David Oyedepo and the Faith Tabernacle, Nigeria

David O. Oyedepo is the founder, senior pastor and presiding Bishop of the megachurch Faith Tabernacle in Ota, Ogun State. Nigeria. It is also known as Winners’ Chapel International. It is the largest church in the world with regard to a seating capacity of 50,400.
( The Basilica of of Our Lady of Peace, in Rome, is a bigger building .)

David comes from a mixed religious family. His grandmother introduced him to the virtues of Christian life via early morning prayers which she attended with him. She taught him to tithe.

In 1969 he was ‘born again’ through the influence of his teacher, Betty Lasher.

He studied to be an architect and briefly worked with the Federal Ministry of Housing. He resigned to concentrate on missionary work. He received a PhD i Human Development from Honolulu University, Hawaii, USA.

He says In May 1981 he received a mandate, through an 18 hour vision from God, to liberate the world from the oppression of the devil by preaching the word of faith. As a result he founded Liberation Faith Hour ministries, which later became Living Faith Church World Wide (LFCWW) .

17th September 1983 David and his wife Florence (now known as Faith) were both ordained pastors by Pastor Enoch Adeboye , the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. 1988 David is ordained bishop.

The church was founded on the 11th of December 1983. Cannanland was procured in 1983 and was initially 560 acres. The foundation laying took place on 29th August 1998. The church’s international headquarters , Faith Tabernacle was built in Cannanland between 1998- 9 and took 12 months to complete. It was dedicated in September 1999.

David’s church runs its own publishing company- Dominion Publishing House.
It was commissioned on 5th December 1992. It has published 70 Christian, inspirational and motivational books, magazines and other resources. It has over 4 million prints in circulation to date (See* Book Publishing* )

Cannanland is turning into Cannan City. It has Covenant university, Faith Academy secondary and Kingdom heritage model schools, plus shops, restaurants and housing. In 2012 it was proposing to build a 15,000 housing estate on the 17,000 acres. ( See Place of worship)

The church owns 4 private jets and several buildings in London and USA.

The Chapel International network of churches is now located in over 300 cities, in all states in Nigeria, and in several cities in 45 African nations, the UK and USA. David had been recognized as one of the pioneers of the Christian charismatic movement and exponent of prosperity theology in Africa. He is one of the most powerful preachers in Nigeria and is Chancellor of both the Covenant and Landmark University.

In March 2020 he opened his church during the COVID -19 pandemic
(Read Sunday service after backlash)

Sources used
Oyedepo speaks on Sunday after backlash
wikipedia