Digital Evangelism Series Sets New Paradigm For The Church in Jamaica

More than 385 people were baptized during the first ever island-wide digital evangelism series led by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica. Themed “Let’s Talk About Him” (LTAH), the series, which focused on following Jesus, was broadcast from Kingston for three weeks in October 2020, and was a collaborative effort of administrators, directors, and pastors of the union headquarters, conference, and churches on the island.

The online evangelism series involved prayer intercessors, singers, and musicians, and was driven by a gifted and dedicated team of technical personnel who facilitated the broadcast across all social media and communication platforms in all five conferences including the church-owned and -operated Northern Caribbean University (NCU) television and radio stations. It was also broadcast live on Bless TV, a cable channel operated by a Seventh-day Adventist, which was able to further distribute the broadcast via another 13 stations.

Pastor Dane Fletcher, evangelist and speaker of the series, delivered 26 Bible-based sermons during the event amidst a curfew imposed by the government to curb the spread of the coronavirus for which an exemption was granted by the government to facilitate the series. Pastor Omar Oliphant was the co-evangelist and host of the series.

Fletcher, who is also director of Youth, Chaplain, and Public Campus Ministries for the church in Jamaica, said the series proved to be challenging, yet rewarding.

“The series brought me to a desperate place where I really learned how to pray and depend on God,” said Fletcher. “I was keenly aware that while our primary target audience was Jamaica, persons connected from many other countries--including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Cayman Islands, and Trinidad & Tobago. It was, however, an unquenchable joy to learn that because of the series, persons were getting baptized in many countries.”

Then he adds: “Digital evangelism may very well prove to be God’s tool to finish the preaching of the gospel in all the world so that the end comes.”

The impact of the online series was felt in The Apple Creek Church in Ontario, Canada, the Perrine Adventist Church in Florida, and the Stevenage Church of the South England Conference, who were integrally involved, organizers said.

Sherice Beckford, who was baptized on Oct. 24 at the Apple Creek Church, made up her mind to follow Jesus all the way after hearing about the LTAH digital campaign one day while watching West Jamaica Conference’s online service. She began watching the series on her laptop from the first day and found it to be very interesting.

“Every evening I would turn on my laptop and be one of the first to wait for the service to start,” says Beckford, who shared details of her conversion in an interview after her baptism. “I think it was really interesting and fun. As I listened to the sermons, I understood and knew that it was time to give my life to Jesus.”

Pastor Everett Brown, president of the church in Jamaica, signaled in his final address during the series that the church would continue to use and even increase the use of online digital media to share the gospel given our present circumstances.

“This is not the end, but the beginning of a new paradigm in terms of how we do evangelism in the Jamaica Union Conference,” he said.

Paying keen attention to the retention of new members won for the Kingdom of God through the series, Brown urged the church to take care of the new converts whom he said were valuable in the sight of God. “I want to encourage you to love them so that they will love their friends into the church and they, too, may surrender their lives to Jesus and follow him.”

Pastor Joseph Smith, assistant to the union president for evangelism and main coordinator of LTAH, encouraged the new believers to become grounded in the knowledge of Christ through prayer and study in the Word.

“Spend time in personal devotion in the morning by yourself and if where you are there is a family, spend time in worship with your family too. Finding this new relationship with God is good, but you need to be anchored in Christ,” Smith urged.

Over the three-week period of the campaign, online nightly attendance ranged between 8,000 to 10,000 viewers on YouTube and Facebook alone, with viewership increasing between 200 to 300 percent 72 hours after, reports Nigel Coke, communication director for the church in Jamaica. On Saturdays, the live online viewers registered between 14,000 to 16,000 across all the platforms with those numbers also increasing by more than 300 percent after three days. 

“This is in addition to persons watching NCU TV and radio, and other cable channels,” Coke says.

The series mobilized dozens of communicators across the island who volunteered to ensure everything was in place for a smooth online experience, Coke adds.

He continues: “With no one knowing when the challenges associated with COVID-19 will end, the LTAH – I Follow Jesus campaign might be the blueprint for evangelism in Jamaica in the immediate future.”

This article was originally published on the Inter-America Division’s website