The recently published census for 2011 focused on the Jamaican church and has revealed some interesting developments. It shows that interest in Christianity remains high, with approximately two million Jamaicans expressing some kind of affiliation with the church/Christianity. There have been increases in the membership of so-called new-line (pentecostal, evangelical) churches while there has been a worrying decline in the membership of the traditional churches (Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Moravians and Methodists). The Seventh-Day Adventists remain the single denomination with the largest membership.

Even Rastafarianism has registered growth over the period assessed.

Ministers from the mainline churches have expressed alarm at the decline of membership in their denominations. They charge “sheep stealing” as the leading reason for this being so. The question that they have not comfortably answered is, why have those who have left the comfort of their pews done so? What are the evangelical/pentecostal churches offering that lure their members away in droves to these churches? One of the answers that has been offered is that the largely “fossilised” preaching or worship that comes from the traditional churches no longer appeals to many members who want a more free-style expression of worship “in the Spirit”. A compelling answer also is that the North American prosperity gospel has become very appealing to many, as gospel preaching has become more materialistically oriented.

The mainline churches tend to frown upon this interpretation of the gospel, but the evangelical churches are not afraid to embrace, declare and make it an essential part of their new theology. This is why it was not a hard decision on the part of some evangelical churches to get involved in Ponzi schemes in Jamaica that still continue to haunt a lot of churchgoers. In an effort to be prosperous, many did not see any moral inhibition in genuflecting to the god of Mammon. After all, as the mantra goes, God wants us to be rich, not poor. This repackaging of the gospel to fit it into the grid of this new theology is no different from the repackaging of spurious mortgages by Wall Street which plunged the world into a financial crisis from which it is yet to recover.

So instead of being worried about declining membership, or who is stealing whose sheep, the church ought to be concerned about the quality of the Christian it is producing. It ought not to be preoccupied with numerical or quantitative strength, but qualitative. The real crisis in Jamaican Christianity, and universal Christianity, for that matter, is the growing discrepancy between what one believes and what is practised; between what is vocalised from our pulpits and what is actualised in our daily engagement with people in society. In other words, there ought to be a certain qualitative difference in the behaviour of the person who professes faith in Christ and the person who does not. Often, this difference is not seen in the basic actions of Christians in society.

The truth has to be faced that often the Christian is the one who will not hesitate to lie to get himself out of a tricky situation. I would not be surprised that many of those who participate in mob killings are regular churchgoers, or as I would prefer to call them, “pew sitters”. A Christian will not hesitate to sue the person beside whom he kneels to take Holy Communion instead of heeding Jesus’s admonition for dispute resolution in Matthew 18:15-17. There is growing disillusionment with the Episcopal Church (in the USA) over the millions of dollars that have been spent on lawsuits in haggling over property against those that have left the church. Litigating a dispute is always an adversarial situation which engenders conflict. This is precisely why Jesus warns the Christian against this approach to problem solving. There is not a spirit of peacemaking or reconciliation evident in such disputes. Peace is disturbed instead of facilitated.

If the truth be told, we will admit as a church that we have not been as loving as we claim to be in our liturgies and in our church attendance. Many who have only marginal association with the church or none at all look on at what they see as the hypocrisy that goes on. They are often befuddled at what they see as the discrepancy between what people profess and what they see them do in their daily lives. It is akin to what one of my favourite theologians, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, calls the celebration of “cheap grace”. One’s faith in Christ does not result in any sacrifice, any self-denial. There is no qualitative change; it is business as usual. Each denomination must do some serious soul-searching and put an end to the hypocrisy which alienates people and tarnishes the reputation of the Christian gospel. Let us not be worried about numbers, but be concerned about building a more authentic, quality-driven Christian.

stead6655@aol.com