São Paulistas - following Paul to Asia?

Spot the Plane!
I look out across the city of São Paulo from the 13th floor of our hotel. As far as the eye can see, skyscrapers sprout like thousands of blades of grass across the hills in this aggressive, hyperactive city of thirty-three million people. We swing past Maracanã Stadium, the biggest football stadium in the world, see Cidade de Deus, reputedly the most violent slum in Latin America, swim in the powerful South Atlantic rollers on Copacobana beach and look out across the beauty of Rio de Janeiro from the statute of Christ on Corcovado (Hunchback) Mountain. However Jon Fuller and I are not in Brazil to sight-see but to find out more about the Brazilian mission movement. We visited churches in favelas (slums), in working class, middle class and wealthy areas and talked to pastors, Brasilian missionaries, missionaries working in Brazil, para-church workers and Brazilian mission leaders. All those we spoke to told us of the beginnings of a powerful and exciting mission movement in Brazil in the 1980s, culminating in an all-Latin American mission conference in 1987. At that time there were already around 6000 Brazilians working cross-culturally mainly in Latin America, Africa and Europe. Only a few have come to Asia, a handful with OMF. What has happened since then?

Editora Mundo Cristão is one of the biggest Christian publishing houses in Brazil. There is a huge demand for Christian literature – in October 2007, Mundo Cristão sold more than a million reais (US$600, 000) worth of books in a single month, more than 150, 000 books. Recently the Brasilian middle class has become the biggest sector of society with increasing income for people who are no longer struggling to survive. The astonishing growth in the evangelical church with 36 million Christians provides a huge potential market. But in Mundo Cristão and at other bookshops we visited (Catholic, Protestant or secular), there was a startling absence of any titles at all regarding missions in any shape or form. The lack of books and media on mission is worrying. Only a handful of Bible schools and seminaries in this vast country provide teaching on missions. Despite the numerical growth in the church and the rise in disposable income the number of Brazilian missionaries has reportedly fallen to around 3100.

The economic crisis of the early 1990s in Brazil played a role in this fall. But it seems the church has become inward-looking, focusing on numerical growth and physical infrastructure while weak on discipleship. There was also a pattern of poor selection and training of mission candidates, weak or absent member care and field structures, unrealistic expectations by missionaries and of missionaries by churches - leading to an astonishing three out of four Brazilians returning home before the end of their first term. This very high rate of attrition has led to a loss of confidence. However, for some key leaders, it has also led to a greater awareness of the need for carefully established long-term work with thoroughly screened and prepared candidates. Please pray that God will guide us as to if and how OMF can better engage with Brazilian missions.

With our love

Steve, Anna, Joshua and Aimee