Devon Dick
LAST FRIDAY, the producer of the programme, Perkins on Line, on Power 106 invited me to discuss with Wilmot "Motty" Perkins last week's article entitled, "The Jamaican Church in Eclipse". During the half hour discussion the Talk Show Host agreed with the point of the article. However, he felt that for the Church to grow in Jamaica, the leadership needs to demonstrate moral leadership by speaking out against the injustices in society such as the Braeton 7; shooting at Kraal in Clarendon; West Kingston shooting; the Prime Minister's statement that the law is not a shackle; while not concentrating on such matters as education; economic empowerment; workers rights; political activism to the State and political parties.
While there is merit in the observation that the Jamaican Church, as a collective Christian presence and influence, must be seen as opposing, confronting and exposing evil it will hardly lead to any massive growth in church membership or influence over the lives of Jamaicans based on the fact that groups that are speaking out on what they call "justice issues" are not large organisations with committed membership. They in fact depend on the media for their message to be communicated. Their media presence is not in proportion to their size. The Church would therefore need to do more than talk about the problems that the citizens face and to applaud righteous and godly behaviour. More importantly, there has to be some action as a means of church growth.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INVOLVEMENT
So the first pointer to Church growth is involvement in the social and economic life of the people. Jesus spoke and educated the people like no other teacher. The Church needs to have a significant input into secondary education. I am not the first person to suggest that the Church needs to avoid neglecting secondary school education, which would cause disastrous consequences. Professor Errol Miller in the book, Jamaican Society and High Schooling published in 1990 also made that point. The Church in recent times has tended to concentrate on remedial education, basic schools and preparatory institutions. Nothing is wrong with that but there is a role for the Church especially at the secondary level and also the tertiary level.
In economic empowerment, land is critical. People are squatting on church lands rather than viewing the church as a facilitator of housing solutions. In the last 40 years, the church developments in terms of housing are far apart, notably the Anglicans off Caledonia Avenue, United Church in Farm Heights in St. James and the Baptists off Washington Boulevard.
There are others who claim that the lack of growth by persons identifying with the Church as a percentage of the population is due to uninspiring worship services. I doubt that also because since the Charismatic movement of the 1970s most churches have up-tempo worship with the various acts and elements of worship. There has been liturgical renewal.
LACK OF VISION
There are other more important points such as the lack of vision, plans, programmes and targets to intentionally grow the church across denominations. There would be a need to establish relevant institutional organisations to research, analyse and evaluate what is happening and what can happen.
This action is not restricted to Jamaica but to worldwide Christianity which is now following in numbers the religion of Islam. In addition, world figures show that most of the money earmarked for mission is directed at Christians rather than non-Christians.
It is clear that in spite of the Church in Jamaica being the organisation with the largest committed membership, it is not a unit and it is affected by lack of unity. There needs to be greater co-ordination between churches, denominations and Councils, similar to the 21 denominations and groups that were involved in opposing the National Lottery, to tackle the challenge of socio-economic and moral problems. To change the value system that leads to a greater respect for life and each other is going to need the co-operation of most congregations.
Another pointer would be to highlight a Jamaican Christian Year with appropriate events to mark God's involvement in our history. In addition, the Church needs to be more receptive to criticisms even from non-Christians so that it can have an effective ministry.
It is clear that for the Church to grow it will take more than talking about evils in society and more to do with action in helping to empower Jamaicans to make godly decisions and live righteous lives.
The Rev Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church.
