PASTOR WILFRED LAI

Pastor Wilfred Lai, born on 11th April 1956, is the founder and lead pastor of Jesus Celebration Centre (JCC) and the General Overseer of JCC churches worldwide. Affectionately known as “Papa” by his congregation, Pastor Lai received a divine call to ministry in 1982 while working at Standard Chartered Bank in Machakos.

In 1983, he joined Life Ministry (Christian Campus for Christ) in Nairobi and was subsequently transferred to Mombasa as Director of the Coast Province. He became Senior Pastor in 1986 and founded JCC in 1991, growing the church from 60 members to over 10,000 in the Mombasa congregation alone. Today, JCC operates over 400 branches across Kenya with established churches in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Pastor Lai is widely recognised as a pioneer of television ministry in Kenya. He previously hosted the “Family Glory” programme on KTN, one of Kenya’s mainstream national television channels, before establishing JCC TV as a dedicated Christian television station broadcasting the Gospel 24 hours a day, 7 days a week across Kenya via Free-To-Air Digital Terrestrial Television (PANG DTT), Zuku Digital (Channel 880), and GoTV (Channel 85).

He has held the International and Interdenominational Pastors’ and Leaders’ Word Explosion Conference for over 25 years, consistently ministering to more than 50,000 people. He holds Prophetic Conferences that began in Kenya and now span all over Africa, where he ministers to Pastors and other leaders. He has established a ministerial training school (School of Ministry) in Mombasa, as well as schools comprising Junior School, Primary School and High School running from the Bamburi Centre.

Pastor Lai is a dedicated and able teacher of the Word of God, highly respected for his consistent and undivided commitment to the ministry. He is married to Rita Lai, and together they are blessed with two sons, David and Daniel, and four grandchildren.