF IMPACT
Generals of Impact preserves the stories of revivalists, missionaries, apostles, evangelists, pastors, teachers and men and women whose faith, sacrifice and obedience impacted generations.
Generations pass. Impact remains.