SIM Engage Workers Support Churches

Jesus commanded his followers to make disciples from ‘every nation’ and for more than 130 years, SIM workers have carried the gospel to nearly every corner of the globe, travelling to far-flung places to share their faith with least-reached communities.

But the location of mission has changed and today in 21^st Century Britain, there’s a growing number of people, who haven’t heard Christ’s message of salvation, on our own doorstep.

With *16%* of people born overseas, there are now Great Commission nations embedded in UK communities and churches recognise the need to become an integrated part of their multicultural neighbourhoods in order to effectively share the gospel with them.

SIM UK’s pioneering Engage programme recruits and places gospel workers from around the world in local UK churches to help them respond to this changing context, and to reach out to their multicultural communities strategically.

“The UK has become a melting pot with the emergence of a multi-ethnic society with a wide variety of people groups,” explains Engage coordinator Tim Barrow. “We can give UK churches the knowledge, skills, and confidence to help them proclaim the gospel to people who haven’t heard, by mobilising overseas workers to serve alongside them.

“God is using our cross-cultural Engage workers in powerful ways, with many opportunities for ministry and outreach to significant diaspora communities, through activities or groups like sports, language teaching, music, or discussion,” adds Tim.

Four years ago, Inspire St James Clerkenwell partnered with our Engage programme and welcomed mission worker Mary, from Ethiopia, to help communicate the gospel faithfully and relevantly within one of the world’s most diverse cities – London.

Originally a church plant, it merged with St James Clerkenwell in 2018 to help it fulfil its vision to be outward-focused and build bridges with people from diverse and multicultural backgrounds.

“We started running free football lessons with a ‘gospel coaching corner’ that the Lord grew up,” explains Rev Mark Jackson.

“One guy who came to the very first session, wasn’t actually too interested in football, but what we were doing in his local football cage. And once trust was established, he wanted to find out more about Jesus and four years later, gave his life to Christ. One year later, his whole family started coming to church!”

After the first year of planting the church, Mark and the team noticed how 20 languages were being spoken amongst the church family and this led to them offering free English lessons, which, in turn, led to an annual holiday club bringing hundreds of kids through their doors, from a wide range of backgrounds.

“I think there’s a sinful bent in the human heart to want to hang out with people like yourself and be somewhat fearful of people who are different to us, or from different backgrounds to us,” suggests Mark, “and that can be a challenge to an authentically united and diverse community.

“It’s easy to stay within your comfort zone; within your people group, within your city or within your country and of course, this is where we need the gospel – to remember that we’re made in God’s image and so there’s an inherent beauty in the different ways the Lord has made us all – and also a humility to recognise our own cultural blind spots, and so be open to learning from others.

“Ultimately it’s in Jesus that we grow together as the one body in Christ. And so the more that we have Jesus’ vision for unity and diversity, the more we’ll embrace it.

“It’s been fantastic to partner with SIM UK to help us facilitate Inspire St James’ vision to be a truly united and diverse church in one of the most diverse cities in the world.

“Mary brings such a love for the Lord and such a desire to reach people for Christ – it’s been infectious for us and the church family – she’s also helped us appreciate the richness of the Ethiopian culture!”

Mary says she’s seen God at work in remarkable ways since she joined Inspire St James and like our other existing Engage workers, has been able to cross cultural and linguistic barriers to respond to needs and build relationships, while sharing the gospel through different ministries.

“Mary found people in our church family who were happy to join her in a door-to-door ministry and regularly knock on doors in the nearby estates,” says Mark.

“We’ve made many great connections,” says Mary. “One lady eventually accepted an invitation to our carol service and that one event opened the door to her coming to our guest dinner and now agreeing to read Mark’s Gospel! She’s so eager to learn the Bible and even plans to bring her kids to church. It’s been incredible to witness her spiritual hunger and God’s perfect timing.”

Mary also runs life skills courses for low-income families that naturally allow for conversations about faith.

“Juli and Mani* came from a Muslim country and they both grew up in that faith although they were not practising it here in the UK,” says Mary, “We’d built a great relationship with them for eight weeks of the course, hosting them in my house as well, but they disappeared from church. After not hearing from them for two years, Juli sent me a message asking, ‘How can we be christened?’

“They were all baptised last month and now attend church regularly! Juli has even started Christianity Explored to deepen her understanding and it’s such a powerful reminder of how God continues to work in hearts even when we don’t see it.”

“Mary also came up with the idea of an International Café that’s exploded!” adds Mark.

“Last term, we had 12-18 people from all over the world attending every week and what’s even more exciting, is that in the last four weeks, up to nine people stayed for our church services!”

Mary adds: “One beautiful story is of Hannah and Persie, two college students from China, who came to the café and heard the gospel for the very first time. They started attending church, joined Bible studies, and even brought a friend along. They loved the community so much that they volunteered to help with one of our carol services and celebrated their first ever Christmas with me in my home.

“Their excitement for the church and their willingness to invite others has been so inspiring and there’s much joy and rejoicing in my heart as I see all the fruit through these ministries over the past four years.”

Can we help you find the right person to help build bridges into your multicultural communities?

To find out more about Engage and talk through how it might work for you, please email our Engage coordinator Tim Barrow (engage@sim.co.uk) or call 01223 788288.