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The 161st Annual Convention of the Jamaica Baptist Union:
A Wonderful Experience!  by Novia John
It was a week that will long be remembered by those who were present at the Jamaica Baptist Union’s (JBU) Annual Convention.  The event was held from February 23rd to 28th in the colourful, bustling tourist town of Ocho Rios, Jamaica, where sand, sea and sun converged to create the perfect backdrop to a spectacular event.
          About 500 delegates from Baptist churches spanning the length and breadth of Jamaica knit their hearts together as they explored the theme “Being God’s People in God’s World—Living in Hope!”  Also in attendance were several others who crossed seas to attend the 5-day event.  Travelling from Grenada were Pastor Stanford Simon, President of the Grenada Baptist Association and pastor of the St. George’s Baptist Church, (part of the Spring’s Community of Churches) and two of his church members, Sis. Novia John and Sis. Marcia Hill.
          Stimulating lectures by notable speakers such as Dr. Trevor Munroe and dynamic Baptist ministers such as Rev. Norbert Stephens, Rev. Cawley Bolt and Rev. Neville Callam, among many others, presented thought-provoking topics that forced all to develop a deeper understanding of what Christian hope really is and how we can be effective agents of hope in a world that is so lacking in it.  Detailed corporate studies in the book of Habakkuk and informative small-group workshops on various topics of relevance truly helped to make the experience a very educational yet spiritual one.

The first set of six workshops dealt with our expression of hope in our places of work.  These workshops were thoughtfully divided into various work sector groups so that there were workshops for those who worked in education, in the medical professions, in agriculture, in small business, in law and enforcement and in the hospitality and tourism sectors.
          “I attended the one that focused on education,” said Ms. John. “It was excellent and highlighted very relevant issues about Christian education instruction(in the church and in the schools) through the chaplaincy and through alternative school models for overcoming student hopelessness.  And although they were mainly speaking from a Jamaican context, it was easy to see the similarities to Grenada and note the relevant applications.”
          Other workshops throughout the convention included those geared toward evangelism, missions, worship, discipleship, deeper church fellowship and stewardship.  
There were also other workshops dealing broadly with spiritual development. These dealt with such issues as knowing God’s will, maintaining joy, prayer, independence and leadership.
          In short, the Convention was a grand affair that showed the professionalism, strong organizational skills and teaching strengths of the Jamaica Baptist Union.  The whole convention culminated on Sunday, February 27th at the National Arena in the nation’s capital, Kingston.  Here, two revitalizing services were held, with the youth service following the Service of Commitment.  The youth did an excellent job, all of them performing boldly and with passion.  
          What do we who attended the convention come away with?  Will it be the same as some other conferences, whose information quickly fades from memory when we get back to ‘real life’?   No certainly not—at least not for many.  We will go away with timeless truths—truths that have the power to alter how we engage with others to bring them the hope of Christ.  And we will go away with practical ideas of how to be better agents of hope in the world.
          “I’m going to make every effort to return next year,” said one attendee.  “It’s really a great opportunity for personal growth and development.”


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From the JBU Convention:  A Summary of Dr. Trevor Munroe’s Talk on “Rebuilding Jamaica: Does Trust Really Matter?”
          Dr. Munroe provided an excellent analysis of the lack of hope and confidence that many Jamaicans presently feel in the country.  He cited a United Nations Development Project (UNDP) 2010 report that showed that Jamaica ranked in last place out of 169 countries on the issue of trust.  In other words, Jamaicans in general (84%) do not trust the institutions in their country—including the police, the justice system, politicians and corporate authorities.  This lack of trust leads to a lack of hope, which can be defined as a lack of “confident expectation that what is wanted can be achieved and will turn out for the best.  It is not wishful thinking”.  Munroe stated that “trust is the social glue that holds institutions, relationships etc. together”, so that nation building is virtually impossible without trust.  A lack of trust leads to a lack of hope.
          He offered four main reasons why this lack of trust/hope develops:

  1.  Promises made and promises broken by authorities
  2. Wide social differences between the advantaged and disadvantaged (i.e. class, colour, gender, who one knows (contacts))
  3. Authorities asking for the opinions from others, but never acting on the opinions presented. Munro describes this as a “tradition of unilateral decision making embedded in a democratic veneer”.  Eventually, people see that nothing comes from the sharing of their opinions.
  4. The “me” syndrome that says “me first, me second, me last”.  Everyone wants to take credit for the good, but no one wants to take responsibility for any of the bad.  It’s always someone else’s fault.

He also presents four basic remedies for the above problems:

  1.  We must be reliable.  We must do what we say and say what we do.  Transparency is needed when promises are broken; we must bring those involved into our world of explanation.
  2. We must humble ourselves and be sensitive to others’ feelings.  We must also stop the harsh, authoritarian language.
  3. Absolute openness.  Total honesty must characterize every step in the process.  There must be full disclosure of factors affecting our partners.
  4. Leaders must have moral integrity and know how to deal with and relate to one another.  We must show patience and control.

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From the JBU Convention:  Some Nuggets of Gold
EDUCATION WORKSHOP

  1.  Like the Mona Lisa song, some people’s dreams fall at the doorstep and just lie there … then they die there.  This reminds me of many young people.  They are suffering from a lack of hope, from the feeling that they are not fully in control of their lives because they do not trust the institutions or authorities.  We must restore hope to them.
  2. One way to restore hope to weak students who have failed out of the system is to raise the standard of expectation and to ban negative utterances from the school environment.
  3. The goal of education should be to merge the horizontal (our relationships with mankind) with the vertical (our relationship with God).  This is what holistic education is all about.

From “THE FIRED-UP FELLOWSHIP” WORKSHOP

  1.  Developing small groups within the larger church is imperative to building trust and fellowship between church members.
  2. Small cell groups do not necessarily have to be grouped in terms of age or with regard to generation gaps because such age groupings are already present in the church through groups that focus on women, men, youth etc.
  3. A few ideas for keeping a small group (>15 people) on fire and motivated is to provide some food at each meeting and to have ice-breaker games to promote conversation.

FROM ONE OF THE HABAKKUK STUDIES....

    1.  Habakkuk couldn’t believe that God was going to use the Chaldeans to punish the Judeans because in his judgment the Chaldeans were worse than they were.  But God begged to differ.  We sometimes think we’re a lot better than we actually are.  We need to be humble and see ourselves as God sees us.
    2. We must be willing to admit when we are having a “faith crisis” and we must be willing to show our true selves within the church family so that we can move toward healing.
    3. We must remember that God calls us to live consistently righteous!