Brazilian Sending

Brazilians marching to show their support of Israel

Jesus said, "Peace be with you! 

As the Father has sent me, 

I am sending you."

John 20:21

Yesterday, I spoke about the sending of God and what that means for the believer. Over the next couple of days, I will share God's sending of His people in many different parts of the world. A few months back, I spoke of God's movement in Africa in African Sending. Today, I would like to highlight Brazil. 

"That the evangelical and pentecostal churches in Brazil are strong is immediately evident to any visitor. Compared to other Latin American countries where non-Catholic congregations are often small, hidden away on back streets and decidedly not influential, the church in Brazil is almost brazen in its visibility and self-promotion. 

From one or more churches on every block in some sectors of Rio de Janeiro to billboards for a Christian bookstore overlooking downtown Sao Paulo’s popular central square; from numerous radio and television stations broadcasting fiery sermons around the clock to two teenaged sisters unashamedly singing Christian hymns and choruses on an extended bus trip; from glaring neon signs proclaiming “Assemblies of God” atop the largest buildings in some rural towns to evangelicals in the president’s cabinet and a strong evangelical bloc in the nation’s congress, Brazilians are filling churches as fast as they can open and sharing their faith in a way that would put fellow believers in other countries to shame. 

“There are 40 churches opening in Rio every week,” says Roberto Inacio, the Director of an Assemblies of God Bible institute in Rio de Janeiro and writer of Sunday school material used throughout the country. “In particular, there has been an explosion of pentecostalism in the country in the past decade,” he says. 

While the pentecostal expression of faith is most obvious, other evangelical churches are experiencing rapid growth as well. “The Presbyterian church in the central area of the country is growing,” says missionary Alan Mullins who has served in the country for 30 years. “The churches are very alive, the churches are full and the people are excited about what is going on in the church.” 

While Alan says that Presbyterian growth has slowed in large cities such as Sao Paulo, with its metropolitan population pushing 20 million, Baptists are encouraged by their 900 congregations in Sao Paulo state. And, while this denomination has traditionally worked with lower and middle class groups, it is now reaching out to more affluent, harder-to reach residents of the big cities. But, such a ministry takes time says Danny Rollins, a Southern Baptist missionary in Sao Paulo. “You don’t just set up the Jesus film on the street corner like you do in a poor community and think that they’ll come, because they won’t,” he explains. 

Even youth in Brazil are openly active in witnessing to their faith. In Campinas, a city of one million people located an hour and a half west of Sao Paulo, the teenage youth group from a 3,000 member-strong charismatic Nazarene church spends every Saturday giving concerts, plays and puppet shows in city parks. “Our goal is to lead one-thousand people to make professions of faith for Christ this year,” says Beth Kinas, the group’s adult leader."  (Kenneth D. MacHarg, Former LAM Missionary)

It is encouraging to see the explosive growth of the church in Brazil! With that growth has been an accompanying growth in missions. "The number of evangelical missionaries from Brazil has increased significantly since the 1970s. There were 595 missionaries in 1972; 791 missionaries in 1980; 2,040 missionaries in 1988; 2,755 missionaries in 1992; and 4,754 missionaries in 2,000. Today, Brazilian missionaries are working on every continent," (Bertil Ekstrom, Exec. Dir. of the Mission Commission of World Evangelical Alliance). 

God is doing great things in South America (from 1900 to 2000, evagelicals grew from about 700,000 to over 55 million) and in particular, Brazil!