Saturday, 24 September 2016

HISTORY OF LIVING FAITH CHURCH

About Living Faith Church
THE MANDATE
"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."
(Delivered 2nd May, 1981)
                
Living Faith Church Worldwide a.k.a Winners' Chapel International whose primary objective is the development and upliftment of mankind. Stirring up the God given potentials embeded in people of all races and nations.

Our task is to liberate the entire world from all oppressions of the enemy both spiritual and physical through the teachings and preaching of the word of Faith, schooling them to exploits in life and releasing men and women to their full potentials to benefit humanity.

It is associated with the Communion of Bible Faith Ministries, dedicated to the empowerment of the total man and the discipline of character building in this high velocity society. It seeks to provide a compass setting for the making of responsible citizens and leaders of men in every nation by equipping them through training programs, materials as well as financial support.

We have through the grace given us of God, living proofs that this task is progressing with tremendous success by the testimonies of dramatic changes and improvement in the quality of life of the people every where our organisation is represented.


Organisational Structure
Living Faith Church Worldwide through it's missions arm; World Mission Agency (WMA) which provides employment opportunities wherever it exists, has a total staff strength that stands at over two thousand employees in Nigeria alone. This organisation which is made up of dynamic professionals has as its Chairman, Dr. David O. Oyedepo (Ph.D). He is also the Presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Church worldwide and the Senior Pastor of Faith Tabernacle, the 50,000-seater sanctuary reported to be the largest church auditorium in the world. It also stands as one of the largest single congregation in the world.


Church Network
Our first full fledged church which was established in Kaduna, northern Nigeria in December 1983, has today, a network of hundreds of flourishing churches spread across all the states and in every major city and town of Nigeria.
The network is a very formidable one. Under it the nation is divided into eight (8) Regions with each tagged as a Diocese. Each Diocese has its headquarters strategically located to enhance the coordination of the churches under its coverage. The diocesan headquarters are situated in the following cities: Kaduna, Port-Harcourt, Warri, Ibadan, Owerri, Abuja, Ilorin and Kano. A Diocesan headquarter is headed by a Bishop.
The Ministry headquarters located in Canaan Land, Ota, the border town between Lagos and Ogun State, houses the Faith Tabernacle sanctuary which records a full capacity attendance on Sunday mornings.


Operations
The World Mission Agency is a missionary organisation charged with the task of liberating the entire world from sin, sickness, poverty, failure and all such vices through Bible teachings and training, schooling men and women to exploits in life and releasing them to their full potentials to benefit their world.

Our missionary activities started in May 1994, with Africa as our focus, under a programme tagged African Gospel Invasion Programme (AGIP). This programme represents the phase one of our missionary endeavours. As at date, we have established 36 mission stations in 28 African nations. It is significant to note that the foreign missions have been positively affecting lives in their respective locations.

Due to the clear-cut transformation and obvious improvements in people's lives after attending the training school, WOFBI has continued to remain popular and relevant over the years. Together with the church activities, they are positively affecting the spiritual and socio-cultural milieu of their host nations.

As at December 1999, a total of over 48,000 students ranging from Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Judges, Members of the Diplomatic Corp, Gospel Ministers, Top Government Functionaries, Professionals from all walks of life, to the general populace have officially graduated from WOFBI at the foreign mission level where scholarship is also awarded as appropriate.

The coverage of the operations of the organisation is the entire world as it is spelt out in her mandate. Subsequently in December 2000, the phase two of our mission programme was commissioned, tagged Mission To The World (MTW) 2001. This is expected to network the remaining continents of the earth with our missionary activities. That is, sending missionaries and materials to other parts of the world in pursuit of our set objectives.
We believe that the positive influence would be generated, as it had been in the African nations where we presently operate.

The World Mission Agency (WMA) seeks opportunities to alleviate the sufferings of the masses not only by the Biblical teachings but also by providing relief support and materials as at when needed in a timely manner.

Examples of such are 1997 - Relief Operations in the KOMA HILLS, northern Nigeria where foods stuff, clothing and much needed basic materials were made available in container loads.

Eighty (80) water bore holes with portable drinking water were also provided to improve the sanitary health condition and general welfare of the inhabitants of nine communities.
On the International Level, in 1996, the World Mission Agency airlifted two separate shipments of assorted relief materials to War torn Liberia.

