Conversation with Pastor Daniel Osagie Erhabor

This edition of Conversations is with a pastor and author. I remember attending a program of his, and he was so forthcoming with practical information on some basic truths, I knew I had to interview him. And fortunately he agreed to it.

It is great to have this conversation with you. Can you please introduce yourself to the readers?

I am Pastor Daniel Osagie Erhabor, Pastor of Love Foundation Christian Center.

You are currently a pastor. What ministry do you pastor, and how long have you pastored it? 

Our ministry is called Love Foundation International. The local church [located in Lanham, Maryland] is called Love Foundation Christian Center. We have a few branches around the
world; but, I have been pastoring this particular ministry since 1991. That is almost 30 years. However, I have been pastoring before that - I started pastoring when I was barely 18.  

(Love Foundation Christian Center is also on social media: Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube )       

Wow! You started pretty early I see. Did you always know you wanted to be a pastor? And how did you come to know this? 

Well, I didn’t always know I was going to be a pastor. I got born again around the age of 13, was filled with the Holy Spirit at 14, and a few years later, at 16, I started pastoring. And because of my mom’s record of how I was born, I knew I had a divine purpose but I didn’t know what it was. That was when I began to understand that I had a purpose to minister. I didn’t think pastoring was primarily what I was going to do, but eventually I saw myself being called into that ministry and I have been pastoring ever since. 

You have a beautiful church. How was it starting your church?

Well that is interesting, because I have had to start various congregations, probably up to 5 at different times. This particular one that I am pastoring now started after my wife and I relocated here to the U.S. But, we started the ministry in Africa in 1991. That ministry was started by myself and a couple of friends. I had graduated from the university and I knew I was called to pastor at that time so I started a church. Before then, I had pastored under other ministries; planted other churches and campus fellowships. So that became my primary call--starting ministries, starting churches. So, even though I am pastoring here in the U.S., I have also been involved with starting and planting other churches in other countries that are pastored by other pastors. 

What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?

Well, there are always many challenges with starting a church. One is to make sure you are in the right place at the right time. That requires spending time to pray and to listen to the Holy Spirit. That’s how you overcome that challenge. The second thing is to make sure you are able to reach and gather people to hear God’s Word. And, one way you overcome that is to be consistent in evangelism and soul winning and discipleship. And then of course there are challenges of finances, making sure you have enough resources to build the church; and that you will also overcome by believing God and practicing the principle of sowing and reaping. Now, these are some of the major challenges that every pastor faces; and we have had to face the same and we have overcome them. And we are still overcoming the ones we face now by the Word of God and listening and following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. 

What would you say your vision is, and what influence are you hoping to make in the marketplace?

The vision of this ministry, which is also a projection of my vision, is to reach out to every people group--all nations--with the gospel of the love of God, as revealed in Christ Jesus; and build up disciples that are mature, that are like Jesus Christ. We believe that there are a lot of pastors, teachers, and preachers out there; but, not so many of them are bringing Christians to Christ-like maturity. So, one of the areas we are focused on is not only to reach out, but also to reach out to as many people as possible--all over the world; and once they have been reached, to bring them up to maturity by teaching, by preaching, and by discipling them until they become an exact measure of Jesus Christ. So, we have two parts to the vision: reaching out to new people and growing those who have already been reached out to until they become mature disciples of Jesus Christ.

When did you know you had a message of great value, and that you had to publish it?

Right from the start, one of the things that began this ministry was a vision I had where I saw a great wild wind of fire, coming from the heavens and touching the earth. And, from there it began to spring out with touches of light all over the world. And, I think that was one of the things that started the vision for me to start a ministry to reach the world internationally. And after that vision, I have never been the same again. My desire has been to reach out to every nation, every city, and to bring the light, which is the light of God’s Word to people. So, that is where the vision started and that is what I have been doing ever since the beginning of this ministry. 

I remember attending your church conference and hearing you speak. You mentioned how faith has to speak: it has to speak to the mountains. Yet, it seems we are constantly asking God to move mountains instead. Please speak on this.

Whew, that is a whole message--like 3 hours; but, I am just going to make it short. [Laughs out loud] Now, this is unfortunately the trend that even many, even faith teachers or people who prefer to teach on faith, seem to go in. They tend to tell the believer to beg God in prayer, to move mountains, to heal the sick, to change situations. Even though this looks good; this is not what the New Testament teaches about faith.  Again, it is understandable to see that in the Old Testament, they did not have power over sickness, over disease, and all those things. But, in the New Covenant, every born again Christian has power to move mountains, power to cast out devils, power to heal the sick. And, we ought not to be asking God to do what God has empowered us to do. Believers are not beggars; and beggars are not believers.

You said a whole mouthful right there to digest on, Pastor.

