For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place: "This is my resting place for ever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it." (Psalm 132:13-14)
Pastor Isaac Oyedepo, the second son of Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith Church Worldwide, is opening a gathering called Habitation in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Sunday 1 November 2026. The invitation came in a short video on his official YouTube channel on Thursday 30 October: "If you're in New Zealand, and live in Christchurch, join us at Habitation at 10am Sunday November 1st." A flyer shared with it, which has since gone round Nigerian church pages on Facebook, gives the details: Habitation meets at Te Hāpua, the Halswell Centre, 341 Halswell Road, Halswell, Christchurch 8025, at 10 am, and opens with "Until the City Hears", a six-week study through the book of Jonah.
Video: the invitation on The Official Isaac Oyedepo channel on YouTube, 30 October 2026.
What we know, and what we do not
The invitation is genuine. It was posted on the channel Isaac Oyedepo has run since 2018, which has some 88,000 subscribers, not on a fan page, and the flyer matches it. Te Hāpua is Christchurch City Council's library and community centre in Halswell, a suburb on the city's south-western edge, and is open on Sundays from ten.
What the video does not yet say is whether Habitation is a church plant or a six-week series, whether Pastor Isaac is moving to New Zealand or visiting, and who will lead it week by week. His ministry's base remains Abuja. The invitation is real; the shape of what follows is his to describe, and we will report it when he does.
The man behind it
Isaac Jesugbemi Oyedepo was born on 26 February 1985, studied at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, and spent five years as resident pastor of Living Faith Church in Maryland, United States, before his father appointed him global youth pastor of Winners Chapel in September 2023. A month later he resigned, and on 28 November 2023 Bishop Oyedepo publicly prayed for him and his wife Ayomide and released them to begin their own work, the Isaac Oyedepo Evangelistic Ministries, now known as Anazao Generation Connect. The bishop was careful to say it was being commissioned as an evangelistic ministry, not a church, and Isaac said there was "no complication" in his relationship with his family or with Living Faith Church.
Anazao, Greek for "to live again", carries his stated mission: "to reclaim a generation, restore the fire, and revive a people by raising wholehearted disciples of Jesus." It runs campus revival meetings under the name Ignite, a leadership school, and, since January 2026, Sunday services in Abuja with a rule that drew attention across Nigeria: no offerings are taken. "I've been given specific instructions not to collect offerings," he said in the video that announced them. "While there is nothing wrong with the practice elsewhere, for this assignment my focus must remain solely on making disciples and equipping people to follow Jesus." Whether the same rule applies in Christchurch, he has not said.
Why Christchurch, and why Jonah
New Zealand is not an obvious destination for a Nigerian ministry, which makes the choice interesting. Christchurch is the largest city of the South Island, rebuilt over fifteen years after the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 that brought down its cathedral, and it has a small but growing African and Nigerian community, many of them students and health workers, alongside migrant congregations from the Pacific and Asia. It is also one of the most secular cities in one of the most secular countries in the English-speaking world: at the 2023 census just under half of New Zealanders reported no religion.
Which may be why the opening series is Jonah. "Until the City Hears" is the story of a reluctant prophet sent to a great pagan city, Nineveh, which heard and repented. Jesus held Nineveh up to His own generation: "The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here" (Matthew 12:41). A Nigerian pastor opening a Bible study in a secular New Zealand suburb with that book is making a statement about what he thinks the city needs to hear.
The name says the rest. A habitation, in Scripture, is where God chooses to dwell: Zion, which He "desired for his habitation" (Psalm 132:13), and now His people, "built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). The claim of the name is that God means to make a home in Christchurch.
The Oyedepo sons
Isaac's older brother, David Oyedepo Jr, remains at Winners Chapel and is widely seen as his father's successor; the bishop turned 72 in September and the church is completing the 100,000-seat Ark at Canaanland, which we reported on last month. The two brothers have taken different roads from the same house, one into the world's largest church auditorium, the other into a community hall in Halswell with no offering basket. Both would say the same Father sent them.
We will update this article when the first service has been held and when Pastor Isaac says more about what Habitation is to become. If you are in Christchurch and go on Sunday, tell us what you found.
For more on the family and the ministry, see The Ark at Canaanland and our News section, where Winners Chapel's own channel also appears.
Questions this article answers
Is Isaac Oyedepo opening a church in New Zealand?
He has invited people in Christchurch to "Habitation", meeting at 10 am on Sundays from 1 November 2026 at Te Hāpua, the Halswell Centre, opening with a six-week study of Jonah. The invitation is on his official YouTube channel. He has not yet said whether it is a permanent church plant or who will lead it week to week.
Where is Habitation in Christchurch?
Te Hāpua, the Halswell Centre, 341 Halswell Road, Halswell, Christchurch 8025, New Zealand, at 10 am on Sundays.
Who is Isaac Oyedepo?
The second son of Bishop David Oyedepo, founder of Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel). Born in 1985 and trained at Oral Roberts University, he pastored Winners Chapel in Maryland, was briefly global youth pastor, and in November 2023 was released by his father to found his own ministry, now called Anazao Generation Connect, which began Sunday services in Abuja in January 2026 without collecting offerings.
Did Isaac Oyedepo leave Winners Chapel?
He resigned as global youth pastor in October 2023 to start his own ministry, with his father's public blessing on 28 November 2023. Both have said there is no rift.
What is "Until the City Hears"?
The opening series at Habitation: six weeks through the book of Jonah, the prophet sent to the pagan city of Nineveh, which heard his preaching and repented.
Sources: The Official Isaac Oyedepo channel on YouTube (video of 30 October 2026) and the Anazao Generation Connect flyer as shared on Facebook; Christchurch City Council on Te Hāpua; Vanguard, The Cable, Legit.ng and Church Times Nigeria on his resignation and commissioning (October and November 2023); Naija News and Legit.ng on the Abuja services and the no-offerings instruction (January 2026); theisaacoyedepo.org and the ministry's Facebook page on Anazao Generation Connect; Stats NZ 2023 census on religious affiliation.