Charles Abraham is the senior pastor of GAP Ministries/Abraham’s Tent. The retired chief executive officer of LTC-JWT Lagos and former director of missions and evangelism at Kensington Temple, London, tells Assistant Life Editor, TERH AGBEDEH, his passion to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ cover the face of the earth, among many other issues. The interview took place after the launch of his book Bounce Back Up: Timeless Principles for Biblical Restoration in Lagos.
Old friends called you Dapo at the book launch. Why did you change your name to Charles?
My name has always been Charles.
Growing up in Nigeria the name that everybody called me was Oladapo Charles; so when I went back to England – I was in England for 14 years – I was pastoring in England and I was pastoring predominantly among Europeans.
They couldn’t handle the name Dapo so I started being called Charles. The thing about the English is that they are a bit lazy about calling foreign names.
That is how Pastor Charles became my brand more or less in England and I couldn’t change it when I came back here.
I am also interested in the name Abraham. Your mum showed up but your dad wasn’t mentioned
My dad passed away almost 14 years ago.
I wasn’t born Charles Abraham or Dapo Abraham, our family name is actually Ogunbiyi but when I became a believer, the Lord told me to change the name.
It was a bit of a struggle because He said the name is associated with a local deity and where He wants to send me to, I won’t be able to function properly under that kind of name. He told me what my new name is, which is Abraham.
But quite coincidentally, my younger brother, who is also a pastor, received the same understanding, not because of me.
Then a third brother of ours who was in Namibia also got the same revelation and the same name.
So that is how we knew that. And my parents … my mother didn’t contest it at all. She said if that is what God is saying then go ahead. I was a bit reluctant initially but I eventually went ahead.
All of you now bear Abraham?
Not all of us; my elder brother doesn’t bear Abraham.
Your brother in Namibia, is he also a pastor?
He is not a pastor, he is a mathematician.
The people who spoke at the launch kept on saying you were ‘buoyant’ when you were growing up
I was a troublesome child. I was difficult, maybe rebellious actually, because I don’t know, for some people it is easier.
We were born in the United Kingdom and we were brought back to Nigeria. Some people take to it, some people don’t take to it.
For me, I didn’t take to it quickly and so most of my reaction was based on the fact that I was dislocated from somewhere I was used to. Now in hindsight and having become a pastor I understand what I went through.
Then I didn’t understand, I just thought they didn’t think about it very well; they shouldn’t have brought us back or whatever, but I am glad that I was brought back to Nigeria.
Inspiration for Bounce Back Up
Honestly, I would say it was just my study of the Bible.
Many years ago I looked at it, I saw these principles there but what really made it come alive for me was when I had to go and speak at FATE Foundation to young business people.
I didn’t want to talk to them about seven steps to success, excellence; I just thought I needed to find something new.
And then this topic came back to me that I should talk to them about how to recover from failure. As I was talking to them I began to realise that it is not a subject that a lot of people are comfortable with.
It is not something that people want to talk about and it is not something that people are skilled to deal with.
That inspired me to start putting together this book, and then of course, I have also gone through so many personal issues and through my personal experience I have realised that when you are down it is not really the end of the matter.
My best stories have happened immediately after my worst stories.
For instance, I finished this book in March last year and I was going to publish it in June last year. Somehow, around that time I didn’t feel like publishing it. I felt like I don’t want this whole ceremony of publishing a book; let me still wait.
I travelled abroad and in September when I came back to Nigeria, there was something that happened and I couldn’t publish the book then.
In October, my wife and I lost our first son. It was such a devastation but somehow…
So sorry. How old was he?
He was 26. He was born on the first of October, a very special child but he died in very bad circumstances. We went to London, did the funeral and then we had to come back.
I began to realise that because of what I knew from writing this book, I had perspectives that helped me and I was able to encourage a lot of people.
But guess what, in January, I decided to print and my birthday was on the seventh.
I thought I would launch it on that day but said no, “I don’t want people to come and do party in my house because it is not the right time for those kind of things, so let’s have a formal launch in a place like this [Freedom Park, Lagos] where we can have a big party”.
But you can see, this is a very good illustration; from the worst of times, something good has come out again.
I always tell people, life will throw you lemons, it is what you do with them.
You have also been in business
There are many stories in the business world. We ran an advertising agency and of course we have had times when our business was down. One of such experiences is that we moved our office.
We used to be in Ilupeju (in Lagos) and we bought a place in Apapa (in Lagos) and moved there.
