THE WORLD’S LARGEST CHURCH STADIA:
NIGERIAN CHURCHES MAKE ESTABLISHED MEGA CATHEDRALS IN CHRISTENDOM LOOK LIKE CHILD’S PLAY
*As Living Faith Church erects largest Church building in history in less than 4 years.
*Dunamis, Salvation Ministries also.
By Daniel Breakforth
“Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?” John 2:19-20
“And I say also unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. “
Matthew 16:18
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and GREATER WORKS than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” John 14:12
Records are made to be broken. One undeniable evidence of the works Jesus left behind was the gathering of the multitudes to hear the Word in order to experience a change of story. A dictionary definition refers to ‘multitudes’ as exceeding 100 but Jesus gathered 5000 men apart from women and children which amounts to mega multitudes.
In this age, we have seen gatherings of mega multitudes much more than the ones Jesus gathered…greater works! It is therefore not surprising that just like back then, some of the mega and mixed multitudes are after bread. At that time, they wanted bread; however, right now they want not just bread but factories (Some might be in comments below) …and…no, not by their governments taxing or profiting from them but by the Church.
Jesus before his ascension commissioned his Apostles to reach the ends of the earth. Interestingly, the Apostles began to gather crowds almost immediately. Luke records in Acts 2:41.. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were ADDED to them about THREE THOUSAND souls. Again in Acts 4:4…But MANY of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about FIVE THOUSAND. By Acts 13:44…And on the sabbath day came ALMOST THE WHOLE CITY to hear the Word… So crowd gathering is scriptural!
Scriptures provided a template for continuity of the gathering crowds. They go from strength to strength, everyone of them appeareth in Zion…No wonder the people were either in the Wilderness for 3 days camping or in the Temple early for to hear him…Luke 21:8. That was why Peter and John met the crippled man at the Temple gate called BEAUTIFUL at the hour of prayer and at other times broke bread from house to house. In essence, be it in the Wilderness, Temple or meeting from house to house, a major aspect of christianity is gathering in fellowship.
Peter was eventually martyred and a mega church structure, St Peter’s Basilica was built on his tomb between 319 and 326 AD by Emperor Constantine. Overtime and about 1,200 years later, the building had begun to degenerate and was in great need of repair. Consequently Pope Julius II demolished the building and began a new one on the same site. The new Church built on 5.7 acres was completed and dedicated in 120 years. St. Peter’s Basilica is a historical building considered the most important of the 4 major basilicas in Rome and by inference, the most important Catholic Church on Earth. The Basilica remains one of the most significant architectural marvels. Though it is not the birthplace of Roman Catholicism nor the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, it is considered one of the Holiest Roman Catholic sites. The building became the largest church building ever built in 1626 and will be 400 years old by 2026. St Peters Basilica is functional and holds masses…everyday…at the same spot where efforts were made to destroy Christianity permanently.
As Christianity exploded in Europe and the Americas, missionaries of various missionary organizations began to consider exporting Christianity to the so called ‘dark continent’, By the early 20th century, the Azusa Crusades erupted in America and from the 1920s, Africa and especially Nigeria began to perceive the first wave of apostolic revival. From the emergence of Apostle Joseph Babalola during the Revival of Oke Ooye in the 1930s to the divinely inspired decision by Archbishop Idahosa, the Father of ‘modern’ Pentecostalism in Africa to build the first stadium Church in Africa in 1983, Pentecostalism was on a steep trajectory. Today, the Idahosa led Church of God Mission’s Faith Arena lies at 23 Upper Adesuwa, GRA Benin City, Nigeria.
Records are meant to be broken. In 1985, Houphoet Boigny, the President of Cote diVoire, a Catholic, decided to make Africa and specifically his hometown, Yamassoukro, the home of the world’s largest church. Largely shunned by the Catholic world and almost ignored by Pope John Paul II, it took some effort to get the gargantuan structure dedicated by the Pope. The Guinness World Records eventually recognized Our lady of Peace in Yamassoukro as the World’s largest Church.
