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<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>KERIL WRIGHT, Observer staff reporter
Monday, August 28, 2006
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Rev Junior Ross, Ppastor of the Bethel Town Circuit of Baptist Churches, outside the Burchell Baptist Church in Montego Bay yesterday shortly after his sermon. (Photo: Keril Wright)</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Montego Bay, St James - Baptist minister, Rev Junior Ross, yesterday issued a call for Christians in Jamaica to wake up and adopt a bold mission of intentionally and deliberately spreading the message of salvation through Jesus, or else run the risk of being rendered irrelevant in today's society.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"In the not too distant future, the church will be silenced," he told the congregation gathered at the Burchell Baptist Church in Montego Bay for the St James Baptist Brotherhood Annual Thanksgiving Service. "We will not be able to talk. We will not be able to act."<P class=StoryText align=justify>He said the church was loosing its relevance because Christians had failed to adopt the bold mission of invading and conquering uncharted territory, with the deliberate intention of proclaiming Jesus as Lord and the answer to the world's problems.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"The church of Jesus Christ will not recognise that the enemy is vicious, and we need to go out with a mission of intention," he said. "Until we go to the politicians, until we go to the business community and tell them Jesus is King we will always have the problems we are having today."<P class=StoryText align=justify>By so doing, Ross said Christians could expect to face confrontation but that they should take comfort in the fact that no invasion is carried out without confrontation and lives will be transformed as a result.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Nobody will give up their territory without a fight," he said. "Wherever you have an invasion there will be confrontation, but lives will be changed." Nobody, he added, who encounters Jesus will ever be the same again. "There will be a change in their lives, there will be a change in attitudes, there will be a total transformation."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Pointing at Acts chapter 17 Ross, a few weeks away from his ordination, said the church's mission does not happen by chance, it is one of intention. He said Christians were neglecting many people who needed to hear the word of God out of fear of what people would say.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"I am prepared to go to the street corners and talk to the ladies of the night, but that's not how we do it," he said. "We don't think about people who need the Lord, we think about what people might think."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Amidst yesterday's presentation of back-to-school grants to 22 children of member churches in the parish, he noted that the church first failed the society when it lost its stronghold on educating the nation's youth. "The church has given up its stronghold on education. We have let go of the stronghold we had to feed the minds of the young," he charged.<P class=StoryText align=justify>This, he said, coupled with a failure by men in the church to mentor young boys, had given rise to the upsurge in gangs and crime in Jamaica. "Statistics will show it's not the church that is growing in Jamaica it's the gangs."<P class=StoryText align=justify>He challenged the men in the church, though few in numbers, to take up the mantle to act as mentors for the many boys who did not have proper role models in their homes.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"They need male image figures," said Ros
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>KERIL WRIGHT, Observer staff reporter
Monday, August 28, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=125 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Rev Junior Ross, Ppastor of the Bethel Town Circuit of Baptist Churches, outside the Burchell Baptist Church in Montego Bay yesterday shortly after his sermon. (Photo: Keril Wright)</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Montego Bay, St James - Baptist minister, Rev Junior Ross, yesterday issued a call for Christians in Jamaica to wake up and adopt a bold mission of intentionally and deliberately spreading the message of salvation through Jesus, or else run the risk of being rendered irrelevant in today's society.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"In the not too distant future, the church will be silenced," he told the congregation gathered at the Burchell Baptist Church in Montego Bay for the St James Baptist Brotherhood Annual Thanksgiving Service. "We will not be able to talk. We will not be able to act."<P class=StoryText align=justify>He said the church was loosing its relevance because Christians had failed to adopt the bold mission of invading and conquering uncharted territory, with the deliberate intention of proclaiming Jesus as Lord and the answer to the world's problems.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"The church of Jesus Christ will not recognise that the enemy is vicious, and we need to go out with a mission of intention," he said. "Until we go to the politicians, until we go to the business community and tell them Jesus is King we will always have the problems we are having today."<P class=StoryText align=justify>By so doing, Ross said Christians could expect to face confrontation but that they should take comfort in the fact that no invasion is carried out without confrontation and lives will be transformed as a result.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Nobody will give up their territory without a fight," he said. "Wherever you have an invasion there will be confrontation, but lives will be changed." Nobody, he added, who encounters Jesus will ever be the same again. "There will be a change in their lives, there will be a change in attitudes, there will be a total transformation."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Pointing at Acts chapter 17 Ross, a few weeks away from his ordination, said the church's mission does not happen by chance, it is one of intention. He said Christians were neglecting many people who needed to hear the word of God out of fear of what people would say.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"I am prepared to go to the street corners and talk to the ladies of the night, but that's not how we do it," he said. "We don't think about people who need the Lord, we think about what people might think."<P class=StoryText align=justify>Amidst yesterday's presentation of back-to-school grants to 22 children of member churches in the parish, he noted that the church first failed the society when it lost its stronghold on educating the nation's youth. "The church has given up its stronghold on education. We have let go of the stronghold we had to feed the minds of the young," he charged.<P class=StoryText align=justify>This, he said, coupled with a failure by men in the church to mentor young boys, had given rise to the upsurge in gangs and crime in Jamaica. "Statistics will show it's not the church that is growing in Jamaica it's the gangs."<P class=StoryText align=justify>He challenged the men in the church, though few in numbers, to take up the mantle to act as mentors for the many boys who did not have proper role models in their homes.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"They need male image figures," said Ros