The ministry of mime is one that has deep roots, extending as far back as God’s creation of the universe. However, the way we do it does not adhere to strict standards that align to what God intends it to be. It’s high time that we have that much-needed change. In this episode of Change Your Mind, Achkei Wilson discusses what he believes should change in the ministry of mime and argues that a reformation is in order to align it better to Scripture. Tune in and get a whole perspective about mime and how critical it is to Christian ministry!
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Ministry Of Mime With Achkei Wilson
I have a guest, Achkei, that I’ve had the privilege of meeting. We met because we have a kindred spirit, which I have interviewed before, my brother Willie. This is not about Willie and I don’t want to digress, but Achkei is in an industry which is, when you look back in time, we think it has probably not evolved as it should have, or maybe it might be fizzling out. Achkei is going to bring us a different perspective and that perspective is on mime. What does mime mean to you, Achkei? Please elaborate on that, and welcome here.
Thank you so much for having me here on your platform. It is truly an honor and a privilege. The ministry of mime as we know it nowadays, has a secular and a biblical root. Most of the time, people start at the secular story. They start in the middle of the story when they say that mine originated in Greece and that it has a negative and demonic root attached to it. My argument is that mine did not start in Athens, Greece. Why are we starting in the middle of the story when we should be starting at the beginning of the story? The Bible says, “God created the heaven and the Earth.” That’s where we start right there. We also have to look at what the scripture is saying.
“God created.” That’s an action word. God was doing something as he was creating the heaven and the Earth. If he’s creating the heaven and the Earth and we agree that he’s doing something, there’s nothing in the scripture that says that God spoke as he was creating. That’s where mime. It starts as we dive into the definition of the sacred arts of sign acts. I would like the people to know that rather than starting in the middle and attaching a demonic route to it, which means it shouldn’t even be in the church. If that’s the case, then we can’t take something that’s evil and then put God’s name on it. That’s not how this works.
That’s interesting because I never saw mime as an evil art form. I see it as a way of expression because you think about sign language. We have individuals who are deaf, and mime is a form of language because you’re using your body, facial expressions and hands to portray the words. To me, you’re saying that sign language is evil, too, and that’s not true. I would hope that people understand that mime is not evil as well. We will touch more on that as we go through our discussion. You’ve gone down that road. Describe your journey because it seems like you have a big passion for this. What is the cause of this passion that made you go in this direction of the mime in ministry?
I was in the church in 2008. I was working behind the camera. I was a videographer for the church services. There were four women who came on stage and they had on paint gloves and black garb. They came on and they ministered in mime. I didn’t know what it was at the time. That was the first time that I saw it in the church. I’m in the camera. I’m looking outside of the camera to see, “What is this phenomenon that’s going on here on stage?” After they left the stage and church was over, I went up to the leader and said, “That was a great performance, but how come they had no brothers on your team?”
You went there with the fact it was all women. You didn’t even talk about the message.
“It was a cool message, but why are there no brothers up there?” Her response was, “We’re waiting on you.” That was the moment that I knew that God wanted me to be in the ministry of mime.
That is amazing. Her words spoke to you. What were you doing at the time? You did a totally different change, sounds like to me. You were on the camera, but then you went to being a part of that ministry. What were you doing before that, other than the cameraman? What were your aspirations? What were you thinking about?
Serving in church and being a good steward. The beauty of the Heavenly Father is he pulls giftings out of you, things that are in you that you don’t even know are there and all he does is he says, “Go,” and you have the free will to do it or not do it and I obeyed the call.
Before we came on to take this segment, we were having a monumental discussion about what mime is supposed to be. What is mime? What does it mean to you to mime? Explain that.
I came up with an acronym for MIME. That is Ministry and Movement with Excellence. Everything that we have to do in ministry, job and personal life has to be and should be in excellence. My message is to show everyone that there is a better practice of the ministry of mime. What you’re doing is good. That’s great, but there’s a better way. Wouldn’t you want to do things in excellent? Wouldn’t you want to do things that will be better for the kingdom of God? I offer that message to the people.
Everything that we have to do in ministry, in our job, and in our personal life has to be in excellence. Share on XTowards A Better Ministry
We always ask this question, I think of myself. What is your definition of better and what makes it better in comparison to what other people say is better?
