David Oyedepo The people that love
David Oyedepo really love him. Some say Bishop David Oyedepo has the largest church service in
the world, with an alleged 50,000 attending each Sunday service. Some even see him as
a god. A man named Adelaja Babatunde gave a shocking testimony about a
miracle that happened to him at one of Oyedepo's foot washing services.
Babatunde suffered from chronic back pain for 15 years. He's tried everything to relieve the pain,
but nothing worked, not even deep tissue massages. So, one day, Babatunde decided to
attend one of Oyedepo's foot washing services, where the churchgoers wash each other's feet.
The odd-sounding practice has been a significant part of Christianity since day one.
Jesus washed someone's feet in the gospels, much to the disappointment of his disciples,
who he rebukes and commands to wash other people's feet as he did.
So, there's a spiritual aspect to washing feet. Babatunde knew this,
so he brought a plastic container to the service.
Babatunde says that after the service, he went to an usher carrying tubs of footbath
water and asked if he could put some in a container to take home. The usher said yes,
and Babatunde poured the murky water into his container.
When Babatunde got home, he asked his wife to pour the water on his back then
massage it into the particularly pained areas. After the water soaked into his back,
Babatunde's pain was gone and never returned.
As it turns out, the water Babatunde took came from pastor Oyedepo's foot washtub.
Babatunde praised God, and Oyedepo's feet, for miraculous healing. He was excited enough to tell
his story on camera. The ministry recorded his account and posted it on their YouTube channel.
Oyedepo's ministry, Living Faith Church Worldwide, was more than happy to post the video.
It exemplifies everything the church stands for: whatever problem you have, Oyedepo can solve it.
However, Oyedepo doesn't require all his followers to rub their problems away
with his dirty foot bathwater. No, he usually requires something much more ridiculous: money.
Prosperity Gospel Pastor Oyedepo preaches what many call
prosperity gospel. Of course, he's not the only one. There are hundreds of preachers who
teach this version of Christianity. The most popular is Joel Osteen, and the craziest may
just be Kenneth Copeland. However, the most infamous is Jim Bakker, who stole millions
from people donating money to his church under the pretense he would use it to further his ministry.
Joel Osteen hasn't illegally misappropriated any funds. Still, he does preach essentially
the same concept as Bakker and Oyedepo: if you give to God's ministries, then God will reward
you with more wealth than you initially gave. Like a divine investment of sorts.
There are several churches like this in Nigeria,
where Oyedepo's flagship church is located. They ask people all around the world to give
to God's cause, and the first ministry they recommended above all others is their own.
Winners Chapel International Oyedepo's ministry is sometimes
called the Winners Chapel International because their followers supposedly all
become winners. And the chapel wanted to manufacture as many winners as possible.
It began with what Oyedepo calls an 18-hour vision in which God mandated him to rid the world of evil
and oppression in May of 1981. God spoke to him again in 1998, commanding him to build a church
big enough to hold his growing congregation. So Oyedepo, backed by divine intervention and
the tithes of his followers, built Canaanland, a 50,000-seat megachurch on 530 acres of property.
Every Sunday, large double-decker buses round up the 50,000 followers from several
towns around the church. From there, the congregants are driven to the church,
where they listen to Oyedepo tell them how God will pay them back for giving him their money.
They hold pamphlets in their hands while they listen, given to them by
a team of friendly ushers at the auditorium doors. There's key information inside the
pamphlet that encourages the followers to write down their debit card information.
The followers are also encouraged to recruit other people they know to join Winners
Chapel. They were instructed to look for a specific type of person: someone depressed,
anxious about their health or finances, or lonely. Then, they convince them to visit Winner's Chapel.
If Oyedepo's followers fulfilled these tasks, they would obtain immunity from all illnesses
in addition to financial prosperity. That sounds like the holiest of Pyramid schemes to us.
This system of targeted recruitment and divine promises on behalf of God helped
Oyedepo build a religious empire. There's a reason the church has 'worldwide' in its title.
The question is, with all these tithes coming in, where’s the money going? Or better yet,
who’s the money going to? We'd be willing to bet it's NOT going to the big man upstairs.
Lifestyle In 2011, a team of
Forbes journalists sifted through all of Oyedepo's purchase records: how much he paid for his house,
his cars, his investments, and any other assets with a paper trail. The Forbes
researchers eventually added up everything and came to a startling conclusion:
Pastor Oyedepo was estimated to be worth $150 million. And he doesn't try to hide it.
Oyedepo rides around town in a Rolls Royce Phantom. He flies from church to church
in his choice of two Gulfstream private jets. His ministry has planted churches
all around the world, so he flies quite a lot. The Winner's Chapel recently expanded
to England, where they opened up churches in London, Liverpool,
Birmingham, and Manchester. They even had churches in Dublin, Ireland.
