A Month of Services in a Former Rum Bar: Duncans Adventists Pack a 100-Seat Room With 170 People

• Duncans Seventh-day Adventist Church held a month-long crusade in a former rum bar in Logwood Walk, Trelawny
• The 20-by-30-foot wooden building seats 100, but about 170 came on the final Sabbath
• Church members found the owner through a ‘for rent’ sign in a photograph
• A dozen people were baptised

Members of the Duncans Seventh-day Adventist Church in Trelawny spent February holding an evangelistic campaign in a rum bar, the Jamaica Observer reported.

The series, called ‘The Real Truth Gospel Campaign’, took place in the Logwood Walk community in a modest 20-by-30-foot wooden building. It seats 100, but on the final Sabbath about 170 people came. “You have heard about tent crusades, you have heard about church crusades, but this is the first time that some of you are hearing about a rum bar crusade,” said Pastor Tavaughn Thomas.

First Elder Randall Duncan said he found the locked-up bar while searching the community for a venue, and the owner showed him around. He then lost touch with the owner. The day before the campaign was due to start, his wife spotted, in a photograph she had taken of the bar, a sign advertising it for rent with the owner’s number, next to another sign announcing an intention to apply for a spirit licence. The church had originally planned to hold the crusade in Spicy Hill.

A dozen people were baptised, including 73-year-old Roy Sergeant. It was not the church’s first unusual venue: it had previously held two crusades in a dancehall. “That’s how serious we are about soul winning,” Pastor Thomas said.

The campaign shows how a congregation can find space without owning it. A vacant commercial building with a ‘for rent’ sign became a church for a month, without the congregation having to put up a tent or build. For owners of empty bars, shops and halls, short-term rental to churches and community groups can bring in income while a building waits for a long-term tenant. For churches, a short lease on an existing building lets them reach a new community before deciding whether to invest in property there.

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