Adventist church leaders challenged to be servants

“We are servants of the people we lead; not bosses,” declared Pastor Everett Brown, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, as he presented the main charge during the service of installation and consecration of the newly elected officers and directors of the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

“The kind of leadership that God is calling us as Christian men and women to offer is different from the world,” said Brown. “It is to be the catalyst to achieve the mandate and to set the stage for that which God wants to do in the world.”

The service, which took place on July 9 at the Seventh-day Adventist Conference Centre in Mount Salem, St James, saw the three officers of the Conference – president, executive secretary and treasurer – signing their respective Leadership Pledge to continue the work of God in the western region.

“Primarily,” Brown continued, “you are servants of God to the people you lead. Authentic servant-leadership is not about self; authentic servant leadership is selfless. It is not about the leader; it is how the leader pours out himself and make himself vulnerable.” Brown asserted that this type of leadership will “lift up the people … guide the people … build up the people and … advance the people.”

In his response to carrying out the mandate of the conference, Pastor Glen O. Samuels, who was elected as president for a third four-year term, declared that the church’s prophetic ministry is non-negotiable.

According to the tele-evangelist, “In its prophetic ministry it is non-negotiable, regardless of how challenging it is to deliver, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has a mission and a message that it can’t compromise.”

“Sometimes the prophetic ministry might not be comforting to the State, but it must deliver the message regardless of how it is seen. I lead a team that is committed and dedicated to the proclamation of the everlasting gospel.”

“West Jamaica joins the rest of the Jamaica Union [Conference] in saying that the mission of the Church is both prophetic and priestly. In its priestly context it represents the pain of the people, it represents the people to God,” continued Samuels. “Its mission is clear. It proclaims the everlasting Gospel. It brings to a world the claims of Almighty God that, he seeks to save all men,” Samuels added.

The president also announced intentions to continue the conference’s social intervention programmes that will be aimed at empowering the unattached youth and abused women of the society.

The installation of the new leaders in western Jamaica was the third of its kind over the period of June to July, as new leaders in the Central and Eastern regions took place on June 25 and July 2, respectively. Pastor Nevail Barrett was elected as president in the Central Region, while Dr Meric Walker was elected as president in the Eastern Region.