Pastor calls on public servants to use their Christian faith to build Dominica

Pastor Dave Serrant

Pastor Dave Serrant of the Deliverance Baptiste Church in Goodwill has called on public servants to put their Christian beliefs into practice and work together in order to move Dominica forward.

Serrant was delivering a sermon and final blessing during the Dominica Public Service Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service held at the PSU Building on Monday.

The service formed part of Public Service Day observance under the theme: “Building a Resilient Public Service – A Collective  Response.”

“Because we are talking about building a resilient public service… we must all come together to be able to make this thing work and if we are going to pull our weight together for Dominica to go forward, there has to be this one mind, this one spirit that we cry so much for in this country,” Serrant said.

He exhorted the public officers to see Christianity as something that is practical and not just something that’s in their minds.

“It has to be demonstrated, not just in a church setting,” he advised.

He told them that their place of employment is also their point of worship.

“You, as public servants, where you work is also your point of worship,” he said. “And so if you fail to work as you should, you, as an individual, is demonstrating your lack of understanding and lack of participation.”

He made it clear who their real boss is.

“Your boss is God,” Serrant said.

Public Service Day, an initiative which was first conceptualized in 1999, is celebrated biannually within the Public Service and has served as an avenue to promote comradery, social interaction, boost employee morale, and award and recognize Public Officers for their accomplishments throughout the years.

A section of the congregation of public officers

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

24 Comments

  1. December 5, 2018

    Where did it say to use faith to build? Telemaque—–

    Man, you are the one who needs to be quiet, you are all over here writing all sorts of foolishness thinking that you are smart but there is nothing smart about you. You are rebuking the Pastors message when what he said is right; you are the one who is the dummy Do you also know the scripture which says: “Faith without works is dead”?

    That is the kind of faith which you have for you know nothing about the Spiritual Message of God
    But God is Spirit and He wants His people grounded in His Message of Love in Spirit and in Truth–you are completely rooted out from that fact.

    I do not want to preach, on that for fearing I say the wrong thing, Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that what we personally hope for materializes in our mind.–Telemaque

    No one can preach God’s Words, without His Holy Spirit–everything you said would be wrong–even now in this comment. You are a big joke!

    • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
      December 5, 2018

      I am not prepared to dignify you nor your ignorance! You are nothing more than a bit of Satan tool;you are a tool of Satan the devil, the Bible speaks of devils, you are one of them. Anything I said can be authenticated with the scriptures.

      Faith is defined as it is written in Hebrews 11:1; if you know more than God, show me where in the Bible it tells you to use faith to buy materials to build a house, or country.

      Show me where it tell you to faith to buy food to eat and keep you from staving. The reason your life is so miserable is because of you foolish concept of the word of God, you are one of those people claim that God want people to be poor; remain poor, live of welfare if that is what you wish!

      In Hebrews 11:1 God said “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  

      That is God words!

      • December 5, 2018

        “I am not prepared to dignify you nor your ignorance! ” Telemaque

        So why did you? Isn’t it because you like me TO EXPOSE ALL OF THOSE FALSE UNDERSTANDING OF GOD’S WORD?

        Here is what you ask me to show you

        But first of all, how can you attempt to speak against the message of a Pastor who uses “faith” as the ground of his message, when you do not understand one “word” of the Bible?

        The New Testament is base on faith, hope, and Love, through John, Paul, & Peter; Paul is the writer of faith

        (1) “For without faith, it is impossible to please God” @Hebrews 11: 6

        (2) Now hope does not disappoint, because the Love of God has been poured out in our hearts @Fomans 5: 5

        (3) Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. @ 1st. John 4: 7

        Paul ended 1st. Corinthians 13 this way; “And there abides FAITH, HOPE, & LOVE but Love is the Greatest.

        The best one: “The just shall live by faith”!

  2. Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
    December 4, 2018

    “The service formed part of Public Service Day observance under the theme: “Building a Resilient Public Service – A Collective  Response.”

     Absolute hogwash!

    Everybody want to be a preacher, because that is the next best thing to becoming a politician, and making money; some of those people are not even scholastically educated in a sense: the disciples who followed Jesus though the majority ware fishermen, they were educated people.

    Luke, was a medical doctor by profession even more than two thousand years ago one had to be academically educated to practice medicine: unless one is called by God to preach they will remain in their ignorance and talk rubbish as we read in the quote.

    Roosevelt came out with his crap about build resilient country, now this man is talking nonsense about building resilient public service.

    What is wrong with these people? Resilient simply means if an object  bends it will return to its original shape and form; in that case there will be no…

    • December 5, 2018

      What is wrong with these people? –Telemaue, nothing is wrong with those people; everything is wrong with you. You keep writing things that come from that shiny bald head of yours, and you think that you have got it all but you are so wrong. For example, Jesus walked with 12 disciples when He was on Earth Like was not one of them. Lues writing is built on what he gathered after Jesus was ascended into Heaven. There is a lot of things that Luke wrote, which neither Mathew, Mark, and especially John, did not write, but those three walked with Jesus from the beginning

      Resilient simply means if an object bends it will return to its original shape and form; in that case, there will be no—Just because you cannot visualize anything from the product of your mind, that doesn’t make you right and others are wrong; in fact, it makes you seem foolish.. You are the only one who is objecting to format that the World is embracing–that is foolish!

