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Strengths
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- History and affiliation of the Jamaica Baptist Union
- Geographical location (at the center of Barbican) is considered a tremendous strength:
- The Church is ideally located to cater to the religious and social needs of a multi-cultural mix of lower/middle and upper income communities.
- Good physical plant and amenities and scope for physical expansion.
- Outreach ministries such as Clinic, Homework Centre, Soup Kitchen are well received in the community.
- Members
- Members have varying skills which may be called upon to lead and participate in the various strategic outreach units.
- A stable core membership that attends church regularly
- Talented, committed members with a passion for winning the lost to Christ
- Strong culture of Praise and Worship; Congregants are usually quite participative in praising the Lord;
- Engaged in vibrant prayer life and regular fasting service
- Teams work well together
- Committed core are involved in key areas of Church ministry
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Weaknesses
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- Generation gap
- Much of the membership live outside the Barbican community
- Insufficient technology in varying aspects of Church life (no website, video stream, etc). Also more modern equipment is required to improve the Church experience.
- Poor communication
- Limited Parking Spaces
- Insufficient funds for varying activities within the Church
- Existing members are overworked due to lack of full participation of membership. Many activities are starved for the participation of more members.
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Opportunities
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- Geographic advantage of Church positioned in the “center” of the community
- NWA’s proposed acquisition of the strip of Church land for Barbican Road widening could generate funds to assist in financing the Church expansion.
- There is a ready pool of skilled tradesmen in the adjoining communities who could respond to job opportunities created by the Church expansion project.
- Support from members based overseas
- Increasing development of Barbican community (residential and business)
- Interaction with community leaders and business leaders to form meaningful partnerships
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Threats
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- Crime Violence, Poverty within the church community or areas where members live.
- Unemployment within the community
- Unskilled persons living within the community
- Aging church population, in addition to a perceived “Generation gap” between older and younger attendees and members
- Fire, natural disasters (hurricane, flood).
- Sale of the strip of land to the NWA will further reduce an already small church site and the flexibility to do optimal expansion.
- Political polarization in the communities and problems associated with the distribution of scarce benefits.
- Migration of Church members and area residents to other areas and overseas, causing a “Brain Drain”
- Lack of volunteers: The mission of the church will be called in to question if we neglect the least of these among us.
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