Spring 2000
Volume 4 Number 4
Spring 2000
Volume 4 Number 4
Imagine sitting down at your desk on your first day of the job, getting ready to lead an organization that consists of, gulp, seventy-five million people that has the not-so-modest goal of, gulp, global justice. When asked whether he is intimidated by the scope of his new job, Nyomi responds that he has God’s call to Moses on his mind. Likening his own situation to that of Moses, he says, "It is God who leads and stays with the people and the leadership." Welcome assurance, indeed. Nyomi comes to the job strengthened by his desire to serve God, by his family, by his past ministry experience, and by his education. He is also encouraged by the team he will work with. The experience of God’s faithfulness propels him into this venture.
He says he is happy to start the new role because it is an opportunity to
serve, and "serving is the one thing that I know I’m called
to." Also, Nyomi is grateful he did not arrive in Switzerland alone. He moved to Geneva with his family in late February. Nyomi calls his wife, Akpene Esther, "an amazing support through her quiet prayers and her friendship." They have three children — Kekeil, a twenty-one-year-old woman who is studying at Berea College in Kentucky, Nunana, a twelve-year-old boy who was born in Princeton, and Xoeseko, a four-year-old boy. For the Nyomi family, moving is not new. International experience has prepared them for the scope of the task. Setri Nyomi knows America especially well because of his years studying and serving in the States. "Setri is a good bi-culture person," says Dykstra. "He grew up in a Presbyterian church in Ghana. He also has a clear sense of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. He has traveled extensively here. I think he knows the church here as well as any African or person from outside America could." Nyomi studied for his master’s at Yale
Divinity School and then for his Ph.D. in pastoral theology at
Princeton Seminary. After returning to Africa, he served as a minister in
the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ghana. He has also worked with the
All Africa Conference of Churches as a senior executive with
responsibility for theology, education, and family life and as coordinator
of the Selfhood of the Church unit. Douglass says, "He is a very gifted young theologian with broad experience in the Reformed family and important ecumenical experience. He has a great combination of knowing the Reformed family well and caring about the place of the Alliance within the broader ecumenical community." Also evident through Nyomi’s ministry have been his concern for social justice and his activism. Donald Capps, professor of pastoral theology at PTS, recalls Nyomi’s Ph.D. dissertation. "He was a very gifted student," says Capps. "He wrote an interesting dissertation on pastoral care and the ‘acts of God.’ People in Ghana were losing their land to soil erosion, land that had been in the family for many years. He focused on pastoral care on the one hand and also on figuring out a way that the churches or government could intervene so that this erosion could be stopped." The list of Nyomi’s gifts and experiences as a theologian, pastor, student, and social activist reads like a fit resume for the job. When asked as one with extensive experience in WARC what advice she would give to Nyomi as he begins his term, Douglass says, "I would advise Setri to come to know and trust the remarkable leaders of Alliance churches around the world. He will find much courage and confidence in these leaders as he gets to know them." Leaders and members of Alliance churches around the world can also look forward to working with Nyomi. With his leadership they, as a world alliance, can courageously confront the devastating problems of global injustice. And for both Nyomi and the seventy-five million members of WARC — as for Moses before them — ultimate hope and confidence is secure in the God they serve.
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