It is significant and humbling to mention that a number of heads of state and top government officials in some nations have officially and personally acknowledged the work of WMA and its influence on their people's lives.

Our foreign mission stations are fully equipped with their own infrastructures and provide employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled nationals in addition to rendering welfare assistance where necessary.


Establishments
To facilitate the effective execution of WMA's operations and to benefit the populace, the following establishments came to be:


Publishing
The publishing arm of WMA, known as Dominion Publishing House (DPH),as at today has rolled out over two million copies of Christian books which are mostly sold at subsidised rates and at other times distributed free particularly on the foreign missions. The 1996 ECOWAS Gold Award recipient, DPH has a fully staffed and equipped French Department that translate and publishes in French.
Today, these high quality impact serve as a lighthouse of truth and workbooks containing solutions in today's world of negative ideas and overwhelming complex situations.


Faith Academy
WMA is making significant contributions to education in Nigeria. It established the Faith Academy in 1999, a model Christian college geared towards raising pupils with a testimony of academic excellence and spiritual prowess. The Academy's working team is made up of carefully selected, professional men and women of proven integrity and outstanding teaching, administrative and technical capabilities. Their overall objectives are to help each child discover his or her purpose, release their potentials, nurture their latent abilities to become not only productive and fulfilled citizens but to be pacesetters in all areas of life.
Plans are underway for an extensive expansion program to establish Faith Academy in various other cities within the country.


Covenant University
In addition, to secondary education, our tertiary education system kicked - off with the official commencement of a university known as Covenant University which began in October 2001, raising professionals in diverse areas of learning.
We are focused on producing a people imbued with a deep sense of honesty, integrity and industry; meeting the needs of humanity at all levels. Of note is the fact that Seasoned intellectuals and professors with proven academic excellence and international acclaim will make up the faculty of the University.

Landmark University


Word of Faith Bible Institute
THE VISION
The Word Of Faith Bible Institute (WOFBI) is a ministry / leadership training center, which serves as the training arm of the Living Faith Church, World Wide. The institute runs periodic three weekly specialized courses termed " SPECIAL" The courses are designed to motivate participants positively, towards distinction, both in their Secular as well as Spiritual engagement
The vision of the institute is in line with the mandate given to Dr David Oyedepo in May 1983, when the Holy Ghost said to him: "I WILL THROUGH THIS MINISTRY RAISE THE FOUNDATION OF MANY OTHER MINISTRIES" For this reason the Institute's curriculum is designed to inculcate covenant excellence in leadership, ministry, social, economic, and other areas of human endeavors.


HISTORICAL LAND MARKS
The Institute took off September 1st 1986 at Kaduna, Nigeria, and subsequently established a campus in Lagos in the year1993. Since then, the Lagos campus alone had graduated over twenty thousand (20,000) students. Similarly, well over fifty thousand (50,000) students have graduated from the numerous campuses all over Nigeria, while about thirty thousand (30,000) graduated from different campeses in thirty-five African Nations where WOFBI has established presence.


COURSES OFFERED
1) Basic Certificate Course (BCC) 
This is the foundation course for those who have never attended any previous WOFBI program

2) Leadership Certificate Course (LCC)
This is a Leadership Development / Motivational Course, for those who have attended the BCC specialized program.

3) Leadership Diploma Course (LDC)
This is the Advanced Leadership Course, Open to those who have successfully passed through the WOFBI LCC program


IMPACT OF WOFBI
At WOFBI we do not offer mere secular education, we also provide deep spiritual enlightenment, as well as mental empowerment for exploits. WOFBI is not just a place of learning; it is actually a place of transfigurative encounter. In the words of Dr. David Oyedepo "There is no mountain any where, every man's ignorance is his mountain." It is your light that defines your limit. If you will submit to the forces of enlightenment, you will subdue every mountainous issue of your life.
Conclusion
Finally, the Word of faith that we teach and preach is not founded on theology or philosophy, neither is it aimed at propagating doctrines rather, it's a vehicle for the rescue and preservation of all peoples, irrespective of colour, creed or ethnicity.
Our Mission is to our generation!


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