Living Faith Church Worldwide

Living Faith Church Worldwide (also known as Winners Chapel) an Evangelical charismatic Christian denomination and a megachurch. The headquarters is located in Ota, Nigeria. The organization has since become a global network of churches with congregations in 65 countries.

This article is about the Christian denomination. For the 50,000 capacity headquarters auditorium, see Faith Tabernacle. For the church community, see Canaanland.
Living Faith Church Worldwide
ClassificationEvangelicalism
TheologyCharismatic
HeadquartersCanaanland, Km. 10, Idiroko Road, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria
FounderBishop David Oyedepo
Origin1983 (1983) Ilesha, Nigeria
Official websitefaithtabernacle.org.ng

History

The beginnings of the church date from May 1981 when Oyedepo (aged 26) had a spiritual encounter. He claims to have an eighteen hour supernatural encounter which was a vision from God. He says God spoke to him saying, "Now the hour has come to liberate the world from all oppressions of the devil, through the preaching of the Word of faith; and I am sending you to undertake this task".[1] In 1983, the church began operating with four members on December 11.[2]

Faith Tabernacle
Worship service at Faith Tabernacle, affiliated to the Living Faith Church Worldwide, in 2005, in Lagos, Nigeria

Canaanland was procured in 1998 and was initially 560 acres (2.3 km2), it is in Ota, Ogun, Nigeria. The church's international headquarters, Faith Tabernacle, was built in Cannanland between 1998 and 1999, taking twelve months to complete.[3] The foundation laying took place on August 29, 1998. The dedication of the building took place on September 19, 1999 with 97,800 people in attendance. The structure is purported to have been built without any debts.

In 1999, the BBC reported that Faith Tabernacle was the largest church in the world with respect to how many worshipers it can seat. It has a seating capacity of just over fifty thousand people. The largest church in terms of size is Basilica of Our Lady of Peace.[4]

On Dec 11 2013, Oyedepo's first son, David Oyedepo Jnr, ministered for the first time at the church's annual Shiloh gathering.

In December 2015, Oyedepo Jnr became the resident pastor of the Faith Tabernacle. Oyedepo announced commencement of the construction of a 100,000 capacity Faith Theatre.[5] The Theatre will be centralised within a 15,000 housing estate to be known as 'Canaan City'.

Beliefs

The Church is founded upon twelve core emphases The theological position of the church is Pentecostal.[6]

Organisation
Living Faith Church entrance in Canaanland

As of 2014, the Church was in 65 countries.[7]

Dominion Publishing House

The publishing house that grew out of Winner's Chapel was founded on 5 December 1992.[8] Dominion Publishing House has published over 120 books, most of which have been written by Oyedepo.

Beliefs

The denomination has a charismatic confession of faith. [9] [10]

Education

Several educational institutions are linked to the chapel, including Covenant University,[11] Landmark University,[12] Faith Academy[13] and over 150 Kingdom Heritage Model Schools.[14] In addition, there is a ministry training college called The Word of Faith Bible Institute.[15]

United Kingdom

In 2014, the church applied to open a Kingdom Heritage Model School in Kent. Concerns were raised by the National Secular Society about the church linking disobedience to witchcraft. The application was later withdrawn.[16][17]

Shiloh

Every year in December, the church hosts a global event called Shiloh. The church says the mandate for this event is drawn from the Bible books of Joshua 18:1 and 1Samuel 1:3. The event is held mostly in the first week of December.[18][19]

The church sees the purpose of the event as being to usher the visitation of God to his people. It also marks the end of the Church's calendar year.

As of 2012, there were millions in attendance. The Presiding Bishop also said up to 160 nations hooked up to Shiloh 2015, with nationals from 55 nations present at the Canaanland, Ota Ogun State.[20]

See also

References
  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20120602142147/http://domi.org.ng/about. Archived from the original on June 2, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. Martin Lindhardt, Pentecostalism in Africa: Presence and Impact of Pneumatic Christianity in Postcolonial Societies, BRILL, Netherlands, 2014, page 115
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20120428040226/http://www.africanpastors.net/Pastors%20Webpages/David%20Oyedepo.html. Archived from the original on April 28, 2012. Retrieved June 7, 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. "Church of the 50,000 faithful". News.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 7 February 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  5. Emmanuel Leke, Living Faith begins construction of 100,000-seat capacity auditorium Archived 2019-03-31 at the Wayback Machine, theeagleonline.com.ng, Nigeria, December 12, 2015
  6. "Winners Chapel Faith Tabernacle HQ". LGTNigeria. Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  7. Martin Lindhardt, Pentecostalism in Africa: Presence and Impact of Pneumatic Christianity in Postcolonial Societies, BRILL, Netherlands, 2014, page 115
  8. "12 Pillar Messages". Domionlinestore.org. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  9. Living Faith Church Worldwide, 12 PILLARS, faithtabernacle.org.ng, Nigeria, retrieved February 18, 2020
  10. Cecil M. Robeck, Jr, Amos Yong, The Cambridge Companion to Pentecostalism, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2014, p. 40
  11. https://web.archive.org/web/20120502042201/http://domi.org.ng/education/c-u. Archived from the original on May 2, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. University, Landmark. "Landmark University". Lmu.edu.ng. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  13. https://web.archive.org/web/20120429235203/http://domi.org.ng/education/faith-academy. Archived from the original on April 29, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. https://web.archive.org/web/20120501183932/http://domi.org.ng/education/khms. Archived from the original on May 1, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. https://web.archive.org/web/20120502053701/http://domi.org.ng/domi-network/wofbi. Archived from the original on May 2, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. "'Witchcraft' church in school bid". BBC News. 2014-11-06. Archived from the original on 2019-02-02. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  17. "Church of 'witch-slapping' pastor withdraws application to open UK school". 2015-08-25. Archived from the original on 2019-02-02. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  18. "Winners' Shiloh 2019 begins Tuesday". The Nation Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers. 2019-11-30. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  19. "Shiloh 2019: Oyedepo Charges Nigerians To Embrace Righteousness". Independent. November 13, 2019. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  20. "PICTURES: Bishop Oyedepo begins construction of 100,000-seat capacity auditorium". Nigeria News Today. Archived from the original on 22 September 2017. Retrieved 21 September 2017.

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