By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
Rev. Everard Allen, pastor of the Brown's Town Circuit of Baptist Churches. - Carlington Wilmot /Freelance Photographer
"IF I were to die now and go to Heaven, I would greet Jesus and say thanks for saving me, but I can't come here without seeing a revival," so says the Rev. Everard Allen, pastor of the Brown's Town Circuit of Baptist churches.
"From what I have read in Scripture and what has happened through history, I have to see a revival in my country. And if I see that, I will be able to say like Simeon (Luke 2:29-31) 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation ...' the renowned clergyman said.
The Rev. Mr. Allen, 58, who is widely respected for his skills at expository preaching and his passionate oratory, has been the pastor of the four-church (Brown's Town, Mt. Olivet, Lime Tree Gardens, St. John's) Brown's Town Baptist Circuit since 1972.
He said "The dream of my life, from head to toe, is spiritual awakening spiritual revival, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which revolutionises churches, individuals and which changes the whole moral fibre of nations."
"I haven't read anywhere in the New Testament where it says Christians are called to change structures. If we change, people structures will follow. It is when people were touched by the Wesleyan Revivals and the Revivals under (Charles) Finney that social changes took place. It was people who were touched by that who saw that slavery ought not to continue," he said.
The Baptist Minister explained that so passionate has he been to play his part to see a spiritual revival in Jamaica that he deliberately avoided becoming an academic. "After I did my Bachelor's of Divinity degree, my whole being was and is consumed with labouring to see spiritual awakening that I felt I could not afford to be sidetracked with the pursuit of the academic. That's why I did not go further than a first degree."
"I am convinced," he says, "that if a spiritual revival were to hit Jamaica you would see gunmen lay down M16 guns beyond measure and you would have a missionary movement going out from Jamaica with people who have been saved and who want to preach the gospel."
He cites the story of the Welsh Revival in 1904 which transformed the spiritual landscape of Wales. The mules which drew coals were accustomed to instructions punctuated by swear words. When the miners got saved and did away with swearing and spoke kindly to the mules, the mules did not know how to respond. They were confused.
"You see all the distress in Jamaica politically, socially. You know the worse it becomes, is the more hopeful I become. The more it goes to rock-bottom, I say the intervention of God must be nearer."
The 1996 speaker at the National Leadership Prayer Breakfast in Kingston, the Rev. Mr. Allen became a born-again Christian at 13 years old. Hailing from Zion Hill in St. Mary, early in his teens he had his eyes set on a career as an engineer. He was enrolled in an engineering programme at the then College of Arts Science and Technology (CAST, now University of Technology).
ENGINEERING SCHOLARSHIP
After a year he left the day programme, secured employment doing civil engineering work at the Jamaica Railway Corporation and then he worked with a consulting engineering firm. While employed, he continued the engineering programme at CAST's night school. His eyes fixed on securing an engineering scholarship tenable in England, he prayed fervently about this goal.
"In the process of that seeking to draw near to the Lord, the Lord visited me one night and God granted me such a sense of His presence. It is the greatest spiritual experience I have had since birth. I remember that the sense of the presence of God was so strong that when I went back to CAST at nights I could hardly concentrate on the lessons."
The sense of God's presence and a line from a book he was reading, The Man God Uses caught him, in his words "like when a fish hook, hooks a fish." The line was "Young man will you not consider the ministry."
"I had a battle, how could I give up this dream of engineering? But the thing persisted. Then I started reading some books by some spiritual giants like Charles Finney, Jonathon Edwards and I learnt about spiritual revivals and what can happen in a nation and a church as a result of spiritual revivals. So that longing for spiritual awakening came alive inside of me. So that along with the sentence took a hold of me plus the fact that I could not concentrate on the studies because of the sense of God's presence was so real I felt turned to the pastoral ministry more and more." He enrolled at the now defunct Calabar Theological College. By the time he was to be graduated Calabar Theological College had merged with other theological schools to form the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI). Just after he was graduated from UTCWI, he did his Bachelor's of Divinity degree, which was offered here through the London University. He was ordained to pastoral ministry in July 1970 the same year he left UTCWI. Then on October 5 later that year when he was to be officially inducted into his first pastorate at Porus Baptist Church, he had what might be called 'a baptism of fire'.
A bus travelling from Zion Hill Baptist Church in St. Mary, where he grew up, collided with a train in the Job's Lane area of Spanish Town, St. Catherine. Ten persons were killed. His mother, who was on board, lost a leg. His sister was among the fatalities.
WEAKNESS
The induction service had to be postponed. But did he ever get closure on that event? He said: "To this day I can't explain why. But it came to me that God could have prevented it and He did not prevent it, somehow He must have some purpose in this Also, if ever I found a Scripture to be true, it is the verse that says 'My grace is sufficient for you, and my strength is made perfect in weakness.' That verse ministered to me in a tremendous way."
One plus from that experience, he said, is that it has helped him to minister to persons who go through similar experiences.
In his 31 years serving the Brown's Town Circuit he has developed strong views about how to do ministry. In his churches, only persons who are Christians may have their funerals conducted there. He does the funerals of non-Christians, but will not do it in any of his churches. "By not having the funeral at the church for the unsaved it registers a message to the people who are not Christians, that it makes a difference whether you surrender your life to Jesus Christ or not. That is why I take that stand. I am prepared to go anywhere to do the funeral and burial of an unsaved person. But a funeral in the House of God is the crowning part of a lifestyle which has submitted itself to God."
His preaching missions take him to various parts of the island from time to time. No matter how far he is from Brown's Town, he drives back to his home every night after preaching. He explains: "Firstly, it is entirely personal not theological. I just feel better waking up in my own bed. Secondly, there is never a time when work is not waiting on my desk for me. By getting home I am able to
