THE New Year has barely begun but already a number of church leaders are planning new outreach activities geared at further improving the lives of their members and wider communities in the coming months, while several others are strengthening existing social programmes.

For his part, pastor of Church on the Rock in Kingston, Franz Fletcher, said he and other pastors in the Cassava Piece community of St Andrew will be starting a breakfast programme in February to provide hot meals for about 200 children in the area. The church's free clinic, which was closed three years ago because of financial constraints, will also be re-opened, and a restorative justice centre will be established in Sligoville, St Catherine to help with rehabilitating vulnerable and delinquent youth in the society.

The pastor said the church would also be strengthening its most recent social intervention programme -- the Saving and Transforming at Risk Souls (STARS) initiative -- which was launched in December. This is aimed at instilling sound moral principles in young people while helping to meet their immediate social needs.

"We are looking to help find out if they are in school and if not, find out if we can get them in school," said Fletcher. "The church now has to move in high gear and I believe the churches can do far more if we work together."

President of the Jamaica Council of Churches, Rev Paul Gardner, whose umbrella group focused primarily on programmes of advocacy in 2009, agreed that despite financial challenges, the church had to try and do more this year.

"It has been a challenging year, because I can tell you particularly from my own church's position (the Moravian church), it has been difficult to carry out some of the programmes because of the financial situation of the country and indeed the world, because there are a number of our social programmes that still depend upon external funding and when those sources become scarce, then we have a problem," he said.

Similarly, the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, which has more than 700 individual churches, says that despite financial constraints and the imposition of new taxes this year, social programmes will continue.

"What we always do is that whether there are taxes or not, we always reach out to fulfil the needs of the people, so we will continue to do what we are doing," said communications director for the West Indies Union of Seventh-day Adventists, Nigel Coke.

He said funds from the union's recently concluded Harvest Ingathering endeavour would be used to maintain the Good Samaritan Inn for the homeless in Kingston, as well as finance the work of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

"We always can do more, no matter what we do, and one of the "more" we are working on is to a project regarding housing and we will be doing that through ADRA for 2010," said Coke.

President of the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals, Rev Rennard White, said his group would also be strengthening its outreach efforts this year, but with the main aim of bringing more people to Christ.

"One of the things we have decided to do is to focus on how we can be more effective in terms of the discipleship of our communities," he said. "One of the things we have been focussing on is how we can reach the men and their needs."

His organisation, which comprises more than 27 denominations and para-church groups, will also be looking at ways it can help members deal with issues now plaguing them.

"We would have to be looking at how to help our people come to terms with our economic challenges," he said.

This will also be the focus of the Deliverance Evangelistic Association, headed by Bishop Herro Blair.

"The only thing that we will be doing new is to come up with more projects geared at our membership in terms of entrepreneurship and that sort of thing for 2010," Blair said.

He said his church would also continue to strengthen its current outreach ministries which include a prison ministry, a street feeding programme and the visits to shut-ins.

President of the Jamaica Association of Full Gospel Churches, Rev Rohan Edwards, said his Spanish Town, St Catherine-based church would be partnering with local charity group Food for the Poor this year to strengthen its efforts in the parish. He also intends to start counselling, parenting and mentorship programmes for members of the community.

"We are stepping them up a little more because we realise the effectiveness of them," he said, adding that the church would also be introducing more sporting activities as a means of reaching out.

Meanwhile, head of the Power of Faith Ministries in Portmore, St Catherine, Bishop Delford Davis, said his church would be expanding its distribution centre in preparation for the likely increase in the number of people who will be coming to the church for help this year. The centre stores clothes and grocery items for distribution to the needy.

In addition to strengthening its social and community endeavours, the church will be hosting the 5th staging of the 'Heal the Nation, Heal the Family' meeting at the National Stadium on the 6th of January. The event has been endorsed by a number of church umbrella groupings and is usually attended by the leaders of the country.

"It will unite the church community and give directions to the leader of the country," said Bishop Davis. "If there is ever a time that they need it, it is now."

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