Christ Apostolic Church and the Imminent Danger of Falling into the Future
By Ojo Emmanuel Ademola, General Evangelist, CAC Nigeria and Overseas
A Moment of Prophetic Pause
There are seasons in the life of a church when the Spirit compels a sacred pause—moments when heaven insists that we examine not merely where we are, but what we are becoming. Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Nigeria and Overseas stands today at such a prophetic threshold. The urgency of the hour is not rooted in the familiar anxiety of falling behind the future, as though the Church were a corporation struggling to keep pace with innovation. The deeper, more subtle danger is that of falling into the future unprepared—advancing without discernment, expanding without depth, and inheriting tomorrow without interrogating the spiritual foundations upon which that tomorrow must stand.
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Pentecostal Renewal Theology teaches that the Church must live faithfully in three tenses at once. It must remain rooted in apostolic memory, for the wells dug by our fathers are not ornamental relics but spiritual technologies. It must remain responsive to the Spirit’s present voice, for God is not a museum curator but the Living God who speaks in the now. And it must remain aligned with the eschatological horizon, for the Church is not merely an institution in history but a people journeying toward consummation. Where any of these pillars weakens, the future becomes a trap rather than a calling.
The Psalmist asks a question that reverberates through every generation of God’s people: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3). This is not a rhetorical flourish; it is a spiritual warning. Foundations matter. They matter for individuals, for families, for nations, and certainly for churches. CAC’s foundations are not merely historical narratives; they are spiritual deposits—prayer, holiness, prophetic audacity, revival consciousness, sacrificial obedience, and a relentless pursuit of the supernatural presence of God. These are not museum artefacts to be admired from a distance. They are engines of mobilisation, wells of power, and altars of encounter.
The Subtle Drift of an Unexamined Future
Yet the danger of our time is that we may enter the future with administrative strength but spiritual anaemia, with global presence but diminished prophetic authority, with organisational sophistication but weakened apostolic identity. The future is not inherently friendly to the Church. It must be entered with discernment, with consecration, and with clarity. To fall into the future blindly is to surrender the very essence of our calling.
The first danger confronting CAC in this season is the danger of institutional drift. This drift is rarely dramatic. It is often slow, subtle, and almost imperceptible. It occurs when the Church becomes busy but not burning, active but not anointed, structured but not spiritually sensitive. It is the drift from apostolic vitality to organisational busyness. When the form remains but the fire dims, the Church becomes a silhouette of its calling. The Apostle Paul warned Timothy of a generation that would have “a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5). The danger is not the absence of structure; the danger is the absence of power. CAC must guard against becoming a church that is administratively efficient but spiritually impotent.
The Generational Question: Who Inherits Our Fire?
The second danger is that of generational dislocation. A church that cannot translate its fire to its sons and daughters has already surrendered its tomorrow. The youth of CAC do not merely need programmes, activities, or entertainment. They need impartation. They need to inherit not only our structures but our altars. They must be discipled not merely into church culture but into apostolic fire. The Psalmist declares, “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4). This is not a suggestion; it is a mandate.
The future of CAC will not be secured by the number of its assemblies but by the depth of its discipleship. If the next generation does not inherit the wells of prayer, the mantle of holiness, the courage of prophetic obedience, and the hunger for revival, then the future will be a barren field. A church that entertains its youth but does not empower them has already lost its prophetic edge.
The Silence That Threatens Identity
The third danger is that of prophetic silence. CAC was birthed by men and women who heard God clearly and obeyed Him courageously. The prophetic is not an accessory to our heritage; it is the bloodstream of our mandate. To lose the prophetic voice is to lose our identity. The Church cannot afford to become an echo of the world’s anxieties or a mirror of the world’s ambitions. It must remain a voice—clear, courageous, and consecrated.
Proverbs 29:18 warns that “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Vision is not merely strategic planning; it is prophetic sight. It is the ability to see what God is doing, to hear what God is saying, and to align the Church accordingly. Without prophetic imagination, the Church becomes reactive rather than proactive, shaped by circumstances rather than shaping them.
When Administration Overshadows Anointing
The fourth danger is that of administrative overreach. The early Church confronted this danger in Acts 6 when the apostles recognised that administrative demands were beginning to suffocate spiritual vitality. They responded by reordering priorities, ensuring that the ministry of the Word and prayer remained central. CAC must guard against a culture where bureaucracy becomes a substitute for spirituality, where meetings replace mountains, and where committees overshadow consecration.
