Sacred time in the C&S is a concept that involves divine discretion. As prophetic churches, times of special prayers, and the duration of worship are sacred and determined by God through prophecy. The churches are aware of the biblical linear of time: there is the beginning and the end of time; there is the time to plant and the time to harvest; that humans are mortals but God is immortal; and that the end time manifests itself in the present.249 The Holy Spirit directs them in everything they do; they speak and sing as and when the Holy Spirit directs, and carry out special prayers at the divinely instructed time, especially when he wants to accomplish his work.250
Worship duration on Sundays and week days lasted as long as the Lord directed. There was strong belief that in the course of worship, the Lord can reveal that he would descend with blessings in an appointed time and everybody should be prepared to be partakers of the bountiful blessing that is about to come.251
Yet, there is a shift in the duration of worship among most strands of the C&S. Observations revealed that there is a new trend in the duration of worship in the bigger C&S churches. The number of hours they spent during elaborate Sunday worship was a maximum of three hours, which members claimed has been a new development. The commencement time for Sunday worship varies among the C&S churches. In some churches, Sunday worship began with the Sunday school at 9am, while the main worship started at 10am and closed at 12:30pm. Yet in other churches, worship began with Sunday school at 7:30am, while the main Sunday service began at 10:30am and closed around 1pm. In most C&S churches, Sunday school began at 8:30 and closed about 9:45am for the main Sunday service to commence at 10am. Revival services were also time framed as it was not allowed to extend to 9:00pm or last into the dead night hours when transportation seems to be difficult for members to get back to their respective homes. The shift in duration of worship, which was previously tied to divine instruction, was due to work schedule of members who are employees of government and private establishments and others who are small and large scale traders and business men and
248 Interview with J. Bomes, CCC, 27 October, 2011, Lagos.
249 Interview with J. B. Balogun, 18 May, 2011, Lagos. The informant alluded to Genesis 1:1; Matthew 13:39;
Psalm 90:2, 10; John 12:48.
250 Interview with Tewogbade, 15 June, 2011, Ibadan. Tewogbade alluded to 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
251 Interview with J. Omiyefa, 02 September, 2012, Lagos.
172
women. The new shift is absent especially in smaller churches. When asked how long a revival service would last in a small C&S church, the founder said: “until when God releases us” (titi igba ti Oluwa yoo tuwa sile).252
4.2.2 TCLA
In TCLA there is the belief that the leadership and instruction of the Holy Spirit determines the beginning and the end of every worship session. Currently, the church recognizes the Holy Spirit as the time keeper at worship sessions, and at the same time, the church regulates the duration of its worship session. It is mandatory for individual minister to manage the time of worship in a way that spirit possession and prophetic revelations during worship do not keep worshippers so long in the church at the detriment of domestic and professional obligations.
The church as much as possible manages its time of worship by following strictly its order of service. Yet, the church at times allows the Holy Spirit to take pre-eminence in what it does.
In some instances, the Holy Spirit would instruct that worship should end at a particular time and the church has to comply in the belief that it is to avert impending danger that may befall a member if worship terminates earlier or later than expected.253
Increasing domestic and professional demands and security challenges have compelled the church to adjust some of its time of worship. Sunday worship begins at 9am and terminates at 1pm. The Wednesday Holy Spirit service, which previously commenced from 9pm and terminated at 1: 00am, has been adjusted. Currently, Holy Spirit service commences at 5.30pm and ends by 7.30pm. Similarly, Night Vigil begins at 12am and close at 3.30am and members are allowed to leave for their respective homes at 6am to avoid unforeseen negative circumstances that may occur if they leave earlier.
Sacred time includes three hourly prayers and any time that a visioner may reveal as God’s appointed time for special prayer to be offered. At every third hour, the church observes prayer: early morning prayer is at 5.30am, prayer for the holy spirit is at 9am, prayer for the church is at 12noon, prayer for the ministers of God is at 3pm, prayer for victory and thanksgiving is at 6pm, bed time prayer is at 9pm, while 12midnight and 3am are hours for vigil prayers. It encourages its members to observe those three hourly prayers especially when they are fasting, believing that those hours are sacred.
