Our History

In September 2019, we celebrated 50 years of what God has done through Haggai International. Please watch our 50th anniversary celebration video.

A Timeline of Haggai International

  • Beirut, Lebanon

    During Dr. John Edmund Haggai’s first trip outside the U.S., conversations with Christian leaders in Beirut, Lebanon, alert him to weaknesses in the Western missionary model.

  • Foundational Principles

    Dr. Haggai writes the foundational principles for the program which became Haggai International during days of solitude at the Bali Beach Hotel.

  • President Suharto

    During an evangelistic outreach in Indonesia, Dr. Haggai meets with President Suharto for the first time.

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Our Founder

John Edmund Haggai has been called a visionary, a Christian world statesman, an evangelist, and a master of the pulpit — all of which is true of this dynamic man of God.

Never content to follow the crowd, Dr. Haggai initiated a unique and forward-thinking mission plan in obedience to the Great Commission. A visit to Asia in the early 1960s convinced Haggai that changes in global geopolitics, brought about by the end of colonialism, required a new strategy for world evangelism. In 1969, after years of research, prayer, and development, he presided over the first advanced leadership seminar, designed to empower and mobilize nationals to reach their own people for Christ.

Haggai International has equipped and motivated more than 135,000 Christian clergy and lay leaders working in almost all the non-Western countries of the world. They multiply their effectiveness significantly by passing on their training to an average of 100 other leaders.

An alumnus of Moody Bible Institute (where he was named “Alumnus of the Year”) and Furman University and the recipient of honorary doctorates on both sides of the Pacific, Dr. John Haggai lived unflinchingly by his own motto: Attempt something so great for God, it’s doomed to failure unless God be in it.

He authored more than a dozen books, including How to Win Over Worry, The Influential Leader, My Son Johnny (who died in 1975 in his 25th year) and Success Secrets of the Bible.

John Edmund Haggai was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the eldest son of a Syrian immigrant and a New Englander whose English ancestors settled in America during the 1600s. While at Moody, he met and married Christine Barker of Bristol, Virginia. Atlanta, Georgia, was their base of ministry since 1961. (Mrs. Haggai went to be with the Lord in August 2019, a week after their 74th wedding anniversary. John Haggai was reunited with her and their son, Johnny, in Heaven on November 18, 2020.)

Our Founder


John Edmund Haggai has been called a visionary, a Christian world statesman, an evangelist, and a master of the pulpit — all of which is true of this dynamic man of God.

Never content to follow the crowd, Dr. Haggai initiated a unique and forward-thinking mission plan in obedience to the Great Commission. A visit to Asia in the early 1960s convinced Haggai that changes in global geopolitics, brought about by the end of colonialism, required a new strategy for world evangelism. In 1969, after years of research, prayer, and development, he presided over the first advanced leadership seminar, designed to empower and mobilize nationals to reach their own people for Christ.

Haggai International has equipped and motivated more than 135,000 Christian clergy and lay leaders working in almost all the non-Western countries of the world. They multiply their effectiveness significantly by passing on their training to an average of 100 other leaders.

An alumnus of Moody Bible Institute (where he was named “Alumnus of the Year”) and Furman University and the recipient of honorary doctorates on both sides of the Pacific, Dr. John Haggai lived unflinchingly by his own motto: Attempt something so great for God, it’s doomed to failure unless God be in it.

He authored more than a dozen books, including How to Win Over Worry, The Influential Leader, My Son Johnny (who died in 1975 in his 25th year) and Success Secrets of the Bible.

John Edmund Haggai was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the eldest son of a Syrian immigrant and a New Englander whose English ancestors settled in America during the 1600s. While at Moody, he met and married Christine Barker of Bristol, Virginia. Atlanta, Georgia, was their base of ministry since 1961. (Mrs. Haggai went to be with the Lord in August 2019, a week after their 74th wedding anniversary. John Haggai was reunited with her and their son, Johnny, in Heaven on November 18, 2020.)