Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter

Looters escape after raiding the old Spanish Town courthouse during the chaos that broke out after the killing of reputed 'One Order' gang leader, Andrew 'Bun Man' Hope, in February 2006. - File

Despite the frequency with which Spanish Town makes headlines for violence and other forms of criminality, a number of churches have been making significant strides in reaching out to gunmen. None perhaps have achieved success on the scale of Kingdom Builders Church of the Open Bible.

Located at 21 Monk Street on a spot that used to house a cinema, the church there has had significant numerical and spiritual growth in recent years. It is perhaps the church in Jamaica with the highest attendance of persons who were former gunmen.

Out of a children's ministry in the area, the church was birthed. The children's ministry was started by a group of Christians from the Church of the Open Bible denomination led by the Rev Shirley Lewin. In ministering to children, the church managed to touch the hearts of parents and other adults who were among the charter members of the new congregation. Kingdom Builders Church of the Open Bible became an organised church almost 20 years ago. It was initially known as Rivoli Church of the Open Bible until the name change about two years ago.

Intercessory ministry

Policemen push an old vehicle off the street in Spanish Town in October 2005. Residents were protesting the killing of Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett, one of Jamaica's most wanted men, and mounted several roadblocks across the Old Capital. - File

Rev Lewin is renowned within the congregation as having a strong intercessory ministry. She had, and still does have, a passion to see gunmen turn over their lives to Jesus. It is a passion that infected her son, Norman Lewin, who has for the last six years been the associate pastor of the church and whohandles much of the day-to-day administrative and ministry projections of the congregation.

Pastor Norman, as he is affectionately called, spoke with The Gleaner to outline the church's efforts to reach out to the gunmen of the area. He began the interview stressing that the overwhelming majority of persons living in Rivoli and adjoining communities were decent, law-abiding citizens.

Then he explained how he came to be relating to gunmen.

When Spanish Town experienced a serious flare-up of violence about three years ago, it influenced him to intensify his prayers for the community.

He continued: "The community of Rivoli was controlled by gang members. It was also called 'Little Jungle'. Where the church is located today was once a cinema. The old cinema building was once their stronghold. It was where the gangs convened their meetings. When my mother and other members decided to use the cinema to do ministry, they were given a hard time by the gang members."

Defying gunmen

The gangs wanted them to vacate the property and find somewhere else to do children's ministry. But his mother and her team stayed and, he said, "God prevailed".

"At one point when the church had 30 persons in attendance on a Sunday morning, we gave God thanks, for to us, the church full. The church would often be having Bible study while there was a gun battle raging outside. Nobody wanted to come to this church because of the violence that was occurring in the area," Pastor Norman said.

He continued: "We would often be praying, seeking God - but there was no real connection with the community. The church did not really have any power with the community even though prayer was being done.

Then one day, gunmen burnt down the house and businessplace of a member and issued evacuation orders. That event jolted the church. He spent a whole night walking the floor of his Ensom City home where he lived at the time, crying out to the Lord, saying: "God, you have to do something." The Lord, he said, responded in the morning, saying to him: "Have you spoken to the young men? Have you told them that I love them?" Pastor Norman said he broke down in tears. He said, too, the Lord told him to close the church door on Sundays and get out on to the streets to do ministry.

The church decided to engage the community in a football match on a Sunday. Pastor Norman reported that members of the community laughed at the thought of the men of his church daring to take them on in football - a game they played often and well. A deal was struck that if the church team lost, the community would ensure that some of its young men attended his church one Sunday. But if the church team won, the community would have to ensure the young men attended church for all the Sundays of a month.

On match day, church members engaged in intensive prayer on the field, even as they cheered their team. The church team won 4-3. The following Sunday, a long line of young men was seen entering the church. But that success was short-lived as the guns continued barking.

Then the Lord told him to relocate from Ensom City and so he and his family took up residence in a family home about two blocks away from his church. Pastor Norman reported that gunshots woke him up and sent him to bed.

He sensed the Lord saying to him. 'Close the church doors again and take the church to the communities.' So the church closed its doors on Sundays and engaged the community in acts of kindness. Members would comb the hair of persons in the community, rake up their yards and such other chores that made life easier for households. In so doing, they initially got the attention of women and children. But before too long, they got to know the men.