252 Interview with Ayoola Ologodidan, 25 May, 2012.
253 Interview with G. Tanimowo 29 June, 2011, Ibadan.
173 4.2.3 CCC
In the CCC sacred days and time are revealed through the Holy Spirit and there are special rituals that are carried out during the sacred time (Adogame 1999:159-164). In the CCC, the time for the commencement of worship is known, but the time when it will come to a close is left for the Holy Spirit to decide.254 On Sunday, members know when Sunday school begins and when it ends. They know when the main Sunday service commences shortly after Sunday school, but when it will end is best known to God. Determining when to end the worship means dictating to God or timing God. In this regard, an informant gave an instance of disobedience to divine instruction and repercussion of the disobedience.255 The divine dictate of time, which the church regards as sacred can be explained in terms of the belief of members and its relevance to the protection of either a particular person or a number of persons present in the church. It also explains their belief in the descent of the divine blessings which may elude members if worship closes earlier than when God decides to ‘pour down His blessings on worshippers present’.256
Sacred time is critical to the positive outcome of a special spiritual work carried out for a purpose. There are special times that God reveals when certain prayers and spiritual activities should be done. These times are: 6am, 9am, 12noon, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, 12midnight, and 3am.
Prayer rituals are prescribed and carried out in any or a combination of these hours. Members of the CCC provide both biblical references and divine revelations to support the relevance of those hours.257 In the CCC, these hours are loaded with divine power and authority, which makes spiritual work done during any of these times potent, while noncompliance with any of these hours as may be commanded by God results in a mission unaccomplished.258 The informant claimed that there is bound to be failure of spiritual work done outside divine appointed time and that other reasons for ineffective prayers include absence of right relationship with fellow human beings, lack of faith, ambiguous prayer request, using materials that God does not approve to be used for a spiritual work.259
254 Interview with J. Bomes, 27 October, 2011, Lagos. The informant alluded to Ephesians 2:10; Psalm 100:3.
255 Ibid. He claimed that the only incidence recorded was the case of a woman who was asked to stay to the end of worship on a Sunday, but sneaked out and left for home to attend a social club meeting. She was knocked down by a motor car on her way home.
256 Interview with Gabriel Olumide Lawal, 13 June, 2011, Ibadan.
257 Ibid. They are hours when historical spiritual events occurred at the dictate of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has not ceased to manifest during the sacred hours: the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost during the third hour of the day, 9am (Acts 2:1-4); Christ was crucified in the third hour, 9am (Mark 15:25);
Christ gave up his spirit in the ninth hour, 3pm (Matthew 27:50).
258 Interview with J. Bomes, 27 October, 2011, Lagos.
259 Ibid.
174 4.3 Prophecy
4.3.1 C&S
Prophecy has remained a significant feature of the doctrine and practice of the C&S and is associated with vision, trance, dreams, and clairvoyance (Omoyajowo 1982:87-88). Previous scholars have discussed extensively on prophets and prophecy in the C&S, emphasising it as a divine gift, which both ordained and yet to be ordained prophets with little or no formal education use as charismatic power, and which to a large extent was associated with evangelism and drive for membership (Peel 1968, Mitchell 1970, Omoyajowo 1982).
Divinely gifted individuals display one or more of these categories. Male and female members who possess any of the gifts display it during church worship. There are ordained and yet to be ordained prophets. Their staff and robe indicate their category of the spiritual gifts that an individual belongs in the church. There are employed prophets on the pay role of the church and ordained freelance prophets. The paid prophets do not head churches and are all males, except where the founder of the church is a prophetess who in principle is the minister of the church but her ministerial role is left for the highest ranked male to perform.
Prophets are like the ‘spiritual Joshua’ of the church with the responsibility of overseeing the spiritual matters that involve the church, the ordained prophets, and other spiritual workers.
There are prophetess founders whose authority cuts across spiritual and secular affairs of their churches. A prophetess in this category is prophetess Bayewu of C&S Evangelical (CSE) who performs her ministerial functions and says the benediction after church service.
The CSMC has not deviated from its practice of employing ordained resident prophets.
Employed prophets are sent to branches of the church as resident workers. It is not all the churches that have resident paid prophets. In some cases, the male or female founder of the church usually is the resident prophet and founder. The job of a resident prophet is an exclusive reserve of the male prophets who are transferred from one church to another after having satisfactorily served in a church for a number of years. They are transferred within and across districts. Apart from leading special prayer sessions in the church, the resident prophet delivers sermons, gives prophetic messages and pays welfare visits to members’ houses.
Visitation to members’ houses depends on their (members’ houses) proximity to the church where the prophet is resident. The prophet takes a walk to the ones that are within the vicinity of his location, and the church makes necessary provisions for his visit to members whose