Below Ichie Tiko Okoye takes a look at the President of the Living Faith Church Worldwide a.k.a. Winners Chapel International, who celebrated his diamond birthday anniversary yesterday.
Former United States President John F. Kennedy was quoted as defining ‘success’ to mean “The full use of one’s powers along lines of excellence.” I couldn’t agree more with him whenever I mull over the life and times of Dr. Oyedepo, a man of many sides and perspectives – astute administrator, prolific author, great thinker, philanthropist par excellence, world renowned minister of the Gospel and master-builder in the Lord’s vineyard, statesman, and a confidant and counsellor of many religious, political and business leaders around the world.
Apostle Paul once felt constrained to inform the Corinthian church that “But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain.” It is equally not surprising that Dr. Oyedepo is wont to tell those around him that “I thank God I’ve not wasted my life.” His has been a life that has been most productively engaged. At various times, his ministry has been subjected to all manner of vicious criticisms even by fellow ministers of the gospel who ought to know better. He has characteristically reacted to such unwarranted attacks by re-focusing his energy and resources on making more life-changing discoveries in the Book of life.
“Spiritual education,” he often says, “is an asset of inestimable value because exploits in life and ministry is a function of the amount of revelation of the word of God an individual has.” And when he says like Apostle Paul that “I laboured more abundantly than they all,” those who are privileged to know him up close and are familiar with his workaholic lifestyle know exactly what he is talking about.
Dr. Oyedepo gave his life to Christ at the age of 15 years in 1969. The teenage David displayed an uncommon zeal for the House of God. He got a vacation job in 1973, at the age of 19, as a relief teacher in Dumagi in Shonga LGA of Kwara State. Upon learning that there was no church in existence in the remote village, a shocked David vowed not to leave without planting a church.
Within 40 days of his arrival in the village, the first church service was conducted in a makeshift structure, with him as the preacher and a co-teacher as interpreter! At the farewell service organised to honour him, he was presented a kerosene lantern (bush lamp). The eldest member of the fledgling church that spoke on behalf of others may not have imagined how prophetic his words would be when he ended his speech by saying, “Silver or gold we have not, but what we have we give to you; may the light you have brought to our village shine round the world”!
He received a call to the ministry in 1981 at the age of 27. That same year, he kick-started ‘The Faith Liberation Hour,’ a weekly fellowship. At 29, Dr. Oyedepo was commissioned into full-time ministry by Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God on September 17, 1983.
He published his first two books – The Law of Faith and The Miracle Seed – in 1985 at the age of 31. To date, Dr. Oyedepo has authored 93 titles, with about 10million copies in circulation! Most of these books have also been translated into several languages, including French, Indonesian and Spanish. At 32, Dr. Oyedepo founded the Word of Life Bible Institute (WOFBI) in Kaduna in 1986. What started with less than 30 pioneer students in a facility in Kaduna has today spread its tentacles to every major city in Nigeria and over 60 foreign nations.
He was aged 35 when God directed him to move down to Lagos in 1989. The membership of the little church that started with only 300 members at Iyana-Ipaja has since exploded to about 200,000 worshippers on a wide expanse of land called Canaanland in Sango-Ota!
At 41, his ministry sent forth the first set of missionaries to Congo Kinshasa, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia and Sierra Leon, in January 1995. Today, the ministry has hundreds of churches in over 66 nations spread across the world.
At 45, Dr. Oyedepo’s ministry dedicated the Faith Tabernacle, a 50,000-seat architectural masterpiece rated by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest church auditorium in the world. A month later, on October 25, 1999 the ministry established its first secondary school, a full boarding school called Faith Academy, at Canaanland, Ota. Today, it has 154 primary schools and over 40 secondary schools within and outside the shores of Nigeria.
At 48, his ministry dedicated its first university called Covenant University (CU) on October 21, 2002 with 1,500 pioneer students. A second university, Landmark, was commissioned in Omu-Aran on March 19, 2011. Both universities are ranked No.1 and No.2 overall best private universities in Nigeria, and while CU is ranked the second best university in the nation, Landmark is ranked No.8 in 2014!
The Webometric Ranking apart, the high quality of the academic programmes in academic institutions owned by the ministry is further underscored by the fact that in 2013 and 2014, CU First Class graduates accounted for about 10 per cent of the total number of successful candidates in the Presidential Special Scholarship Scheme for Innovation and Development (PRESSID) targeted at first class graduates from Nigerian universities, leaving the over 120 others to share the remaining 90 per cent!
Dr. Oyedepo is Founder and President, David Oyedepo Foundation (DOF), whose vision is geared towards restoring the dignity of man by creating platforms for empowering the vulnerable segments of the population, such as widows, orphans, and indigent academically brilliant students. Dr. Oyedepo is the visioner/chairman of the African Leadership Development Centre (ALDC) at Covenant University, principally established for the purpose of developing leadership capacity and practice in Africa.
Oyedepo is married to Pastor Faith, his longest serving associate in ministry, and their fulfilling 32-year marriage is blessed with children and grand children.