As Aim’s International Director, Lanny Arensen is always taking us back to the fundamentals of why the Mission exists. The heart and vision of Aim International, he believes, is to see Christ-centred churches flourishing among all Africa’s peoples.

Christ-centred churches among all African peoples — that is how I would summarize the heart and vision of Aim International. The Africa Inland Mission was originally founded to take the gospel to those living ‘inland’— beyond the reach of the gospel, which until then had been restricted to the coastal areas of Africa. Until we know that each people group in Africa has not only had the opportunity to hear the good news but also have a Christ- centred church living among them, Aim will have work to do.

So what is a Christ-centred church? I think of it as an assembly of disciples who know and reflect their new identity in Christ, who meet regularly for worship and who go out in mission. This assumes that people need to first be disciples — life-long learners at the feet of our great Master teacher. Such disciples would know not only their freedom from bondage to sin, but also their identity as part of the body of Christ. Their primary allegiance will be to God and their new family — his church. They would meet regularly to learn more of God’s wonderful truth, to pray, to sing, to dance and to break bread together. And they would go out to share this wonderful message with others by what they say and what they do.

Aim International’s task will not be complete until we see Christ-centred churches among all African peoples.

And it is these types of communities that we in Aim International desire to see among all African peoples ­— including those that are yet ‘unreached’.

So how can we reach them? Partnership would seem to be the key. Recently I have been puzzling over the following conundrum: When we, as a western mission, invite our African partners to join us in a new endeavour, they do so gladly — but they continue to see the primary responsibility for that outreach as belonging to us, the Mission. If we wait for African churches to take the initiative, then we forfeit our own calling to take the gospel to those ‘inland’. The solution would seem to be that we take the initiative where we sense God leading, but do it in such a way that our partners can see their way to share in building the vision. Then we go together.

The best way to explain this process is to tell of the ongoing development of an outreach to a previously unreached people. Over ten years ago Aim leaders in Mozambique identified the Mwani as an unreached group. After research, a Timo (Training in ministry outreach) team went to live and minister among them. This team included a national team member sent by a partner church. Two years later a very small church had been established but this body was not capable of reaching the rest of the people there. New strategies were developed: An FM radio station has been constructed and is awaiting license and frequency from the government. The whole of the coastal region inhabited by Mwani people will hear the truth through this means. An outreach to Mwani living in the northern town of Mocimboa da Praia was begun. This ministry brought the partner church more successfully into the picture. It has included placing a mission doctor in the local hospital and establishing a centre with varied services offered to the community, particularly the young people. Regular trips were made into large Mwani villages to ‘story’ the biblical account from creation to the cross. The use of stories has also been well received in the local prison and in hospital wards. All of these means have served to increase the awareness of the Mwani to the wonderful truths of the gospel. They have also increased the awareness of the church-partner to these people who live right among them but who have never considered the gospel as being for them. Now a new team is in preparation, which would continue to push this ministry forward — a team made up of American, British, Zambian, Kenyan and Australian missionaries all working together to see a Christ-centred church among the Mwani people of Mozambique.

The great task of going ‘inland’ to those who have not yet heard remains Aim International’s passion. And that task will not be complete until we see Christ-centred churches among all African peoples.

Lanny Arensen

Lanny Arensen is Aim’s International Director and is responsible for the overall direction of the mission. He is based in Aim's International office in Bristol.