Declaring our faith

Coming from a United Methodist background, affirming a creed was something that Christians simply did by rote in the Sunday service just before the Gloria Patri. But on Saturday night at the Lausanne Congress, the act of professing the Nicene Creed came bellowing out of my soul with a gusto I do not ever recall having in such a recitation.

Often times, the Apostles Creed is the statement most often used in most contexts, but one thing I deeply appreciate about the Nicene is that whereas the former is usually stated in the first person singular, the latter is most often translated and affirmed in the first person plural. To place this use of a creed in context, we at the conference had spent sessions learning about persecution: being stirred by sensational stories of many who have suffered simply for what they believe. Just prior to the creed, the 4000 participants humbled themselves by "taking a knee" and engaging in a session of confession of sin, first personally and then collectively on behalf of our own peoples.

So it was with great solidarity that sisters and brothers from places like Eritrea, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Norway, and Colombia, and even this American declared, “We believe…”

May Christians never forget that when we affirm the Ecumenical Creeds, we are joining with servants and disciples of Jesus the world over. It is not a light thing to declare our faith!

The new reality of the church

One thing that has deeply impressed me being here at the Lausanne Congress on Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa is the rich diverse reality of the world church. Though America is still the largest contingency from one single nation, there is no doubt the new center of gravity of the church is represented. With the exception of the Chinese Christians, many who were refused departure from airports in China, the conference is representative of 198 different countries, and is quite possibly the most diverse gathering of Christians in church history.

As one who has been working with missions emanating from Africa, I am delighted to see that the spiritual and theological hegemony of the Western Church beginning to be set aside. As I spoke to a delegate living in the south side of Chicago, he told me that his “world was not the world” and that the he has gained perspective. He told me that his understanding of suffering was too small when we were exposed to the stories of fellow believers such as a wife of a missionary who lost her husband a few weeks ago in a South Asian country or of an Anglican archbishop who shared of how 30-40 people twice stormed into his house to kill him, leaving his wife blind and beaten the first time when they discovered he was not present and had his life spared only the second time after he began to pray and his attackers decided to leave.

The reality of the church is that the day of Southern Christianity (and I am not talking about a region in the US where people say “y’all” and eat pork barbeque) has come.

May the Lord bring fruit from bringing such diverse people together.

Watching my life flame before me

“Watching our lives flash before us” has become a cliché to say we have had a close call with death. Of course, some people actually have faces and memories flash before them as they are reminded of what is important in their lives, but rarely do we have sort of a record of our lives unfold like a rolodex or a video on super fast forward.

Picture this...at about 8:30 in the morning, I went out to an open space near my house, and I began to open up garbage bag after garbage bag to burn papers for about eight hours in the heat and humidity of a sunny day in tropical Accra. Nicole and I had been fortunate in the fact that we able to ship some possessions along with a few other families over to Africa when we moved here, but as many people do when they move, a lot of the boxes of our memories and files became boxes we would deal with when we had time—you know when we would get “there.” Perhaps you have moved and simply taken a filing cabinet or a box of hand written notes and said, “When I have time…” Now, we are moving from Ghana, and besides a very small handful of boxes of pictures and books, we are planning on leaving the country with the allotted two suitcases at 50 pounds each. I cannot describe the freedom I feel from liquidating our stuff. In looking at what I will pack in my two bags, I am incredibly limited to what I will be allowed to keep.

Unfortunately, papers that are not tied to immigration, identity, or my schooling just are not at the top of the list, and I have been forced to sort and eliminate just about all of them. Yes, I had saved all types of things. Fee paid cards from my time in college. Bank statements. Bulletins from my first church. A phone list of fellow employees from my first job. Church directories. And yes, those nice notes people had written me to tell me how great of a guy I am!

I wish I could have kept some of them, but being limited in what I can keep, I had to discard most of them. Of course, I would have loved to have simply put these items in the garbage, but this would have been unwise because of Africa’s own “recycling program” whereby people sort through your garbage. Whether it is the neighborhood children, the guys who come with the truck, or the people who actually pick through it at the landfill, anything that is reusable will be reused. I just could not risk putting anything personal in the garbage as I know it will pass through the hands of others. And for those who are conscious about the carbon footprint of a fire, I had brought a paper shredder to Ghana, but it did not survive the conversion to 220 electricity!

