CAC Worldwide @100: We are the first church to raise a 5000-member choir to minster at once in Nigeria- Pastor Tope Dada

CAC Worldwide Music Director, Pastor Tope Dada

Preparations are already on top gear for the centenary anniversary of Christ Apostolic Church, Worldwide which holds later in the year. CAC NEWS caught up with the Music Director of the mission, Pastor Tope Dada who talked about the achievements of the Department, the forthcoming Music Ministers’ Conference and many more. EXCERPTS!

Christ Apostolic Church, Worldwide will be celebrating 100 years in  few months' time and members of the church across the world will like to know some important information about the church. Part of the information is the brief history of Music Department of the church. Kindly tell us briefly about this

The history of music in our church dates back to when the church started itself. The likes of Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola, Prophet Babajide and Pastor Odubanjo among others were singers. Our forefathers have started music since when the church started.

Now our hymnal has increased to over 1000 hymns from about 350 or 450 which we used to have then. I can say that music started in CAC since the church started. Later on in the church some of our Choirmasters gathered together to hold meetings. From there we began to have district, zonal and DCC Choirs who hold rehearsals periodically and minister together.

The authority of the church magnanimously approved the take off of a department known as Music Department in 1994. The personal assistant to the then President, Pastor S.O. Olukunle who was a Choirmaster before becoming P.A. to the President was appointed as Music Secretary, but later became the pioneer Music Director of the church before I came in. I was appointed as the Music Director in 2017, but before then I have been the National Choirmaster of the church. I was the Assistant Music Director to Pastor Olukunle.

We have started work to review our hymn book and presently from 2017 till date God has helped us to improve tremendously. The vision that we have is to bring music to high levels in CAC Worldwide that it can be comparable to any other mission across the globe. Doing that, we want to ensure that every chorister in CAC irrespective of the assembly must know God and be born again. All choristers in CAC Worldwide must understand their responsibilities as ministers in the church. Our vision precisely is to develop every member of the choir to a notable standard and keep on developing them. 

We have started doing that already. Presently we have started visiting our DCCs and Zones to talk to our Choirmasters in order to bring in new ideas and innovation for the progress of the choir.

 How has the advancement in technology helped the department in terms of the kind of musical instruments we used in CAC and music in contemporary CAC?

When the church started and even when I was younger, there was no church in Nigeria that had the instruments everyone is using today. In our church in particular we were known with the local drums. We started with using the Akuba, Iya Ilu and co. However, today we are now using modern music instruments like violin, keyboard and guitar among others. Far above that, presently we have mobile app for our hymn book. Also, the music edition of our hymn book is almost completed. We are working tirelessly to ensure that it is ready this year for the centenary celebration of the church. We are connecting with ourselves across the country and checkmating the activities and performances of our choirs.

Tell us about the national programmes of the Music Department of CAC Worldwide, particularly the forthcoming Music Ministers' Conference

We have a lot of programmes that we hold. For example we have mandated all our regions to form mass choirs, then we can minister together during our joint programmes like the Christmas Carol, Concert and other programmes. It is also applicable to the DCCs, Zones, Districts and Assemblies.

In addition to that, at the national level, we are planning to hold Music Ministers’ Conference which will hold from 10th to 15th of September this year. We want our singers, choristers and instrumentalists to know that they are ministers, not entertainers. They are not entertaining the congregation, but rather ministering to them. There will be series of workshop, teachings and symposium among others at the conference. We have a lot of technical sessions that will be in three categories which are the elementary level, intermediate and advance. We are going to dedicate 40 hours to practical training. Whether you want to do voice training or you want to learn to play a musical instrument, we have experts that will take you through. It is going to be 40 hours of intensive training. We are also going to have a mega concert during the conference.

The Music department will be moving round to see how all our choirs are progressing and be looking at what we can do to improve their performances and improve them in terms of the ethics of the work.

What are the current achievements of the Music Department of CAC Worldwide?

If you go to any denomination or assembly, Nigeria particular, if you see ten people doing very well in the choir, six of them are from CAC. I am proud to say that. People come to our church to plead for our members to come and lead their choirs. That is a very notable achievement for the department.

Also, the church has moved from local music season to a notable and international standard. Let me bring you back to when the church had its millennium revival in year 2000. CAC was the first mission that raised a 5000-member choir in Nigeria that ministered at a programme.