  3. get it
    December 4, 2018

    Pastor Dave Serrant and the members of the Deliverance Baptist Church in Goodwill were instrumental in preserving the lives of hundreds of Dominicans after Hurricane Maria. He’s a real servant of Almighty God.
    He is not saying anything here to promote any political party. Christians in Dominica are divided by politics and we have forgotten our purpose. We aught to be light in the darkness, to be salt in an unsavory place, Pastor Dave is simply reminding us of that. If you are not a Christian the message was not for you.

  4. Ibo France
    December 4, 2018

    How can one build on sinking sand? The foundation should be solid as a rock. This country is plagued by a plethora of problems created by selfishness, spite and ignorance. Pastor, if you want to be relevant and helpful, attack the problem of the country at its core. Be courageous and speak truth to power. The main problem is bad governance. If we had good governance, the resources of the State would be shared equitably, no one would have been deprived, no matter his/her political affiliation. Corruption would not be so rampant (garbage bins, fertilizer, passports scandals, secretive campaign financing of elections, public procurement shrouded in secrecy, etc.). Pastor Dave Serrant would never mention that good government has evaded Dominicans for the last eighteen (18) years. He is not courageous enough to call on the leader and his surrogates to amend their ways. The Dominican clergy has been a colossal failure. The churches are more interested in a full offering plate on Sundays.

    • December 5, 2018

      Ibo, you are indeed ignorant. If you had any intellectual honesty and looked at Deliverance over the past 15 years and their building of schools, over 100 homes, an agricultural center, and countless other community ministries, you would do well. In terms of government, the Pastor was addressing the individual who claims to be a Christian but then does not follow after Christ when they are in their vocation. Instead they leave it in the pew on Sunday. There was nothing said about supporting any government. In terms of “good government”, it is a reflection of the people being governed.

  5. Truth Be Told
    December 4, 2018

    Too much religion in the governance of this country! Faith is good, blessings is good, but too much religion and divisiveness interfering with the good governance of Dominica. Let the churches do religion and let the government govern! Right now religion is ruling and diving Dominica just like its politics of division!

  6. Good Samaritan
    December 4, 2018

    Dominicans call on pastors to contribute to d economy by paying taxes

  7. they shall know.
    December 3, 2018

    Why didn’t you call for the Government to pay the Christians, the public servants fairly? instead of giving a select few lawyers to sell the property of the state ” our passports” to making millions dollars. You never mentioned the $450 thousand dollars spent for a repentance service or the $250 thousand dollars paid to a so called christian to sing praises to God for two hours, while public servants have to struggle for a ride to get home after nursing patients at the hospital. Learn to preach on things which affects the public officers.

  8. Speak the truth
    December 3, 2018

    That was a very poor job by the pastor. He failed to realize that it is our Christian beliefs that caused our country to be where it is today because our pastors have failed us. How does he now tell us to use our Christian beliefs to fix it? If our country is going to get fixed the pastor’s need stop camping and going to bed with evil leaders. They need to stop blessing wrong and condemn right. They our pastors, Bishop, priests and Evangelist need to understand that they hold the key to fixing the country but instead they use their key or influence to help Skerrit destroy it. They need to preach the word of God and stop preaching sermons to make victims feel guilty when they are oppressed. He told them their boss is God but he failed to realize that their boss is Skerrit and it is Skerrit that is oppressing them and not God! It is Skerrit that will not promote them. It is Skerrit that will not appoint them. It is Skerrit that not putting things in place for their health and wellness

  9. JBaptiste
    December 3, 2018

    Pastors today speak of unity and coming together,however Yahshua only preached seperation.
    Sheep from the goats Matthew 25.
    Wise from the foolish Matthew 25.
    Wheat from the tares Matthew 13.
    Sacred from profane Matthew 21.

    Better be divided in truth than united in error.

  10. The Evangelist
    December 3, 2018

    I don’t know pastor Dave Serrant but by listening to his sermon one gets the impression that he either doesn’t understand the problem of Dominica or, like we see in the parable of good Samaritan in Lk 10:31, where a priest (the religious leader), was passing by and saw a man that was attacked by thieves and was left naked, robbed, beaten, and left on the side of the road dying. But instead of helping the dying man, the priest passed on the other side of the street and pretended as if he did not see the dying man.be going down the same road, and when he saw the man. Pastor Serrant with his suit did just that. He failed to address the problems we have in Dominica and instead used the bible to “put their Christian beliefs into practice and work together in order to move Dominica forward.” Pastor our problem is NOT in the hands of the hard working public servants but rather Skerrit. Jesus said in Matt. 9:17 “no man putteth new wine into old bottles”. That’s exactly what the pastor…

    • December 3, 2018

      To the so-called Evangelist, all you do is use the scriptures to contend against the present Government of Dominica–especially PM Skerrit, I know how to speak the Gospel also, but for the sake of passing its message to those who may not have yet received it. That is what an Evangelist do!

