Until a few months ago, the Glory Dome was the largest church in the world. Beneath its golden canopy is an auditorium about five times the size of Madison Square Garden, capable of seating 100,000 worshippers. Last November, it was overtaken by the 109,345-seat Ark, which will lose its title to the 120,000-seat Hand of God Cathedral sometime in the next few years.

All these churches are in Nigeria, and all of them are Pentecostal. Nigerian Pentecostalism took off in the 1970s, just after the end of the civil war and just before the born-again Christian movement swept much of the Global South. Today the country has the largest Pentecostal community in Africa. Though it is difficult to determine its exact size, a recent estimate places it at 63% of Nigerian Christians, or about 30% of the population.

The Pentecostal movement’s prominent pastors have become extremely wealthy. After Forbes reported that his net worth was $150 million, Bishop David Oyedepo, the founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, called the number “too small” and an “insult.” Much of these pastors’ wealth derives from the faithful’s tithes, yet they feel comfortable flaunting it because many sects — especially so-called neo-Pentecostal churches founded since the 1980s — preach the prosperity gospel. In a country where over 30% live below the international extreme poverty line, the pastors present their conspicuous riches as proof of divine favor, which they promise to share with followers drawn mainly from the working poor and the new aspiring middle classes. Oyedepo, who owns four private jets and is the preacher behind the Ark, explains that “we are just changing planes like we change bicycles because His blessings make us rich and add no sorrow.”