What I see as better is the Bible says that the time has come and is coming for the true worshiper to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, not just in spirit. You have the spirit, but are you ministering in truth? We have a way of doing things. We have a theology of how we believe we should be doing things. What does the Bible say? What does the Father say we should be doing things? It takes someone who has done the work, a teacher of sorts, and the teacher makes sense of what scripture is saying.
We all can interpret. We all can read. We all have a level of understanding and comprehension, but we need to have a teacher to show us, “Here is what scripture is saying.” We call it behind the text in my grad studies. What is behind the text is what it is that I need people to see when they see the ministry of mime.
Let’s walk this fast forward a little bit here. The woman said she was waiting on you and you joined the ministry. What happened when you joined the ministry? What were they doing the same as what you’re doing nowadays?
No, you’re on point there. You’ve done this before. I write in my book The Unspoken Truth About The Ministry Of Mime how I progressed from behind the camera to donning the paint and gloves. What was that transformation? What was that transition? I’ll tell you a quick story. Even though I was led to be part of the ministry, there were things that the leader was doing that were not according to scripture. The appearance was off. The movement was off. The spirit was there, but we weren’t ministering in truth.
For example, I remember wearing black lips on my lips. I remember having split my face down the mental. One side was white. One side was black. I remember having black and white gloves split. It was weird that when we did the face split thing, somebody, I don’t know who, came up to the ministry. It might have been the pastor and said, “You can’t do that no more.” We never split our faces again, but we continued to wear the black paint, and we continued to wear the split gloves.
Why would someone go up to the leader and say, “Don’t split your faces anymore?” because it has a negative appearance. It has a demonic look and a gothic look. When you’re wearing the black lip, that denotes the appearance of demonic worship or a gothic look if we’re attaching roots to the ministry in in and of itself. If it looks weird and if it looks evil, then it is. Why is it in the church? Even though you have the spirit a good intention of ministering before the people, you were not taught that wearing black lips is a no-no.
Those are two examples of the message. When we talk about how people come in and have this great spirit and they’re powerful and anointed and all that good stuff, and they’re doing it for the culture, let me submit that everything that’s for the culture is not biblical. Everything that we do for the culture is not necessarily doing things for God. We should be doing things to the culture and worshiping God.
You raised the interesting point here with the mime because you’re taking it four and two. Explain to me how you transitioned from that because it looks like what you saw before you joined the ministry was the opposite of what you’re doing.
I didn’t know the truth. As far as I knew, we were just miming. I was following my leader. The leader said to put on black lips because it was cool. She saw it somewhere. They saw it somewhere and then it became the norm. Part of the reason why things have gone awry even in the church is because we’re taking things that are not necessarily what is scriptural we’re flipping it and calling it holy. We can’t do that.
Explain this to me, and I’m not an expert anyway. I asked the question of how you get to the point where you got clarity on what mime should be, Was it through your studies?
I had the study. It’s a calling. The best way that I can explain this is when the people were under the Mosaic Law, they were under the Mosaic Law for centuries. That was the law, but then Christ came and said, “Here is a new law.” The people rejected it. Why did they reject it? The Mosaic Law was the law. It’s what they were accustomed to. It’s their norm. When the Messianic law came, it freaked people out to the point where they abused, beat, cursed, mocked and crucified him simply for coming in and saying, “Here is a better way of being a Christian.”
What has been the perception and reception for you with coming with miming the way you’re doing it today is not following the word of God? I was using what you’re saying. How are you helping people to understand this and what has been their response?
I can’t tell you the ones that it affects. There’s a tremendous amount of pushback. For example, there are individuals out there in the gospel mime arena. By the way, there’s a difference between gospel mime and Christian mime. I’m promoting Christian mime. I’m calling for the reformation of gospel mime. There are individuals in the gospel mime arena who will take flags in the paint gloves and garment and will wave flags as if they are the standard bearer. That’s not the best practice, nor is it mime. It has nothing to do with mime. Let’s go to the Bible. What does the Bible say?
The prophet Elijah, who used the sacred art of sign acts in his prophecy, told the king to fire arrows out of the window the king was firing arrows out of the window. The prophet went over to the king and he touched his shoulder. He did not touch the instrument. Why? It’s because the instrument was not his to use. It was the instrument of the individual who was called to use that instrument.
If you are a mime and you want to incorporate flagging in your mime, then you collaborate with the standard bearer to come and do their thing, whatever they do, and they go away, then you continue on with your assignment as a mine. You’re either a mine that day or you are a flagger that day. You cannot be both. The pushback is, “What you’re saying is mimes can’t be flaggers?” That is not what I’m saying. If you want to flag that day, don’t put the paint on. If you want to mime that day, then don’t pick up the flame.