Each year we wait on the Lord to know what direction we should go as a church. God usually gives us specific instructions on what our themes will be for that year. So, for different years, we have had different themes. This year, for example, God said to us it is a year to shine, as light. Our theme is taken from Isaiah 60; where, from verse 1, the Scripture says, ‘Arise, Shine, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord is risen upon you.’ Then in verse 2, He said, ‘Darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people. But, the glory of the Lord will rise upon you.’ So, what we have been endeavoring to teach, actually from the end of last year, is that it is time for Christians to arise and shine in darkness; that we have power over darkness; and that darkness includes ignorance of the Word, sickness, disease, and poverty. And, that the truth, which is the light of God’s Word, can trump darkness and overcome darkness every time. 

You recently published a book (The Identity of the Believer). How did you come about publishing this book?

(Available on Amazon. Click on title to access).

My new book, “The Identity of the Believer,” is one of the first materials God put in my heart to write--probably about 20 years ago. I have been meaning to write it, but never got the time to focus on writing enough to write that. I have written a couple of other books before, but I have been wanting to write “The Identity of the Believer.” So, yes, last year, I began to work again on that book after my wife, Pastor Bridget, had given me a lot of push to start writing again. And, I eventually yielded after she released her own book. I was like, ‘Wow, I need to catch up.’ So, I started writing again. And, I believe the book was inspired to show people exactly who we are in Christ. Of course, you cannot exhaust that teaching but it at least gives us a pointer to who we are in Christ Jesus. It was published by TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network. They did a good work in helping to edit and to publish it on their site and market it on their network. So, I believe that people are being blessed by that material; and all the glory be to God

There are multiple authors publishing books. Would you please enlighten our readers to why this book would be a life changing read and affect how they operate their faith?

There are many books that have been written about the authority of the believer; but, not many I have seen, have been written about the identity of the believer. However, your authority is dependent on your identity. So, many Christians do not understand who they are and they are not able to operate in their authority. There are also many teachings that seem to undermine the identity of the believer. But, as we understand what the New Testament says a believer is, it takes us to a new level of operation. Which means, we begin to see ourselves different from what most people see themselves as out there. So, the focus of this book is to bring light to who we are in Christ and to what the New Testament teaches as our identity. I think one of the very major things that Adam lost in the garden, in Genesis, Chapter 3, was his identity. And that is why his authority also followed. So, this is supposed to restore people's understanding of the identity of a Christian, and I think it is an exciting topic.

Hmm. Understanding your authority is hinged on understanding your identity as a Christian. Interesting! Sometimes, even though we know how God is a miracle working God, we develop temporary amnesia, or we allow circumstances to dampen our memory of what God has done. Would you mind sharing a definitive moment of God’s intervention in your life that helped define your faith? 

Well, my faith has grown from faith to faith, like the Bible says--from grace to grace. I would not say that there were certain, definitive moments where my faith grew because the Bible tells us in the book of Romans, Chapter 10, verse 17 that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So, experiences really don’t develop faith. What develops faith is the Word. So, what I have done, after I got born again, is to give myself a commitment to study the Word. I read the Bible everyday. I try to ask the Holy Spirit to teach me and my understanding is increasing everyday. If there is any definitive moment that has changed my faith is the day I got filled with the Holy Spirit.  Before then, my understanding of Scripture was not very clear, and things were mystified for me when I read the Scripture. But, after I got filled with the Holy Spirit, I discovered I had a teacher inside of me and when I have a question, I just ask the Holy Spirit. When I am slipping away, like you said, and I forget, the Holy Spirit reminds me. I also pray in tongues everyday; that’s one of the things I do to help stimulate my faith. So, praying in the spirit and studying the Word are the two most important things that have help build my faith and remind me of what the Word of God says about faith

With this pandemic that has happened, it has affected a lot of ministries. How did your church adapt to the change? What new frontiers of influence did you navigate into? 

I think that is a good question. Of course, the pandemic is not news to anybody living on this planet at this time, and many churches have been affected. We have been affected; but, I must say that it has become a positive influence for us. Since the pandemic started, just like most churches, we are forced to depend almost completely on the media to reach out. So, we have become more inspired in our media ministry. We are seeing the greater potential in reaching a global audience through media. For example, for one of the programs we had, our Communion Service, we have had over 100,000 views. So, it is interesting to see that we are able to reach beyond our local community much more effectively because we have a little more focus on being effective using our media.  Now, we do still believe that it is most important for people to come together like Jesus commanded, and that we should not neglect the assembly [of ourselves]. But, I think one of the things it will do for us, even going forward after the whole thing is cleared up, is that we will be more effective in our media outreach. 

For people who are philanthropic to support, are there any projects your church is involved in that they can support? And how do they support? 

