THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE ROLE of the church in our national life has been receiving prominence in our media. In many instances, the Church has been portrayed as wanting in its relevance, media presence and social action. This institution is simply not adequately exploiting its strategic positioning and role in the society.
One reason for this is that the Church is still too much in the stance of being a receiving rather than a sending Church, when it comes to the matter of missions. Much of the lasting edifices of faith-based social contributions, such as our better high schools, free villages, private hospitals and some para-church organisations dealing with students, youth and children, were begun by missionaries from the Caucasian North. Despite the invaluable task of local leaders in maintaining their sustainability and growth, not enough new and innovative programmes and structures have been established to meet the traditional and emerging social problems in our society. Some new work has evolved indigenously in areas such as family counselling, church-based wholistic health and counselling programmes and tertiary pastoral and counselling training. There have been exciting models of work with the indigent, street persons, persons with HIV/AIDS and special communities. Nevertheless too many of these are still struggling at the pioneer stage or are too few and far between to make a national impact.
If our congregations are to move beyond being receiving churches to being sending churches in missions, then we have to move beyond our over-reliance on voluntarism. This virtue of the Church still needs to be maintained. Yet it is being severely threatened by brain drain and most of our youth lacking a basic education or skill. Many of our potential volunteers are working late hours or studying as well in order to keep up with economic demands. They are also rushing to get home in the long traffic lines after work. Beyond this, too many of our post-modern youth generation are materialistic and lacking in a sense of community and social altruism. Thus we often end up with a situation where church programmes are kept going by cohorts of stagnant numbers of persons who are ageing warriors, recycled through several activities and becoming burnt out.
The challenge is now to develop a new model of full-time ministry that goes beyond the pulpit. The 19th and early 20th century image of the clergyman as 'jack of all trades' in the community no longer holds in a complex 21st century globalised society. Furthermore, the wholistic needs of persons in our growing and struggling population are too great. Our churches need to recruit, train and commission highly competent professionals from the health, psychology, agriculture, social science, communication and fine arts disciplines, to be paid career mission workers serving alongside our clergy. These persons would be working in specialised denominational and ecumenical mission agencies.
Unless the Church in Jamaica is prepared to face the 21st century with a new paradigm of 'multidisciplinary ministry' and full time 'mission workers' sponsored by well established mission agencies, then the battle is lost. The prospect of congregations depending mainly on overseas-sponsored short-term missions, donations, hymn books, canned media programmes, Christian education quarterlies, theological analyses and ideas simply won't cut it. We need "exchange mission partnerships" but one-way missions should be out with colonialism.
We need to fire our brightest and best future leaders from all professions and skill disciplines with the enthusiasm of those missionaries who were used of God to help take us out of the Egypt of slavery and colonialism. We need to challenge young men and women, and all of us, to take up our cross in sacrificial full-time and voluntary missions service and be prepared to die, as did several of our pioneers, such as Gordon, Bogle, Sam Sharpe and William Knibb's brother, and attempt new things so that we, the sons of slaves and of others on the plantations, can see the promised land.
I am, etc.,
Dr. E. ANTHONY ALLEN
eanthonyallen@cwjamaica.com
Kingston
Via Go-Jamaica
