Brazil (1)
1 The government continues to dodge the painful restructuring and righting the wrongs of the past. It is said Brazil is a paradise for some, purgatory for most and hell for 20%. Pray that the endemic corruption, cronyism, injustices of society and discrimination — against the poor, underprivileged children and indigenous tribal peoples — may be ended.
2 The Catholic Church is in crisis. Brazil is the world’s largest Catholic country with nearly 10% of all Catholics. Annual losses of 600,000 to Evangelicals and to spiritism continue. Only 13% of Catholics are active in their commitment; nominalism and spiritism are rife among those who profess. Change must come, but the ‘Base Community’ movement, once two million-strong, has lost much of its cutting edge. Widespread espousal of liberation theology in the 1970s and 1980s faded with increased prosperity and democracy. Positive changes are these:
a) Vocations to the priesthood among Brazilians have increased and now only 23% of the 15,300 priests are foreign.
b) The growth of the charismatic movement continues apace with over 15 million active participants.
c) The successes of evangelical denominations have stimulated a more people-friendly, contemporary worship and ministry, and a greater growth of Evangelical Catholics as well as traditional mass attendance.
Pray that the Bible and its truths may mould the lives of Catholics.
3 Challenges facing Brazilian Evangelicals. Intercede for the following:
a) Relevance and a prophetic voice in Brazilian society. Evangelistic vision is rarely extended to a vision to bring a message of righteousness to a society ravaged by inequality, injustice, selfishness, crime, immorality and AIDS. Evangelicals have increased their political leverage, but there have been many evidences of carnality as well as moral and ethical failure among those with a high public profile. Pray that they may use their growing influence wisely and in biblical holiness and humility.
b) Spiritual depth. Success rather than holiness has spawned many unhealthy trends: an overemphasis on healing and prosperity, a ‘worshipping’ of large numbers with much exaggeration, a great zeal for evangelism but less concern for retaining or discipling in depth those who seek help. The result is over-evangelized but underfed converts, many petty legalisms, a growing Pentecostal nominalism, and an enormous rate of backsliding with millions of ex-Evangelicals now disillusioned with Christianity.
c) Godly servant leadership accountable to those to whom they minister. Some leaders have sought political and ecclesiastical power, fame and selfish gain. There have been too many widely-publicized scandals and moral failures.
d) Effective modelling and training for those called to Christian ministry. Only a minority of the 75,000 evangelical congregations are led by those with basic theological training. In 1992 there were 321 seminaries and institutes where over 12,000 were being trained for ministry and also 275 AoG Bible schools with over 12,000 students. This has greatly increased — over 7,000 were being trained in Baptist seminaries by 1999, but all forms of theological training need to be increased to provide the Church with pastoral care and biblical leadership. Too few are willing to serve where the need is greatest.
e) Unity. There are anywhere between 400 and 4,000 denominations among Evangelicals. Unresolved inter-personal relationships, jealousies and hatreds have weakened their voice. Pray for the Evangelical Association of Brazil, founded in 1991, that it may be a means of fostering lasting unity, fellowship and prayerful cooperation.
4 Goals for the new Millennium. A visionary conference sponsored by Projeto Brasil 2010 and associated with DAWN was a catalyst for an unprecedented unity and cooperative commitment to national goals for prayer and action:
a) Thousands of new churches to be planted as a multi-denominational national initiative. In order that there be a church for every 1,000 urban dwellers and a church for every rural and river community, there must be 250,000 congregations by 2010.
b) Adoption of, and church planting among, the 139 Amerindian tribal groups still unreached.
c) A focus on the hundreds of Brazilian towns and municipalities with less than 1% Evangelicals. Nearly all of these are in the north-east.
d) Adoption of 173 unreached peoples in other lands