Poverty a problem

By this time, the church numbered about 60 persons, and in spite of its size, it embarked on a feeding ministry to some of the households where poverty was most acute. Members of the private sector in Spanish Town also helped. The church served cooked meals, and spent two to three weeks on the road where they kept their regular meetings, including Sunday morning worship service, mid-week Bible study and prayer meeting. After a while, Pastor Norman and his congregation noticed that as long as they were on the roads, the guns did not bark. After a while, there was less fear gripping the community.

As the church got to know some of the men, Pastor Norman started to preach messages specifically tailored to address the needs and concerns of men. The men of the area started calling him 'Father'. A bond was forged between himself and the men of the community, which included gunmen. Then the church stepped up a gear and convened a two-three-week evangelistic crusade in the area. Many persons became Christians, including gunmen, and many started to attend church. At the end of the crusade, the church went back into its Monk Street building only to discover that they could not comfortably seat everyone. A decision was taken quickly to have two services on Sunday mornings to facilitate the growth in their numbers.

The influx of persons brought other problems. Some members, on seeing large numbers of persons from the community in their church, left to go worship elsewhere. Also, rival gang members came to church and at times there was literal fighting in the pews. Sometimes Pastor Norman had to stop preaching and leave the platform to part fights happening in the pews.

Some of the gunmen that he had got to know would not give up on crime and were killed. In two years, Pastor Norman reported, he officiated at the funerals for 14 men - many of them dons.

The influx brought challenges to the financial and personnel resources of the church. Many who got saved and were now coming to the church were in need of remedial education. Accordingly, the church began a learning centre in an adjacent building. They also started a basic school, as they found themselves with extra children. Many of these children were offspring of dead gunmen.

Kingdom Builders Church of the Open Bible continues to engage in creative ways of engaging the community. One outreach that Pastor Norman is particularly proud of is 'Bust-a-Move' - a street party which takes place in the community where persons deejay Christian lyrics and invent choreography with biblical/Christian themes. Participating dancers have invented moves called 'Under the Cross' and 'Under the Blood'.

Gunmen roles

Many of these former gunmen have been discipled and are playing key leadership roles in the life of the church. His assistant pastor is himself a former gunman; others are deacons and high-profile leaders.

As some left the church, a new breed of professionals has started attending the Monk Street congregation. The 7:00 a.m. service there typically has 50 in attendance. This is the service where most of the professionals tend to worship. The 9:45 a.m. service has an attendance of about 380 persons each morning.

Pastor Norman spoke of the church's impact in helping criminally inclined youngsters to finish their education and gain respectable employment. Some, he said proudly, have moved on to local universities.

When the influx, came he sought to create opportunities for employment by establishing a restaurant, a hardware, a super-market and renting chairs. But all these enterprises flopped. The people still had faith in their pastor and he still believed in God.

His church today boasts more than 70 young men. His congregation's demographics have changed much in three years. His church consists of mostly under 50-year-olds. He believes that a congregation needs the wisdom of the old to balance the zeal of the young. Accordingly, he has reached out to an infirmary neighbouring the church to have some of the older folk present not just to worship, but dispense wisdom to the young in the congregation.

One of the flagship ministries of the church is its men's fellowship, held every Wednesday evening.

Though the men's fellowship has its own president, one of the elders of the church, Pastor Norman makes it his business to be always present to lend support to this ministry. He disclosed that highly personal issues are often discussed and it is a forum where men get to talk frankly on issues of sexuality (including sexual addiction), male-female relationships, and what is required to be a godly man.

This reporter met with a group of five former gunmen at the Monk Street church. They all sang the praises of Pastor Norman for his diligence in reaching out to them. They spoke of their own economic frustration and fatherlessness as factors that contributed to their embrace of the gun. They were happy to be Christians and wished they had converted much earlier. Their stories will be the subject of a future edition of Mind & Spirit.

Pastor Norman Lewin attributes much of the success to the goodness of God, the prayerful disposition of his members and the diligent cooperation of members. His work with the gunmen is far from done. He believes the transformed lives of those former gunmen will go a far way in influencing those who still wield the gun in Rivoli and its environs.

Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com