The Tribune

By Rev Canon S

Sebastian Campbell

“What is the church doing” is a never-ending cry in our cultural experience.

This cry is always asserted in the negative, as though to say the church is doing nothing at all in response to our prevailing social dilemma.

The crime wave has and will be a chilling reality now and for generations to come. Our juvenile delinquency is an ever present emergency always in need of being nipped, both in and outside the bud.

The unacceptable rate of illegitimate births, 75 or so per cent, cannot sit well with our national dilemma; the fact that children having children pulls down our moral fibre of decency.

Child molestation has been going unchecked for far too long. Then added to that is the high rate of school-aged children wandering aimlessly on our streets and through our inner cities at all hours, day and night. Many of our children, consequently, are not in our schools, in the classrooms. Is there any law that addresses this that is not being enacted?

Statutory rape should cause all of us to cringe. Girls pregnant before the age of 16! There should be a simultaneous arrest of the father. This society commonly talks about “dirty old men”, but who in the world are they, where do we find them? Why are they roaming free from one victim to another?

And why are gangs on the increase? It is said that new ones are being formed daily. Why do so many of our boys and girls find comfort within them? This begs us to look again at broken families and relationships and an ever increasing rate of divorce.

Let us be real, it’s a real world we live in after all. Where is the deficit? I advance that it is all in our mindset. Our failure to own up to our very own lack of commitment to approaching the challenges at hand. The church is made up of baptised Christians. Through baptism we became members of the church. We became Christians through the waters of baptism. Through confirmation or some other rite of passage, we seal our commitment to do service for our God. The point of these rites of passage is so often lost in our culture of materialism.

Let us look at our language as Christians: “Onward Christian soldiers.” “Oft in danger, oft in woe, onward Christian onward go, faint nor think the battle long…” “We are soldiers of Christ...” “Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross….” “The Royal banners forward go….” “Soldiers of Christ arise….”

St Paul challenges us to put “the whole armour on.” Our call through the waters of baptism is a military call.

In this life we are in a real battle at all times. Military training is necessary before going to war. Christians must always avail themselves of the training or the church will be demoralised. There are many training camps in our society. Every church ought to be such a training centre. Also, there are many theological institutes and programmes “for the equipment of the saint for the work of Ministry” around us in our Christian society.

There is no need to have a “dumb” Christian, unequipped and ill-prepared for the reality of our prevailing cultural norms. In the greater part of Christianity there is the rite of Holy Confirmation. A challenge is given at this time, such as “go forward Christ soldiers, go forward and fight.”

A relevant Church is one always offering training and challenging her members to get in the fray of action, to go into the heat of reality. In ages past, and to a lesser degree even now, the Church has direct programmes in place with a whole lot of volunteers giving mentorship: Boys Brigade, Girls Brigade, Boy Scouts, Brownies, Cubs, and youth programmes of every kind.

Our social dilemma is a response to the lack or the presence of fired-up volunteers reaching out in practical ways to mould and mentor children and youth for the realities of life.

It saddens me to see and know how little, very little, is invested in children and youth ministries today. There is very little investment in terms of manpower, time and finances. Check your church’s annual financial reports; this deficit is scandalous. The revival we await in our national life must begin with us being relevant to the times in which we live. The real answer for our troubles lies in us, particularly the church, planted on every street in our archipelago.

Have we lost direction? The message of a relevant church is the same yesterday, today and forever” “Go forward Christ soldiers, go forward and fight.”

We must regain this lost vision. We must again be challenged as to the objective of our existence, must reorganise our priorities and know that if any change in our nation is to happen it must begin with us, the Church and the family. Eventually, the other agencies will come on board, including the government, to push the fight to where it ought to be.