If you want to flag that day, don't put the paint on. If you want to mime that day, then don't pick up the flag. Share on XIt’s interesting, and you’re opening my eyes to a whole different perspective on mime. I’ve seen it and I appreciate it. I haven’t seen the flagger and honestly, I have not seen the two-sided faces. If I had, I probably would’ve had a different perspective on mime. The whole point is I see mimeing as a way to not use voice, but to use your body language and facial expressions to portray and give the message to what is speaking to you. Am I clear on that or am I misunderstanding?
I would hope that that would be the goal of the individual. What you have out there is individuals who are mouthing the words to the songs. They’re not using their facials correctly. Their movements doesn’t translate or match the story that they’re trying to project. You have all of these things going on, and from the eyes of the teacher, it is completely out of order. If we believe that God is a God of order and not this order, you cannot have individuals over here doing a certain way, then you have individuals over here doing it in a whole different way. Now everybody’s, “I’m creative. I’m individual,” then that means that it’s about you. When you make it about you, we mess up. It’s going to take someone to come in to open up the eyes of individuals so that they can see that there is a better way.
“I have new wine. I cannot take this new wine and put it in old skin. It will spoil.” In order for an individual to want to take their ministry to the next level, they’re going to not only have to humble themselves, but they’re also going to have to sit at the feet of the teacher, receive the information, the instruction, and then go back out and minister. I can’t control what anybody does. I’m not here to be the mime police, the life police or anything of that nature. My job is to plant seeds and allow God to water it. However, if pastors hear this message, pastoral leaders, evangelists, prophets, and apostles are the ones I want to talk to because the people are not listening.
In order for an individual to take their ministry to the next level, they need to humble themselves, sit at the feet of the teacher, receive the information, and then go back out and minister. Share on XTowards A Reformation Of Gospel Mime
Let me ask you this. When you say you want reformation of the gospel ministry for mime, what does that look like? What exactly does that mean?
Let me fix that. Gospel mime is a genre. Gospel is a genre. Music, mime, dance or whatever they attach the gospel word to. The gospel as it pertains to scripture. That’s an entirely different look. I’m calling for the reformation of the gospel ministry of mime in general so that people will then understand and start to see the ministry of Christian mime.
Explain to the readers what you see as being the difference between the two.
Those individuals who wear black lips, that are out of order, mark their faces, make designs on their faces because they want to be creative individuals that wear relics on their faces, individuals that wave the flags. Individuals that have dirty garments. Now we’re going to minister before God with dirty or dingy garments on, I see mimes that are out there with dirty socks on. I see mimes out there with bare feet on. First of all, who is the watchman, who is the gatekeeper and where are they? Are we now saying that it’s okay to give God anything? I call that the cane offering.
When they come in that kind of environment with that clothing, you see that it is not offering the best, but offering the least, which is turning God away instead of them drawing closer to God. They’re doing the opposite of that based on what you’re saying.
We’re bleeding on God’s people. You’ve got individuals that’ll come in there and say, “I minister because this song spoke to me. I’m battling with depression and anxiety. I’m this, that, and the other.” They come in and minister that crap. You’re bleeding on the people. First of all, I teach that if you minister a tribulation, a trial, you must have a deliverance in the end. We are ministering to the people. We’re not ministering to ourselves. This is not about us.
If you minister a tribulation, you must have a deliverance in the end. We are ministering to the people. We're not ministering to ourselves. Share on XPutting the white paint on means that, “I am dying before Christ, that he may live through me so that I can become what the people need so that they can see what they need and receive it.” I’ve learned that over the years. In doing so, that means that we have to take self out of it. Sometimes, mimes get up there to perform so that they can be seen. You can tell it in their movement there’s no anointing, there’s no power and there’s no story.
You make me think about it because you raise an interesting point. Remember that movie and it’s been a long time, but it was with John Travolta and he was a dancer when he started out. I think it was Staying Alive. The thing about it is he was dancing not for the people. He was dancing for himself. He didn’t become good and excellent until he took himself out of it and was dancing to serve. That sounds like what you’re saying there, and that’s about anything about being a servant is that you have to take yourself out and look at what you’re doing for the greater good.
