Ten Facts you need to know about Bishop David Oyedepo
1. Records
Bishop David Oyedepo is the founder and president of the Living Faith Church World Wide, also known as Winners’ Chapel, in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. The ministry has a 50,000 seat church auditorium “Faith Tabernacle”, and it is reported to be the largest church auditorium in the world by the Guinness Book of Records and now the Ministry has started the construction of a new 100,000 seat Church auditorium with a rotating alter.
The ministry has planted over 5000 churches in Nigeria and over 3000 around the world.
2. Family
In 1982 he married Florence Abiola Akano (now known as Faith). They have four children, two Boys: David Oyedepo Jr and Isaac and two girls: Love and Joyce.
David Oyedepo Jr and Isaac Oyedepo were ordained as Pastors in May 2007 by Kenneth Copeland. David Oyedepo Jr, was the pastor London Branch of the Church with his wife, Kemi but now he is the current resident Pastor of Faith Tabernacle while Isaac Oyedepo is the present Resident Pastor of Winners’ Chapel International, South Africa.
3. Scholarships
Bishop David Oyedepo and his organization founded over 100 educational institutions for primary “kingdom Heritage Model School”, secondary “Faith Academy” and tertiary stages of formal Education.
Covenant University was opened to students on October 21, 2002, and was adjudged to be the best private university in Nigeria as of 2005, the best in West Africa; also in February 10, 2015 the University was ranked the positions of the 12th and 13th best University in Africa by both webometrics and repositories in Africa. They have a vision of being the best tertiary institution in the world.
On March 21, 2011, Landmark University, Omuaran Kwara State (another educational institution founded by the Ministry) officially opened for the first students and it was founded to build up a world class agricultural standard University and raise world class agricultural men in Nigeria.
4. Wealth
In 2011, Forbes named him the richest pastor in the world. And nobody has been able beat his records yet. Oyedepo is the wealthiest preacher in Nigeria with a net worth of over USD150 million. The church owns four private jets and several buildings around the world, including real estate in London, UK, and in the United States.
5. Christian journey
Bishop David Oyedepo became born again on February 19, 1969 when he was 15 years old through the influence of his missionary teacher Ms Betty Lasher, who took a special interest in him during his secondary school days. He shared his first gospel in 1970 and has been on it till date. He also rejected a charm his father gave him.
As a secondary school student, he challenged god to heal him of tuberculosis after his mates took their beds away from him and he was healed.
6. Ordination and Ministry
Bishop David Oyedepo and his wife were ordained by Pastor E.A. Adebayo and officially commissioned the church on September 17, 1983, two years after the Liberation Mandate was delivered to him in an 18 hour vision to liberate mankind from all oppression of the devil through the preaching of the world of faith.
In 1988, five years after he was ordained a pastor, Dr David Oyedepo was ordained Bishop by Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa.
7. He is not banned from UK
In the end of summer 2014 there were rumors that the UK Home Office has barred the multi-millionaire Nigerian preacher from entering the United Kingdom. But David Oyedepo stated it was false information through his spokesperson.
8. Dominion Publishing House
Bishop David oyedepo has written over 70 Christian, inspirational and motivational books and has been published by the ministries publishing house called the Dominion Publishing House. The Dominion Publishing House was commissioned in December 5, 1992. It has since then published books, mini books, magazine and other resource and has over 4 million prints in circulation today.
9. Education
very little is known about Bishop David Oyedepo’s primary and secondary school days but he studied Architecture in Kwara State Polytechnic now University of Ilorin. He worked in Federal ministry of housing for a while before resigning to concentrate in full time ministry. He also gained a PhD in human development from Honolulu University, Hawaii, United states of America.
10. Family Background
Bishop David Oyedepo was born in Osogbo on the 27th of September 1954, but he is a native of Omu-Aran, Kwara state Nigeria. He was raised in a mixed religious his father was a Muslim healer while his mother was a member of Eternal Order of Cherubim and seraphim movement. He was raised by his Grandmother who was a devoted Anglican. It was his grandmother that inculcated to him the virtues of Christianity and he has been living with them from them till now.