The church as the basic ecclesial community, a servant and a prophetic community

From a public theology (Caribbean Theology) perspective, the mission of the church is shaped by the understanding of the mission of the disciples as Jesus said it in the Sermon on the Mount…Choosing the metaphors of salt and light from ordinary life in reference to the believer cements the focus on what concerns the ordinary member and what shapes the overall impact of the witness of the church in its context. 

This is of profound relevance to the church in general, but particularly so to the Caribbean church for there is a sense in which we have inherited a system of church that elevated ministry to the ranks of the clergy alone.  The idea of every member as a minister has been slow to catch on, but it holds the key to greater impact on the society because the ordinary member is everywhere in the society. If and when the ordinary member becomes as pervasive as light and as penetrative as salt then much more will be achieved.  Could it be that this is part of unraveling the mystery of the disproportionate level of felt impact versus the multiplicity of churches that Jamaica for example has become notorious for?

As salt and light, the Church is to be characterized by:

a)    Christian disciples who provide an identifiable presence

b)    Making an invaluable difference

c)     Being a dependable influence

To serve in the context in which it has taken root, the Church must give of itself and be itself, just as salt and light do.  This is the essence of Jesus’ admonition to His disciples by way of the Parable to “occupy till I come Lk. 19: 13” 

As the Church anticipates the Kingdom of God on earth, there are at least three ministries that are exercised through the church’s congregational life, the church as a forum for moral discourse and the church’s public chaplaincy. These are exorcism, iconoclasm, and holism:

Exorcism in the Caribbean means identifying, naming, unmasking, confronting, and vanquishing the forces in various manifestations which deny the people their fair share. Those forces, which are at work in the society are commercial (e.g. human trafficking), political (tribailism and garrison politics), cultural (violent and lewd musical renditions), and religious (the prosperity gospel) to name a few. Contending with the powers, as indicated in the legion passage of Mark 5, is ongoing. The use of exorcism is not meant to imply that victory is final. It is the unmasking, rather than the vanquishing, of those powers that is regarded as the primary prophetic function of the Church (theological project). By final we mean that victory has already been accomplished, the powers of evil have already been vanquished (“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven Lk. 10:18”… “ For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.  1 John 3:8”… “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Col. 2: 15…” However the use of exorcism here means that though the victory is accomplished our task is not over. Our task remains to unmask the entrenched powers of evil.

The church is to name and unmask these forces by its witness and life and stand up to them by challenging them to a higher standard of conduct and achievement on behalf of the people. Naming these forces means putting the actions and interests of those forces in perspective regarding the role and impact they play in diminishing, distorting and undermining human life.  The lingering power and destructive capacity lies in them being unnamed, unidentified.  When we name them, give them their true identity we strip them of the cloak of anonymity, the eyes of the victims become opened to see them for what they really are.

Iconoclasm is the duty of the church to itself and to the people of the land. The witness and ministry of the church are in response to the constant danger of idolatry. It should be fairly easy to recognize that the greatest transgression of the law in the region today is idolatry.  The question for discussion is no longer whether there is a God, but which god.  The preferred god being worshipped is the god of gold, money, mammon.  The newest and increasingly pernicious expression of this worship being the lottery scam.   The danger of idolatry is both within and without. The so called prosperity gospel has wormed its way into the church and has made serious inroads.  It is alleged that Thomas Aquinas, once visited the pope and was shown all of the treasures of the Roman Church. The pope said to Thomas, “Well, Thomas, no longer can the church say, ‘Silver and Gold have I none.”  Thomas replied, “Yes, Holy Father, but have you ever thought that the church is in danger of also not being able to say. ‘In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk’?”  

Therefore, the church must be persistent in its fight against idolatry. The church must demystify the powers and be counter-cultural by challenging the dominant ethos, with its values and assumptions, and promote the values of the Kingdom of God in the public square.

In this struggle, the church must begin with itself. The church must have a clarified sense of God’s goodness, and, equally, a concept of the common good. The church must call the people of the Caribbean to new and improved values that are Kingdom values in a balanced manner.   With the persistent cycles of poverty in the region there must be a place for a fleshing out of the tenets of Jubilee that were designed to ensure liberty, fraternity and identity.  Food security, homelessness and iniquitous access to higher education for example may be mitigated if the Kingdom values attempted in Acts 2: 42ff can be contextualized and embodied by a Caribbean church.

The church must resist prodigality with the same passion that it resists promiscuity. The church must challenge the remaining vestiges of inequality in the Caribbean. The congregational life must be a microcosm of the equality that is possible and safeguard the interest of the minorities and those that are spoken against. The church must challenge the idolatry which loves things and uses people. It must lead the way by placing human beings at the centre, by loving people and using things. The pursuit of a just peace for the Caribbean must guide the church in challenging the values and assumptions of the dominant ethos in the Caribbean.

Holism describes what is required by the church in relation to the Caribbean as a whole, starting with its Caribbean Theology. The first duty of holism is ecumenism, within the church itself. The church must be committed to its internal unity for it cannot call for oneness in the Caribbean while it remains divided. Unity must begin at home. Holism that is committed to ecumenism is concerned with the destiny of the human family as a whole. Ecumenism must be followed up with a commitment to the quest for Caribbean unity. Every aspect of life is vastly improved where there is ecumenical and social unity. The Caribbean no longer affords a religion that delimits itself to only a part of human life and existence. Holism requires that the Christian citizen, both lay and clergy, be fully immersed and fully engaged in the society, as Jeremiah instructed the exile (Jeremiah 29:5-9). It must seek the welfare of the city and secure the interest of the marginalized, the left out and the left behind.

In its public theology, the church must lead the way in seeking to build just and responsible societies in the Caribbean region. In developing a Caribbean theology the church has the opportunity and challenge to bring healing and hope to the people of the Caribbean. If it is faithful to its mission, it stands to be a pivotal part of shaping a new people on behalf of the entire human family from which the people of the Caribbean are drawn, leading to shalom. A people set free and at peace with themselves will benefit human development in the region and the wider human family of the world. - Dr. Garnet Roper and Rev. Teddy A. Jones