• The unity and trinity of God, eternally existing in three co-equal persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
• God the creator and preserver of all things, who created man, male and female, in his own image, and gave them dominion over the earthly creation.
• The deity and humanity of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being very God, also became man, being begotten of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, dead and buried, was raised bodily from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, whose two natures continue eternally and inseparably joined together in one person.
• The deity and personality of God the Holy Spirit, and the necessity of his work to make the death of Christ effective to the individual sinner, leading him to repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and in his ministry, dwelling permanently within and working through the believer for godly life and service.
• The divine, verbal inspiration, infallibility and inerrancy of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as originally given, and their absolute and final authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
• The human sinfulness and guilt of human nature since the fall, rendering man subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.
• The sacrificial death of our representative and substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, by the shedding of whose blood atonement was made for the sins of the whole world and whereby alone men are redeemed from the guilt, penalty and power of sin.
• The necessity of the new birth as the work of God the Holy Spirit, to be obtained only by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour; that men are saved by grace through faith, not by works.
• The security of the believer, based entirely on the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby, as a born again child of God, he has assurance of salvation and has the right to all the privileges of the sons of God.
• The responsibility of the believer to maintain good works, and to obey the revealed will of God in life and service, through which eternal rewards shall be received.
• The true Church, whose head is the Lord Jesus Christ, and whose members are all regenerate persons united to Christ and to one another by the Holy Spirit.
• The observance of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ.
• The supreme mission of the Church as being to glorify God and to preach the gospel to every creature.
• The personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• The resurrection of the body.
• The eternal blessedness of the saved and the eternal punishment of the lost.

In God’s grace, the message of the kingdom that missionaries helped take to Africa has become yeast that has transformed the lives of millions. It continues to grow. Like a mustard seed, tiny in places but determined, it can be smothered, crushed, set back, but it keeps growing. It grows despite, or because of, its weakness. In large swathes of Africa, it has become ‘the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that birds can perch in its shade’ (Mark 4:32). 

The glorious gospel, that we as followers of Jesus share, starts with our sovereign creator God making mankind in his image. Each person created with equal dignity. The Bible is clear that all people should be treated with equal value. Racism – prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group even if done unconsciously – is contrary to the gospel. It is sinful.   

As you read the history of the growth of the church in Africa, there is no shortage of evidence of mission agencies and individual missionaries displaying attitudes and behaviours that do not reflect our calling as followers of Jesus, to love others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39). There have been times in AIM’s 125 year history when racism has occurred;  we are not immune to racist attitudes and behaviours today. We reject them and repent of them. 

In obedience to Christ, and spurred on by the fact that there are millions of Africans still living and dying without an opportunity to hear of Christ, we cannot keep the gospel to ourselves. We proclaim Jesus to the lost in multi-cultural teams, working together as equals, bound together through our unity in Christ. We partner with Africans and African churches as they pioneer work among unreached populations. We go, as Jesus commanded, as an overflow of God’s love to us, a love that cannot be contained. 

AIM and Creation Care  

Our primary focus is to mobilise people for mission, to support churches as they send missionaries to share the good news of Jesus, to see sinful, broken, and spiritually dead people enter into a relationship with their Creator God. As we reflect on the scope and the depth of Jesus’ restorative work at the cross we recognise that it incorporates the whole realm of creation. Therefore we accept our responsibility to care for our world, and to glorify God as we do so. We acknowledge: 

• That we should delight in the world that God has made, both because it reflects his character and goodness, and because we are sustained through our interdependence with his creation. 
• That our destruction of the environment is often rooted in sin. Environmental degradation results from forms of idolatry, greed and pride as we fail to understand our dependence and interconnectedness with the environment. 
• That the powerful among us often ignore the needs of the weak destroying what provides subsistence for the poor or forcing them to marginal frontiers where they must live destructively in order to survive. 
• The poor often feel more acutely the consequences of climate change and are reliant on their environment in ways that the rich can mitigate. 
• We are called to look after and nurture the environment, and one day will be fully redeemed for that role. 

Therefore as part of our core work in evangelism, church planting and discipleship, AIM is: 

• Involved in Growing Nations projects.
• Equipping missionaries with an awareness of our responsibilities in stewardship of creation, particularly as it affects our ministry in evangelism, church planting and discipleship. 
• Taking care where we can as a European office to minimise our carbon footprint by  
  1. a commitment not to return to pre-Covid travel levels and making more use of the online meeting technology that we have all become familiar with; 
  2. encouraging staff, where feasible, to use carbon friendly forms of transport; 
  3. implementing hybrid working to enable staff to cut down the amount of travel needed for work; 
  4. choosing a utilities option for our premises which guarantees that our gas and electricity is 100% renewable; 
  5. being aware of our paper and other material usage (in producing our publications as well as general office use), going digital where we can, using recycled paper and biodegradable bags, and making sure that we are recycling unavoidable waste wherever possible; 
  6. switching from using desktops in the office to laptops which are more energy efficient. 
• Ensuring that new staff are oriented with reference to this statement. 
• Keeping awareness of creation care before staff, for example, during staff days and daily devotions. 
• Being committed to continually reviewing the way we do things so that we can identify new ways that we can be reducing our impact on the environment.