Thank you for that question. Yes, we are a church that has a global vision and actually we are already beginning to make a global impact. Here in the United States, even though the pandemic is out there, people are worried about how the crisis will affect the recession. Not for us; we are taking steps forward. We are actually in the process of purchasing a property--a large expanse of land for which we are intending to build a permanent site; and we will have places where we can better serve our community, like a school to teach children to grow up in the fear of God; a pantry; and above all, a place where we can teach the unadulterated gospel and build disciples for the Kingdom. But, all around the world, we have other projects that we are helping to sponsor from here. We have a program in Europe where we are helping people who are transiting.  We have what we call the Love Foundation purse that we use to support them. There are no good churches in many of these places; and, they are actually suffering spiritually. So what we are doing is planting churches in almost every country in Europe. We try to plant at least one a year. And that is a major project, especially a spiritual project.
We also have a project going on in Africa, where we have a thriving church; and of course one of the needs of African countries is finances to help build things like orphanages and help people who are in financial challenge. The church is doing a lot of that. We have a building project going on in Africa as well. We have purchased the land; the building is already in the roofing phase so that we can accommodate the church, the ministry, and the schools we expect to function and reach throughout the entire continent. We are also supporting other countries, like in India, we have some outreaches there. So, there is a lot going on in this ministry at this time. And the louder question you asked: ‘How can you help?’ You can go to our website, LoveFoundation.org; there is a partnership page there where you can give. Or you can come into the office; or can give by mail as well. The most common way to give, of course, is using electronic media. So, go to the website and become a partner. You can give weekly, quarterly, daily, monthly, whatever you are led to sow; we are more than happy to receive it for the work of the Kingdom. 

(Click on "Become a Love Foundation Partner")

I met your beautiful wife when I visited. Can you tell us more about her, and any passion projects she may be involved in 

Well, my wife, Pastor Bridget Erhabor, is a beautiful wife, like you said. We have been married nearly 26 years. As a minister also, she has grown up to be a co-pastor with me and we travel together for most of our mission trips. Right now, one of the things I know she is really engaged with is her writing. She wrote a new book as well, just before mine was released, called “True Love”  (click on the title to access book on Amazon) and she started some outreaches in the media where she is addressing some of the topics she wrote about in the book. One of the major areas she addresses is marriages: where marriages are failing and walking in love--both in marriages and in relationships outside marriages. She is also writing additional books and she is focused on getting the message of this ministry-- which has to do with love, especially in the area of relationships-- out to the rest of the world.
Many people don’t really know it, but we have 8 children; and, none are adopted--all, naturally born. But, we thank God for that, of course. We have a lovely family, and everybody is busy with the church. Basically, they are like co-laborers with my wife and I. We need all hands on deck to do what we are doing; so, we have people working with our media, sound system, building committee; and all our children are very, very, very committed to the work that we are doing here. Again, they are growing up to be independent adults as well. So, as they grow, we know they may decide to branch into other areas of the ministry. But right now, their main focus is to help my wife and I to do what God has called us to do in this ministry. 

I don’t like putting people on the spot to make predictions about the future, so I won’t do that. However, as a Man of God and a leader, what do you perceive our new normal will be post-pandemic? 

Well, just like the scripture says. There is nothing that is happening now that is new; if you  read the Scriptures, you are reading tomorrow’s news. You don’t need a prophet to prophecy or a seer to see. You just need to read the Bible. One of the things the Bible says will happen in the last days is a pandemic. He said, ‘...there will be pestilence…’ and that is another word for sickness and disease that is widespread. So, I wasn’t surprised; unfortunately, many people were. The Bible also tells us some other things that will happen--that, as the world is getting darker--people are turning away from Christ, the church is going to be getting brighter. So, if you ask what will happen, I will tell you: the world is going to get worse. People are going to come against the church, and they are going to feel that the church is too religious and too fanatic. But, in the body of Christ, there is going to be a revival. The anointing of God is going to come upon the church, bigger and more powerful than ever before because we are in the last days; and God said He would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. And, we need the power to conclude the work of God in these days. That’s what the Bible says; and that is what I am expecting according to the Word of God.

People have experienced major losses and are in the process of picking up the pieces and figuring their lives out. What words of encouragement do you have for our readers in this time of recovery? 

Well, the Word of God is usually our encouragement. The Bible tells us that God is our source; God is our provider; God is our protection; and, no matter where we might find ourselves, if we will put God as number one, the Bible says everything we need will be added to us. He will protect us; He will provide for us. So, my first advice would be to serve  God as number one--even if you’ve lost a job, you’ve lost a loved one, or things are looking bleak. God is able to bring everyone that trusts in Him out of every negative situation and actually make it better. Set your faith right. Be in church. Sow your seed, which is part of faith. And do what God says, and you will come out much better than when you got in. That’s what I would say. 

Well, thank you for having a conversation with us. And we celebrate you and your family.

Thank you for the opportunity and privilege.