In this interview with "THE EXPLOIT" magazine, the President of Christ Apostolic Church, Worldwide, Pastor Abraham Olukunle Akinosun shared how God has been blessing CAC, and his perspectives on several important issues affecting the body of Christ in Nigeria.
We know what Christ Apostolic Church stands for but we also know that every leader has a direction that God is leading him. Where is God leading CAC now as an institution?
We thank the Lord. When I was appointed as the President of Christ Apostolic Church, I went to meet the Lord in Prayer and what he told me was that He will be directing me and His own agenda will be put into my mind and he said though there are many agenda (human agenda and even devilish agenda) but He will be directing me to actualize His own agenda. I didn’t put anything down that this is what I will be doing but I know for sure as He said that He has put His own agenda to my mind He will be helping me to execute them one by one.
So, since my coming in, the first thing I faced as an agenda is to erase individualism that have killed the development of Christ Apostolic Church. That individualism spirit entered into the CAC from late 70s to 80s whereby many individual church planters, planting in the name of Christ Apostolic Church and not submitting the church per se to the church authority. There was nothing like that in the time of our founding fathers. Whenever a gifted evangelist planted a church he would submit and hand it over to the authority and ask the authority to bring a pastor or an evangelist over the church whose work is to oversee the day to day development of the church.
However, since the 80s this have become a very big problem in the church. It divides the church and renders the authority impotent to discipline and to order sanity into the church. But, since my coming into the office we have started to correct all these even in the European countries. In UK alone we have over 90 assemblies. Before my coming into office they were operating individually but since my coming into the office we have achieved one registration. Individual churches and ministers in Europe, particularly in the UK are under one umbrella. Likewise, in the USA, all the churches planted including the ones planted by individuals and the authorities of the church, are now operating under one umbrella.
We achieved such great success in the USA by having what we refer to now as CAC Village. No denomination has such a thing particularly from this Africa. We have 63 acres of land, we have about 16 already built halls and houses over them. So, that now serves as an umbrella to all CAC Ministers in USA. Individualism is going bit by bit in CAC, which hitherto has brought enmity, division and so on in the church.
We have achieved many, many, many things silently. Mission field is growing. Now, we have our missionaries in most African countries. In South Africa we have very viable nine (9) assemblies. In Gambia we have seven (7) viable assemblies there with church buildings. In Sao Tome, Cote D’Ivore, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal the Mission Director is now asking for another 10 missionaries to be engaged because the field is expanding. So, as we implement what the Lord puts in my mind, His word has never fallen to the ground. Whatever we propose the Lord establishes it. So, as the Lord has told me, He has His own Agenda which no human agenda can overcome. That is what we are experiencing now.
What is your perspective on the unity of the Church in general (the body of Christ) in Nigeria?
Well! We thank God for what He is doing. Rome was not built in a day. You know if the church doesn’t face persecution it will not unite together. Persecution is a blessing in disguise. Even in the Bible times, it was when persecution rose against the early church that they started doing the work the Lord has given them to do. Now, because of the persecution we are speaking with one voice.
We have five blocs in CAN: Catholic is CSN – Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, the CCN with Anglican Church African, Baptist, Methodist and some others. CPFN/PFN have all Pentecostal Churches. The white garment churches have their own OIC – Organization of African Indigenous Churches. And the fifth one is ECWA/TECA. Because our doctrines are not the same we operate individually on our own. But when we sit we speak with one voice now. Our leaders are talking with one voice now. I’m the representative of our own bloc. Though we have different constitutions internally but we have a constitution that binds us together.
There are a lot of charlatans among the so-called church leaders who are even doing more damage to the Church and causing distractions. How can we bring some level of order to the body of Christ?
Truly, we can sanitize the church. When we read the Bible we’ll see that what is happening now is not what happened in the Bible days, so we have to take the people back to the Bible. That’s the only solution. The leaders must take the people back to the Bible.
Do you foresee a time when CAN and its blocs will be able to sanction a pastor reported to be using juju or doing something that brings the church into disrepute?
Yes, but you see CAN cannot do that, it is not in the hand of CAN because one group does not have power over another group. We can say that we have something like a union not quite unity; but individual denominations can bring sanity.
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