The church is the hospital for souls. It is intended to be the place where broken people come to find God, His deliverance, healing, and restoration. A place of peace, power, and the undeniable presence of the Holy Spirit.
As salt and light, the church is built for impact. It is mandated to affect its surroundings and boldly spread the Gospel of Christ, powerfully preserving and promoting righteousness in families, communities, and nations. In this role, it is the moral compass for nations, a cleansing force, and a deterrent to decay, deviance, and corruption in societies.
Churches were once the flexed muscle keeping families focused, providing righteous guidance for children, shaping the education system, transforming lives, and properly preparing our young people to be decent citizens, right minded, and ready to make useful contributions to a developing nation.
Somewhere within the last few decades, the church in Jamaica lost its lustre, the family structure as we knew it disintegrated, and large segments of our population – especially our young men, went completely wayward.
Brokenhearted, spiritually incapacitated people turn to the church to find solace, good counsel, release, and the eternal, all-encompassing love of God. Recognising that they cannot save themselves, they enter the four walls to find forgiveness and restoration. But, when the church is compromised, it is empty; there is nothing there to offer. Worse, when the church is feuding over foolishness, it is in no better position than the souls in need of salvation; it, too, needs the Church.
Jamaica is bleeding profusely; hearts are in tatters, hopes are dashed, and people are in desperate need of healing and deliverance. Excruciating levels of pain have a twenty-four hour grip on degenerate souls in every single community across this island, but, except for Saturdays and Sundays, the majority of church doors are closed and the pulpits wax powerless.
Too many of our children are being raised with shattered dreams and deeply wounded souls. The pain of the majority of the population is palpable. It is so thick you can almost touch it. But the church, gainfully compromised in the main, plods merrily along.
Over many decades, studies have tried to capture an accurate picture of the woeful trail of sexual abuse, and domestic violence meted out on children and adults alike in households across Jamaica, and each time the results are more harrowing.
While Jamaica proudly carries the dubious distinction of topping the list of nations with the highest number of churches per square mile, the majority of the people are not evangelised.
Thousands of children are being abused and households are tumbling under the weight of sin. Spiritual help for families and divine guidance to rear Godly children seem distant, despite Sunday and Sabbath schools in session.
Last year, the Jamaica Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS) 2023 showed that violence against children and youth is frightfully common, with more than three out of every four children and youth experiencing violence in their lifetime.
The survey also pointed out that almost one in four females, or 23.7%, and over one in ten males, or 11.7%, experienced sexual violence in childhood.
Additionally, males and females experienced similar rates of physical violence in childhood, with 31.9% of females and 34.4% of males reporting that they experienced physical violence in childhood.
Almost 29% of Jamaican women are abused by their husbands, baby-fathers, or boyfriends.
Hurting people hurt people, whether they are in church or not. Hurting people are at home, in classrooms, boardrooms, government, workplaces, at the malls, on the playgrounds, and at church. The high and normalised rate of murder and other violent crimes, even on church days, says it all.
Feuding families murder each other over ‘dead-lef’particulars at nine-nights and during funeral services. While it is not unusual for family members to have disagreements from time to time, the frequent fatal fights that we are seeing are incredibly unusual.
Sworn enemies live together, sleep together, and raise children together in unbearable disorder and decadence in too many cases. The slightest disagreement can be deadly.
News broke last week that a son is the primary suspect in the murder of his father. This was only one of a number of deadly household incidents, including some murder suicide cases and at least one story about a boyfriend shooting his girlfriend to death.
While law enforcement books these matters as domestic violence, for years they have made it clear that they cannot police each yard individually and that families have a responsibility to maintain peace in their homes.
Even so, the church, shod with the gospel of peace, is asleep. It is of little help to families who fight.
Frequent calls for a unit to be instituted at the level of government to focus on rebuilding and strengthening families continue to fall on deaf ears.
The darkness is heavy and the society is rotting at its core. The stench of idolatry, witchcraft, sexual immorality, and degradation add to the heavy load of sorrow that burden souls daily.
Jamaica is in desperate need of healing, deliverance, restoration, and Salvation. Jamaica needs Jesus and it is beyond urgent. But, the church, from its weakened position, is too compromised, too anaemic to help.
Too many congregations have deviated from Biblical principles. They wear denominational doctrines like a badge of honour, while neglecting their God-assigned purpose.
Essentially, they have rejected Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, His unquestionable victory, and the blessed assurance of resilience against all opposition.
By abandoning its role as salt and light, the church is desperately in need of salt and light. The church in Jamaica needs Jesus. Only if it would open its doors and let Him in.