The churches targeted the higher than average African and Caribbean immigrants living in
those areas. Some of Britain's former colonial subjects still hold close ties,
making it easier and more practical to immigrate there.
These churches collect unknown sums of money every week because no one actually knows
how much comes in. Since Oyedepo is a pastor and his churches are religious institutions,
he doesn't have to report his income to anyone.
Many experts describe Winner's Chapel as a for-profit business.
One Daily Mail reporter in England wanted to dig a bit deeper into
how Oyedepo used his services to bilk money out of his followers.
Undercover Operation The journalist attended
a Sunday service at Winners church in Kent, England. He conducted his research undercover,
observing the service as any other Winner's Chapel follower would.
Congregants received the same pamphlets with the same payment instructions. The
Mail journalist describes seeing around 1,000 immigrants listen to a sermon
and several testimonies from Oyedepo's followers.
The testimonies were filled with inspiring stories about how God saved their finances.
One person told the congregation about how prayer saved him from making a large payment to his bank.
The journalist would later compare the religious service to a business
conference, with God serving as the product and Oyedepo as the CEO.
Side Hustling The Daily Mail
continued investigating Oyedepo's churches in the UK. They uncovered what many journalists
in Africa already knew: Winner's Chapel isn't exactly what it appears to be.
The investigative journalists tracked
$21 million worth of funds back to several thousand Winners Chapel congregants.
The money was donated in exchange for a blessing. Oyedepo's son, David Oyedepo Jr,
promised these donors that God would bless them with wealth if they gave money to the ministry.
The Daily Mail's report is just another scathing journalist piece on Oyedepo
and his laundry list of controversies.
Witch Slap Oyedepo's
most blatant controversy occurred when he confronted a woman during a Sunday service.
The confrontation was captured on video via Chapel videographers.
The footage shows Oyedepo walking up to the woman and loudly accusing her of being a witch.
The religious fervor escalated until Oyedepo decided to rebuke her with a slap to the face.
The video was subsequently released online. Internet users on YouTube shared the footage like
crazy, with titles like "pastor slaps teenage girl." Instead of apologizing for the attack,
Oyedepo bragged about hitting the girl in a sermon. He even posted the sermon on YouTube.
Both Oyedepo's stunt and bragging were picked up by the media. They spread the story far and wide,
leading to the so-called witch getting a lot of sympathy from the public.
She used her newfound sympathy to file a lawsuit against Oyedepo. For hitting her,
publicly humiliating her, and making baseless unfounded claims, she wanted at least $1 million.
However, Nigerian courts didn't pick up the case,
the woman was never compensated, and Oyedepo was never charged with a crime.
Pandora Papers Oyedepo's most recent controversy
involves the infamous Pandora Papers. In 2021, a massive team of 600 journalists called the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists investigated a tax haven on
the British Virgin Islands. After looking through 12 million confidential documents,
they compiled their startling findings and released them under the name Pandora Papers.
Pandora’s Box comes from Greek Mythology. A woman named Pandora was given a box with
something very powerful inside. But she was told never to open it. And inevitably,
she opens it. And several evil forces are unleashed on the world.
The Pandora Papers were much like the mythological box in that they contained
the deep dark financial secrets of the world's wealthiest people, including Pastor Oyedepo's.
The papers detail how, in 2007, Oyedepo hired a London-based company called
Business Centrum Limited to help him set up a company in the Virgin Islands.
Business Centrum, in turn, sub-contracted another company called Trident Trust Group,
which officially set up a company called Zadok Investments Limited.
Zadok was then handed over to Oyedepo, who immediately bought $50,000 worth of shares.
It’s very common for someone hiding money to go through multiple companies.
Oyedepo wanted to make it as difficult as possible for authorities to track
down the origins of Zadok. So, the more complex, the better.
Oyedepo was the only person to buy shares of Zadok, a company with no employees,
no CEO, no products, and no revenue—just a name
on some documents. In the tax-evading business, this is just a shell company.
Several offshore firms were tasked with keeping Zadok, and many other shell companies,
a secret. But they had a major leak not long after Oyedepo created his company.
The ICIJ found the info and started their investigation. They found that Oyedepo
had created Zadok for his family. His son, Oyedepo Jr, was given 10%. His two daughters,
Love and Joy, were given 10% each. His son Issac, also a Winner's pastor,
received 10%. Oyedepo and his wife Faith are the largest shareholders at 30%.
As of now, Oyedepo hasn’t been charged or prosecuted for tax evasion and fraud.
Never-Ending Oyedepo hasn’t been
prosecuted for running any scams, slapping witches, or committing tax evasion. In fact,
Oyedepo has only expanded his ministry and increased his revenue stream.
Most people of his caliber get caught by this point in their career. American pastors such as
Robert Tilton and Jim Bakker were either being investigated or being prosecuted by this point.
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Let us know in the comment section would you rather have
to give $50 bucks to a prosperity preacher or owe $100 to the IRS?