David Oyedepo says that he was
born again on 15 February 1969 when he was 15. On 8 May 1981, Oyedepo convened a meeting with a group which later would go on to become his "Power House", made up of about 70 young men and women. On 17 September 1983, Pastor
Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God, ordained David and his wife, Florence Abiola Akano (known as Faith Abiola Oyedepo) to become pastors and officially commissioned the new church. Five years later, Oyedepo was ordained as Bishop by his life mentor, the late Archbishop
Benson Idahosa. According to
Forbes, Oyedepo is the wealthiest preacher in the world with a net worth of over US$150 million. The church owns four private jets and several buildings, including in London and the US. Oyedepo is an author and publisher. He is the chairman or publisher of Dominion Publishing House (DPH), a publishing arm of the ministry. DPH has over 4 million prints in circulation to date. Through Oyedepo; Covenant University, Faith Academy, and Kingdom Heritage Model Schools have been established to equip the youth for global impact. The construction of a third university named Crown University is already underway, located in
Calabar,
Cross River, Nigeria. In 1998, Oyedepo claimed he was instructed by God to build a new base for the commission to accommodate the increasing number of worshippers. This resulted in Oyedepo's church's acquisition of the initial facility, known as
Canaanland, which serves as the headquarters. It is the home of the 50,000-seat capacity auditorium, the 'Faith Tabernacle'. This was a feat also recorded by the Guinness Book of Records. Construction was completed within 12 months. Reports also claimed that this building was built debt-free. This 50,000-seat edifice was dedicated on 18 September 1999.
Canaanland is in Ota, Ogun state, and is the estate and campus, that houses The 50,000-seat auditorium, 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 the Covenant University facilities - which accommodates over 7,000 students, fully resident in ultra-modern hostel facilities – with fully equipped faculty buildings and numerous staff housing facilities. Canaanland campus also has for-profit establishments operated by the church such as a bakery, a bottled water processing plant, a petrol station, various restaurants and shopping stores, and several residential houses that provide for the over 2,000 church employees and guesthouses. Four banks are also present on 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. The whole of Canaanland which includes a proposed 15,000 housing estate known as Canaan City had increased to 17,000 acres as of 2012. The Ministry's biggest annual meeting Shiloh is held every December in the same Faith Tabernacle and often welcomes thousands of congregants across the world. The ministry is currently building a 100,000-seater auditorium called the "Ark", which is reputed to be the building with the largest span in the world. When the auditorium was first announced in 2015, it was called the
Faith Theatre. ==Christian Ministry==