So back to our picture of me standing by a fire in scorching heat. In order to make sure my documents were securely destroyed, I had to personally stand over and feed my nineteen Hefty bags of papers to the flames. Memories galore! As I put one stack in, I had to “deal” with the memories of that season in my life. At moments, I realized I needed to forgive certain people, and at others, I was able to thank God for special relationships. I found myself in a Brother Lawrence day of constant prayer. Throughout the day, I was also sensing the Lord remind me of how life is brief and how God is eternal. Being in a less liturgical environment, I missed participating or leading an Ash Wednesday service this year. Incidentally, my Lenten season has been solidified by the memories of releasing and serving Jesus with only my “staff, one tunic, and my sandals” (Mark 6:8). In a serendipitous moment, I found a palm frond from a previous Palm Sunday I had saved for a future Ash Wednesday. As the palm went up in flames, it was if the Lord was speaking to me in a manifest way: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

A Time of Transition

A Time of Transition
We are so grateful for such a supportive team who has been standing with us in ministry during this five year term. Over the last year or so, we have been soliciting prayers, advice, and discernment from many of you who are part of our greater community of faith. As we evaluate our ministry in terms of looking back and looking forward, we do sense the Lord giving us clarity in the next season of our missionary service.

Things are pointing to our continuation in the same realm of ministry: mobilizing the church for comprehensive mission involvement. I can not express how we have sensed that we are standing on the edge of amazing works of God in this era of church history after the Christian faith on the continent of Africa has increased somewhere between 3,000% and 4,000% over the last century. As we are coming to the close of our five year term in Ghana, we have more questions than answers. However, these questions are not blind in nature, but informed by learning the complexities of Ghanaian culture and seeing great potential in the African Church as a whole.

As we have been working in Ghana and teaching on missions, a persistent result from talking about God's heart for mission has been Ghanaian people coming forward and desiring to go out in the name of Jesus. I have continuously been asking the question, "How can we do this?" Acknowledging that people have universal needs, but also looking at how distinct cultures can be, I have found myself groping for models to suggest to the Ghanaian Church for ways to get the church active in missions. The temptation is to simply import approaches from the West, but while an act of expediency may produce quick results, it could leave legacies of foreign Christianity. One example of such “foreign Christianity” evident in Ghana would be identifiable when one witnesses choirs processing in black choir gowns in tropical heat. This form from the West is a result of how well-meaning, but short-sighted missionaries in the past instructed new congregations on what to wear during worship services. The Church in Ghana has matured, and it now has great theological thinkers and interpreters who have been presenting uniquely African perspectives on many matters. Yet, undoing things such as unnecessary choir robes is more difficult to do than introducing contextually appropriate models in the beginning.

The Ghanaian Church does want to be involved in mission, but as it is growing at such an aggressive rate, most leaders are simply able to react to the church calendar of events right at hand. While many are learning to express their faith in African ways or reaching out in evangelism among their own ethnic groups, little research exists on the complexities of Ghanaians crossing cultures to initiate a church planting movement in another land. Though Ghanaian churches are found all over the world, the way a Ghanaian gathers expatriate Ghanaians is quite a different task from a Ghanaian going as a pioneer missionary among the Senufo people in Mali. It is the latter we have been wanting to learn about for the movement of cross-cultural missions. Without many models readily available in Ghana, I am eager to learn from other bodies in West Africa that have actually been doing this sort of mission venture. Therefore, I have applied and have been accepted to a leading institution in missiology, the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS), where I will be able to interact with leaders particularly from the Global South. I will be undertaking a research program with the express desire to resource the Church in Africa with mission ideas emerging from Africa. In the US when we do mission mobilization, our mission awareness presumes the existence of either a denominational or a parachurch mission sending infrastructure. I sense the Lord leading me to be a resource to the fellow believers where such paradigms are not pervasive. In addition to interacting with mission innovators in the Global South, one of the reasons we have settled on OCMS was the combined opportunity for us to assist in the development of mission mobilization in another context, the United Kingdom. Nicole will be taking the lead with serving as a preacher, teacher, and consultant to congregations in Britain, and she will be poised as both one who can speak to this subject as a mission minded pastor and as a missionary. This opportunity will also enable our sending agency, The Mission Society to fulfill a longstanding invitation within the UK and continue with what the Lord has been doing in this ministry areas to encourage more local churches in mission. By the way, local church mobilization is already quite developed by The Mission Society in the United States and is a great resource for any local church. Check out our website to learn more about how your local church can be strengthened in its mission outreach,http://www.themissionsociety.org/go/for_my_church.

In sum, we will be redeployed with the Mission Society to a new field. We will be continuing in the same ministry of mission mobilization: Kirk will be looking to resource the African Church, and Nicole will be working to awaken British congregations for missions. We look forward to this emerging time of ministry with great anticipation of what God is going to do in and through us. We are going to miss our beloved Ghana, but our hearts will not be too far away. –Kirk

Q & A with Kirk and Nicole
Will you continue to serve as missionaries?
Yes. We are simply being redeployed to a new field.

