Canaan Church

I have been a practicing member of Canaan Apostolic Faith Church for several months now. During this time, I have had the opportunity to reconnect with my Christian faith on a much deeper and intimate level. While it has been hugely perplexing and challenging at times it has allowed me to reflect and question my own conceptions and misconceptions thereof. The idea of belonging to the apostolic faith evokes stereotypes propagated, primarily by misinformation and a culture of self-loathing that borders on the colonial infusion of outlook in as far as the lack of credibility of anything originating in Africa. If one draws parallels with all the orthodox Christian churches, Greek, Catholic and Russian as well as the traditional protestant like Anglican, Methodist etc, they are all steeped in ritual and ceremony. It appears that it has been hardwired to the African DNA that authenticity is somewhat aligned to the Eurocentric or western origin in as far as religious observance is concerned. It is inconceivable that the same is equally representative in Africa among the Africans. When an Afro-centric Christian church adopts a protocol that indoctrinates ceremony and works of the spirit this is viewed with derision and often scorn and ridicule. Primarily might I add mostly by other Africans. This is not just an observation of cultural trends but also an admission to myself of being complicit in the propaganda of brainwashing and the insecurities there entailed by my own social upbringing. A lot of vapostori practice in splendid isolation for fear of persecution, ridicule,and discrimination on the grounds of religious affiliation. Christianity in its essence is in rapid decline in the so-called developed world with the rise of a belief in self-determination and the repudiation of the existence of a god. The very idea of a god is a contentious subject in many contemporary societies where the norm is to be agnostic, even atheist, fundamentally liberal and vapid of any sort of stance against any sort of position that might upset a set of pre-existing values often to the detriment of strong religious beliefs. This position is comfortable almost to the point of being apathetic, whereby no one wants to go against the grain of the established protocol of conducting oneself as a normal member of society. I have recently heard it mentioned that the thing that brings people to the apostolic churches is strife and suffering. It is the one thing that pulls people to acknowledge God when all else fails. It is not the partisan line to just wake up and decide to join the apostolic faith. If anything society runs in the opposite direction because,in addition to the stigmatisation, it also carries with it a disciplined code of conduct that we often are not ready to embrace because it often asks us to turn from a lot of the earthly indulgences that we already know are not good for our lives but we are not yet ready to completely discard. Service and execution involve a burden of responsibility and performance. One cannot be a passive Mupostori because there is an obligation to act. It is implicit in the grain of the faith that one is actively propagating the virtues of the faith once they have turned around and given themselves to Christ in the faith. There must be a change in how one conducts themselves day to day. Therein the radiance of Christ must reflect through your actions. This is a difficult bridge to cross because of our weakness and tendency to let the bad habits die hard