Urban Missions and Transformational Leadership: The Impact of the Christian Church on the Chinese Immigrants in the City of Kingston, Jamaica and its Implicaations

by Marlene Hines
June 6th, 2015
The title of this research is, “Urban Missions and Transformational Leadership: the Impact of the Christian Church on the Chinese Immigrants in the City of Kingston, Jamaica and its Implications.” The general aim of the research is to sensitize the leaders of the urban church in Jamaica of the need for a response of the church to the problems being faced by the Chinese population in Jamaica and the Jamaican workers, which are as a result of the current trends and renewed interest of both the Jamaican and the Chinese governments in Chinese investment and hence migration to Jamaica since 2010. The approach termed a ‘Wake-up Call’ is that which fosters a system of collaboration and partnership between all stakeholders and includes the leadership of all major sectors of the Jamaican society: government, religious, business, and non-government.

The research population constitutes all project stakeholders, which would include all leaders in government, the church, private sector, and non-government and faith-based organizations. The research sample was therefore selected from all sectors identified by the application of two sampling techniques: Stratified Random Sampling and Cluster Sampling. The research techniques applied for the collection of data were consultations and interviews. The consultation was implemented in the form of two planned seminars for representatives of both the Strata and Cluster samples.

This research serves as the first phase of a project that will be developed to address the issues identified. The two major objectives of this project are focused on

1. the development of an urban missions program that will seek to develop a leadership network representative of all major sectors of the Jamaican society and led by the church

2. the development of an urban mission course for the training of Christian urban leaders

The recommendations of the research are focused on the continuation of the process of sensitization to garner the participation of a representative number of leaders in the city. The recommendations also include the development of a leadership foundation in Kingston, Jamaica, which will more ably coordinate and maintain the desired leadership network to lead the planned change for the transformation of the city of Kingston, Jamaica. The Ministry of National Security, Jamaica has indicated its interest in the research, so one of the long-term goals of the project is to foster the development of a system of partnership and collaboration between the church and the social transformation programs of the Government of Jamaica.