      Jesus said to His disciples: “Go and preach the Gospel to all the Nations”, that is not what you are doing

      Your judgement against PM Skerrit is yours alone. Whatever it is about the Pastor, I do not know. But I read that he is doing the work that he is called to do–it is to keep us, Christian, aware of the fact that we are called to walk Life for the glory of God, in all our thoughts, words, and deed –“God is the boss” It means that He is the Primary controller in our walks, that is the theme of the Pastor’s message.

      You have no authority to judge him. I suggest that you get off with that Evangelist ID; you don’t belong in that group–that I know for sure!

      • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
        December 4, 2018

        Elizabeth, sometimes you need to be quiet; if for any reason I thought that man was supporting Roosevelt in his corruption I would have a lot to say to him.

        There is nothing wrong about him advising his congregation to build our country; nevertheless, I  do not understand how he believe that one can use their faith to build a country; I wish he could explain that to me; when the Bible teaches in Hebrews, 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

        In verse 3; we read through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

        And if he is against Roosevelt Skerrit, it is a good thing, because preachers have the right to speak out against corruption in the country; he should also speak out against Roosevelt satanic false prophet he brought  to Dominica blowing saliva in Melisa’s face!

      • Your auntie brother
        December 4, 2018

        No Elisabeth, that is not the Evangelist judgement alone. I truly believe that our P.M. Is evil incarnate and bad for our country and say so not with malice but great sadness in my heart.

      • December 5, 2018

        Telemaque you are the one who is supposed to remain quiet due to the fact that you cannot read with comprehension, but that has to be the effect of reading in the first place.

        You are so dumb, you did not see that I wrote to the person above, who is identified as “Evangelist” you did not understand that I was showing him/her why he/she is not doing the work of Evangelism–so you went blah, blah, blah, blah about a completely different subject–man why do you keep making such a fool of yourself? Unfortunately for you, you think that you are smart, but that is the crazy part of you as well

    • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
      December 3, 2018

      Serrant, for too long preachers fail to preach and teach God words, to people: as a result of such false teaching in our country has left our country destroyed for a lack of knowledge; that is found in the King James version of the Bible.

      You are indulging in the same nonsensical religious none scriptural rhetoric. The Bible teaches that faith can move mountains. When I was a kid I looked up at a mountain a far off my village of Wesley, trying to use what I thought was my faith every day to move that mountain into the sea!

      Well,as I grew; it dawned on me that I was ignorant of what the word of God meant in that regard. To have faith, in God is one thing, it is a firm belief in God that one will accomplish something; nevertheless, for you to tell people to use their faith to build the country is absolute nonsense!

      It takes money to build; nothing can be accomplish without money!

      • Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
        December 4, 2018

        So, let me conclude this; and hope that someone in your congregation will read this and get an understand of what thus said the Lord, and not the nonsense you are preaching.

        So, to you Sir, be advised that you need to you need to educate yourself to the word of God, if you are going to be a preacher of the word of God, because your theory of faith is false, that is false teaching.

        For your benefit here is the Bible definition of faith.

        Hebrews 11:1

        “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Where did it say to use faith to build?  I do not want to preach, on that for fearing I say the wrong thing, Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that what we personally hope for materializes in our mind.

        Then whatever materialist things we want money will be involved; the Bible teaches people how to make money, while some of you teach money is evil!

    • UKDominican
      December 3, 2018

      “Your boss is God”. A very telling comment because in reality it is mr. Skerrit who is their boss. With the recent publicly funded semi religious spectacle of mr. Skerrit being symbolically annointed on stage I hope we are not slidings into a nation of necromancy and the adolation of humans, in the mould of our impoverished sister Haïti, where Papa Doc reigned as a demi god, used the treasury as his own and established voodoo as an official religion.

    • John Jay
      December 3, 2018

      He is one of the supremo preacher, so you will not understand him and he will not see it you all way, don’t know why he way chosen . Had respect for this man, but when he went under the coat of the supremo I had alot of confidence in him but it has gone down the way side that’s why some of his church goers left his church.

    • Paul Rossnof
      December 4, 2018

      Very well said. That guy is in Skerrits camp like most of his ‘religious’ colleagues. But they still call themselves men of god. Hi te disgraceful. If the had only an ounce of decency in their bones they would have voiced their disapproval of the Skerrit family show. As I’ve stated in the past: Dominica is rotten to the core. Only a few good people left.

    • bubbgump
      December 5, 2018

      You obvioulsy don’t know Pastor Dave Serrant. Thousands of us do both in Dominica and outside of Dominica. He and numerous Deliverance members as well has hundreds of Americans have worked thousands upon thousands of hours building homes, school buildings, conducting medical clinics, supporting food kitchens, repairing hundreds of homes after hurricanes. Unfortunately many in Dominica simply rely on government for everything as this is what socialism teaches. And as it was clearly communicated, the Pastor was teaching exactly what the scripture teaches, whether at work,home or play, demonstrate and live Christlike. The public worker or private worker should work hard regardless of circumstances.

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available