The Rise... Rise... and Meteoric Rise of Nation-Churches... Living Faith Church International. Pt2

Living Faith Church Worldwide aka Winners Chapel International. Part 2 

 

By Leke Beecroft

continue...

 ©ChurchGist
The international headquarters of Winners Chapel is called Faith Tabernacle. It covers about 66 acres and is built inside an over 17,000-acre church complex called Canaanland, the international headquarters of the ministry in Ota, a suburb of Lagos. The building took 12 months to be completed. The foundation laying took place on August 29, 1998 and the announcement of the time frame of one year for the building project was announced on September 13, 1998 by Bishop Oyedepo at the Iyana Ipaja church while work began on September 18, 1998. The dedication of the building took place on

September 19, 1999 with 97,800 people in attendance. In December 1999, new bishops were ordained, notable among them is Bishop Thomas Aremu who remained in the ministry as vice-president and now as a Missioner. Furthermore, the church administration system was improved upon and dioceses were created to be in charge of states in Nigeria. Continents were also structured administratively. More pastors were ordained and ranked administratively; Regional Pastors head the dioceses and watch over state pastors. Under the state pastors are the resident pastors, provincial pastors, assistant provincial pastors, assistant pastors and so on. In 2015 December, Pastor David Oyedepo Junior, first son of the Presiding Bishop became the Resident Pastor of Faith Tabernacle. ©ChurchGist

Faith Tabernacle, a fulfilment of one of the prophecies at the Power House, is presently the second largest church building in the world, with a sitting capacity of 50,400 people and an outside overflow capacity of over 250,000, with five services every Sunday. Works completed in Canaanland till date is estimated to be not less than $500 million with the founder, Bishop Oyedepo always asserting “There is no dime of American money” in this ministry, asserting that there are no foreign sponsors for the work. The Church is presently embarking on a new project which is the CanaanCity Project, a 15,000 housing estate made up of 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom, duplex and terrace homes. This is a $1 billion dollar (N500 billion) housing scheme which is set to be the second largest housing project in the world and the largest housing scheme in Africa. The Church is also embarking on the N50 billion ($100 million) project Faith Arena, a 100,000 capacity church auditorium as well as an overflow facility for another 100,000 which is set to become the largest in the world if completed as scheduled.

As an educationist, Bishop David Oyedepo's mission currently pioneers the establishment of educational institutions at all levels in and outside Nigeria, including Covenant University with over 7,000 students, Faith Academy with 1,500 students and Covenant University Secondary School with another 1,000 students ©ChurchGist. The three are located in Canaanland. Covenant University has consistently been adjudged the best private university in Nigeria from 2005 till date as well as the best university, public or private in Nigeria in 2013. One of the goals of the institution is to be among the best in the world by 2022. According to Bishop Oyedepo, "Covenant University is not just an institution, it is a revolution in education".

The second university of the church, Landmark University is in Omu Aran, Kwara State. Construction at Landmark University is estimated to be in the realm of about $150 million. The university was licensed in March 2011 and presently ranks among the best of Nigeria’s 140 universities. Landmark University consists presently of 1,400 acres. There are plans for 5 more universities to be constructed across Africa including a University in Goshen and Crown University, Calabar in Nigeria. Others are in Accra, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nairobi, Kenya. 1,000 acres of land has already been acquired for the university in Ghana while 300 hectares (about 750 acres) has been acquired for the Congo university- a French speaking university.©ChurchGist

Winners' Chapel also runs about 20 Secondary schools and over 150 Primary and nursery schools in Nigeria with the latter- KHMS ( nursery/primary schools) in other countries of Africa as well as UK. The secondary schools are known as Faith Academy, Covenant University and Landmark University Secondary Schools respectively. The Nursery and Primary Schools are known as Kingdom heritage Model Schools (KHMS). Some of the secondary schools are located in Badagry, Benin, Ilorin, Warri, Ota, Iyana Ipaja, Ibadan, Omu Aran, Lokoja, Asaba, Kaduna and Osogbo. The mission is presently working on plans to build at least a secondary school each in every country in Africa. It also has a Bible School, called The Word of Faith Bible Institute (WOFBI); this is the Bible School with the highest turnover of graduands in Africa with branches in over 50 countries worldwide including the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. As at 2004, WOFBI had trained over 100,000 people all over Africa. WOFBI has 21 campuses in the Lagos Area.©ChurchGist

The Church in fulfilment of the Power House prophesy to preach the gospel on wings now has three aircraft including a fixed wing Challenger 604 which is listed in the Forbes 500. The fleet includes a helicopter. The Church fleet is known as the Dominion Airlines which is used strictly for missionary work and the church has also procured an aircraft Hangar at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. The Dominion Aviation Center, a Hangar owned by the church costed about $2.5 million (N350 million). The second aircraft was once relocated to the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja for use by the Executive Vice President, Bishop David Abioye.

An arm of the Ministry, World Mission Agency (WMA) provides welfare and other health and humanitarian services to the needy in the society. Hundreds of millions are administered in scholarships for education up to first degree level to church members through the David Oyedepo Scholarship Scheme and channelled through the Satellite Fellowships where membership is validated, After the bomb blast that rocked the Ikeja Cantonment at the turn of the last decade, the Red Cross announced that the consignment from the Winners Chapel was the largest by a single organization since the Nigerian Civil War. Also, the WMA has moved aggressively into Koma hills in Northern Nigeria where it sunk 47 boreholes in 1997 and built nursery, primary and secondary schools.©ChurchGist The Church also provided relief to Liberian citizens during the Liberian Civil War. The Winners Chapel recently completed the construction of "Goshen" which is a camp like Canaanland in Abuja and is located along kilometre 26, Abuja-Keffi Road. It has an ultra-modern auditorium which accommodates over 15,000 and a secondary school, Faith Academy, a Youth Centre as well as Kingdom Heritage Model School (nursery and primary) which were all dedicated on Oct 2nd 2010. The auditorium is a replica of the Faith Tabernacle. Goshen is complete with a dual-carriage way running through the 740 acre facility with street lightning as well as a housing estate with over 45 housing units among others and all these were constructed in only 15 months. There are plans for a university to be built in Goshen. Goshen is the Mission Headquarters of the Living Faith Church and is pastored by the Executive Vice President, David Abioye. All over Nigeria and Africa, Winners Chapel have a lot of architectural masterpieces which emphasize utility. The use of pillars in her auditoriums are de-emphasized as this enables every worshipper to have visual access to the altar. Winners’ Chapel, Wonderland, Kenya, a 15.000 capacity auditorium is also the largest in East and Central Africa. ©ChurchGist

Every December, Winners' Chapel holds its annual Prophetic gathering, called Shiloh. The annual Shiloh event and normal church services at the Faith Tabernacle can be viewed online real time. ©ChurchGist Viewing centres also exist all over the world in all church branches and zonal fellowships for those who are not privileged to attend Shiloh. The 2013 Shiloh event recorded over 3.5 million hits online from over 170 countries and well over a million in attendance live and by 2016, there were over 7 million hits in 190 countries.

Asked of the secret of the growth of the Church within a short period, David Oyedepo replied “We do nothing except as commanded”.

Leke Beecroft is an author, historian, artist and Air Traffic Controller.