But what about your ministry in Ghana?
We have been evaluating our ministry for quite some time, and we believe that to be of better service in Ghana we need to develop our understanding of African sending structures, so we hope to stay in dialogue as the church develops its mission sending capacity.

Will you be pursuing a degree?
Yes, if my (Kirk) research is up to the right standards, I will obtain a PhD in Mission Studies. However, I feel called to this regardless of whether or not a degree program was being offered. I see that the Church in Africa needs to be aware of African mission sending paradigms. I have already written a 30 page paper that is being circulated in Ghana with some ideas.

Isn't an Oxford degree expensive?
OCMS actually works with the University of Wales, but is strategically placed to make the most of Oxford's resources. Because of my ministry in Africa and with a desire to benefit the African Church, tuition will be only at the rate an African would be charged.

What will you do after this season?
Nyame Adom. (By God's grace, only God knows.) The research will hopefully have direct benefit to the Church, and with some gained expertise, I sense a call to continue resourcing the Church in the Global South. The Mission Society sees this as a season of formation for future ministry and a needed investment in the direction of world missions.

Now what exactly will Nicole's ministry look like?
I (Nicole) will be a resource to churches. Over the last few years, the Mission Society has developed a program for churches to mobilize themselves for mission, and I will work to develop this ministry within the UK. I will look to do more of what I love to do within this new context: preaching and teaching and empowering local churches.

You use this term mission mobilization. What exactly do you mean by that?
Helping local congregations to put missions as a part of every person's faith walk while also developing an intentional, church-wide strategy for engaging missions both locally, nationally, and internationally.

The UK has a mission heritage, do they need mission mobilization?
Most definitely! Each generation needs to be lit with the fire of missions, and new "wineskins" of mission are being used within the UK in this generation.

Will you continue to need support?
Yes. We will be continuing to ask for prayer and financial partners with us. Please continue to remember us.

What about the boys?
They are terrific missionaries. The first thing Aidan asked when we told him that we may move to the United Kingdom was, "Do people need to know about Jesus there?" They are both looking forward to the new adventure. The boys will probably attend local public schools, and who knows, they may even pick up a British accent!

What is the latest on the Methodist work in Burkina Faso?
There are now 5 congregations! A structure needs to be set up to send, resource, and maintain missionaries in this very ripe harvest field.

Will you be going back to Africa?
In the short term, we expect to go back fairly frequently, either doing some teaching, research or to lead groups. Long term, we may be called back to Ghana, another country in Africa or to be resources to the Church in Africa.

Will you be available to speak at our church any time soon?
We will be back to the US in late spring and summer. Let us know if you may want us to speak at your church or to meet with you during that time. E-mail is probably the best way to line things up. (nicolesims@gmail.com or kirkssims@gmail.com) We hope to transition to the UK later in the summer.

Praises & Prayer Requests
Praises
• God has done marvelous deeds in Ghana! To God be the glory.
• Praise God for the many relationships that have touched our lives as we have them.
Prayer Requests
• Pray over all the details of our transition--selling furniture, proper closure, etc.
• Pray over our furlough schedule as we prepare to return to the States for a short season.
• Pray for the boys as they will be schooling in three different countries within the next year.
• Pray for continued partnerships with us as we look to begin a second missionary term within a new context.

A few highlights of our 5 year term
• Assisting in mission mobilization conferences around the country.
• Helping with church plants in Afram Plains, the Volta Region, the North, and Burkina Faso.
• Establishing a mission fund by which monies can be raised for Ghanaian missionaries with the Methodist Church.
• Speaking on missions at several national events.
• Organizing or speaking at various mission conferences.
• Leading a missionary training conference for Ghanaian missionaries.
• Working with denominational leaders in Nigeria for greater mission awareness.
• Leading The Mission Society's Ghana Field in one of its most expansive and changing seasons.
• Mentoring and hosting young adult interns interested in exploring missionary calls.
• Assisting with long term vision casting for the Mission Society.
• Preaching about Christ in many neglected village churches.
• Through the generosity of our donors, we were able to extend countless blessings--from sponsoring young leaders with theological education, to buying motorcycles for evangelists, to building churches, to hosting a children's Bible Club, to sponsoring Ghanaian missionaries.
• Serving on the teaching faculty to over 100 commissioned evangelists.
• Learning more than we ever dreamed to know about electricity and plumbing!
• Learning more about how big our God is and how incredible God's grace and riches are to us!

Please send support to:
The Mission Society
PO Box 922637
Norcross, GA 30010
Please designate gifts:
"Sims Support 5/286/ST"