360 Churches and 119,000 Members: The New Testament Church of God Turns 100 in Jamaica

• The denomination marked 100 years in Jamaica in July 2025
• It reports more than 119,000 members in over 360 churches
• Its annual convention was held at its Convention Centre in Old Harbour
• The global Church of God has 9.2 million members in 197 countries

The New Testament Church of God in Jamaica celebrated its 100th anniversary in July 2025, the Jamaica Observer reported, with its annual National Convention held at the church’s Convention Centre in Old Harbour, St Catherine.

The guest preacher for the convention’s morning service was Bishop Dr Gary Lewis, general overseer of the Church of God, whose international headquarters is in Cleveland, Tennessee in the United States.

The Jamaican church was started by missionaries from the Church of God more than a century ago. Today, the Observer noted, “It is the second largest denomination on the island, with over 119,000 members in over 360 churches.” The parent body describes itself as an international Pentecostal and Holiness denomination with more than 9.2 million members in 197 countries.

Those numbers tell a story about bricks and mortar as much as about belief. A movement that began with visiting missionaries now has hundreds of places of worship in towns and districts across every parish, plus a convention centre large enough to host a national gathering. Each of those sites represents land that had to be bought or donated, a building that had to be financed and put up, and a roof that has to be insured, repaired and, after storms, sometimes rebuilt.

For the wider property market, a network of more than 360 churches is a significant landholder, and decisions about where congregations build, merge or sell ripple through communities. For members and diaspora supporters, the centenary is a good moment to ask practical stewardship questions: are titles registered, are trustees current, are buildings insured, and is there a plan for sites that are ageing or under-used? A denomination that has grown this large over a century will only keep its footprint by managing that estate as carefully as it built it.

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