Administration is necessary, but it must never become the master. It must remain the servant of the Spirit’s agenda. A church that is over‑managed and under‑anointed is already drifting into a future it cannot spiritually sustain.
Global Expansion Without Apostolic Formation
The fifth danger is that of global expansion without global formation. CAC has grown significantly across continents, but numerical expansion is not synonymous with spiritual formation. Diaspora churches can grow in number while shrinking in depth if not intentionally formed. The global church must not become a diluted version of the apostolic heritage. It must be a faithful extension of it.
The challenge is not merely to plant assemblies abroad but to plant altars abroad—altars of prayer, holiness, prophetic discernment, and revival consciousness. A global church without global depth is a fragile church.
Pentecostal Renewal Theology: A Call to Depth, Not Nostalgia
Pentecostal Renewal Theology does not call us backwards; it calls us deeper. It does not ask us to freeze the past; it asks us to faithfully steward it. It does not ask us to reject the new; it asks us to discern it. Jesus spoke of the wise scribe who brings out of his treasure “things new and old” (Matthew 13:52). This is the theological tension CAC must resolve.
We must honour the old paths without becoming archaic. We must embrace the new move of God without becoming so progressive that we abandon our identity. We must hold heritage and horizon together in creative continuity.
Reclaiming the Apostolic DNA
To avoid falling into the future, CAC must reclaim its apostolic DNA. This reclamation is not a nostalgic return to the past but a strategic re‑engagement with the spiritual technologies that birthed the movement. Prayer must not be reduced to ritual; it must remain a furnace. Holiness must not be reduced to moralism; it must remain a lifestyle of consecration. Prophetic discernment must not be reduced to occasional utterances; it must remain a posture of listening. Revival consciousness must not be reduced to historical memory; it must remain a present hunger.
Recovering the Prophetic Imagination
CAC must also re‑establish its prophetic imagination. The future must be entered prophetically, not administratively. Joel 2:28 is not a slogan; it is a governance model. The Spirit is poured out not merely for personal edification but for corporate direction. The Church must learn again to dream God’s dreams, to see God’s visions, and to speak God’s words.
Without prophetic imagination, the Church becomes a passive passenger in history rather than an active participant in God’s unfolding purposes.
Rebuilding the Generational Bridge
Furthermore, CAC must rebuild the generational bridge. The youth must not be spectators in the Church’s journey; they must be participants. They must be mentored, discipled, empowered, and entrusted with responsibility. The fire of the fathers must become the fire of the sons. The wells of the past must become the rivers of the future.
A church that does not invest in its youth is a church that has already forfeited its future.
Re‑centring the Mission Mandate
The mission mandate must also be re‑centred. CAC must shift from maintenance to mobilisation, from survival to sending, from tradition to transformation. The Church must rediscover its apostolic impulse. It must not be content with preserving what exists; it must be committed to advancing the Kingdom. The Great Commission is not a departmental assignment; it is the Church’s identity.
Re‑igniting the Remnant Movement
Finally, CAC must re‑ignite the Remnant Movement. Every revival in history has begun with a remnant—a consecrated few who refuse to bow to the idols of the age, who hunger for God more than for comfort, and who are willing to pay the price of spiritual renewal. The future of CAC will not be secured by numbers but by depth. It will not be secured by popularity but by purity. It will not be secured by visibility but by vitality.
The remnant must rise again.
A Call to Awaken, Strengthen, and Enlarge
The Spirit is summoning CAC to awaken, to strengthen the things that remain, and to re‑dig the wells of our fathers. We must not sleepwalk into tomorrow. We must shape it. We must not drift into the future. We must define it. We must not inherit the future passively. We must disciple it actively.
Ephesians 5:14 declares, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” This is a call to spiritual alertness. Revelation 3:2 commands, “Strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.” This is a call to spiritual stewardship. Isaiah 54:2 proclaims, “Enlarge the place of thy tent… spare not.” This is a call to spiritual expansion.
CAC Nigeria and Overseas is not called to fall into the future. CAC is called to define the future, disciple the future, and deliver the future.
This is our moment.
This is our mandate.
This is our mobilisation.