A lot of people decided that we had made a lot of money and they just left the business; they left us, took their business away and we suffered a big dip because of that.
People didn’t understand that we had to scrape money together to buy that building and it affected us. A lot of our staff members began to demand double salary because they thought that if you can buy a building you must have money.
We had a lot of problems, we lost a lot of businesses, it was a low time but by the grace of God, we were able to build back up and come back up.
That is LTC, right? You still run it?
No.
APCON boss said something about you approving stuff
I am the chairman of the Advertising Standards Panel under the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) so all advertising that has to air in the media in Nigeria, I have to approve.
Whether it is digital, whether it is radio, whether it is outdoor, television, it has to come to me personally and I have to approve it.
I am the chief vetting officer. It is a very interesting job because it gives me an oversight of what is going on in our industry.
But I also like the fact that I am part of the regulation because I can protect the consumer from spurious claims, lies and deceptions, and also from harmful products.
There is no regulator like yourself for musical videos
If you listened to the APCON chairman very well, he spoke about my passion for restoring values in the country.
I am working on a project at the moment that is going to put us in a place where we can actually vet musical videos and approve them. This is because our values are being communicated through the arts.
The arts play an important role; music, drama or Nollywood. So I want to get involved a bit in even trying to help regulate that – that we are responsible, that we understand that what we are projecting has a consequence on how people behave.
So people do not just project anything. Right now if you ask young people what they want to be they would tell you I want to be a politician, I want to make money.
They don’t even have a profession in mind, “I just want to make money” because that is what is being projected. “Yeah, I want to get out of the country”, it is because of what is being projected.
I mean, it is unfortunate that we have allowed it to slide but it is not beyond redemption.
Advertising industry in Nigeria
I have been in this industry for about 30 years and I have seen some great days and I have seen some bad days.
Right now I won’t say that we are in the best of times because the economy doesn’t favour us a lot.
Unfortunately, it should be our best time but clients don’t always spend money in a recession; which is foolhardy, to be honest; because you kill your brand.
But we have said that so many times and people don’t believe us so, we are going to go through this season.
I always believe that when times are hard is when the creative industry flourishes the most. I mean, if you are creative then you can innovate.
So, yes, it might be a difficult time economically for our industry but I believe it will probably be one of our best times and very creative agencies will do well at this time.
How your wife helped with the book
In this context, because she has written her own book, I was able to learn from her; you know, what happens when you hit the writers’ block? What happens when the topics are not flowing properly and all that?
She was able to help me through, talk me through, and guide me.
Incidentally, our daughter too is a writer. She hasn’t published a book but she writes very well. It is interesting that her ability to write that book gave me confidence that it can be done.
I have been thinking of writing books for years and years; people have been telling me, write a book. I mean, all my messages that I have been preaching people always tell me, put them in a book.
But I have never felt like commercialising it; I feel that my gift is from God and I need to use it to bless people. I don’t really want to make money from it.
But in writing this book my objective is not really commercial, it is more of ministry; I want to help people.
That is why I didn’t write a book on steps to success, which I could write. I wrote this book because I know that people who read it will really get value from it, it will touch their lives.
Situating trials in the Bible
People need to reference Jesus Christ. If you are a pastor, and you are a Christian pastor, we need to look at Jesus, He is our example. What did He teach? What were His values?
As a shepherd, who are you emulating and what kind of congregation are you trying to raise? Are you raising a congregation of just successful people?
Are you raising a congregation of people that can go through life and be valuable to the kingdom of God? That is very important.
I don’t believe it is my job to correct the pastors that are erring, God hasn’t called me to it. I believe it requires a lot of grace to stand in that position and correct pastors.
I have a lot of young pastors I am training; I teach them the reality about it and tell them what I think is right.
But ultimately I tell them, “Look, reference Jesus yourself; find Him in the Bible. That is the Person you are supposed to be like. Not any pastor, not anything; because no matter how anointed they are, they are still human beings”.
If you are not like Jesus then what are you trying to be like? And I don’t see Jesus talking about success without pain. I don’t see Him talking about short cuts to success.
I don’t see Him talking about easy routes. I don’t see Him talking about “triumphalistic” Christianity that everything is going to be all right. I don’t see Him saying that.
Jesus Christ actually taught His people that ‘you are going to be prosecuted, you are going to go through trials, through troubles, have pain; but don’t worry, I am with you and I have already overcome those things for you, you will be okay’.
I mean, I was trained in the ministry that taught the real Word of God and I cannot lie or deny that. My life is totally affected by what I have learnt.