Eleven Days in Northeast Brazil

At the beginning of January, I packed my bags and flew to Fortaleza, Brazil, to attend the five-day Baptist Mid-Missions Northeast Region Conference. The conference is for the benefit of the regional field council and gives its members an annual opportunity to fellowship, deliver progress reports, conduct business, and hear preaching in English. This year the conference was held at the Baptist Mid-Missions Complex in Fortaleza which houses the Fortaleza Academy as well as some Baptist Mid-Missions offices. (Right: Conference attendees in the cafeteria)

My main goal for the trip was to be a help to the missionaries there, but I also hoped to learn some things—and learn I did. Aside from my luggage not arriving until a week after I did, and a few uncomfortably hot nights, the trip was pure delight. (Okay, the toe injury from playing soccer without proper footwear wasn’t pleasant, but even that was well worth it. Soccer is the best sport ever invented.)

Below is some of what I discovered.

Teamwork in Action

I’ve always been a bit skeptical of the value of field councils. Now it’s hard to remember why. What I witnessed at the conference was a living example of how these councils can work for the personal benefit of all involved, not to mention how they can enhance general effectiveness for the cause of Christ. This particular field council elects leaders annually and agrees together on the use of shared resources. The council discusses progress in the region as well as problems and vision for the future.
This year, much of the business centered on transitions involved in closing the Fortaleza Academy. The group voted to sell the complex last year and close the school by 2010. That meant decisions had to be made about phasing out personnel, students, accounts, and a host of other details. Tension is always part of teamwork, and opinions varied on many of these matters. But the group’s commitment to work together for the overall success of Baptist missions in the region was unmistakable. (Left: My audience one night)

I found myself challenged about my own approach to ministry as a pastor. Why can’t the field council approach work in rural west Wisconsin? There may be good reasons why it can’t, but perhaps not. Some might say this is the purpose of organizations like the Wisconsin Fellowship of Baptist Churches or Wisconsin Association of Regular Baptist Churches. But there seems to be something fundamentally un-field-council-like about these groups and how they work. I have yet to put my finger on the difference.

Progress over Time

My time in Brazil was encouraging even before the conference began. Having arrived the preceding weekend, I was able to attend a couple of churches in Fortaleza that Sunday. What I saw were two successfully nationalized churches. It’s one thing to say “we believe in developing strong indigenous local churches,” and another to make a true transition from American missionary leadership and resources to local leadership and resources. But I saw the results of this transition firsthand and saw that these missionaries are serious about their stated goal of nationalizing churches and ministries.

Later during my trip, I attended two more churches in the Crato (pronounced CRAH-too) and Juazeiro (Shzwa-ZAY-doo) area about six hours south of Fortaleza. These, too, were thoroughly nationalized. Of the four churches I visited during my eleven days, three have Brazilian pastors, and the fourth has a missionary pastor only on an interim basis. Two of these churches have been staffed and financed entirely by Brazilians for many years, as have many other churches in region.

Seminary Legacy

One of the most important ministries of the northeast region has been the seminary—what we would call a Bible college—in Crato. The school is named Seminario Batista do Cariri after the Cariri valley that contains the cities of Crato and Juazeiro. Since the seminary, too, is now fully owned and operated by Brazilians (with some American missionaries on the faculty), it properly belongs under the heading of “northeast region legacy.” Decades of blood, sweat, and tears (since 1946) have developed an institution whose impact is now felt all over the region and beyond. I met graduates everywhere I went. (Right: Pastor Doka [2005 graduate] and his family)
Not coincidentally, I heard what certainly seemed to be sound expositional preaching in the churches. I only know about a dozen Portuguese words (most of which have to do with food!), but I could still see abundant evidence of the Word being handled thoughtfully and thoroughly from the pulpits. Congregants carried their Bibles, found texts quickly, and referred to them frequently throughout the preaching. Only God knows how much the strength of these churches—and their resistance to negative trends (Charismatic movement, etc.)—owes to the seminary’s emphasis on sound doctrine and attention to the Scriptures.

I had long suspected that my own church’s investment in the Cariri seminary was a good one. On location, I saw more evidence of that than I expected.

Leveraging Adversity

The strongest and most lingering impression from the trip is probably the character and spirit of the missionaries themselves. I did not arrive at a time that most outsiders would characterize as a high point in the team’s history. Due to increasing interest in homeschooling and other approaches to education, the Fortaleza Academy has steadily dwindled (hence the decision to sell the property and close the school).
And many of the missionaries spoke wistfully of the days when the region had many more missionaries and the conference was a much larger one. Decades ago attendees would number near a hundred. This year we had about forty. Recent years have witnessed the loss of several missionary families to retirement, relocation, and—at least once—serious moral failure. (Left: Part of the seminary facility in Crato)

But the attitude of these missionaries was not what one might expect under the circumstances. I saw no evidence of bitterness or defeatism. Rather, I heard repeated comments to the effect that God was in control and that the changing circumstances were opening new opportunities for the future. Some observed that the dwindling number of missionaries has increased pressure to nationalize more ministries more quickly. And the sale of the complex necessitated a fresh look at the future. The team devoted several hours to drafting and discussing a vision for the future that included—among other things—ways to put the Academy resources into new ministry efforts.

Opportunities Remain

It’s true that more churches in the region are prospering financially. Many of the Brazilian pastors now own cars—a rarity not many years ago. It’s also true that more churches are looking into church planting, and some are already sending missionaries to Cape Verde and other fields. Momentum seems to be slowly growing among Brazilian believers to evangelize their own country and the world.

But the need for American missionaries is far from past. With the goal of indigenous, self-reproducing churches firmly in view, a larger missionary team could accomplish the goal of reaching Brazil for Christ far more quickly. So Jesus’ words ring as true as ever. “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:38 ESV).

Aaron Blumer, SI’s site publisher, is a native of lower Michigan and a graduate of Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC) and Central Baptist Theological Seminary (Plymouth, MN). He, his wife, and their two children live in a small town in western Wisconsin, where he has pastored Grace Baptist Church (Boyceville, WI) since 2000. Prior to serving as a pastor, Aaron taught school in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and served in customer service and technical support for Unisys Corporation (Eagan, MN). He enjoys science fiction, music, and dabbling in software engineering.