In the words of Benson Idahosa, they used to call us ‘mushroom’ churches and now we have become ‘Much Room’ churches. With the passage of Idahosa in 1998, the era of ‘much room’, truly Mega African Churches commenced and were described in the words of Leke Beecroft as ‘Nation Churches’. Not only were the crowds gathered, like harvest, there was need for ‘barns’ to preserve them. Regular crowds never seen before in christendom indicative off overripe African harvest became a norm.
First was the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) with Lekki ’98, a 7.2 million man gathering. For this, the RCCG presently has a 3km by 3km auditorium called the New Arena. The Arena is a ‘Conglomeration of Mega Pavilions’ and as such does not constitute a regular closed door, air conditioned, door and window fitted auditorium. It is such that the scale of structures, RCCG is involved in is not matched globally. According to Peter Wagner, the Old RCCG Arena is about 86 football fields while Deeper Life Bible Church recently completed a 30,000 capacity headquarters at Gbagada. At present, efforts are on to put up a 500,000 capacity mega pavilion as against the previously planned 127,500 capacity project at the Deeper Life International Conference Centre.
The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries also put up the Prayer City while Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, President of Loveworld Nation has relocated to the Asese Campground, the new headquarters and structures are growing on a daily basis. Living Faith Church (LFC), Salvation Ministries and Dunamis International Gospel Centre along with others mentioned above are among the largest and fastest growing religious organizations in the world. Indeed, history is happening right under our noses in Africa and yet the whole world seems so oblivious.
Records are made to be broken. The LFC, one of the churches out of Nigeria with physical presence in 146 nations has a penchant for breaking records. Humorously, her first thatched structure built in 1987 was tagged the ’World’s Largest grass cathedral’ (Zanna in Hausa language). Also, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on visiting Canaanland, Ota, Africa in 1999 and while admitting that the Faith Tabernacle was ‘rather large,’ disputed the ‘largest church auditorium’ claim. By January 2007, the Guinness World Records finally verified the assertion…after 8 years. According to Christian Century Magazine. ‘That same church (LFC) is building twice it’s (Faith Tabernacle) size-The Ark!
One nation that must be mentioned at this point is the Phillipines. At present, no other country in Christendom is attempting the kinds of things in Nigeria apart from the Phillipines. Many have alleged that is the case because Nigerian churches are competing but contrary to that, Nigerian churches have moved from dependence on foreign organizations in the past to independence from these organizations and now interdependence. Bishop Oyedepo at the foundation laying of Faith Tabernacle and Faith Academy, declared… We are not in a competition, we are in a commission (The Great Commission). On the contrary it is on record that the owners of KJC King Dome set out to make a domestic milestone in construction. The initial plan was to build a 50,000 capacity auditorium but when the Phillipine Arena was dedicated with 55,000 seats, the plan was changed to accommodate 75,000 which explains why the completion date was extended from 2015 to 2023. It must be noted however that the structures in the Phillipines are not strictly churches in the real sense of the word. They are mixed purpose arenas to be used for secular concerts, sports competitions and music festivals and will thus be more fitly be named among the world’s largest indoor arenas and not as the largest church buildings or church auditoria. They were however built by churches and will regularly hold services.
But let’s go back a few years to 2008. Hardly had Faith Tabernacle been listed as the World’s largest church auditorium than new projects elsewhere began springing up. By 2010, Salvation Ministries commenced preparations for a 40,000 capacity project that would later be expanded to a 120,000 capacity auditorium. Shortly afterwards on 17 Aug 2011, the 55,000 capacity Phillipine Arena project started and was completed within 2 years and 9 months on 30th May 2014 at the cost of $213 million. Consequently, the Faith Tabernacle record had been broken after 16 years. About 3 months later, in Nigeria’s Federal Capital, ground was broken for Dunamis Glory Dome, a 100,000 capacity auditorium, the largest of such in the world. Dunamis did not become the biggest church building but by 25th November 2018, she obviously had become the auditorium that could sit the most people as inferred by Leke Beecroft in his article ‘Abuja Monuments of Faith and the Dunamis Phenomenon’.
