Living Faith Church (a.k.a Winners Chapel) started in Kaduna, but David Oyedepo moved to Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria in September 1989, to start a new branch after receiving an instruction from God to reach out to the population in Lagos. This Church in Lagos grew to become the International headquarters of Living Faith Church, with a constantly increasing flow of crowds spilling over to adjacent roads, and on decks of uncompleted buildings nearby, compelling people to stand for hours to listen to his teachings. This led to the building of the renowned Faith Tabernacle, as instructed by God.
LARGEST CHURCH AUDITORIUM
In 1998, David Oyedepo set forth to build a new building to accommodate the increasing number of worshippers. This resulted in the Ministry’s acquisition of the initial 530-acre (2.1 km2) facility, known as Canaanland, which serves as the headquarters of the Ministry. It is the home of the 50,000-seat capacity auditorium, the ‘Faith Tabernacle’, which is reputed to be the largest Church auditorium in the world; a feat also recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The speed of the construction of Faith Tabernacle was breath-taking, considering the size of the building. Construction of this gigantic project was completed within 12 months, which experts claim could only have been a miracle, because such a project would normally take a minimum of three years to complete. To the glory of God, this building was also built debt-free. This 50,000-seat edifice was dedicated on September 18, 1999.
Canaanland is in Ota, a suburb of Lagos and is the 5,000-acre (20 km2) estate and campus, that houses the 50,000-seat church building, the church secretariat, the church’s youth chapel, a primary school called Kingdom Heritage Model School, a full boarding mission secondary school called Faith Academy with over 1,500 students, and Covenant University which accommodates over 7,000 students, fully resident in ultra-modern hostel facilities, with fully equipped faculty buildings and numerous staff housing facilities. Canaanland also houses other establishments operated by the church such as a bakery, a bottled water processing plant, a petrol station, various restaurants and shopping stores, several residential houses that provide for the over 2,000 church employees, and guest houses. Four banks are also located in this estate, three of which are branches of external commercial banks and one which is a community and micro-finance bank operated by the Church.