If you’re going to Stand for God, you will face Criticisms even from Believers - Akan Inyene

In this Interview today, Mobolaji Titilope speaks with Akan Inyene, popularly called “Another Kind Of Boy”. He shares stories about his life so far, his walk with God and the beauty of weaving stories using the Bible's perspective.

Can we meet you?

Guest: My name is Akaniyene Akpan, a Christian author, storyteller, and social media strategist passionate about shaping minds and stories for lasting impact. I am a First-Class graduate of Banking and Finance from the University of Uyo. I also hold a Distinction Diploma in Insurance and a Financial Analyst Certification from CFI.

That’s an Impressive CV. Please, tell us more about what you do.

Guest: On campus, I combined leadership with excellence - serving in various roles including service as the Redeemed Campus Fellowship (RCF) UNIUYO General Secretary and Pioneer President of the main campus chapter. I wrote my first book "Another Kind of Boy" in 200 level, which sold thousands of copies and laid the foundation for a movement - “Content Mastery” -that has trained over 300 student creatives across 3 African countries.

I am also the author of Influence Her, Stories of Storytelling, and STAND. 

I founded The Lord’s Scribe, a storytelling competition for Christian creatives, and leads STAND, a gospel-driven student movement.

Through branding and content strategy, I  help startups grow. I have received awards for leadership and youth empowerment - but nothing beats seeing students live out their calling through faith, creativity, and knowledge. 

That's really impressive. How and when did you discover your calling as a Christian creative, because we believe being a Christian creative is simply a calling?

Guest: Well, I would say that my journey to being a Christian creative started in church and of course about practices from church. I remember a time I was listening to someone and the pastor said "you can use your gifts to preach the gospel. If you're too afraid to go out to preach, use social media and whatever means you have to propagate the Gospel"

I remember that growing up, I liked writing stories for my family and they enjoyed it. As the words of the pastor kept ringing in my ears, i opened my social media account and i started sharing my writing gift with people and i started going like that.

I started with just the words of a pastor I listened to and that ignited the fire. 

4. What drew you to your specific area of creativity (eg storytelling, animation, writing, video content etc) and how do you feel it aligns with your faith in God?

Guest: I come from a family of literature students. Like my mom was very literature inclined. My dad is also quite literature inclined although it's not much. I have an elder brother who likes reading too. I think that's what drew me to this particular area of creativity. I also love to sing. Singing was also one of the ways I thought I could propagate the gospel to. 

I still think I can propagate the gospel to people because music is one aspect I love but then writing in particular is more special to me. Since I grew up reading a lot of books, it free my attention and to become a storyteller. The stories in the Bible also captivated me and before long, I started writing like that. 

Initially, I was just sharing my experiences but before long, I switched to storytelling, preaching to people using storytelling and winning people to His side. 

5. When did you start creating content with a Christian focus, and what inspired you to create faith based content?

Guest: I think one thing that kept me going was the fact that I was not alone. At that time,  I was following more people who were doing what I was doing and they inspired me and sometimes even when I do not have contents to create, I just look at their contents and maybe repurpose it to like suit my present condition. For instance, if somebody posted about repentance, I could just remember a time when i actually repented genuinely and share my own experience or simply use a character in the bible. 

As a Christian creative, have you ever felt out of place or that you don't quite fit in with the mainstream creative circle?

Guest:  Well, I have never felt out of place honestly because the foundation of what I always do is Jesus. 

My goal is to reach out to Christians and the moment I started creating content for Christians, more Christians started following me. And if Christians are following and reading and if they are being converted and changed every day, then I do not see a reason to be in the mainstream media. 

I am content with where I am and I am seeing people who are doing just about what I am doing. 

I follow other people who are not Christian content creators. There are people with good morals who may not share the same belief as me but at least, I could relate to them. 

Some of them are content creators who make entertaining contents and I follow them because of that.

There are also people that create content on finance, politics, health and others and if they are things that pique my interest, I just go ahead and follow them. 

Have you ever faced criticism as a Christian creative?

Guest: Yes, I have.

Can you share a time when you faced rejection or criticism as a Christian creative? How did you handle it, and what did you learn from the experience?

Guest: I have been criticized several times. Sometimes, you share your opinion on certain things that are clear in the bible - what the word of God says about some principles or ways - and you get criticized.   

Truth is if you're going to stand for God, you're going to face criticisms and many times, the criticism will not come from unbelievers. Many times, they'll come from people who actually go to church, bear Christian names and identify as Christians. 

Criticism in this view is not often about the vague principles. Something as clear as "Fornication is a sin" is going to get make people come at you..

I remember my book, Another Kind of Boy, a book about homosexualism and God and I gave my stance about homosexualism in line with God's stance on it, which is very clear. The Bible already talked about homosexualism which happened admist the people in Sodom. 

In the book, I didn't rule out the struggles of being a Christian while still battling with sexual issues like that but still, people criticized the stance so much but I remained unmoved because I know I was standing on what the Bible says. 

How do you balance the desire for excellence in your craft with the understanding that your worth and identity comes from God, and not your creative works?

Guest: The truth is you can't isolate my works from excellence because everything I do stems from God. Everything I do flows from God - Whatever that I am, whatever I will be, whatever I create stems from God. 

In this case, it's like God giving you a raw file and then, it's in your capacity to use the raw file adequately well.

