Jamaica Baptist Union to consider overseas recruitment to address pastor shortage

Newly installed Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU) President Reverend Davewin Thomas says recruiting pastors from abroad will be among the options the denomination will consider to address a severe shortage of church leaders.

“The whole executive will have to sit down and look into the concerns. We will be looking at a number of options, including recruiting from abroad, although this will come with attendant considerations,” Thomas told The Gleaner on Monday. “We have 66 circuits and 37 of them are without assigned pastors. This is far from the desired.”

He revealed that only three Baptists are currently in training at the United Theological College of the West Indies and warned that, coupled with attrition, the union faces a significant leadership gap. “You can see the position the Union is in,” he said.

Pastors will also be encouraged to engage with high schools to enable their invitation to events such as career days. “That could open a door to recruiting,” he added.

The Jamaica Baptist Union counts more than 40,000 members in its fellowship.

In 2025, Reverend Merlyn Hyde-Riley, general secretary of the JBU, told The Sunday Gleaner that the Union had 341 churches, served by 108 ministers. There were also 50 churches without a pastor, a situation affecting several other Christian denominations, particularly traditional ones.

The situation with Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, the island's largest denomination with approximately 360,000 members and 250 pastors, was less dire, reported then head of the local church, Pastor Everett Brown. He said the 728 churches within the denomination were all being served, despite approximately 15 pastors migrating between 2022 and 2024.

- Leon Jackson

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