Records are made to be broken. No sooner had Salvation Ministries’ Hand of God and the Phillipine Arena projects commenced than another project broke ground. From 2012, The KJC King Dome Arena Project began. The King Dome is vying to exceed the Phillipine Arena to become the ‘World’s Largest Indoor Arena’ with 75,000 seating capacity. The King Dome is inside the 18-hectare KJC called Kingdom Global City which, in turn, is part of the 26-hectare Kingdom Global City Tourism Enterprise Zone (TEZ). The King Dome is 100 church but additionally an integrated leisure resort destination. The Kingdome was completed in December 2023 and will be dedicated in April 2024 as the largest church structure in the World but only for a few months because the Ark (of Safety) project which exceeds the King Dome in many parameters and commenced in 2021 in Ota is looking forward to completion before the end of 2024.
For details of our research, we again emphasize that though the church buildings/auditoria mentioned from the Phillipines are actually indoor arenas and consequently not considered a church in every sense of the word, we have still listed them for the reasons stated earlier. We shall consider the largest church auditoriums separate from the largest buildings in order to distinguish the parameters. Largest church auditoria will be measured by seating capacity while largest church buildings will be measured by footprints
The average reader might understand ‘auditorium capacity’ but same might not apply to ‘building footprints’. What is ‘Building Footprint’? Building footprint is the area of a building measured from the outer surface of the exterior of the building multiplied by the depth measured in the same manner to give a square area. It is essentially the area on a project site used by the building structure, defined by the perimeter of the building plan. However, Parking lots, parking garages, landscapes, gardens and other non-building facilities are not included in the building footprint.
Below are the Largest Churches in the World (Footprints) as well as the Largest Auditoria (Auditoriums with the largest capacity)
LARGEST CHURCHES IN THE WORLD
1. The Ark, Ota, Nigeria
Footprint-66,753 sqm
Span-318m
Period-Mar 2021-
Elevators-63
Levels-3, Escalators-63, Lifts-24. Staircases-20, Vormitories-86, Presidential Drive-1, Twin 12 floor towers (24 floors altogether) Diagrid Area-141,266 sqm.
Parking-16,000 cars
2. Hand of God, Igwuruta, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Footprint-50,000 sqm
Dome Span-91m
Period-2010-
3. Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) King Dome (Multi Purpose), Davao City, Phillipines
Footprint-40-50,000 sqm
Period-3 Sep 2012-Apr 2024
Elevators-38
4. Phillipine Arena (Multi Purpose), Bulacan, Phillipines
Footprint-36,443.6 sqm
Span-243m
Period-2011-2015
5. Our Lady of Peace, Yamassoukro, Cote D’Ivoire
Footprint-30,000 sqm
Dome Span-90m
Period-1985-1989
6. Glory Dome, Lugbe, Abuja, Nigeria
Footprint-22,248 sqm
Span-274m
Period-Jan 2015-Nov 2018
7. St Peters Basilica, Vatican City
Footprint-21,000 sqm
Span-218m
April 1506-Nov 1626
LARGEST AUDITORIA IN THE WORLD
1. Hand of God, Nigeria
Capacity-120,000
Cost-N57Bn ($100m)
2. The Ark, Nigeria
Capacity-109,000
Cost-$160m
3. Glory Dome, Nigeria
Capacity-100,000
Cost-N25Bn ($69.4m)
4. KJC KingDome (Mixed Use), Phillipines
Capacity-75,000
Cost-$232 million
5. Phillipine Arena (Mixed Use), Phillipines
Capacity-55,000
Cost-$213m
6. Faith Tabernacle, Ota, Nigeria
Capacity-50,000
Cost-N900m ($9m)
So what? I hear someone say! My response is the words by Dr David Oyedepo…”when Jesus comes, even if it is 1000 years, he will meet this Church (The Ark) standing” and “No matter the size of our church building, people will still be outside”!
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S HOUSE shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills: and all nations shall flow to it. Isaiah 2:2
And he built his sanctuary like HIGH PALACES, Like the earth which he hath established for ever.
Psalms 78:69
Note:
The indicated costs of the projects are the writer’s estimates based on personal research; there is need to make room for error margins as a result of volatility of exchange rate and new developments as some projects are still in progress. The figures are thus not sacrosanct.
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