What spiritual practices or disciplines do you find helpful in your creative journey and how do you incorporate them into your daily routine?

Guest: A particular practice you should have is if it is something that stems from God, then you need to be a person of the word and prayer. So, one practice that I always do is the word and prayer. I won't say more than that. 

Be a person of the word, be a person of prayers. Because if you're not a person of the word, you're definitely not a person of prayer and your fountain is not clean. Your fountain is not pure. 

You'll be a creative, but not a Christian creative because the first thing you're called to do is to be with God. The Bible spoke of the disciples. He said that he called them first to be with him.

What are the physical practices and disciplines you do to enhance your creative journey?

Guest: Yes, I follow other creators and look at what people are doing to improve and I also read a lot. This helps to stir up my own river of creativity. 

So, follow other people, ask questions, pay attention to the environment before the truth is you're trying to talk about God in a creative way and you can't afford to leave the scriptures out of the creativity.

12. How do you discern whether a creative project or opportunity aligns with your values and calling as a Christian creative?

Guest: one thing i do is to always ask people the idea behind their work, does it align with the word of God, the pioneer, is the pioneer drinking sharing the same values as me. 

That it's a Christian program doesn't mean I just have to be there, so I pay close attention to the pioneer and the reason this project is established having the consciousness that this is God and he can do anything how he wants to do it - that is if I should accept the project. 

13. Can you share a difficult time in your creative journey when you felt like giving up? What encouraged you to keep going?

Guest: that would be when I was doing a lot but still broke. 

I was popular but  but I was limited. I tried to print books and I would struggle to get the money. I would try to do basic things and I was struggling until I actually had to ask the Lord.

I asked Him if I was going to do His work and beg. It was quite very discouraging. I felt like I should just give up. I was just tired. I was like, please, there's no point always doing this. There's no point always repeating these things and then there's nothing to show for. Nothing to show for that I met with you. I had to ask the Lord and then He helped me. 

Can you share a time when you experienced failure in your creative journey? What did you learn from the experience and how did you bounce back?

Guest: Ah! Failure is a part of life. There were times I experienced failure in my Christian journey. For instance, there were times when I tried to put out my book and I could not make as much sales as I wanted.

At some points, I've had several failures but the truth is many times, I don't count them as failures. I count them as part of my journey. I count them as part of what God is doing vecause the truth is, for a believer, there are no bad days. There are no bad seasons. There are no failures. Everything in the hand of God is its soul. He works everything out for His good. I would say all things work together.

And it's not just the good things. It's everything. It's the bad thing. Everything works together. He uses all things. He uses both the things that we feel are failures, the things that we feel like are limitations, He uses all things.

15. Who are some mentors or role models who have inspired and guided you in your creative journey?

Guest: It is in different aspects. When it comes to social media, people who are my role models are Pastor Ebele Ozo Peters,  Pastor Judah Olorumaye, Pastor Wisdom Oyema, Kindness Ogona, Precious Obasi and Uju Okori. 

I have quite a number of Christian creatives on social media who inspire me to write. When it comes to publishing my books, my role models is Pastor Laju Iren. She inspires me a lot. Jackie Perry also an inspiration. I can get inspired from different things and different people at different points in time so I particularly say that this is what inspires me. It could be anything at any point in time.

What books, training programs or resources have been most helpful to you as a Christian creative?

Guest: I've not attended many Christian workshops because there's a scarcity of them. My creativity just spanned from gathering knowledge from people and observing. But for books, writers like Jackie Hill Perry and Precious Sebastian, Ife Grace inspire me a lot.

Are there any upcoming projects or initiatives you'd like to share with our audience?

Guest: yes, we are currently having Content Mastery. It is is Christian creation, it's just content mastery for writers from every walk of life, graphic designers, social media managers, ads managers, and all of that.

We also have the Lord's Scribe coming in november. It is a place for christian storytellers and what we do is a three days boot camp and then we have a writing competition where we award people with money.

Last year, we gave out #100 000 and we're looking at what we're going to be giving out this year 

We also have stand standards in several universities where we share the word of God with them and set them up to their creative side to be intimate with God and carry out His assignment in their various campuses.

18. Please, give a word or advise, prayer or support to Christian creatives in this season.

Guest: the first thing that matters the most is that you're a Christian. Please be a Christian in all that you do. Do not focus too much on creativity that you forget to be a Christian. Don't be too busy working for God that you forget to walk with God, that you forget to actually hold His hand and walk with Him. 

Don't be too busy trying to work for God, trying to do things, trying to brand yourself.

As a Christian, you don't need too much branding. You just need to be a Christian and it shows, it tells people just see and they just know there's no need for too much explanation. People just see and know you're a Christian. My prayer for you is that the Lord  will bless you and reward you for all the work that you're doing and I also pray for those who don't know the areas they need to function. I pray that the Lord will give you direction. 

You will hear a voice behind you saying this is the way to go. And I'm praying for you that your fountain will be pure. God will help you to live pure and holy for him. In this adulterated generation, in this generation where many people are running away from God, you'll be generation intimacy. You'll be close to God. You'll be your heart will pant after God. Your heart will yearn for God. In the name of Jesus. And on the last day, may we be found with our Father. The God of all creation.

Amen. Thank you so much, Sir.