This message isn’t just about mime. It is about mime because that’s my lane. That’s the direction that God has me going in, but I don’t just teach about mime. I teach about life. What you did was you gave a life experience. That’s an excellent example. What I would do is I would take the mine teaching, give them that, and then say, “Look at it this way. When you’re doing things in life, are you doing it for yourself or are you doing it for others? If you’re doing it for yourself, you could do that at home. You could do that in your own personal worship. When you are before the people, you are expected to minister in excellence.” You have to understand that if you bring your baggage and you spew it onto the people, somebody that came in there for deliverance will leave out of their worst than what they came.
I think about life. As a supervisor, I led a department and if I came to work with all the garbage I had in my personal life and dumped it on my staff, then my staff would reflect what I was bringing in. The same thing goes for what you’re saying in the mind ministry. If you come in with the garbage of what you have within them, like you said, if a person is depressed, there are avenues for them to pursue to help them. Maybe the mind is not the way to go to help you overcome your depression because what you’re spewing out is maybe more of the negativity. When you’re crying out, you probably said, “I’m hurting. I need help.” People in the audience will feel that.
Personally, I would want to get up and say, “What can I do to help you?” instead, “I would see the dancer as hurting and someone who’s in pain and how can I give them some support?” That goes for all the things that we do in life. We have to look at the purpose and the reason behind what we’re doing to be the driving force. That’s what you’re saying in the mime ministry, which we can apply to all aspects of our lives. What we’re doing is when you put on that face and you get up there to interpret and help us understand the word, what is the reason behind it? That seems like that’s what you’re saying in what you’re doing.
I guarantee you and I challenge any of your readers. The next time they see a mime performance, they go up to the individual and ask questions, “Why do you wear the white paint? Why do you wear your garment that way? What was the message that you wanted me to hear and understand?” I have a surrogate father, and he did that. When he spoke to me, he said he was confused after speaking to that individual-minded person and didn’t feel he got the answer he was looking for. He got my book, and I said, “I wrote that. I’ve explained all of that.” The individual couldn’t answer your question because they don’t know. I don’t care how gifted you are and how anointed you may think you are.
If you can’t answer the basic questions of why you’re doing what you’re doing, then you may need to fall back, sit at the teacher’s feet and learn. This message is for everybody. It’s not just for those who are new and coming. It’s not for kids. This message is for everyone. In the book, in my book, I address the perspective from the eyes of the pastor, what do pastors see from the dancer, from the mime and the saint? All of these perspectives give me an idea of exactly what they see when they see the ministry of mime. It is so vast that it has to be brought in that there is some form of unity. There has to be a standard operating procedure. Right now, we don’t have that in the ministry of mime.
What is the name of your book, and how can someone get a copy of it?
The name of the book is The Unspoken Truth About The Ministry of Mime. This is the second edition. The first edition was what God told me to do when he said, “Write the book.” I had no idea why I was writing the book. I knew that I needed to write and then he said, “Now you have to go and teach it.” When he said, I said, “You told me to write it. You didn’t tell me I had to teach it.
The people don’t want to hear this. It’s bad enough. I wrote it. Now, you want me to go out and tell people to change their mindset? This is what you want me to do.” “Yes.” “In order for me to do that, I’ve got to go back and sit at a teacher’s feet. I’ve got to go back and understand the language. I’ve got to go back and do the work because I can’t expect someone to sit at my feet and learn and hear what God says about this ministry if I don’t go back and get the answers for myself.” I’m not asking people to do something that I haven’t already done. This book is chock-full of scripture and theology. You’re getting all of that. You can find that on my website at JerichoWhalls.com.
What I like and admire about what you said is that I had to first get the knowledge and get the wisdom before I could go out and speak this message. I think that that’s applied to all aspects of our life. If we want to be a teacher, we have to first be equipped to be that teacher. What has been your biggest challenge with this book, with getting out there and spreading this word?
Getting people to listen.
What have been the responses of individuals?
Some will hear and they’ll get it. Some will hear and not get it. Some will hear it and continue to do what they’ve been doing because, “God gave it to me. This is what God gave me. The Holy Spirit taught me.” Right there, when people say the Holy Spirit taught me. The Holy Spirit is the only teacher I need,” I know then that that individual has taken the scripture out of context. God doesn’t expect us to rely solely on the Holy Spirit. God expects us to do the work in spirit and in truth. In order for us to know the truth, we have to seek him. God will reward those who diligently seek him. We can be giving giftings all day long, but if we don’t understand what we’re doing, then all we’re doing is spinning our wheels.
I’m asking the people to hear the message. I’m asking pastoral leaders, “Allow me to come in and share this message with you through seminars. I will travel anywhere in the continent, the United States,” because this is a global message. This is not a local message. This message will reach the nations on nations because the Bible tells me to go and teach the nations. Once this message hits pastoral leaders who hear the truth, they have a spiritual and apostolic responsibility to do what the Bible says to do.
Imagine if the pastor says, “You can’t wear black lips,” “God gave this to me.” “You can’t wear those black lips.” Now, we’re making a change. Now, we’re reforming lives and mindsets because right now, the minds are saying, “I’m doing it. I’m doing, me and my pastor and my dance leader and mime leader, they’re okay with it.” I’m here to tell you that it is not okay.
I think about a mentor that I’ve told highly in my life. She always says to me, “What does the word say?” At the end of the day, that’s what we need to focus on and reflect on. What does the word say? Once you understand what the word says, because God’s word is true, he doesn’t lie. He speaks clearly enough that if you read it, meditate on it, reflect on it. It’ll tell you what it is that you need to be doing. What I ask for anyone is to follow what the word says for you. I am a person of faith and I go back to what you were saying earlier. I walk and I meditate. My time is for me and it is about me.
That is the time that you have to get into the world. When you get outside of that time, that is about you, then when you’re serving others, you have to then be serving others, so you have to go across to the other side. I thank you. I think that this is a very challenging topic here. I know we had a talk about this in passing, but I never understood it all the way.
Now, I have a lot more clarity. I hope my readers do as well because you have to go with what God puts upon your heart. That’s what I heard you say. He gave this to you. This is your purpose. You’re pursuing it and you’re following it. Changed your view while you’re also hoping that you can help change other people’s views.
That’s apostleship. That’s discipleship.
Helping spread the word and being a light, bringing people to the truth.
Remember, everything that I said has the Bible attached to it. There’s nothing that I’m going to tell you about this ministry unless it comes from scripture. This book is an authority. It is subservient and subordinate to scripture, but it is an authority of this particular ministry. Is there any other book out here that’s written like it? No, it is not because it will not have all of the ingredients and the elements of what exactly God intended when he tapped the prophets on the shoulder and said, “Go and act out the iniquities of the people.”
I’m here to help people understand exactly what that means. That means everyone has to chill for a moment. I didn’t ask you to stop. Just chill and hear the message, then go and you have the free will to then do it the right way or continue to do it the way that you’ve been doing it. I don’t care how long. Remember, I’ve been doing it since 2008. I learned the truth in 2015. I didn’t graduate from college until 2024. In that time span, I had to go through a journey that has gotten me to this point. This is why I can boldly and confidently say the ministry of mine needs to be reformed now.
I thank you. On that note, because I always ask for a word, you have given us the word we can chew on and meditate on about the next steps. This is not just about my ministry. I want to say to you readers, this goes to all aspects of your life. Follow the word so that it leads you to the truth that your actions will be a reflection of the word and not what you might interpret from someone else. Read it for yourself. Thank you for your time, Achkei.
Thank you for having me. This was fun.
Thank you.
Important Links
- Achkei Wilson
- Willie Gregory – Past Episode
About Achkei Wilson
Achkei (pronounced “HK”) Wilson, is a native of New Orleans, La., raised in Detroit MI. In 2014, HK enrolled in the first ever Eagles International Mime Institute (EIMI), a subsidiary of Eagles International Training Institute (EITI). He would go on to graduate in the Alpha Class of 2015 and licensed as a teacher to teach the Biblical principles of Christian mime.
HK is an alumnus of Joliet Junior College earning an associate degree in Business with high honors. He is also an alumnus of Lewis University earning a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Leadership with high honors and continuing his education toward a master’s degree in Biblical and Theological Studies at Wheaton College.
HK has serves under the covering of a Sr. Pastor in Aurora, IL. In 2012, HK birthed Jericho Whalls Mime Ministry, which is currently under the name Jericho Whalls Ministries. HK has been married for 38 years to Velinda Wilson and they have four children; Anthony, Antoine, Adonis, and Asha, six grandchildren; Leila, Landon, Brielle, Logic, Tarah, and Lilian. HK served in the United States Army for twenty years and retired honorably. He enjoys writing, watching movies in his man cave, and serving the Lord.
